He wasn't sure if she was going to budge, she had ever reason not to, and nowadays, she didn't seem the type to dish out second chances. He waited in the silence as she probably had tons of thoughts running through her mind. When she finally looked back up at him, he was relieved to see her face change. Nodding in agreement, he spoke. “Yes, absolutely. I won’t I promise.” He said quickly as she trailed on, he listened intensely and then agreed some more. He couldn't help but start to laugh when she mentioned a step-mom. 

Catching his breath, he stared at her. “Nah, the only thing she’ll eventually have is a sister. No other mom. I’m not married, or seeing anybody. I’m a single father. I’m raising her on my own. Her mom was Jenna. She ignored her responsibilities as a mother, and cheated on me.” Holding up a hand, he waved it in her direction sarcastically, “Please contain your sympathy.” He bellowed, “Karma’s a bitch and I got exactly what I deserved. She did to me, what I did to you, and now we’re just trying to survive life and not fuck anything else up in the process.” He shrugged. 

“We could be sad and bitter, and pissed about the past. Or we could just forget all that, have some peace and make room for such better memories. The future you can change, The past you can’t. You can only accept it, apologize for it, and move on to better days. Make the people you love most proud.” He laughed to himself. “Okay, I’m done sounding like a fortune cookie now, but, you get what I mean.” 

“Why are you so nervous? Anger and frustration I get. But, why nervous? I've been trying to answer it myself in my head. The only thing that I can think of is, you think I’m going to just take advantage of the two of you, come in, play pretend, take your baby away from you, and then run away again, leaving you a broken mess all over again.” He sighed, looking her straight in the eyes. “In case that is what you’re thinking, I’m not planning to do that. We can go into this slowly, and I don’t expect it to happen overnight, If Jenna ever showed up looking for Kaylee, I’d probably do the same thing to her, and treat her the same way. So, I’m not going to do anything horrible. You have my word.”