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“Are you sure about that?” Caden asks me again.
I sigh and amble toward him, putting my hand on his cheek. “I know you want to protect her forever, but the internet isn’t going anywhere. It’s better to introduce her to it slowly and on our terms rather than let her learn it from the other kids at school.”
“Good point,” he groans. “Other kids. Can’t you just homeschool her?”
I snicker as Pike’s scowl reaches epic proportions. “She’s in school, too, remember?”
“He’s joking, Pike,” I reassure him, winking.
“Is he?” Pike asks, and Caden smiles weakly.
“Yeah, of course.” He leans in to kiss me, snatching one of the fresh-baked cookies off the counter as I complain.
“Those are for Lily’s bake sale!”
“I need all the energy I can get,” Caden counters, taking a chunk out of the treat with a gleam in his eye. The crumbs land on his beard as he backs away like I’m going to attack him. “I have twelve hours of rounds upcoming.”
“That’s your own fault,” Pike calls after him as he heads toward the door, waving at us.
“Leave him alone,” I say, genuinely pleased to see Caden heading out to the hospital. Ever since he returned to emergency medicine, his mood has tempered, and his behavior is so much calmer. The value of human life means inherently more to him now that he’s dealing with it day-to-day again, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
But his leaving reminds me of the time, and I look up at the clock on the wall over the kitchen threshold.
“Dammit, I have to go, too,” I realize, stripping off my apron. “Lily! Are you ready? It’s time for school!”
There’s no answer, of course, our child fully immersed in whatever recent activity has captured her attention now.
“I’ll take her,” Pike and Flint volunteer simultaneously.
“Just get to class. Don’t worry about Lily,” Flint adds. “She won’t be late.”
“Okay, I’ll see you this afternoon?” I tell Pike and Flint.
“Absolutely,” Flint agrees as Pike grins.
I narrow my eyes at the artist. “You, too?”
He chuckles. “I’m almost done with this installation,” he vows, but I’ve heard these words from him before. The admission is bittersweet. Once it’s done, he’ll go on tour, and we’ll lose him for a month at least. But it also means he’s getting back out there again, just as he should. There’s no more hiding Pike Hartley away.
“Go hurry and graduate, Miss Palco,” Flint calls after me in a singsong tone, and the words give me goosebumps.
Miss Palco. That’s what my students will call me in a year. I am finally becoming a teacher.
My life is perfect, as good as it’s ever been.
But as I hurry out of the pale-yellow house and into the garage, Caden’s Porsche already gone, I sit in my BMW for several minutes, thinking.
I’m going to be late for class for the first time since starting my course, but I don’t care. I need the silence, the moment to myself. The house fills with all of us coming and going, and when I’m gone, I’m with Lily and the guys or at school, never just sitting alone with my thoughts.
Today, I need the quiet to breathe… just me and the new life growing inside me.
A rap on the window doesn’t let me sit for long. Pike’s curious face peers back at me, and I blush furiously as I remember Lily needs to go to school, too.
“What are you doing?” he asks worriedly. “Are you okay?”
I flash him a smile. “Just mentally preparing for the day. Where’s Lily?”
“Flint’s taking her to school.” He hesitates. “You looked a little pale in the kitchen, and I followed you out here. Why are you just sitting in the car?”
