Clare’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Stop it.” She extricated herself from his embrace. “You’re all invited to dinner downstairs at seven o’clock.”

“We’re taking the kids to the pool,” Aidan’s sister Erin said to Jill and Maggie. “Do you want to come along?”

“We’d love to,” Maggie said.

The room emptied as fast as it had filled, and the moment they were alone, Aidan turned to Clare. “Very sneaky,” he said, backing her up to the bed. “Tell me the extra room is for the girls.”

Nodding, she pulled him down with her. “Surprise,” she said with a smile as she reached up to kiss him. “I had to celebrate that you’re finally in my decade.”

“But I won’t be for long.”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in shock. “Oh! I can’t believe you said that!” She pelted him with her fists.

He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes.

Two nights after they got home from Boston, Aidan made dinner for Clare. She came downstairs at his house to find candles on the table. “What’s the occasion?”

“Come have a seat. It’ll be ready soon.”

“Champagne, too? What are we celebrating?”

“Sit down, and I’ll tell you.”

She did as he asked and was startled when he knelt in front of her. He rested his head against her chest for a moment before he looked up at her with his heart in his eyes. “I love you.”

She combed her fingers through his hair. “I love you, too.”

“Before I met you, I had nothing. No love, no laughter, no joy, no hope. Nothing. Now I have you, and I have everything. I love you, I love your girls, and I want us to have a life together. I’ll move to Rhode Island so we can be with Maggie, and we can come up here on weekends. I want to be wherever you are. Will you marry me, Clare?” He held up a large, sparkling diamond ring.

Blinking back tears, Clare looked down at him. “I want to. I want so much to marry you, Aidan.”

“Why do I hear a ‘but’ in there?”

“Because there’s something else I want, too. Something I’m not sure you want.”

“What?”

“I want to have another child.”

He shook his head as if he hadn’t heard her right. “You’ll think I’m taking aim at your age—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “I don’t want to give birth, but I do want to be a mother again.”

“You are a mother.”

Clare sighed as she stared into the candlelight. “You did all this, and I’m ruining it.”

Aidan got up to sit next to her and took her hand. “Tell me what you want.”