“Hey sorry about Taylor.”

  Logan was mid-count at the cash register when he looked up at Ever, flummoxed.

  “Sorry about what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I guess.” Ever sat back on one of the stools. Everything was clean and packed away, but he wasn’t in any hurry to leave. “She got angry a lot during the summer when I started working here.”

  “I can imagine.” The two men shared a comfortable silence, one counting the day’s takings, the other pondering.

  “Try raising her as a kid.” He closed the register, a slight grimace on his face.

  “What was she like growing up?”

  “Do you plan to have kids someday?” Logan asked, regarding him keenly.

  His mouth hung slightly open. “I… haven’t thought about it.”

  “I highly do not recommend having them.” Logan chuckled darkly, looking out the window. “She was the cutest thing, growing up. All pigtails and dresses. It was hard being there for her when you’re running businesses like I was, but I made it work.”

  He walked to one of the tables, took the chair down and sat on it. Ever came and did the same.

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  “She probably started realizing that she wasn’t like the other kids when she started school. Those ‘bring your parent’ to school days? Let me tell you, people don’t take too kindly to you when you tell them that you, a guy, are a single parent to a little girl.”

  “She wouldn’t have had many friends growing up,” Ever surmised.

  “Exactly. Any time she made a new friend and then they found out that her ‘dad’ was actually her uncle, those friendships would dissolve faster than cotton candy in water. She wanted to have a party, because she saw her friends throwing them.” He winced, playing the memory back. “I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her to be handing invites out, then waiting on the day, party hat on, only for no one to show up. I could take her out for the day anywhere she wanted instead. Hell, I could have even flown her to USA or Japan or wherever she wanted. She didn’t want any of that. She became resentful as a teenager. Those were the hardest years of my life. I’d have to literally tiptoe around her. I recorded her period dates just so I knew when to be nicer to her.”

  Errr… I’ll tell you about periods a bit later. Don’t ask him about that, Death said. Ever nodded slowly.

  “She’s always been a smart girl, really took after my… her mother.” For a moment, Logan wasn’t with Ever. Eyes wistful, he smiled in a way that Ever had never seen before: boyish, unbothered and unscarred.

  “Are you worried about her leaving?”

  “I am, of course I am. But what am I going to do? I’d been flying all over the world all of her life. That’s the example I’ve been setting.”

  He stood up and put the chair back up on the table. “Anyway, you know the cliche.”

  Ever stared at him. He’d been so drawn into Logan’s story that he hadn’t realized it was over. “‘Don’t judge a book by its cover?’”

  Logan shook his head. “‘If you love someone, set them free.’”