"Are you ready?" I asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Gray gulped.

We were ready to go: Changing pad. Wipes. Clean diaper. Stevie.

"You should tuck the new diaper under the old one," I advised, "before we get started..."

He blinked in confusion. "Why?"

"Your daughter's a wiggly little worm," I explained with a quiet laugh, "you'll probably have about two seconds to get the old diaper off before she squirms away, so having the new one in place will help prevent, ah... accidents!"

He chuckled nervously. "Got it, boss."

"And," I added, "always wipe downwards with girls, never wipe up, you don't want to give her you-know-what an infection from poo!"

He gulped again. "Oh, man, this is a bit more complicated than I thought..."

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "you'll get the hang of it, and I'll be on standby if you need me."

With his brow furrowed in deep concentration, Gray dove right into the task like a soldier on a mission, and everything was going well—

Until Stevie peed on him.

Gray froze like a deer in the headlights. "Oh, shit! It's all over my hands! It's puddling everywhere! What do I do now?"

Stevie gazed up at him with amusement in her bright brown eyes, releasing a conspiratorial giggle, as though the little munchkin knew exactly what she had done to her frazzled father.

I bit back a smile, it was probably every parent's rite of passage to get peed or pooped on at some point, and quickly handed him some wipes to take care of the mess.

"It's fine. It's okay. This sort of thing has happened to me dozens of times. Let me go grab her a dry onesie, and we'll get you two cleaned up..."

Gray flashed me a grateful smile. "Thank God you're here, Gracie. I'd be lost without you."

My knees went weak, and the adoring way he was looking at me made my heart skip and skip and skip—

My body's reaction to Gray pricked me with irritation. I quickly reminded myself to get a hold on my emotions. In the middle of our co-parenting camaraderie, I let down my guard too much. I needed to be careful about these boundaries. It felt too easy to cross them with the way I kept letting him get under my skin.

I cleared my throat, frowning, and tried to reset the mood between us. "You don't have to thank me, Gray. I'm doing it for Stevie. Not you."

His smile faded away. Gray flinched slightly as though I struck him.

I flinched inwardly, too.

Damn it, this didn't feel right, either. I didn't want to be mean for no reason!

Who knew finding the right balance with him would be so fucking difficult?

Once we finished diapering Stevie, I willed the tightness in my shoulders to relax and tried again to make things right, "So, um... when do you think you'll be moving in?"

He glanced at me with a question in his eyes. "Would, uh... this coming Monday... be too soon?"

This Monday?

As in two days from now?

Oh, God.

I didn't know if I was ready to share a space with Gray, twenty-four-seven, for two weeks straight.

I attempted not to let my panic show, "Um, um, um... yeah, sure, I guess, the sooner, the better. For Stevie's sake, of course."

Gray echoed in agreement, "Of course. For Stevie's sake."

For a few seconds, an uncomfortable lull stretched between us.

There was so much that needed to be worked out in our co-parenting relationship. It overwhelmed me. I had no idea how to move forward with Gray. I simply didn't know if I possessed the resolve to view Gray as Stevie's father and only Stevie's father and nothing more.

The unease in the air only thickened when Gray and I broke the silence at the same time, talking over each other about completely unrelated topics—

"I feel like I owe you an apology," I mumbled.

"Can you show me how to make her bottle?" he asked.

Then, like the world's two most out of sync humans, I went on to answer him as he responded to my remark.

I nodded. "Sure."

His eyes widened. "Why?"

We laughed clumsily.

"I'm sorry for being a bitch earlier."

"It's fine," he said in quiet tones.

His eyes drifted towards mine. Gray locked on brown. I held his gaze for a moment before looking away.

"This," I sighed, "is going to be tricky, huh?"

He eyed me for an explanation, prompting, "This?"

"This parenting thing," I elaborated with a lost expression, "that we need to work out. I feel like our history—"

Our history as childhood best friends.

As a broken couple.

His history with Lydia.

Oh, Lydia, Lydia, Lydia...

My heart clenched up as though caught in a painful vice. How I missed her, loved her, resented her. My feelings towards my twin felt too complex to unravel at this point. Like a rose, it was layered with petal-like fragility. It was also sharp and full of thorns. I felt awful for resenting a ghost, still, resent her I did.

"—makes it that much harder," I finished hoarsely.

Sadness marred Gray's features as his mouth flattened to a grimace.

"I'm trying, Gracie. I'm really trying. I know we can't fix everything overnight, but I don't want things to stay like this for us. It's not good for you. It's not good for me. It's definitely not good for Stevie if we can't figure out how to get along."

"I know, I know," I muttered.

"There's no hurry, though," he murmured, "we can take it one day at a time. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for the long haul, and I'll keep trying for as long as it takes..."

My expression softened a little. "One day at a time sounds good."

"Yeah?"

I nodded in response. "I guess... I'll see you on Monday, then?"

An uncertain smile crept back on his face. "Yeah, I'll see you guys on Monday."

❦

Hi there! Alice here.

Just wanted to let you guys know, this will probably be my last Gracie and Gray chapter for a while. I promised a few of my readers that I'd update one more time before I move onto my next main project, Gilded Hearts, but I'll definitely return to writing this story full-time down the road.