Page 107 of The Art Of Starting Over

“Maren, I thought I should tell you, before you hear from anyone else, Hayden and I are dating.”

She continued to eat her pizza. “That’s like old news, Mom.”

“What do you mean?”

Maren rolled her eyes this time. “Remember when we moved here, and you said everyone knows everything in a small town?”

“Yes.”

“Well, duh! Everyone except for you knows you’re dating Hayden. I think the town is tired of waiting for you to catch up.”

Devorah opened her mouth to say something back to her daughter, but she couldn’t think of anything. Instead, she looked at Hayden. “This has your mother written all over it.”

Hayden choked on a bite but agreed. Darcy McKenna was a blabbermouth.

“Hayden?”

He looked over at Maren and smiled. “What’s up?”

“Do you think I can paint my room pink?”

“Mine is going to be green,” Conor said. “I’m thinking I want a baseball diamond on the wall.”

“Oh, that sounds fun,” Maren said.

“What’s going on?” Devorah asked them.

Hayden shrugged as he dug in his pocket. He pulled out a key and handed it to her.

“Will you move in with us?” Conor asked before Hayden could say the words himself.

Dev opened her mouth to say something but closed it quickly when she met Maren’s gaze. “Do you want to live with Hayden and Conor?”

Maren nodded excitedly. “I really like them. Hayden treats me like his daughter.”

Hayden coughed to clear the lump forming in his throat at what Maren had said. He hadn’t told Devorah about the conversation he’d had with a former classmate of theirs when the person had asked how many kids he had. Hayden had answered two without even thinking. He couldn’t pinpoint when he’d begun to think of Maren as his daughter, but he was grateful for it happening.

“And you treat me like I’m your son,” Conor said to Dev. “Ever since the day we went shopping and you did the thumb test.”

Devorah wiped at her cheeks. “Wow, this is so ...”

“Perfect,” Maren said, shrugging.

“I like that,” Hayden said. “So, what do you think? Would you and Maren like to live with the McKenna men?”

Devy nodded. “Yeah, I think we would.”

“One condition,” Conor blurted out.

“What’s that?” Dev asked.

“Cordelia moves in too.”

“Duh,” Maren said, as if this was a no-brainer.

Conor fist pumped. “Finally, I get a dog!”

Devorah and Hayden ambled toward the Oyster Festival headquarters under the cloak of darkness. It wasn’t even right to be up this early and have to work before the sun had even thought about peeking over the horizon. Dev sighed as she sipped the hot coffee Hayden had brewed and kindly put in a thermos for her. This caffeine jolt wouldn’t last long, and she was thankful a local coffee house was sponsoring the festival. In a couple of hours, she’d need an IV of the black tar to survive.

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