Page 74 of Returning to Everton

I smile. “I’m glad you had a good day sweetie. You think you’d like to have Declan and Logan over every day while Mommy goes to work?”

“Yes! Can they Mommy?” she asks excitedly.

“I think that’s the plan. Until you start school. Once you start school, I’m not going to go to work until you’re at school, and I’ll be there to pick you up.”

“Ohhhh,” she pouts. “Does that mean I won’t be able to play with Logan anymore once school starts?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll see him at school, and you’ll make new friends at school too. But you won’t be able to play with him at home all day every day. Maybe on the weekends though.”

She sighs pretty deeply for such a small girl. “Okay, Mommy.”

Now how the hell am I going to bring up my relationship with the guys? I mean she’s only five, I don't know how much I should tell her and how much I should keep to myself.

“Hey Bug, remember the other day when you were telling me I should go on a date with Nate?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Do you still want me to?” I ask.

“Yes. I love Nate, he’s so great!”

I chuckle, “He is pretty great. But what about the other guys? What do you think about them?”

“Hmmmm. Well, I like Declan too. He makes good French toast, and Hudson makes good cinnamon rolls and cookies. The twins are cool too. One of them made that really good mac & cheese, right? And the other one really liked my playhouse, so he has to be cool.”

“Do you judge everyone based on their cooking and if they like your stuff?” I laugh.

“Well yeah? What else am I gonna judge them on?”

She has a good point I suppose. “I guess those are good things to judge people on, but you should also judge if they’re nice to you and treat you right.”

“Oh okay. Well so far, they’re all pretty nice to me. Are they nice to you Mommy?”

Oh, they’re nice alright.“They are very nice to me sweetie. That’s why I wanted to talk to you and find out how you feel about them. You see, all five of the guys want Mommy to go out with them,” I attempt to explain to her.

“How would that work? Can't you only date one person at a time? Like when you were married to just daddy.”

I sigh. See here’s the problem with her growing up around norms, well one of the problems anyway. She doesn’t understand how life is different for magic users.

“Well, things are a little different for people with magic. Your daddy didn’t have magic, so he was raised differently than I was. So far, you’ve been raised more like a norm. That’s what we call people who don’t have magic,” I explain.

“But I’m not a norm Mommy! I can use magic. See!” she exclaims as she shows me how she can move things around the room.

“I know sweetie, I know. Calm down, it’s okay. No one said you were a norm,” I reassure her. She slowly lowers everything back to where it was. “You’ve just been raised that way because of your daddy. There’s nothing wrong with that. But now that we’re around other magic users, it’s best if you learn everything that makes us different.”

“You’ll teach me right Mommy?? I don’t want people to think I’m a norm,” she pouts.

“I’ll try sweetie, but you’ll learn more from just being around other magic users. So, being around Logan and the guys will help.”

“Does that mean you’re going to date them all? Are they okay with that? Daddy would never be okay with you talking to another boy.”

“You’re right, sweetie, he wouldn’t. Being with more than one person isn’t uncommon in the magic community. Not everyone does it, but it isn’t really a big deal if someone does. In the non-magic community, where we lived with your dad, people would be mean to you if they found out. It’s not like that here though.”

“I just want you to be happy Mommy. I think they all make you happy. I saw you smiling all night at the cookout. You never smiled or laughed like that with Daddy,” she points out.

My little girl is much too observant and extremely smart for her age. I smile ruefully at her. “You’re right. They do make me happy. I haven’t smiled this much for any reason other than you in years,” I admit.

“Well then I think you should be with all of them,” she declares. “You should be with whoever makes you happy, if that's five people then so be it,” she says with finality.

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