Ella bolts past me, kicking off her shoes as she makes a beeline for the new beige couch Zach helped me pick out. He said it would be perfect for his place—the one he’s planning to let us rent next year once he’s drafted.
Not that Tiff knows that yet. She still thinks he’s undecided about the draft. But after a few beers with him and Reese, I found out the truth—they want to go out together, same year, same shot at the league.
Tiff moves more slowly, taking in the living room with its mostly secondhand furniture and the pink roses on the coffee table I bought this morning.
“Jamie, this is—” She turns in a circle, her eyes wide. “This is really yours?”
“Ours,” I correct quickly. “I mean, if you want it to be. Eventually. No pressure.”
She opens her mouth to respond, but Ella's voice cuts through from down the hall.
“MOMMY! DADDY! COME LOOK!”
That tightness in my chest is still there when she calls me that. Good. That means I haven’t gotten used to it.
Tiff follows me down the hall to the room that Zach and I made sure was as perfect as possible for Ella.
When we round the corner, Ella's standing in the doorway of her room, completely frozen. Her mouth is open in a perfect O of shock, her eyes wide, and she’s barely breathing. If I didn’t know what was causing my daughter to malfunction, I’d be concerned.
Tiff leans over to get a better view. “Oh, Jamie. Is this what you wanted to show me?”
I watch her take it in—the pale blue walls painted to match Ella's current room exactly, the silver snowflakes scattered across the walls in the same pattern, the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, but it's the bed that makes Tiff's hand fly to her mouth.
The tower bed with its silver canopy and twinkling lights. The snowflake bedding. The stuffed animals carefully arranged on the pillows, including Mr. Squishy, who Ella let me borrow yesterday so I could bring him on a nice vacation here.
“Is this…is this for me?” Ella's voice is barely a whisper, like she's afraid if she speaks too loud, the magic will disappear.
I crouch down to her level, my heart hammering. “It is. I was hoping—maybe you and your mom might want to stay here sometimes. Like a sleepover.”
“A sleepover?” Her face lights up like the stars on her ceiling. “With you?”
“With me,” I confirm, and my voice cracks slightly. “Whenever you want. Whenever your mom says it's okay.”
Ella looks at Tiff, her eyes pleading. “Can we, Mommy? Please? Can we have a sleepover tonight?”
I stand slowly, turning to face Tiff. She's staring at the room with tears in her eyes, and one hand still covering her mouth. When she finally looks at me, the expression on her face makes my knees weak.
“Jamie, when did you… how did you…”
“Zach helped build everything,” I admit. “Reese has a lot of connections, and his sister was getting rid of Maya’s tower bed, so they let me have it. Maya also gave me advice on the books too.” I gesture toward the bookshelf, which is already stocked with princess stories. “I wanted Ella to have her own space here. Somewhere that felt like hers.”
“It's perfect,” Tiff whispers. “Jamie, this is—I can't believe you did all this.”
“Can we stay?” Ella tugs on my hand, bouncing on her toes. “Please? I want to sleep in my tower bed!”
I look at Tiff, everything I want to say stuck in my throat.
Please say yes. Please give me this chance. Please let me show you what it would be like to be together as a family.
“Just tonight,” Tiff says finally, her voice slightly shaky. “A sleepover. Then we'll need to head back to see Uncle Zach.”
The relief that floods through me is so intense I almost stagger. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She squeezes my hand before she whispers, “Some stuff happened with him today. I don’t want to leave him to rot in that big house on his own for too long.”
“Honey stuff?”
She nods.