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“Mi-ca!” Bri squealed, still holding tight to Ash’s hand but jumping up and down while she waved.

The barista glanced over toward them and flashed a grin. “Bri! How are you, sweetie? Milk and strawberries?”

“Da! Stah-beh!”

“Coming right up!” the barista said. They put up a finger. “Let me just help these other customers, and then you’re next.”

“Yay, yay, yay!!” Bri said. “Un-ca, stah-beh!”

“Yep, strawberries for you.” Ash leaned over and picked Bri up, settling her on his hip.

She was a perfectly happy, beautiful child, and her smile easily brightened the whole room. Knowing what Cass knew now about how she had come to be in Ash’s care, he felt nothing but amazement and joy when he looked at her.

He caught Ash watching him, and his cheeks heated up. “She’s adorable,” he admitted. “I mean, you’ve sent me videos and pictures and everything. But . . .” He kind of shrugged, hoping he looked a little less awkward than he felt. “Does she always talk this much?”

“Da! Dadada-da!” Bri declared, as though answering Cass’s question.

Ash laughed and then nodded. “It can be a lot. She’s been chatty since she started to make sounds, but in the last few weeks, everything now has a name, and she needs to know it. And she does her best to try to copy the sounds. It’s, uh, a little ahead of schedule developmentally, at least from everything I’ve learned. But . . .” Ash shrugged.

“I don’t have a ton of experience with young children, but I do know that what’s ‘normal’ varies, a lot,” Cass supplied.

Ash nodded in agreement, and they moved up in the line. Bri giggled and waved at the barista again, who waved back before turning to the person ahead of them.

“So,” Ash started, “I don’t know what you usually drink, but the white mocha here is the best. You won’t find better anywhere else on campus, I guarantee it. Same with their cappuccino. It’s just kinda perfect. And then if you’re hungry, any of their sandwiches are great. My favorite is the BLT, but I think you can’t go wrong with anything they have here, really.”

“That sounds good, actually,” Cass agreed. He wasn’t super hungry, although he realized he probably should be, and he decided that he’d see what Ash ordered and go from there.

When they stepped up to the counter a moment later, Ash put in his order first—a white mocha and BLT for him and milk and strawberries for Bri. Then he moved aside to let Cass order. After a second of hesitation, Cass ordered an Americano and a ham and cheese croissant. Ash paid, which Cass expected but still felt slightly awkward about, and then he set down Bri, who took off in the direction of the far corner, where an old but comfy-looking couch was pushed up against one wall, a coffee table sitting in front of it.

“That’s where we always sit, if it’s free, I mean,” Ash explained as Bri climbed up onto the couch and then plopped down and set her hands calmly in her lap.

Cass huffed a quiet laugh and followed Ash over toward the couch. “She knows the drill, huh?”

Ash nodded and stopped in front of the couch, and Cass was probably imagining the slight tension in his shoulders as Ash seemed to contemplate where to sit. Bri looked up at them with a big, toothy smile.

“Stah-beh! Un-ca, stah-beh!”

“Yep, Micah will bring them over soon,” Ash told her. He turned slightly toward Cass and then motioned to the couch. “Have a seat. If this is okay, I mean?”

He hadn’t been imagining it, now he was sure, although Cass didn’t know why Ash would be nervous at all.

Bri patted the couch next to her. “Un-ca Ashhh,” she said. “Da-da-da.”

The flicker of tension in Ash disappeared, and he turned back to Bri and smiled. “You want me to sit with you, baby girl?”

“Da! Da-da-da!”

Ash stepped over between the couch and coffee table and then hesitated only a second more before putting down the diaper bag he’d had hanging over one shoulder, picking Bri up, and setting her on his lap as he sat. Cass copied him, taking the seat on the other side of the couch. They both turned to face each other, and when their eyes met again, Cass could swear he saw Ash’s cheeks flush.

And that only made Cass’s erratic heart skip another beat.

He held Ash’s gaze for a long second and then blinked and smiled softly, resting his arm on the back of the couch. “So, I take it you two come here a lot?” he asked.

Ash feigned a grimace, though his eyes were still smiling. “Too often, probably. At least over this summer. It’s on the way to the Burke Museum, which is free for me as a student and Bri because she’s young.”

“Oh, yeah, the natural history museum?”

Ash nodded. “Yeah. Bri loves going because she loves to look at everything. So we went a bunch over the summer, when I wasn’t working, I mean, and we stopped in here every time. Now she asks to come here, even if we’re not going to the museum, and she walks in like she owns the place.”