“No, it’s an apartment,” he says. “He keeps it for his family when they come visit.”

“Really,” she says, smiling at him. “Did you work out?”

“I did,” he says. “Feel, I pumped iron.” He puts his arm in a curl. “And he made me a protein shake.”

“Without protein,” I say. “It was basically a fruit smoothie.”

“Then we went to the grocery store,” Dylan says. “And he bought you all the milk.” I put my head back and groan.

“Not all the milk,” I say and then look at her. “I just didn’t know which you liked, so I bought you a couple of choices,” I say, and Dylan laughs.

“It fills the whole door,” he says, getting down and going over to open it. Her mouth drops open.

“What?” I shrug. “It’s just a little something.” Then I look at Dylan. “Remember what I said. You buy little things to make her happy and to let her know you think about her all the time.”

“Yeah, and then we bought flowers,” Dylan says. “Mine are bigger.”

“They are both beautiful,” Caroline says. “I’ve never gotten flowers.” She leans over and smells the roses.

“What do you mean?” I ask. She got married; she had a baby.

“I mean, no one has ever bought me flowers,” she says as if it’s fine when it’s not. I make a note to buy her flowers every fucking week.

I finish making the pasta, and we eat inside at the counter in the kitchen side by side. I even make garlic bread, which burns a touch but still tastes good. When she gets up to clean, I tell her to sit down.

“You know the rules,” she says, and I look at her.

“You worked all day. I got the dishes. Why don’t you and Dylan go and choose a movie?” I say, and she doesn’t get a chance to answer because Dylan pulls her down to the bedroom.

I have most everything cleaned and put away the leftovers when she comes back into the kitchen. “Are you almost done?”

“Yes,” I say.

“You did a lot today,” she says, and I smile. “Dylan told me you said lots of bad words also when you were hanging the fort.” She rolls her lips.

“I did.” I laugh. “There were a couple of colorful words, but I told him that you aren’t allowed to say them until you’re forty.”

“You aren’t even forty.” She laughs, and the sound fills the room.

“You’re beautiful when you laugh,” I say, and she blushes. “You should do it more.”

“Something says that with you around, I’ll be doing a lot of smiling,” she flirts with me.

“Is that so?” I grab her hips and pull her to me, and she laughs.

“I found the movie,” Dylan says, and I look at her.