"As long as that remains the case, I'd rather wake you up then listen to you scream and be helpless about it." That was worse, by far. "And I think your mother would too, if she wasn't so scared of making things worse on accident."

He'd harped on her lack of immediate affection enough; she did try and that was better than some parents, Arlo, specifically.

"I also think she'll leave you alone about Eve now." He didn't like using so many 'I thinks', he'd rather know, but he couldn't know on this one. He didn't know how committed Jessica might be to that end, despite her son's happiness.