She’s also staring out at the city as they pass – yes, she’s seen it all a thousand times before and unlike Abbie, it doesn’t bring her quite a sense of excitement. But she’s very much trying to keep herself distracted from having Hannah squeezed onto this small seat with her.

It’s July in Boston, so they’re both in shorts and tank tops and it’s Hannah’s entire bare leg pressed into hers, while Caroline has her arm up around the top of the seat to give them more space. She didn’t quite wrap it around Hannah, but peripherally, it is.

“Your wife and daughter are adorable,” she hears someone say, and her determination to pay attention to the cityscape and not turn and get distracted by Hannah is one hundred percent broken.

She turns so quickly she may have given herself whiplash to see the source – a woman around her mother’s age across the aisle looking at Hannah with a gentle smile.

Instead of correcting her, Hannah just smiles back. “They are.”

Of course she knows that Hannah likely just doesn’t want to correct the woman over a pointless clarification. But the sentiment is still something Caroline knows will echo through her for a long time.

At the very least, she tells herself, Hannah accepts someone referring to her as Caroline’s wife with a smile. The word alone makes Caroline’s heart beat twice as fast, her stomach twisting pleasantly. Bad Caroline.

“Are you on vacation? My husband teases me, but I have a good eye for these things.” She confides in a whisper, gently nudging a man Caroline presumes is her husband, sitting next to her.

Hannah gives her a sweet smile, eyes still bright and twinkling. “We are, actually.”

“Where are you from?” The woman asks, realizing that Caroline is looking at her, too, and addresses them both.

Hannah now glances at her as well, the look in her eyes mischievous and twinkling. Only for a moment, before she turns back to face the woman. “Maine. Just outside of Portland. We’re down for a little weekend trip.”

Caroline’s pretty sure it makes her fall deeper in love in that moment. Being Hannah’s friend in the last few months has been illuminating for her in a handful of ways. But seeing this side of her, this side full of joking and bright impish smiles is everything and it happens more and more frequently as the days go on.

The older woman chats with them a bit, introducing herself and what she’s doing in Boston, but it’s mostly lost on Caroline as her attention half of the time is stolen by Abbie and the other half of it is very much focused on the way Hannah is now relaxed and nestled against her side. As if Caroline’s arm was around her because they are the couple that the older woman thinks they are.