The first week was chaos. Jess burned pancakes, forgot to buy toothpaste, and let Mia watch a scary movie (then regretted it at 2 a.m. when Mia crawled into her bed, shaking).
“This is useless,” Mia whispered one night. “You’re not Mom.”
Jess didn’t get mad. She just said, “You’re right. So let’s make our own rules.”
Jess teared up. “See? You’re pretty useful yourself.”
Mia thought. “Hard. But good-hard. Like learning to ride a bike and realizing you didn’t fall because someone was holding the seat.”