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“If she says yes.”

Aspen looks personally offended. “Why wouldn’t she say yes?”

A quiet laugh escapes me. “I don’t know.”

“She loves you.”

My chest tightens. “Yeah.”

“And she loves me,” Aspen adds confidently.

“She really does.”

Aspen grins like the outcome is obvious. “So, she’ll say yes.”

I wish it were that simple.

Not because I think Blair doesn’t love me. I know she does. She tells me every day.

Sometimes with words. Sometimes by leaving half-drunk cups of tea all over our fucking house. Sometimes by standing in the kitchen with Aspen while they bake something that uses every bowl we own.

Sometimes by crawling into bed beside me and pressing herself against my chest like there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.

But Blair spent years having her choices taken away from her. I won’t be another person who decides her future for her.

Even with something like this.

Especially with something like this.

“What if she wants to wait?” I ask.

Aspen shrugs like I’m an idiot. “Then you wait.”

I stare at her.

Christ.

Six years old and somehow smarter than me.

“Exactly.”

She reaches for the box. “Can I hold it?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because you lose everything.”

“I do not.”

“You lost your school hat while you were wearing it.”

Aspen frowns. “That was one time.”

“It was last week.”

She folds her arms across her chest. “Can I at least see it again?”