“I think you chose perfectly. Thank you.” He bowed his head to her like he was a knight with a princess, and I fell in love with him all over again.

How easily those words slipped through my mind now that I’d admitted them out loud. I would have thought I’d feel weird or insecure, having said them when Cam hadn’t, but instead the words were incredibly freeing.

“Rose, why don’t you grab your coat so we can get going?” I suggested.

“Okay!” She bounced down the hallway to the guest room, her braid swinging behind her.

“Thank you for being so easy about this,” I said as Cam closed the distance between us.

“It’s no problem,” he promised, tilting my chin up with his thumb.

“I just promised Charity that she could finally get a weekend with her boyfriend, and then Rose’s dad didn’t show.” I dropped that last part to a whisper so Rose wouldn’t hear.

“Willow, it’s no problem,” he repeated, then brushed a kiss across my lips. “We could probably use a chaperone anyway.”

A chaperone was the last thing we needed. What we needed was a week with no phones, no distractions, and a very large bed. Any minute I expected this dream bubble to burst. To wake up and find that we were where we’d been a month ago. Years ago. A decade ago.

And I knew that was exactly why he’d kept his hands PG for the last three weeks. I had to trust this as much as I trusted him.

“I’ve missed you this week,” I admitted, stealing another kiss.

“I’m so sorry. Dad had a rough day on Thursday, and yesterday I got tied up in work.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I can miss you; that’s allowed. It’s not like we’re back in high school, when I could sneak a peek at you between classes every day.”

“Every day?” he asked.

“Every. Day.”

He smiled, and I echoed the expression.

“It’s okay. You can kiss her,” Rose said from the hallway, and I ducked my head, laughing.

“Some chaperone you are,” Cam drawled.

“I helped Aunt Willow make lunch!” She lifted the small day pack we’d filled with a picnic this morning.

“Then, I guess we’d better get going so we can eat it, huh?” he asked, crossing over to her and taking the bag from her hands.

She nodded enthusiastically, and we piled into Cam’s Jeep once she was all zipped up for the breezy spring weather.

Cam took us out of the driveway and then turned onto the road that led to the mine. “I thought you might want to see the progress before we picnic.”

“You thought right,” I confirmed.