"Oh my gosh, Miloh. Shut up."

"Soph." I shot her a look and she folded her arms. "Enough."

"It's not my fault Dad won't let you date the guy with long hair," Miloh said. He laughed and I sighed as I pulled into the driveway.

"I'm going to kill you," she said. She slammed the door shut a little harder than normal and I turned to raise my eyebrows at Miles. He shrugged.

"Don't do that," I said to him. "You're being cruel for no reason."

"She's being moody," he said.

"She's upset. Don't make it worse."

We walked into the house and I heard Sophie's bedroom door slam shut. Harry was in the kitchen with a confused look on his face, staring at the stairway where she just went up. He turned to me next.

"What happened?"

"Your son is being a pain and your daughter is quite upset with you," I explained. Harry sighed and continued working on whatever he was making us for dinner. "Harry-"

"No." He shook his head. "Don't start."

"You can't push her like this, Harry. She's going to resent you for it and after watching you guys be best friends for seventeen years I don't want you to lose her."

"She'll be fine."

"No, Honey. I don't think so."

"It's one boy," he said. "It's just one boy. She'll get over this."

"Harry, look at me." I took the spoon out of his hand and put my hands against his cheeks to make him look. "I love you, Harry. I was seventeen when I fell in love with you. What if someone told me no? That I'd get over it and find someone else."

"It's different."

"Maybe. But maybe it's not."

"Baby, he has long hair. And a lip piercing. He's...." His face read disgust and I couldn't help but laugh. "It's not funny!"

"You had long hair. And didn't you have an eyebrow piercing when you were a kid?"

"Eyebrow and lip are different."

"You're being a hypocrite," I whispered. "I'm sure there was some father twenty years ago that wanted to beat you with a stick."

"She's a baby," he whispered back. I raised my eyebrows and he set his hands on my hips. "I don't want my baby going out with some kid with long hair and a lip piercing that probably has weed in his backpack."

"You're doing that overprotective thing you did when she was fifteen and wanted to go on her first date. She's been honest with us since she started dating and it's only fair that we trust her. She hasn't given us a reason not to. Sophie is a smart girl. She's responsible. Your baby or not, she doesn't deserve to have the word 'forbid' thrown at her."

He winced. "Did I say that?"

"I'm afraid you did." I brushed my fingers through his hair and peeked over his shoulder at the twins watching a movie on the couch. "If it makes you feel better, we can have him over for dinner to get to know him."

"I don't want to know him, I just want my daughter to realize he's a loser."

"Harry," I laughed. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he sighed. "Don't be an ass."

"Thanks, baby," he said sarcastically. He kissed me and lightly tapped my backside. "Let go of me, woman."

Harry's POV

"Go talk to her," Savannah said. "She's making everyone crazy."

I do not want my Sophie dating some loser with long hair. I don't care if I had long hair before. This is different because she's my child and yeah, I was the kid with long hair and a piercing (for a short time) and I know what that kid is like. That is not the kind of kid I want my daughter spending time with. The thought of the twins getting to that age is...oh, fuck. And they're identical and both gorgeous, just like Sophie. Double the amount of boys. I shook that thought from my head as I knocked on Sophie's door.

"Who is it?" she called.

I opened the door and stuck my head through. "Hi, Angel."

She rolled her eyes. "Go away, Dad."

"We need to talk."

"I'm sure you'll tell me what to say since you're so obsessed with controlling my life," she said, writing aggressively into a journal. I sat on the edge of her bed and waited for her to soften up a bit. She always did. After a few moments she sighed and looked up, but not directly at me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I know you think I crossed a line."

"Dad, you treated me like a child. You never do that to me. I mean, yeah, you baby me sometimes but it's not in an demeaning, controlling, you-know-better-than-I-do kind of way. That's what this was."

"Soph, I'm your Dad. I'm not supposed to be happy when you're dating."

"Yeah, but I've gone out with guys before and you've never flipped out like that. Dad, it was so embarrassing."

"He looks like he's in a gang," I said. She rolled her eyes again.

"You're the one with tattoos."

"Does he have tattoos, too?"

"Dad! Don't be so judgemental!" she cried. "I'm sure Grandpa didn't like you either when you started dating Mum."

If only you knew. "That's not the point. But your mother has informed me that I may have overreacted."

"May have?"

I shook my head, smiling at her. "Watch it."

"Daddy, I really like him," she said quietly. She stared down at her hands. "He's really nice, I promise."

"Okay." I took a deep breath and tucked some of her long blonde hair behind her ear. "I just don't want to see you get hurt. But if it really means that much to you..."

She looked up at me. "What?"

"Mum says you're making everyone crazy, so if you really like this boy then...then I guess if you wanted to-"

"Thank you!" Sophie threw her arms around my neck and I laughed. "Dad, thank you."

"I want to meet him soon. He comes here for dinner so I can give him a proper scare," I tell her.

"Dad, Miles is going to embarrass me. And Skyler will probably tell that story about the time I sneezed out orange juice!"

"If he can survive our family then maybe I'll approve. And maybe he won't come back."

She laughed and folded her arms. We both knew that was half a joke, half not. But this is one of the few delights of my daughter bringing home a boy. After a few minutes I raised my eyebrows.

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "Deal. But you can't be too mean."

"It's my fatherly right. Go ahead and call him."

"Okay." The smile on her face made the turning in my stomach less obvious. When she held the phone to her ear I stood up, but it took a moment. When did my toddler become a teenager? She went from bouncy curls and incomplete sentences and being in my arms at every opportunity to texting and going to the mall with her friends and long blonde hair and the most beautiful girl on the planet.

"Hey, it's Sophie," she said. She looked up at me and mouthed 'go away' with a flick of her hand. I laughed and went back downstairs. Savannah was sitting on the couch with Ella leaning against her side and Skyler in front of her on the floor, her dark hair being pulled back into a braid. The girls look quite different than their older sister, dark hair and brown eyes and dark skin. Thankfully eight year olds don't date.

"She's talking to him right now," I said, sitting on the other side of Ella. She leaned against my instead and Savannah smiled at me. "Are you proud?"

"So proud," she said. "Girls, Daddy's letting Sophie bring home a boy."

"Gross," Ella said. Harry smiled and kissed her head.

"You're my favourite, did you know that?"

---

Savannah's POV

"You look really nice, Soph." She smiled and smoothed her hand over her dress. "So grown up."

"Where's Dad?"

"Upstairs, I think."

The doorbell rang and Sophie's eyes went wide. Then she grinned and practically ran for the door. Miloh looked like he wanted to gag, so I asked him to help me mix the salad instead. The boy we'd seen once before, long wavy hair and tight skinny jeans. Harry came down the stairs and I noticed the grimace.

"Harry," I whispered, waving him over. "Do you see this?"

"Yeah."

"He's like you."

He looked at me with narrowed eyes. "He is not."

"Harry, rewind to high school and I'm sure that's what you looked like except your hair was curly."

"That's not-"

"Mom. Dad." Sophie lead him by the hand and stopped next to Harry. Her eyes were already sparkling. "This is Travis."

"Nice to meet you," Travis said. He shook Harry's hand first and then mine. He seemed excessively charming.

"You too," I said. Harry just stared at him.

"Dad?" Sophie asked. A quiet pause ensued and I clapped my hands together.

"So, Sophie tells us you plan to become a doctor."

"Yeah, if everything keeps going the way it is. My program is pretty hard, so-"

"Hang on. How old are you?" Harry asked.

"I'm nineteen."

"You're in university?" He looked at Sophie. "He's in university?"

"Dad," Sophie said again.

"Well, you guys have fun tonight," I said. Harry sighed and folded his arms. Travis was smiling at Sophie when I looked back at them, one of those small smiles that Harry had. Has. A boy was standing in front of a girl's parents looking at her like she was the only person in the world. That meant something to me. And Sophie was practically beaming.

"Yeah," Harry muttered. Sophie smiled and they made their way back to the door. He went to the window and peeked through the curtains to watch them.

"Don't be creepy."

"He has his own car. That's a bad sign."

"Would you stop. Did you not see him? He clearly adores her. He's got that..that look."

"What look?"

"That look. With the eyes and the little smile and the sparkle."

"Sparkle? What the hell are you talking about?"

"The way a boy looks at the girl he loves," I explained, making my way over to him. Harry got a defeated look on his face and I wished that I could make this easier somehow. It's not easy watching your kids grow up, especially not in this way, but it could be a lot worse.

---

Harry's POV

"Harry, are you coming upstairs?" Savannah sat next to me on the couch and I turned down the volume on the television.

"Yeah, soon."

"She'll be back soon. She has a curfew."

"In ten minutes."

Savannah laughed quietly and kissed me. "Don't be so uptight."

"I'm not uptight," I defended. She smiled and I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"Yeah, whatever." Another kiss was pressed to my lips. "Don't be too hard on her, okay."

"Yeah." I watched her walk up the stairs and turned my eyes back to the TV. Eight minutes.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this hard to let my babies grow up. Maybe with each one it'll be a little easier, but I can't imagine that being true at all. Miles will probably be easier, but even him I'll worry about. The twins would be torture. But Sophie is...she's my baby. And she always will be. I'll be looking at her the same way when she's thirty.

With exactly four minutes left before her curfew the door opened behind me. Sophie walked in with a big smile on her face. She leant against the door while she pulled her shoes off and giggled to herself. It wasn't until I cleared my throat that she noticed I was there and it scared the absolute shit out of her.

"Daddy!" She laughed nervously and walked around the couch. "I didn't see you there."

"Did you have a nice night?"

She smiled. "Yeah. Thank you for letting me go."

"Come here with me." I held out my arm and she sat against my side. "You like this boy. This nineteen year old."

"Yeah."

"A lot?"

"Dad," she laughed. She looked up at me. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"Your mom thinks he loves you," I said quietly. "Apparently he's got the look."

"The sparkly one?" she asked. She smiled widely and I laughed. I guess seeing her this happy made up for the sick feeling in my stomach.

"How do you know about the sparkle?"

"When I was sixteen and that Jake guy broke up with me Mom was trying to cheer me up. I asked how she found you," she said. "Like, how she knew you guys were for real. And she told me that when you fell in love with her you'd get this weird look on your face when you stared at her. Sparkly was the one way she knew how to explain it."

"Well." I sighed and hugged her against me again. "It's hard to argue with that."

"I know you don't like him, but I promise he's great."

"My baby is smart. You wouldn't chose a bad guy."

"Thanks, Daddy." She kissed my cheek and stood up to go upstairs. "Love you."

"You too," I said quietly. Yeah. It could be a lot worse.

Notes

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