“You know,” Evan paused, looking down and chuckling in embarrassment. “When I was young? My neighbors were a family with three girls, and all three of them always wanted me to play house with them. If I'd known back then...” he chuckled awkwardly and looked at the screen, “what I know now? How this whole thing actually feels? I wouldn't have taken it so lightly.” He chewed his lip.
Temptation was kind of a bitch, true enough. Evan shrugged. “Maybe I'll give them to Silas, then,” he offered. “Silas and Bea. And Ellie. We have enough of them stashed in our room.” They were the most infamous smokers he knew of in the compound, so, it made the most sense.
The way she nodded made his smile grow a little more innocent. “Besides that, he'll have a few playmates, aside from his amazing sister, anyway.” He didn't even say half-sister, because technical family terms didn't matter anymore. “If Mari mentions being outnumbered, we'll have to remind her that she's got you and Kori and Lilah and Georgette.” He blinked and chuckled a little at the mention of all of the boys. “We've got something of a baby boom happening these past few years,” he thought aloud. “It's a good thing, I suppose, but a little surprising.” He shrugged again.
Evan was generally pretty practical. But when it came to a moment like this, a moment that he'd wished for since he'd been in his young twenties, he had a hard time keeping his happiness in check. Leah seemed content, but a little distracted, and his attention snapped back to her when she pulled him out of his stupor, by agreeing that it was, indeed, special. “Must be special to turn me into a bumbling moron.” He recalled having said something like that about her at one point, but that was another matter entirely.
“I did,” he admitted sheepishly. He chuckled and nodded, biting his lip. “It's easy to forget that you've been here before,” he admitted. “I mean, she's right in front of my face all the time, and I love her endlessly, but sometimes, with the way things are, it's easy to forget that things were normal when she came around, you know?” he smirked. “But yes, let's... you remember, right?”