"How serious?" The words came quickly, a knee jerk reaction. "Snogging closer serious or about to run off and elope serious?" Oh, there were a million steps in between, he knew that, but though neither of those two steps was desirable, he hoped that the reality was closer to the former than the later. Perhaps it was selfish, wanting her to stay his little girl for a bit longer, perhaps it was his own foolish way of trying to compensate her for not being the father he wanted to be when she was younger, but he wasn't ready to give her up, to have her define herself first as Macmillan's...whatever she would be rather than his daughter.