Page 68 of If This Was a Movie

“A sister,” Ava shouts with a laugh.

I shake my head, frozen in shock at how this cute little wish has truly evolved into utter chaos.

“Yeah, Dad has three sisters, and Aunt Claire said having a brother is kind of boring. You can’t dress them up.”

“You know what, girl? That’s so true,” Ava says, a smile all over her face as she turns to face me. “What do you think, Jules? Are you gonna give Soph here a little sister or a boring brother?”

I glare at her. “I think I should have known better than to put the two of you in a room together.”

Jaime lets out a laugh at my response. He tries to disguise it as a cough when he sees my expression, but fails miserably. Ava snaps her head in his direction and gives him a glare that could kill.

“Excuse me?” Her hands go to her hips, and with her long blonde hair in curls, she looks shockingly like Nate’s daughter, who is standing the same way.

“You and a tiny version of you are the kind of shit scientists should study. A cataclysmic event could happen, nuclear warfare level,” Jaime grumbles.

Ava’s face goes smug. “Yeah? And what happens when we have a little girl, huh?”

He laughs again, shaking his head. “Only boys for me, Princess. Don’t ever have to worry about that.”

Her mouth drops open as she stares at him, then smacks him in the chest. “But I want a little girl! A mini me to dress up.”

He sighs, staring at her, then pulls her into his arms and presses a kiss to her hair. “Then you’ll get it, Ava. When have I ever been able to tell you no?”

Ava smiles, turning into Jaime’s chest and sighing.

I smile blissfully at my best friend and her happily ever after, and for the first time since they got together, I don’t feel that guilt-laden jealousy eating at me.

And even if that should scare me, it doesn’t. Instead, I send a text to Nate with a photo of Sophie holding Peach.

“Hey Jules?” Sophie asks hours later, laying on the couch, her head in my lap.

My fingers move, brushing her hair back, gently untangling the knots that, even though I brushed her hair an hour ago, still seem to be there.

We went to lunch before coming back home and getting right into jammies to bake cookies, do facials and our nails, then eat a girl dinner, which consisted of a menagerie of snacks and probably too many cookies before we got ready for bed and put a movie on.

“Yeah, sweetie?”

“Do you like my dad?”

“What?” I ask, my fingers stilling for a moment before continuing their movement as I try to play it cool despite my pounding heart.

“Do you like my dad?”

“Well, of course, honey. He’s a good friend.”

She turns to look up at me.

“I mean, like like. Do you want to marry him?”

I sigh, trying to figure out how to answer this.

“I…I think your dad is really great, Sophie, but I don’t know him that well. You don’t just marry anyone, you know? That would be silly. You have to get to know them, make them your best friend, then decide if you want to spend every day with them.” There’s a long pause that has me holding my breath before she seems to accept what I’m saying, nodding against my legs.

“That makes sense.” I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “But I think I’d really like it if you were my mom, Jules,” she says, and a part of me breaks at that, at a little girl lost in the world.

I get it; after all, I was that girl once. I think I am still, in more ways than I care to recognize.

“You’re the coolest kid I know, Sophie. Whoever ends up marrying your dad is going to be the luckiest girl on earth,” I say.

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