She could buy her own house and be moved in a day. We had the money. But then she’d be alone, and wasn’t that what she’d just told me was part of the problem between us?

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

Shadows darted past the window. The kids were watching us. The adults were probably getting updates from them. The screen door banged open and Matt’s daughter, Violet, ran out. She sprinted past Kate and jumped into my arms. I didn’t see her often, but whenever I was around, she was my shadow, firing off a million questions.

“Uncle Aiden, guess what?” she asked like she hadn’t intruded on the most important conversation of my life.

“What?”

“Chicken butt.” She chortled, her seven-year-old little face lighting up.

A chuckle I hadn’t thought was in me escaped. I set her down. How had she grown twice as much as the last time I’d seen her? “I used to get my brothers with that all the time.”

“Uncle Jason taught me.” Her proud smile displayed two top teeth growing in. “Come inside. It’s time to eat.”

I wished I could take her hand and follow her in. But I’d only make a large family gathering awkward. Kate’s family was here to support her, not me. “I can’t stay, kiddo. Run on in.”

She grinned and skipped inside.

When my gaze returned to Kate, my chest grew tight. Sadness filled her eyes. I was the cause.

I couldn’t quit trying to make things right between us. “Can you give me some time? I don’t want to rush this.” I took a step closer. “It’s too important to me.”

You’re too important to me. I had feared losing her, of being the villain in her fairy tale. My silence had done exactly that. I didn’t know how to rectify that. Yet I had come here, knowing I had to try.

She inspected me like a bloodhound on the scent for a lie. Would she see the sincerity in my gaze? I didn’t know what else to say. I fought for words, but they weren’t there. All those years of not talking, of stuffing my emotions down, had left the well dry. Practice made perfect and I’d benched those skills long ago.

“Yeah, fine.”

Relief almost made me sag. I’d take what I could get. “Okay.” I had a chance, and that was all I was going to get today. “Bye, then.”

She gave me a small smile. I turned toward the gate on the side of the house to get to my pickup parked on the street. But before I reached it, the screen door opened again. My mother-in-law came out with a plastic container. She held it out over the porch railing. “I made more than enough.”