He read his newest opening sentence. Not great. Not terrible. He had to move on. He could always tweak it later. He made a list of people to thank—it was pretty short. Besides his dad and Ross and God in heaven, who else was he going to thank? What he’d written so far was as boring as mud and would take ten seconds to deliver. He couldn’t give a ten-second speech. But how was he going to fill a full minute without a long list of names?

He googled thank-you speeches and spent a few minutes reading other people’s work. Some were too specific, others general and boring. Maybe all thank-you speeches were dull. Maybe his expectations were too high. He reread what he’d written. The only good thing about it was it was too short to put the audience to sleep.

He jumped out of planes for a living—surely he could do better.

“That was a pretty heavy sigh.” Sophie sank onto the sofa and pulled a wad of yarn from a bag.

Glad for the diversion, Aiden set down his phone. “You still crochet.”

She arched a brow. “You still don’t know the difference between crocheting and knitting.”

“Guilty. What are you working on?”

“A winter hat for Granny. What are you working on?”

He scowled at his phone. “A speech.”

“I hate to tell you this, but you already delivered your best-man toast. The good news is, you nailed it.”

“That was easy. All I had to do was dredge up a few funny memories—Grant and I have plenty of those—then wish the couple well.”

“As opposed to this speech . . . ?”

He read the lines to himself and winced. “It’s for an award. I probably won’t win, but I need something in my back pocket just in case. It’ll be in front of industry professionals—people who wear suits and have a lot of money. I wouldn’t care so much for me, but I don’t want to embarrass Ross.”

Her needles clacked together. “What kind of award?”

“It’s nothing, just a project I worked on, on the side. Little doodad to make jumping safer.”

“You invented something?”

He shifted. “I guess. Ross entered it for an ESTA—Extreme Sports Technology Award—and here I am.”

“Aiden . . .” Sophie’s mouth widened in a smile. “That’s wonderful. You invented something! You always were an out-of-the-box thinker.”

Pleasure bloomed inside at her words. “It’s really not a big deal.”

“Sounds like a big deal to me. You’re up for an industry award! Read me what you’ve got so far.”

He made a face but did as she said. It sounded just as boring out loud as it had in his head. When he was finished he made himself meet her gaze. “See? Lame.”

She laughed. “You have the bones down.”