“Careful!” I whisper-shout as Adam’s grip on the toy he’s holding falters.

It’s like I’m seeing it in slow motion as the toy falls right on top of William’s face. William, shocked, goes quiet for a second before he starts to wail.

Poor little thing. He’s probably scared as hell. He doesn’t know what happened.

I rush to the crib. William was already about to fall asleep when I left the room, so I thought it was going to be okay to leave him alone with Adam while I read a book outside, but apparently not.

“Hey, baby, it’s okay,” I say in a soft, soothing voice as I toss the toy aside and stroke William’s hair.

I hear a soft rattle as Adam picks up the toy. It usually hangs over the crib and plays a song when I pull on the string. William likes to stare at it while he falls asleep.

The past few nights, though, it hasn’t been working. I wasn’t going to do anything about it because William was going to be too old for it soon anyway.

He’s been sleeping fine without the stupid song. But when Adam offered to try to fix it, I didn’t see any harm in it.

William’s not hurt; only shocked. He’s also really sleepy, luckily. As soon as his tears dry, he goes back to sleep.

As William’s breathing deepens and slows down, I twist to look at Adam.

He’s been spending more and more time here, but he hasn’t gotten used to just how tiny and fragile William is.

“Adam,” I whisper. I gesture toward the door. “Talk outside? I don’t want to wake William up.”

He follows me, his heavy footsteps muted by the carpeted floor. In the living room, I sit on the couch and invite him to join me.

I really like Adam, and I don’t say that lightly. I’ve never met anyone quite like him. Before I met him, I didn’t even know someone like him could exist.

He’s sweet, kind, intelligent, and any girl would be lucky to have him.

Most importantly, though, he makes me feel like I can be myself around him and he hasn’t hesitated once to prioritize William and me over his work. He’s been spending all his free time here.

Still, he’s not perfect. Nobody is.

But I didn’t expect him to be so clueless about babies. I mean, I used to be like that just two short years ago. Sawyer, too. But I guess I’ve forgotten how big the learning curve really is.

“I’m sorry,” Adam says as he takes a seat next to me. “I should’ve taken the toy away from the crib before I started working on it, but it didn’t occur to me before that it could slip out of my hands.”

“I know. I know you didn’t mean to startle William awake. You just need to be more careful,” I say.

Even though I can be too protective when it comes to William, I can’t bring myself to get mad at Adam.

He’s always so apologetic and he’s always asking me what he can do better, on top of doing a lot of reading on parenting websites. So, you know, he’s trying.

That said, I know this is not the first time or the last time he’ll ever a parenting mistake. Like last week, for example, he just left a pair of scissors lying around on the coffee table, seemingly unaware that William could grab it and hurt himself.

“Yeah. I’m trying,” he says.

“I know. It takes time. There’s no way around that.”

“I wish there was. I love William, and I don’t want to put him in harm’s way.”

“It doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people,” I say. “I can see you care about William, but fitting a child into your life isn’t going to happen just like that.

“When I was pregnant with William, I read a bunch of parenting books. I already knew how to keep a baby alive from my time in the maternity ward, but I wanted to make sure I was giving William the best life I could provide.”

Adam gazes at me with eyes full of affection. “You’re an amazing mom, and that’s one of the reasons why I love you.”

“You . . .” I pause as I let his words sink in. “You love me?”

“I do,” he says without any hint of hesitation.

“Um, I . . .” My sentence hangs in the air as I fumble for the right thing to say. A few seconds pass, and I scold myself in my head for starting to speak in the first place. Obviously, I should’ve stayed quiet.

“You don’t have to say anything back,” Adam says. “I just want you to know that.”

My heart’s beating fast. I’m glad Adam’s letting me off the hook because I’m not prepared for that conversation.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I just . . . I haven’t . . .”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, smiling. “I don’t want to put any pressure on you. I just want you to know how I feel.”

A smile plays on my lips. “Thank you for telling me. It makes me happy to hear that. Really. I just—”

“You don’t have to give me a reason. It’s okay, Katie.”

“No, I just want to say that . . . I really like having you around, and not just because you obviously care about William,” I say. “You make me happy.”

Adam’s smile spreads wide and grows into a big, ear-to-ear grin. “You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that.”

The corners of my lips pull up into a smile. He means it; I can tell. And it makes me even happier.

“Maybe I just need a little more time,” I say.

“Take all the time you need, kitten.” Adam puts his hand on my head, pulls me close, and plants a kiss on my forehead.