Page 83 of Exposed Ink

I start to type a response, but delete it. Then stare at her message.

“Why are you looking at your phone like it just offended you?” Taylor asks, plopping into the seat across from me.

“Kinsley’s house-hunting,” I grumble, setting my phone down since I have no idea how to reply to her message.

I should probably ask what houses she’s looking at or if she needs a second opinion, but I’m kind of annoyed that she didn’t bring it up to me in the first place. We’ve talked about the renovations I’ve done to this place, so she knows I’m knowledgeable about houses.

“Why?” Taylor asks, scrunching her nose up in confusion. “She should just move in here. She pretty much already has anyway.”

She’s not wrong. Since Kinsley and I started dating, she spends more nights here than not. Even on the nights when I work my shift, she’ll come over and watch movies with Taylor.

“You’d be okay with that?”

I already know she would be. She’s made it clear when she told me she’d love for me to marry Kinsley, but this is her home, too, so before I consider asking Kinsley to move in, I want to make sure my daughter is completely on board with it.

“Dad, seriously?” she scoffs. “You already know I love Kinsley.”

“I know, but hanging out with someone and talking books is different from her moving in and living here permanently.”

“I’m not a kid,” she says. “I know how it works, and I’m one hundred percent okay with Kinsley moving in. I’d even share my library with her. She’s awesome, and she makes you happy, and if you guys want to move in together and get married and give me a cute little brother or sister, I’m okay with that. But you’d have to do it soon if you want me to babysit because I only have a year until I graduate and move to the city.”

“Hey now, slow down,” I say, glaring at her. “You can’t be saying shit like that. I’m in denial of you growing up and leaving me for college, and I prefer it that way.”

Taylor rolls her eyes. “Be in denial all you want, but unless NYU denies me, in sixteen months, I’ll be moving into my dorm.”

“You’ll get in,” I tell her as she stands.

“I know.” She grins. “I’ve worked too hard not to.”

“Where are you going?”

She just got home from her shift at the coffee shop.

“To pack. My trip with Mom is coming up and I haven’t started figuring out my outfits, and then I’m going out with Haley and Jillian. Is it okay if I spend the night at Haley’s? We both work the opening shift tomorrow morning.”

“Sure. Just check in with me when you’re in for the night.”

“Always!” she yells, running up the stairs.

Once I’m alone again, I pull up Kinsley’s and my text thread to read what she wrote again. I’m about to respond when an idea forms, and I send her a completely different response from the one I planned to send.

I’ll see you when you get here. Love you.

Her response is instant.

Sour Patch

Love you too!

“Hey, Tay!” I yell up to my daughter. “I have an errand to run. You good?”

Instead of responding, she appears on the landing. “Where are you going?”

“To convince Kinsley to move in with us.”

“You got this, Dad,” she says, a grin spreading across her face. “But in case you need any help, feel free to text me. You know I’m an expert on romance. I mean, my pizza idea worked.”

She shrugs, and I chuckle.

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