I crossed the hall and opened the door to peek in at Jessa. She was snoring softly and was completely out. She wasn't going to wake up for a while. I shut the door before heading back downstairs. I didn't plan on this turning into alone time with Ezra, but maybe it would give us some time to discuss how we were going to handle Jessa visits. I wanted to let him have his time with her, but I didn't want it to be unsupervised yet until I was sure he had really changed. I felt bad for not trusting him, but he had given me a lot of reasons not to.

"She's going to be out for a while." I said to him when I got to the bottom of the stairs.

"I figured, she played really hard today." He relaxed back against the wall.

"I'm going to start dinner." I said, trying to keep the conversation going to make it less awkward.

"Want some help?" He asked.

"Yeah, that would work." I smiled and turned to go into the kitchen.

I pulled out a few things. I had decided on Tacos for dinner since it would be pretty easy to whip up. I pulled some tomato, lettuce, and onion out of the fridge and placed them on the island.

I handed Ezra the cutting board and pointed to the drawer with the knives. He went to go pull it open and was confused when it kept getting stuck. I died laughing as I watched him look at the drawer like it was broken.

"Ezra, it has a childproof latch on it." I was laughing hysterically as he swore at it. I wiped my tears away and went over to help him. I walked up behind him and reached my hand around his side to unhook it.

"Not funny." He looked down at me and smiled.

"Just a little." I winked at him and turned around to go back to the stove where the meat was starting to brown.

He grabbed a knife out and closed the drawer behind him. He took his place behind the cutting board and began chopping up the vegetables for the tacos.

I went to the pantry and pulled out a box of brownie mix. I had a slight chocolate craving and I'm sure nobody was going to mind if I made dessert too.

I pulled out all the ingredients and started mixing everything into a bowl. Ezra came up behind me to put his knife in the sink when I was finishing up with the mixer. I pulled it out of the bowl and saw his finger go into the brownie batter. When I turned around, he stuck the tip of his finger in his mouth.

"Ezra, that is so disgusting! There are raw eggs in there. You're going to get salmonella." I warned.

"You worry too much." He said, trying to dip his finger in again.

"Get away from my brownies!" I spun around and pushed at him.

"Come on, Riley, try some. It's delicious." He placed his hand on my stomach and nudged me to the side to get to the bowl. He reached back behind me and stuck his finger in again. He held it up in front of me.

I leaned back against the counter and shook my head no and pushed him back again. He leaned into me, wiggling his finger in front of my mouth. I stood my ground and he decided to swipe it across my cheek. He began laughing hysterically at me when I started pouting.

"You are not funny. It's sticky." I said, annoyed.

"I'm so sorry, Riley. Here, let me clean it up for you." He leaned in closer to me like he was going to lick it off of me. My hand went to his stomach above his waistband to push him back again while I squirmed away from him, giggling.

"Making dinner, I see." My Mom's voice said flatly from the kitchen doorway. Ezra jumped back from me and spun around. The smile fell from my face when I saw her staring at us like we were teenagers and she just caught us doing something we shouldn't be doing.

"Hi, Mrs. Davis." Ezra waved to her uncomfortably as she stared him down. He stuck his hands back in his pockets again and looked back down to the ground.

"Hello, Ezra. You look well." She said too formally.

"Mom," I said with a little warning in my voice. She needed to keep herself under control. She looked at me like I was being the unreasonable one here.

"I'm going to go upstairs and check on your Dad for a minute and will be back down very soon." Her eyes narrowed when she looked at Ezra. This was going to be an uncomfortable dinner.

When she disappeared upstairs, I apologized to him for her tone.

"I should probably go." Ezra said. "This was a bad idea. It's too soon."

"You don't have to go. You can stay to see Jessa when she wakes up." I said, feeling guilty for how this all played out.

"I will see her soon. I should get home to help Jenna. She'll be mad at me for being gone so long. My Mom and Uncle Charlie are in town this weekend to visit and go over things for the wedding. We've got a busy weekend." My heart dropped when he mentioned Jenna and the wedding. I had forgotten about her while we were here together making dinner. Of course, he would want to get back to her. I wished I could be the one with him when he saw his Mom and Charlie. I would have loved to see them again after all these years.

"Does your Mom know about Jessa?" I asked him.

"I called her to tell her I ran into you on the street and saw you holding hands with a little girl. I wasn't completely sure, but I kind of just knew who she was. I didn't tell her I thought she was mine until after I saw Jessa's picture on your phone. I knew for a fact right then that she was mine. She was so excited when she found out about her. She is dying to meet her. I told her that Jessa would need some time before I start introducing her to everyone."

I pulled my phone from my pocket and pressed a few buttons. His phone went off in his pocket and he pulled it out. He smiled, looking up at me when he saw the pictures I had sent him. I sent a few older ones of Jessa when she was a tiny baby and then a couple of the two of them playing this afternoon at the park.

"Now you can at least show her a few pictures while she's here." I smiled at him and lowered my eyes. "Tell your Mom the next time she's in town. She can meet her. If she can't come back soon, I can bring her out there. I want Jessa to know how amazing her Grandma is."

"I will. Thanks for today Riley." He said, opening the front door. He turned before walking out. "Tell Jessa I love her. I'll talk to you soon." He closed the door and the house fell silent.

I jumped when my phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down and saw JD's name flash across the screen. Great. I picked up the phone and pressed it to my ear.

"What?" I said hard into the receiver.

"What the hell, Lil Bit?" He screamed back at me. We went into a twenty-minute screaming match on the phone. My Mom must have called him when she found me in the kitchen with Ezra.

JD screamed at me, telling me how irresponsible I was for letting Ezra into the house and near Jessa. He called me a bad Mom for not thinking about what was best for her. I yelled at him, telling him this is none of his business and what I did with my life was my choice when it came to my daughter. We went back and forth until he called me selfish. I got quiet before he dropped his last blow.

"Don't come crying to me when he leaves you again."

I hung up the phone. Tears were streaming down my face. My Mom walked down the stairs and looked at me with her arms crossed.

"Don't you say anything. This is your fault for telling JD." I ground my teeth holding back my anger towards her.

"Someone has to be the adult here and protect Jessa." My Mom said, clenching her jaw.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I saw you two in the kitchen, Riley. Don't pretend like I am stupid." My Mom snapped back.

"Nothing happened. You don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't?" She laughed. "So you are saying I didn't see him all over you and you giggling like a little girl when he tried to touch you?"

"Mom, you should trust me." I said. I was really sad thinking about the fact that she had no faith in me. I had messed up a lot when it came to Ezra, but we were not in the same place we were before. We were both not the same people anymore.

"Riley, you lost that privilege a long time ago." She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

I ran past her and pushed her out of the doorway. I grabbed my keys off the table in the hall and stormed out the door. I couldn't look at my mother right now. She had crossed the line. I jumped into my car and slammed the door, not knowing where I was going to go. I pulled out my phone and dialed Aiden.

"Hey Aiden, can I come over?" I cried into the phone.

"Sure, Ry," He said softly.

I hung up the phone without another word and drove to my best friend's house.