And I wanted him to understand. When we were together, he was rarely with me. The few minutes on the plane before we’d taken off was what I wanted. I didn’t demand his entire day. I knew work was important to him. I just wanted to be important too. “We’re working on it, Aiden. That’s enough for now.”

His expression remained pensive until his gaze dropped to the bundle in my arms. His brows drew together. “Are you going to wear that?” He peered closer. “Is that a blue wig?”

“It’s, um, dress-as-a-book-character night, and Bisa and I have this thing. She’s a children’s librarian, and…” I blew out a breath and looked at the getup I held. “We go as Thing One and Thing Two. Yeah, so, we do the costume with blue tulle and red-and-white-striped leggings. More comfortable than red footie pajamas, and…” I stopped before I started describing how I hated using a public restroom when I had to unzip the red pajama-style costume and strip down just to pee.

The corner of his mouth hooked upward first, then the rest as I was rewarded with a breathtaking grin. “She’s coming to grab you, right? So I can see the both of you together?”

I scowled. “No. I was going to meet her.”

“Then I want a picture.”

“No.”

“Kate.” He crowded into me, and god, did I love when he did that. “I’d really love to see a photo of you two together having fun.”

Sincerity filled his words. He wasn’t doing it to laugh at me. He’d never done that. I might’ve pointed out some of Aiden’s faults on this trip, but he had a lot of good qualities. A lot of reasons why I’d fallen in love with him. “All right. I’ll message her and ask if she can come up.”

“I just need to know one more thing.” He dipped his head down by my ear until his hot breath whispered over my ear. “Are you Thing One or Thing Two?”

CHAPTER 10

Kate

The trailer was quiet tonight, like it was most nights. The only sound was the tinkling of dishes as I loaded the dishwasher and the TV.

The quiet nights at home as an adult unsettled me, without my brothers tearing the walls down with their wrestling and without Mom or Randall chewing them out for whatever stupid prank they played that brought the police to our house.