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“I’m sure it’s being broadcasted somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you where.”

Cecelia hovered near the table, keeping an eye on her aunt.Don’t worry, I’m not telling her a thing.Jane maintained awkward eye contact with her niece to make her uncomfortable.

“Lovely! Kisses!”

When the call was over, Jane handed back the phone. “Like I said, don’t give me a reason to tell your mother anything, and I won’t.”

Cecelia snatched the phone. “Whatever.”

Jane let her go.That could have gone worse.She liked telling herself that.

By “café” Damon meant the soup and sandwich place in his building. He had a private room there to host business lunches without leaving his office, and Jane admitted that the grub there wasn’t… terrible. Especially if it was on Damon’s dime.

But this wasn’t a pleasure call. Damon was on to her, and Jane had to fess up before he hit her where it hurt.

Except when she sat down, witnessing the heavy, level gaze he kept locked on her, she crumbled. If only because he looked likesucha dad, and that was what Jane needed right now.

“Whoa, whoa.” Whatever façade he had erected to protect himself from her usual charms couldn’t last three more seconds once Jane hid a sob behind the back of her knuckles. “Look, it’s not that serious. I just want to know what she’s planning and if we should jump on the penthouse. Come on. Jane. What the hell.”

She regained her composure after dabbing the cloth napkin against her eyes. “Brilliant,” she muttered. “Haven’t cried in front of you since I got divorced.”

The waiter entered. Damon motionedfive minutesto him. Nodding, the waiter disappeared out of the room.

“What’s wrong?” Damon asked. “Is it Caitlyn?”

He would think that.It had been Caitlyn before, after all. “Bloody hell, what is wrong with me?” She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. “You must think I am insane.”

“Sort of. But you don’t act like this usually, so it must be serious.”

“I suppose. It is starting to hit me that I have signed on to be aparent,and I had no idea that was what was happening when I agreed to take in my niece until she finishes her upper schooling at Winchester Academy. Sure, she wants to go to Harvard, but where does that leave Aunt Jane for the next two and a half years? Christ. I am an idiot.”

“I’d say ‘parenting is hard,’ but you started at the hard level. I imagine a baby is a lot easier than a teenager.”

“Says the man with two babies and another on the way.”

“Yes, and my seven-year-old is already a handful. I haven’t even told you what’s going on at school now.”

Jane was curious, but didn’t have the gumption to steer away from her own problems. “Let me ask you something. A hypothetical.”

Damon settled into his seat, releasing any of the tension he had greeted one of his oldest friends with in what should havebeen an intense interrogation. “All right. But I feel like I might regret this.”

Probably.“Imagine that your daughter is fifteen.”

“Uh-huh…”

Sure, he knew where this was going. So, how could Jane ruin him some more? “She asks if she can go hang out with her female friends from school. You saysure honey!She goes. But you find out later that she is really hanging out with some bloke you have never met! So you go to his house where you find your daughter and this boy – who is eighteen, mind you – about to bump uglies. How do you react long term?”

The waiter returned. This time, Damon was so adamant with his hand gestures that Jane had a feeling the man wouldn’t return fortenminutes this time.

“Be honest, please,” Jane said.

“I’d kill him.”

She sighed. “Yes, yes, you are Sir Alpha Dad who has a shotgun or an AR-15 or whatever you Americans keep in your lockboxes so we all know your daughter actually belongs to you, purity ball and all, but what do yourealisticallydo in this situation? After you are done grounding her for life and making sure this boy sees his existence flash before his eyes in the safest, most legal way possible.”

Damon’s eyes were still wide and whirling with whatever horrible fantasy he had cooked up in his head while Jane was speaking.Probably does not appreciate the image of his daughter in this position. Good job, Jane.When would she stop traumatizing those around her?

“Is this what happened with Cecelia? Good God, Jane.”