Page 34 of The Wedding Favor

Not even Aidan, a little voice in my head said.

I looked away first and forced myself to take notice of something, anything else. Like the wall of family photos. Most of them were of Hallie or the two of them together. More recent photos of him with his two brothers and Ali.

But the last showed all the Ramos siblings together when they were kids. My eyes went to the teenaged boy with shaggy hair, a wide smile, and a touch of sadness mixed with the sparkle of mischief in his eyes. No tattoos visible but I’d bet the second that kid turned eighteen, he was banging on the door of a tattoo parlor.

Obviously, whatever had happened in the years between nineteen and now had grown the boy into a man. It couldn’t have been easy leaving home as a kid and being totally alone. But somehow, he’d held on to parts of himself—that sparkle in his eye, still mischievous, still a little sad, the too long hair, that smile.

“You missed a lot of years,” I said quietly. “Does that bother you?”

He was silent for so long, I was sure I had offended him. “It does and it doesn’t. I wish I’d done things differently. I missed a lot of things. I missed my mom.” He laughs quietly. “I even missed my dad, and I didn’t think that was possible back then.”

“Ouch.” I sat on the couch. “At least you had a dad to miss.”

Abe sat on the other end of the couch. “Ah, I see you too are part of the Daddy Issues Society.”

I smiled slowly. “Card-carrying member.”

“I haven’t seen you at the meetings.”

“I’ve been busy making poor life choices. Maybe next month.”

His eyes met mine, amusement and something else passing between us. Understanding, maybe? It was nice.

“Let’s go over the schedule,” Abe said, breaking the trance.

He spent thirty minutes explaining what Hallie could watch on television and when she could play with technology, where all the “dangerous chemicals” were in the house, and appropriate afternoon snacks.

After what felt like hours of instructions, I staged a coup and slumped back into the couch. “I change my mind. I quit.”

He frowned, two tick marks appearing between his eyes. “You can’t quit.”

“Yes, I can. I quit. See? I just did. I thought this job was about keeping Hallie alive. Not being a prison warden.”

Abe’s eyes flashed with a real panic. “Is it too much? It’s too much, isn’t it? Don’t quit.”

“You spent twenty minutes explaining hand hygiene. I feel pretty confident I have handwashing down.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I guess I’m a little overprotective.”

“Look, Abe. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a lot of experience with kids, but Hallie and I will be fine. I mean, what trouble could we possibly get into?”

Abe turned to look at me, apprehension creeping into his expression. “Yeah, that’s kind of what I’m afraid to find out.”

TWELVE

“We regret nothing. We make our choices, and we accept the consequences—good or bad.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

The first couple of days with Hallie went smoothly. We worked out an easy routine. The Sit-n-Eat closed at two, so, that Wednesday and Thursday, I stayed an extra half hour to help with cleaning up before driving over to the Lutheran church where Hallie was enrolled in a day camp. She got out at three and we’d head to the house to have a snack and hang out until Abe got home around six.

Hallie was fun. She chatted endlessly. I learned all about her life back in Denver, how much she really wanted a puppy, how superior the color purple was, how much she loved peaches but hated pears, her dad’s (sad lack of) girlfriends, and so on. She was a walking Wikipedia page.

“See? I kept her alive the whole time,” I said to Abe on the first day. I think he was impressed.

This arrangement had an added bonus. We’d have time each day to play “Get to know each other so we can look like we’re really dating and not just faking it for Aidan’s wedding.” Fun game. Highly recommend.