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Hope was happy for her mother. Happy and a little anxious and, now that she was thinking about it, a little sad as well. It had been her and Caz for so long. She wasn’t stupid enough to think that Joe would replace her. But she knew that now Caz would have a confidante, someone else to turn to.

Which was a good thing, of course, but a little sad at the same time.

A little sad and… And perhaps exactly what Alice might be feeling. Maybe this was why Alice wanted to move in with Noah.

Hope groaned. She was an idiot.

???

Ava looked around the broken living room. “It’s a start, I suppose,” she said.

Hope laughed. “It’s the first day of construction. I wouldn’t expect more than this.”

“You’ll sound like Caz if you’re not careful,” Ava said. “Her and Joe are convinced that this project is going to take months.”

Hope shrugged. “So? We have months, don’t we?”

Ava’s heart beat in her throat. She’d thought about this long and hard. She’d consulted with Quinn, who had told her to stop being an idiot and to just do it. She’d semi-consulted with Alice during their talk in the garden. The only thing she hadn’t done was mention the idea to Hope. Which, since it involved Hope rather integrally, was a bit of a problem.

“About that,” she began.

But Hope’s phone rang before she could get any further.

Ava wandered over to the fireplace while Hope talked, checking the brickwork, wondering if they should take the fireplace out altogether, maybe put a nice stove in.

“That was Max,” Hope said, coming to join her. “Mila had a baby boy about an hour ago. Dashiell.”

Ava grinned. “After Dashiell Hammet, I’m assuming?”

“Got it in one,” said Hope. “Mother and baby are doing fine and Max is on his way to pick up Ag to take her to meet her baby brother.”

Ava paused for a second, a thought striking her. “Um, babies. Kids.”

“Ye-es,” said Hope. “What about them?”

“We’ve never discussed them,” said Ava. “Do you want more of them?”

Hope blew out a breath. “I never thought about it, to be honest. I always wanted one, and Alice is the light of my life. I suppose I could be persuaded if you wanted…” She looked up at Ava. “Do you want?”

“Um…” Ava rubbed her face. “Well, I sort of feel like I’ve got eighteen of them at school every day. And then, well, I don’t know if Alice has mentioned anything?”

“About what?”

Ava swallowed. “Um, she did ask if it was alright to call me Mom Ava.” She felt herself blush. “I told her it was fine by me but that she needed to run it by you.”

But Hope was already throwing her arms around Ava. “That’s brilliant,” she said. “Thank you.”

Ava pushed her away a little. “I’m not quite done here,” she said. “So, I talked to Alice and I think she’s fine now. She was just feeling a bit… insecure, I think, about all of this. Us and Amelia and Noah and everything.”

“I’d kind of figured that out,” Hope said. “I’ll talk to her about it.”

“That’s just it, I think maybe there’s something we can do to make her feel better. And, well…” Ava’s heart beat harder and faster, her mouth started to dry up and her palms got clammy. “Well, it’s just that I thought we could…”

“We could what?” asked Hope, frowning up at her.

“How long are we going to pretend this is temporary?” Ava said, changing course. “We’ve been going along not making any commitment and I just thought. Jesus.” She rubbed her face again. “I just thought that we could get married if you want,” she added in a rush.

Hope stepped back. “We could get married if I want?”