Don Juan chewed his lower lip. He didn't know how to answer Dean's question. He could see the conversation playing out different ways depending on what he said, and none of them seemed particularly productive. He could respond with something maudlin and navel-gazing like just thinking about how much you're giving up being with me and Dean would assured him that he was worth all of the sacrifices because that was the sort of thing he always said, and Don Juan would think okay, but I'm not, but he wouldn't be able to say that because the conversation would just go in circles if he tried. He could try to brush it off with a joke about Dean showing him up if he knew more Dutch than Don Juan did by the trial date, but the last thing he wanted was for Hudson to suggest they learn together. He didn't want to get any better at Dutch — it felt almost invasive if Kaatjie did end up coming to live with the Dempseys, in a way Hudson learning it didn't. Presumptuous, that he might have assumed she would want to talk to him. She hadn't responded to his letter, after all.

"It's sweet, that's all," he said, trying to shrug off the sentiment that had settled on him. "It caught me off guard. But it's — you probably wouldn't ever talk to her," he said, hedging now. He didn't want Hudson to get too invested in this idea and then be crushed when it didn't pan out. Dean might make a good father, but Kaatjie wasn't his daughter — she was only barely Don Juan's. "I don't think we're going to win. And even if she did come live at the house, that's — there wouldn't be any reason for her to meet..." He waved his free hand vaguely. "...my friends."

He wouldn't have hesitated to bring Hudson back to meet anyone in his family, at any point... but Kaatjie was different. Kaatjie didn't know Don Juan as a person, and he thought it was probably better for her if it stayed that way. He wouldn't have been keen to introduce her to important people in his life any more than he would have been eager to involve her in his hobbies or talk to her about his interests in literature. She was supposed to stay at arm's length — for her own good.

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