Page 140 of Pucking Daddy

“You have a very… cohesive dynamic,” she says carefully.

I hold my breath.

“And Lily appears well-adjusted and secure,” she adds.

Relief floods through me so fast I almost sway.

“Thank you,” Jaxon says, steady.

She nods once. “We’ll be in touch.”

And then she’s gone. The door closes.

I think—no, I know—this went well.

26

JAXON

The Best Grilled Cheese

The door closes behind the evaluator with a soft click that somehow sounds louder than it should.

For a second, I just stand there.

Zara is by the couch, one hand pressed to her stomach like she’s physically holding herself together, and when our eyes meet, something in both of us seems to give way at the same time.

“Well,” she says.

I huff out a laugh.

“Well,” I echo. “I think we did well,” I tell her.

She narrows her eyes. “I think I used the phrase emotionally stable adults like I was reading from a brochure.”

“That part was strong.”

Her mouth falls open. “You’re making fun of me.”

“A little.”

She points at me. “I nearly died in there.”

I grin at her, my heart full. I feel light, optimistic. Once they’ve seen us as a family, there’s no way they can take Lily from me. I’m certain of it.

Lily had been Lily. Zara had been Zara. Nothing had felt staged because nothing was staged. That’s what I’d been trying to tell her all morning.

We hadn’t needed to perform family.

We’d just lived it.

Lily comes barreling back into the room from the hallway, one sneaker half untied, rainbow hair clip hanging crookedly from her curls. “Mrs. Henriksen says if we go now we can get the swings before the big kids.”

Zara crouches immediately. “That sounds like a very serious playground strategy.”

“It is,” Lily says gravely.

I drop to one knee and fix her shoelace. “Then you’d better get moving.”