Page 106 of Sweet Thing

“No, you’re fine. But I’m here if you want to nip home and get a shower or some rest.” It might have been my imagination, but she seemed on edge.

I sipped my coffee, let its magical properties lift me. “Is everything okay?”

A small sigh, nothing dramatic, but I sensed what was coming. “Last night, I saw you and Adeline together.” She didn’t need to elaborate. We both knew what she meant.

“Okay.” I put the coffee cup down. “I can see that would be upsetting for you.” I had to assume Theo didn’t know because my balls were still intact.

“She says you didn’t take advantage, Lars, but I find that hard to believe. You’re the more experienced person here.”

I snapped my gaze to hers. “You and Adeline discussed this?”

“Once I knew, I couldn’t exactly ignore it.”

Adeline hadn’t said a word. Maybe she worried about piling on, given Mabel’s condition.

“She’s too young, Lars.”

I swallowed. “Yeah, she is.”

“And she has very little experience with relationships. She’s always set my and Theo’s relationship on a pedestal. She wants what we have.”

My heart cheered.Yes, that’s what I want, too.

“So it surprised me when she said what you two had was merely a short-term thing.”

My jubilant heart pricked like a spent balloon.

“That it just happened because of the living situation and …” She gestured at me. “Her crush.”

Her crush. Right.

While I tried to process that, Elle went on. “The thing is. She’s lying.”

“She is?”

“Lars, my daughter’s in love with you.”

Snap, I’m in love with her, too.I should have been overjoyed to hear this. But Elle’s expression wasn’t giving “welcome to the fam” vibes. As kind as she had been to me over the years with the invites, the fond words, the pitching in with Mabel, it all meant squat because now I was a threat to her daughter’s happiness.

“She didn’t say that, though,” I said.

“No, but I know my daughter. She’s had a thing for you for years. A teen crush, rather harmless, I thought. It seemed to have vanished while she was away, and once she started looking after Mabel, I had hoped she would see it for what it was. The reality of it.”

I struggled with the words. “The reality?”

“Lars, you have so much going on right now with Mabel and working out custody with her mother. The more embedded my daughter becomes in your family, the less likely she’ll figure out her own path. Adeline’s a sensitive girl, and she’s always been the caregiver in our family, the one who puts everyone else before herself. She might confuse her feelings for you with obligation. Set aside her own needs.”

Everything she said resonated. I had been using Adeline, weaponizing her selflessness to make my life easier. I knew she had a crush, and while I wasn’t convinced there was more to it despite Elle’s claims to the contrary, I recognized a mother’s concern.

You’re not good enough for my daughter.

“I took advantage, Elle. Of your hospitality, of your support, of your kindness.”

A flicker of something in her eyes—disappointment, perhaps—tugged at me before her gaze hardened.

“I’m not sure where to go from here,” she said.

“You mean, with Theo?”

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