Sleeping Over

By Hannah Silvers

When Lucy finally let her daughter have a sleepover, she didn’t refuse when they ordered stuffed crust and double chocolate ice cream. She let them stay up late, forgoing church in the morning to make pancakes.

Katie’s a good girl, Lucy knew. Forget the cost, the inconvenience.

Lucy wouldn’t budge on the sleeping arrangements, of course—boys downstairs on couches, girls upstairs on mattresses. The children didn’t argue.

At her rehearsal dinner, Katie tells the story of her eleventh birthday.

“And thanks, Momma, for my first kiss with this cutie,” Katie says, to laughter, as she smiles down at her bride-to-be.