Written in 63 minutes.

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She had obviously not planned to blurt it out that way. Will you marry me? Everything inside of her was cringing, the heat crawling up her neck, into her cheeks.

Jason actually took a step back, his brows lifting almost meeting his hairline, his hands raised slightly in front of him. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“I said we should get married, but don’t say no—” she said, the words falling out in a rush, jumbled and almost breathless. “Just let me explain—”

“I wasn’t going to—” he said at the same time, and they both stopped at the same time. Had all the air been sucked out of the room, she wondered? Why was it so hard to draw a full breath?

“I know it’s insane and completely out of nowhere, okay, but it’s a good plan.” Elizabeth snatched her purse up from where it had dropped next to the chair. “It makes it impossible for Alexis to use me against you, and it might give us more time to figure out the other problem. So don’t say no just yet, just—” She reached for the door. “Think about it, okay?”

“Wait, let’s talk—”

“I have a shift, sorry. I’ll call you or you call me or—whatever works.” She smiled brightly, sure her cheeks were flaming red, then jerked the door open and rushed out of the office,  closing the door behind her because he could follow.

—

Not far away from the warehouse, Molly stood in line at Kelly’s, still going over the deposition in her head. She’d thought it went all right, all things considered, but she could mostly understand why Elizabeth had been rattled.

At some point, probably around the child support question, Elizabeth had realized what Alexis planned to do — Molly hoped her mother hadn’t noticed that Elizabeth had started evading questions more after that point, but it was unlikely. Not only had Elizabeth’s direct answers shifted, but her entire body had tightened, her shoulders stiff, her hands fisted in her lap. But she hadn’t lost control and had finished the deposition, so whatever Elizabeth had been afraid of, it hadn’t happened.

Had it?

The person in front of her moved, and it was her turn to order. “Molly. Hey.” Joss Jacks flashed a friendly smile, with her order pad out. “To go?”

“Yeah, just a coffee.” Molly folded her arms. “Um, how are you?”

“I’m good, but—” Joss poured the hot liquid into the to-go cup. “I heard you took a leave from the DA’s office. Dex,” she added when Molly looked quizzical. “And Mom said you were on Jason’s case. I just—if you need anything. Like a character witness, you know? Jason’s been an honorary uncle—” Her mouth tightened. “More like a father figure, I guess. He’s been around more than my actual father. But seriously. Just say the word.” She set the coffee on the counter.

“I appreciate that.” Molly hesitated, didn’t pick up her order. “You used to be really close to Cameron, right? You were dating for a while.”

“Yeah, a little over a year.” Joss tipped her head. “Why? You think he could help? He totally would. Jason rescued him when Cyrus kidnapped him and Trina that one time—”

“Oh. I think I knew that at some point, but—no, I guess I was wondering if you were close to his family. His mother and brothers.”

“Oh for sure, Cam and I go way back. Our moms pretty much always hated each other, but that comes and goes. But Cam’s mom is the best. She’d be a great person to testify for Jason.”

“No, I know that—” Molly made a face. “Never mind—”

“Wait.”

Molly turned back, raised a brow. “Yeah?”

Joss glanced around, then leaned in, lowering her voice. “Obviously, I’m not saying anything or whatever, but I overheard my mom and Sonny arguing about this, and Mom’s worried Alexis is going to talk about Jason working for Sonny. And, like, that being the reason he wasn’t around Jake much. I mean, you know about Jason—” She winced. “I mean, you don’t know. But you know the rumors.”

“I do. That was a factor in why Jason wasn’t around Jake when he was younger?” Molly asked.

“Oh, yeah. I mean, I can’t tell you how much of one it was, because Cam never knew. But we used to talk about it sometimes, especially after Jason came back and we found out about Drew.” Joss shrugged. “The way Cam heard it, any chance of Jason stepping in and kicking Lucky Spencer out was over after Michael got shot. And he sort of remembers Jason being around a lot until he was five or six, and then completely gone until after the accident.” She paused. “None of that should matter when it comes to Danny, though. Should it?”

“Probably not. But it never hurts to think of all the angles. Thanks, Joss.”

Molly stepped away from the counter, her coffee in hand. That might explain Elizabeth’s nerves, she thought. If they’d agreed to keep Jason’s paternity quiet because of his work with Sonny, that would certainly be an area Elizabeth might want to avoid in deposition. But why would they be so nervous about it? Kristina was Sonny’s daughter — surely, her mother wasn’t going to bring that up in court.

But she also wouldn’t have believed her mother would draw up custody papers against TJ. Molly bit her lip, then headed for the parking lot. She had a lot of thinking to do — and maybe Elizabeth had been right to look rattled today.

She couldn’t let her mother win. Just couldn’t.

—

“This is a late shift for you,” Lucas said, stepping up behind Elizabeth into the nurse’s station. When Elizabeth jolted at the sound of his voice, he held up his hands. “Sorry, I thought you heard me come up.”

“I was distracted.” And staring at the same work schedule for the better part of ten minutes. Elizabeth blew out a breath, then looked at him. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

“You had the deposition today, didn’t you?” Lucas asked, digging through a pile of charts. “I still can’t believe Alexis is doing this, even knowing what Sam’s will said.”

Elizabeth sighed, returned her attention to the schedule. “Alexis has always thought she knew best. If Sam wanted the kids to stay together, she’d have said so, right? I mean, it’s not easy when you have kids with different fathers, I know that.”

“I won’t claim to know what my sister was thinking, but I’m almost sure she’d hate to see what’s happened. Molly going against her mother, the kids in the middle.” Lucas grimaced, made a note in a chart. “Can I ask a ridiculous question? One that’s none of my business?”

“You can ask. I might not answer.”

“Fair enough.” He popped the pen back into his lab coat. “How did you have it? In your will. I know Cam’s an adult now, and Jake nearly is. But you must have worried.”

“Um, for a long time, it was my grandmother. I wanted the boys to stay together, and there wasn’t a lot of arguments. Cam doesn’t have any one else, and Lucky wasn’t going to argue with me. Maybe Laura might have wanted Aiden, but it was Gram who’s been their number one. But…when Jason came home all those years ago, back when we found out about Drew?” she asked. “I changed it. Jason had missed so much time with Jake, that I couldn’t stand thinking of him missing more, and I knew Gram might not make it easy on him.”

“So you were willing to separate them, then?”

“Yeah. I was. It wasn’t easy, but I also knew Jason would make sure Jake was around his brothers.” Elizabeth shrugged, tapped a few keys. “And if anything happened to Gram, he would have taken Aiden and Cam. There really wasn’t any question for me.” She looked at him. “Why?”

“Just thinking, I guess. The way kids get treated like objects sometimes.” Lucas leaned against the counter. “My parents got divorced when I was a kid, and it was bitter for a couple of years. Then…with Wiley, it was…I know it was the right choice. To give him back to Michael. Not to fight it, especially knowing Brad and I were done. But man, sometimes—” He exhaled slowly. “Anyway. It sucks for Danny and Scout. Being separated, and now being dragged into court. I wish Alexis weren’t doing this.”

“Well, she might be the best place for Scout, but Danny belongs with Jason.” Elizabeth logged out of the workstation, turned to him. “Alexis will see that. I won’t give up until she does.”

—

Michael slid into the booth across from Jason, a bottle of beer already in his hand. “Hey. I’m glad you called.”

“I didn’t interrupt anything, did I? It’s late—”

Michael waved it away, then took a swig form the bottle. “One of the good things about having young kids — they’re both in bed at nine, and I—” He grimaced. “For obvious reasons, I don’t really want to be alone with my wife right now. Better to go back when she’s asleep.”

“Michael—”

“Don’t want to talk about it tonight,” he interrupted. “Like I said, I’m glad you called. I didn’t think Jake would say anything to you—”

“Jake?” Jason frowned, shook his head. “Uh, no. Why? What’s wrong? Michael,” he said when the younger man made a face, looked away. “What’s going on?”

“Drew cornered Jake in the parking garage the other day,” Michael said, and Jason tensed. “He doesn’t know that I know, or that Jake’s already told us about Scout. Wanted to make a deal — Jake shuts up about what he knows, and Drew doesn’t help Alexis in the case—”

“Tell him to go to hell, I don’t care who he testifies for. Why didn’t Jake—”

“He thought you might rearrange Drew’s facial features again.” Michael lifted his brows. “Was he wrong?”

Jason grimaced, looked away. “No,” he muttered. “But one day—”

“Yeah, well, we’ll leave that plan in the drafts for now. If it’s not about Jake, what’s up? You said it was important.”

Jason hesitated. Now that he was in front of Michael, he wasn’t sure how to have this conversation. How to even describe the conversation with Elizabeth in his office — or why he couldn’t simply tell her yes or no. Why he didn’t know the answer.

“Was it the deposition? I know Elizabeth was scheduled to go today. She was worried, but I know she’d never do anything to hurt your case—”

“It wouldn’t be her fault.” Jason shifted slightly. “For one thing, Elizabeth is worried Alexis is going to dig into why I didn’t claim Jake those first four years. Sam left me over the job, and kept Danny from me as much as she could, even when I got home, so Alexis already knows that much. With Elizabeth…”

“You made that decision after I got shot,” Michael said, and Jason nodded, a bit reluctantly. “Well, Alexis can dig into it if she wants, but at the end of the day, she’s a Cassadine. Whose family kidnapped Jake. And you. And Drew. Throw that in her face.”

“Yeah, that could work. Except there are no Cassadines left. Helena is dead, and so is that Victor guy. Valentin’s on the run, I guess, but no one’s said he’s dangerous.”

“While my dad is probably still under investigation for what happened last summer.” Michael stared down at the table, took a deep breath, then looked up again. “That’s a problem, I guess. But it would be a lot of rumors and unsubstantiated cases. Is that what worries you?”

“Enough to know it’s not a small problem. The thing is—Elizabeth’s deposition—she got the idea that Alexis is gonna try to make it seem like she’s the reason Jake is who he is. And that I did nothing to contribute.”

“And Elizabeth shut her down, right? I know she did,” Michael said immediately. “She can try it, but it’s bullshit.” When Jason didn’t respond, Michael scowled. “It’s bullshit, Jase,” he repeated. “And you need to get in your head before you testify and make that face like she’s right.”

“That’s—we can deal with that some other time—”

“Damn it—”

“Elizabeth thinks — and Molly agreed — Alexis plans to use her as evidence I can’t be a full-time father, that I’ve barely been a part-time father. She has…she has a plan to make Alexis drop that entire line of questioning. And maybe even drop the whole case.”

Michael tipped his head. “Does she have a plan the way my mom has plans, or is it an actual plan?”

Jason closed his mouth, considered the question. “I think there’s a strong possibility it’s both. It has elements of a plan, but it’s—that’s not—it’s not something I think I can do.”

“What? We get rid of Alexis? No, Elizabeth wouldn’t say that. Mom would, but not—” Michael squinted. “Short of murder, Jason, I can’t think of anything you can’t do.”

“She said—” Oh, man he couldn’t even say it. He picked up his beer, took a long pull, then looked at Michael. “We should get married.”

Michael didn’t respond right away, then frowned. “That’s it? That’s the plan?”

“That’s it.”

“Oh.” He leaned back, rubbed his chin. “You made me think it was—I mean, it’s not a perfect solution, but I kind of see the point. Alexis thinks Elizabeth is so amazing, that everything about Jake is all about her, well then she should be happy Danny will have such a great stepmom there to support you. You get the right sexist judge who still thinks moms do most of the work—” Michael stopped, leaned forward. “But you told her no?”

“She wouldn’t let me—no, I haven’t yet.”

“Yet. So you’re going to say no.”

“I don’t—” Jason picked up the beer again, shook his head.

Michael was quiet for a long beat, then folded his arms on the table. “I know first hand that getting married for a custody battle doesn’t always work long-term. Willow and I had…there was good in there, and Amelia—I wouldn’t change her for the world. But all things considered, it probably wasn’t the best choice. That being said, Willow and I barely knew each other back then. You and Liz? You guys have known each other my whole life. You know her. You can trust her to do this, and to be amazing with Danny—”

“That’s—” Jason looked away, struggling to put his order his thoughts. “Of course she would. That’s not the problem. I’d trust Elizabeth with my life. And my son.”

“Just not your name,” Michael said, and Jason winced. “I mean, I guess you’ve got the problem of an exit strategy. Danny’s, what, like fourteen? Four years he’s off to college, but there’s no chance Alexis comes back if she loses on this round. So how do you do that? You guys set a end date? Like we divorce in year two, year three?”

“That’s…” Jason shifted again. “That’s part of it.”

“Or,” Michael said, drawing out the word until Jason looked at him. “You don’t divorce at all. Is that the problem? It’s not that you don’t want to marry her. You don’t want to marry her like this.”

“I—” Hearing it put so starkly startled him, and he didn’t have a response right away. “Yeah. I guess—we’ve been talking a lot about when Jake was younger. That we…I know we both regret the way we handled things. Letting fear get in the way.” They’d had that conversation on Thanksgiving in the car, and he hadn’t quite been able to forget it.

“We would have had more kids.”

“Oh, probably. How many?”

“How many did you want?”

“Oh, dozens. To start with. You?”

“Whatever made you happy.”

“I’m not going to tell you that this the universe kicking at you, putting another chance in front of you. That’s not how the world works,” Michael said, and Jason looked at him. “And I know I don’t know everything about you and Liz, beyond the fact that you’ve always been close. I obviously knew you guys were a thing because Jake exists, but I never really asked you beyond that. Elizabeth is opening a door to a future you wanted once. Maybe she’s really only doing it because of the custody. But maybe she’s doing it because she’s having those regrets, right? Maybe there’s a reason it’s something she offers.”

“Maybe.”

“Because if you knew the answer no, Jase, you’d have told her that already. So talk to her. What does she want? Is she thinking one year and out, or maybe—” Michael shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe she’s not. But you won’t know until you talk to her.”

Written in 60 minutes. See you tomorrow. *cackles*

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Jason rubbed the back of his neck. “Is there a reason to be worried?” he asked, closing the office door and reaching for the blinds on the window that looked out onto the warehouse floor.

“Worried?” Molly echoed. “I don’t know. Let me review the deposition before I tell you we have a problem. I’d rather think about the positives. I wondered why Mom wanted to start with Elizabeth, and now we know. I’m sure there’s a way to organize our case to turn the tables back in our favor. I’m going to go through the tape, review the answers and the questions, then I think you and I should sit down and talk—and I’m gonna need to talk to Elizabeth, too.”

There was a knock on the office door, and Jason opened it to find Elizabeth on the other side. “She’s here now.” He backed up, allowing Elizabeth room to answer. “I’m talking to Molly now.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth took a deep breath, closed the door behind her. “Good. That’s good. Right?”

“We’ll find out.” He returned his attention to the call. “Let me know when you want to set up that meeting, okay? I’ll tell Elizabeth to call you.”

“Okay. Jason, it’s my job to worry, not yours. The one thing I would do, though—I’d get Danny from my mother’s house as soon as possible. If you’re planning to live with him full-time, start now. I know why you wanted to keep him with the Qs and why you let him stay at my mom’s, but that’s one thing we can do right now.”

“I’ll talk to Danny and see what he wants to do. I don’t care what happens to my case. If he wants to stay with his sister, that’s what he’ll do.”

Jason ended the call, tossed the phone on the desk, and looked at Elizabeth. She stood near the warehouse window, staring at the dingy blinds, one arm slung across the middle, the other hand at her lips, biting her nails. “Hey.”

She let her arm drop to the other, so that she was nearly hugging herself as she turned to face him. “Molly told you. The deposition — it was bad.”

“She didn’t use those words, and I’m sure it wasn’t—” Jason came to her, nearly reached up to rub her shoulders, but at the last moment, let his hands drop back to his sides. “She didn’t sound worried—”

“Well, then she’s covering it up. Or maybe she doesn’t know enough to be worried.” Elizabeth sighed. She raised both hands to her hair, combed through roughly, then cupped her cheeks. “What did Molly tell you?”

Jason did touch her now, attempting to guide her to a car, but she shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t sit still. Just tell me. What does Molly think happened?”

He furrowed his brow. “She thinks Alexis plans to emphasize how much you’ve done for Jake, to make it seem as if you did it alone without my input, and maybe even argue my lack of interest. Is—did she misunderstand?”

“No. But I think Molly suffers from not knowing—” Elizabeth looked at him finally, her gaze meeting his. “Jason. I didn’t lie today, I didn’t. But I came pretty close. And the only reason I could do it is because Alexis doesn’t know enough to press in certain areas. But there are other people who do.”

He tilted his head, squinting. “I don’t understand—”

Now Elizabeth did move, cross the short length of the office, then pacing back towards him. “What happened before Jake, I can mostly take the blame. Because it’s true. I lied to you, there was miscommunication, and we were just trying so hard not to hurt each other, we didn’t really talk—I think we get away with that, right?”

“Probably. You were married, I was engaged—but—”

She sank down onto the rickety wooden chair in front of his desk, sitting sideways, one hand braced along the back. “Alexis doesn’t know we were together for the better part of a year. That we were engaged for—well, I guess it was for a few days, but we both know it was maybe minutes because the second you got that call about Michael—” She looked away. “She doesn’t know that we nearly changed our minds. But other people do. Other people on that list.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Carly knows. And now so does Jake.”

“Lucky knows. I don’t know if Alexis would depose him, and God help me, I’m almost grateful because apparently he’s ready to take off any day now, so maybe we get away with that. And Carly, God, she might tell Alexis thinking it’ll help your case—but—” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “Jason, what does it look like in family court if we tell that judge the reason you stepped aside, the reason you weren’t in Jake’s life until after he was kidnapped—how do we tell him we did it because of your job?”

Seeing the trap now, Jason grimaced, looked away. “Alexis has to know it was a factor.”

“I’m sure she does. She raised Sonny’s daughter, she made similar choices. She has to know. It’s why she started asking me why I lied. The thing is—your job was never the reason this started. It wasn’t. I’ve always known who you are. I’ve accepted. And if things had gone differently when the tests came back, I was ready to tell you. It’s just…” Tears shimmered in her eyes and she had to look away. “What happened to Michael, God, it was so awful, and I know how scared we both were. I thought we were scared before, but the terror of thinking Jake might end up like that just for standing next to you…” Her breath hitched. “I didn’t fight you on leaving me. Not right away. I wanted to because I loved you so much—”

“Hey…” Jason crouched down, took her hand in his, and with his other hand, he cupped her cheek so that she’d look at him. “You never, ever have to defend that choice to me. We both made those choices. We both chose to put Jake first. He was always more important than how we felt about each other.”

She nodded, even as the tears slid down slowly. She drew in a deep breath. “She didn’t know how to ask it today, but I just—she could start asking questions. And if you tell the judge you were afraid Jake would end up hurt, it gives him a reason not to give you Danny now. The warehouse shooting last summer would probably come up, and those two years you were gone—he could really push on that, couldn’t he?”

“I guess.”

“It opens all these doors—and I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think Alexis would ever—” Elizabeth closed her eyes, took another deep breath. “I want to say it would be so unfair for her to use that against you when she knew how you felt, when she felt the same way.” She pulled her hand out of his grasp, started to swipe at her face. “I don’t know how we stop that from happening. Because if we don’t come clean about the why, Alexis gets to argue that it’s because you didn’t want to be his father.”

Jason grimaced, then rose to his feet. “And she gets to add it to all the other reasons she thinks that’s true. When Sam was…when she went to prison for what happened to Shiloh, she gave custody of Scout to Monica, and I decided to let Danny stay at the mansion because I knew she wanted them together. Just…”

“Just like now.” Elizabeth also stood. “And I know…” She rubbed her shoulder, uncomfortably. “The explosion at the Floating Rib. The one that hurt Lulu, and—”

“Killed a few other people, including Dev.” The nail in the coffin to any future with Sam. “Yeah. Danny lived with Sam after that, but we’d been there. He could have ended up hurt, or—Alexis knows about that.”

“I just…” Elizabeth took a deep breath, folded her arms tightly. “That’s probably the worst part of today — realizing how Alexis could rewrite the narrative of what we went through back then, to fit it with everything that happened later. And I don’t really know how we fix that. The part about your job. If this goes to court, if Alexis puts people on the stand, if she gets me up there, and I have to start talking about any of this—” She looked away. “I got in my car after the deposition, and I just started to drive. I drove in circles, just going over and over everything in my head, trying to find a way out of this—”

“Hey, this isn’t your fight—” Jason took her by the shoulders, his thumbs stroking in small circles. “Molly and I—”

“She wants to use me to hurt you, Jason. She wants to use this horrible thing we went through—She wants to use our son to say something about who you are—” Elizabeth pressed her lips together, creating a thin white line, as she tried to regain control of her rising voice. “Don’t tell me this isn’t my fight. She’s making it about me, and I’m not going to let her do that.”

“We don’t know if she’s going to talk about any of that,” Jason reminded her. “You’re right. It’s something we need to think about, and probably something we should talk about when we meet with Molly, but—”

“It’s just where she could start. But there’s all these other things she has proof of. Things I couldn’t skirt around. She asked about child support. Like regular payments—” Elizabeth shook her head. “I tried to tell her it was never necessary. You put together Jake’s trust fund when he was kid, and you even gave one to Cameron, even though that was never your responsibility, but I—I let Steven invest them in the stock market and he lost everything—”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Jason interrupted, furrowing his brow. “Why didn’t you—I would have—”

“Because it was my fault—” Elizabeth pressed a hand against her chest. “I let my brother talk me into trying to create something for Aiden, and I was so wrong. But even if that hadn’t happened, I always knew if Jake needed anything, I could go to you. I tried to tell her that, and I told her about Spain, how you were doing so much for Jake, and didn’t even blink an eye when Jake basically threw away entire semester of tuition and probably whatever rent you paid for his flat, and she started asking questions like doesn’t it bother you Jason didn’t seem to care? Like you just throw money at Jake’s problems, and I got tongue-tied because I thought these were all good things—”

“Take a breath. Hey—” Jason cut in, reaching for her hands as she gestured wildly. He squeezed them. “It’s okay—”

“It’s not. She’s going to try and paint me like I’m this amazing, perfect mother because all three of my boys are these incredible successes, and okay, sure, some of that of is me—don’t make that face at me, okay? Don’t.” Elizabeth stabbed a finger at him. “Whatever mistakes we made, whatever our regrets, we did one thing right. Okay? Everything we did, everything you did, Jake is because of that. We have this wonderful, brilliant, perfect son who is all of these things because of our choices, good and bad, and Alexis Davis doesn’t get to walk in like a Monday morning quarterback saying we were wrong. We are his parents. Not her.”

“Okay, first—” Jason leaned against the desk, fighting the urge to smile because she wouldn’t understand where the amusement came from, not in the middle of a conversation like this. But he hated when she was down on herself, when she cried, he couldn’t stand it. But now she was glaring at him, her eyes sparkling with a mixture of anger and defiance—

“First. I appreciate that you want to give me credit for anything about the way Jake turned out. And if you honestly think any of that is because of me, then I won’t argue with you.”

“Good. You won’t win.”

He reached for her hand against, holding it between both of his. “Second, you’re right. You and I made our choices. We made our mistakes. And I know we’ve been talking about them a lot with Jake lately. But it’s not fair for someone else to come in and judge us. To judge you for anything you did. But she’s not wrong if her plan is to talk about what an amazing mother you are. Cameron and Aiden are great kids. Look at where Cameron is—on a scholarship to an Ivy League school. You did that, Elizabeth, and you did that without anyone. Look at the career you built for yourself, the dreams you gave up so you could put the boys first. Don’t tell me it wasn’t a little bittersweet knowing Jake is going to live the life you wanted for yourself. So if you want me to disagree with Alexis about what kind of mother you are, you’re in for a fight.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I didn’t give up anything that mattered. What? To be a starving artist in New York City? I had a chance to do that, and I threw it away. Long before Cameron came along. And it was a privilege to go into nursing, and I love it. I’m so proud of Jake. So proud that you and I could make that happen for him, because just getting into the school isn’t enough. Alexis wants to try and use any of this against you, she’ll have to go through me.” She took a deep breath. “And that’s why I came here. Because I have a plan for some of it.”

Jason straightened, keeping Elizabeth’s hand still in his grasp. “A plan?”

“Yes. I don’t know if Alexis is going to find out about…about what happened after Jake was born, but I think we need to do whatever we can to make her back down, to make her understand that no judge is ever going to say you can’t raise Danny, that you’re an unfit father. Because her entire argument is that you haven’t been a hands-on full-time father, so Danny will suffer being in your custody. That you can’t handle it.”

“You think you have a way to make Alexis back down?” Jason asked, lifting his brows. “It’s hard to believe that, but I’m listening.”

She licked her lips, then bit down, remaining quiet just long enough for his pulse to pick up. “Elizabeth—”

“She thinks she can use me against you, but what if we—what if I take her entire argument about me and shove it down her throat? If I’m such an amazing mother, that if I can do all that of that as a single mother one basically one income, well—” She took a deep breath. “Then, okay. Let’s make me part of the deal.”

Jason opened his mouth, then closed it, furrowing his brow. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”

“Jake and Danny are both going to talk about how much they love you and Danny will say he wants to be with you, so the most important thing we have to do is make sure the judge feels comfortable with Danny in your custody. And Alexis thinks I’m amazing? I want her to eat those words. So make me part of the deal. Part of the package.”

Her meaning started to sink in, and his heart started to beat just a little faster. “Part of the deal,” he repeated. “You mean Danny in our joint custody, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “We can’t lose.”

Wanting to be absolutely sure she meant what he thought she meant, he pressed. “And in order for there to be a joint custody, that means we’d have to…” He trailed off, wanting her to finish, not even able to put it into words himself. It seemed too fantastical, too impossible to think she might be suggesting what he was thinking.”

“We’d have to get married. Yeah. That’s the plan.” She licked her lips again. “So, what do you think? Will you marry me?”