You balance each other out. Lily beamed and signed something long. Ethan had no idea what she said, but he nodded anyway. She laughed and signed it again slower. He caught the words for dad and nice and thought maybe she was asking about Jake's dad.
Which was him. Which meant Lily poked his arm and signed again. I'm going to need Clara for this conversation, Ethan admitted. Back at the apartment, Clara had made actual progress on her work and looked less stressed than she had in days. She translated Lily's question, and Ethan was right.
She'd been asking if Jake's dad was nice. "I like to think so." Ethan said. "But Jake might disagree sometimes." Lily signed again.
"She wants to know if we're going to see Jake soon." Clara said. "His birthday is next month. Maybe we could do something together?" "If you want."
Clara looked at him. "Like a party?" "Or just I don't know, museum again, something low-key?" "I'd like that." Lily clapped her hands, clearly considering this settled.
The next few weeks fell into a rhythm that felt almost normal. Ethan split his time between work, his son, and Clara's apartment. He taught Clara basic carpentry, and she taught him sign language. They were both terrible students, but neither seemed to mind. The adoption paperwork moved forward.
Sarah Chen called weekly with updates. Home study scheduled, background checks clear, financial documentation submitted. Every step brought them closer to making it official. "How are you feeling about it?" Ethan asked one evening while they were doing dishes.
"Terrified." Clara admitted. "What if I screw this up?" "You won't." "You don't know that."
"Yeah, I do. You're already a great mom. The paperwork is just making it official." Clara was quiet for a moment. "My sister called yesterday."
Ethan's hands stilled in the soapy water. "What did she want?" "To talk to Lily. I told her no." "How'd that go?"
"About as well as you'd think. Lots of crying and lots of blame. Said I was keeping her from her daughter." "You doing okay?" "Yeah, I think so.
It's just hard knowing she's out there somewhere, probably telling people I'm the bad guy." "You're not the bad guy." "I know, but it doesn't always feel that way." Ethan dried his hands and turned her to face him. "You're protecting your kid.
That's not being the bad guy, that's being a parent." Clara leaned into him, her head on his chest. "When did you get so wise? I'm not wise. I'm just stubborn and occasionally right.
She laughed and the tension broke. Jake's birthday fell on a Saturday. Ethan invited Clara and Lily to the party at his house, then immediately regretted it when he realized what that meant. Clara was going to see where he actually lived. "It's just a house."
Rachel said when he called her in a panic. "Stop freaking out. It's a 6,000 square foot mansion on 5 acres. She an a 400 square foot apartment. This is going to be a disaster.
So, downplay it. Tell her it came with the job or something. That's lying again. That's framing. There's a difference."
Ethan was not convinced. The day of the party, he cleaned like a madman, hid the expensive art, put away anything that screamed obscene wealth, tried to make the house look normal instead of like something from a magazine spread. It didn't work. Clara pulled up in her beat-up sedan and just sat there for a minute, staring at the house through the windshield. When she finally got out, her expression was carefully neutral.
"So," she said, "this is where you live." "Yeah." "It's big." "Yeah." "Like really big."
"I know. I'm sorry." "Why are you apologizing for your house?" "Because it's Ethan gestured helplessly. "It's a lot."
Lily had no such reservations. She climbed out of the car and signed something excited. "She wants to know if there's a pool." Clara translated. "Yeah, out back."
More signing. "Can she swim in it?" "That's why I told you to bring swimsuits." Lily actually squealed, a high delighted sound, and ran toward the front door. "Lily, wait."
Clara called, then remembered and signed frantically. Lily stopped, bouncing on her toes. "Come on." Ethan said, "Let's go in before she explodes." The party was small, just Jake, a few of his friends from school, Rachel's family.
Clara and Lily fit right in, Lily and Jake immediately disappearing to the pool while the adults stood around making awkward small talk. Rachel cornered Ethan in the kitchen. She seems nice. She is nice. Jake likes her.
Good. And Lily's adorable. Also good. Rachel lowered her voice. Does Clara know about Yes, we talked about it.
She's dealing with it. Dealing with it how? By pretending my house isn't absurd and focusing on the fact that the kids are having fun. That's a coping mechanism, not dealing with it. Rachel, I'm just saying you can't ignore the elephant in the room forever.
I'm not ignoring it. I'm just giving her space to process. His sister looked skeptical but let it drop. Outside the kids were having the time of their lives. Jake had appointed himself Lily's swimming instructor, teaching her different strokes with the kind of serious concentration he usually reserved for dinosaur facts.
Lily was a natural, picking up techniques faster than Jake could demonstrate them. She's really good, Clara said standing beside Ethan at the pool edge. Jake's a good teacher. They're good together. Yeah, they are.