“Maybe because sometimes being an adult isn’t as great as you think it’ll be when you’re thirteen.”

“I just wish they’d tell me. I can take it. I’m not your average thirteen-year-old, you know. I had to grow up a lot when my mom was sick. They shouldn’t treat me like a baby.”

“You’re absolutely right, but can I tell you something?”

She nodded and worked a greasy rag over the engine part with determination he admired.

“Would you believe me if I told you this thing with Kate is really and truly something you don’t want to know?”

Maggie thought that over for a minute. “So it’s kind of gross, then?”

“Way gross.”

“But she’s not hurt or sick or anything like that, is she?”

“No,” he said. “I promise.”

She worked in silence for several minutes before she turned those potent blue eyes on him again. “Could I ask you something else?”

“Shoot.”

“Are you going to marry my mom?”

He hadn’t seen that one coming. “I don’t know yet.” Leaning against the workbench, he studied her. “Adult to adult, though, let me ask you this—do you think she’d marry me?”

Maggie chuckled. “Duh. Yeah.”

“You think so?”

“If she doesn’t, maybe I will,” Maggie said with a big grin.

Aidan roared with laughter. “I should be so lucky.”

Clare surprised Aidan with a trip to Boston for his fortieth birthday the following weekend. When they checked in at the hotel, he was annoyed to discover she’d reserved adjoining rooms.

“What the hell?” he fumed. “You’re not sleeping over here. It’s my birthday. I should get to sleep with who I want to.”

“Relax, honey,” she said, patting his face as she unpacked in her room.

He was still ranting about the separate rooms when someone knocked on the door of his room.

“You’d better get that,” Clare said.

“You’re sleeping with me, and that’s the end of it.”

“Get the door.”

He swung open the door and was startled to see Jill, Maggie, and his entire family—minus Brandon, who was still in rehab.

“Surprise!” they said in unison.

Stunned, Aidan stared at them. “What’re you guys doing here?”

Colleen O’Malley kissed her son’s cheek and pushed past him into the room. “Happy birthday, love. But don’t be telling people you’re forty. That makes me sound so old.”

Aidan fielded hugs from the girls and the rest of his family before he turned back to Clare as his nieces and nephews jumped on the king-size bed. “Been keeping some secrets?”

“Maybe,” she said with the coy grin he adored.

“She rented out the whole floor and invited us all to come,” Dennis told his son. “Mighty nice of her, if you ask me.”

“Yes.” Aidan put an arm around her and kissed her in front of everyone. “Mighty nice.”