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“Neither am I. I’ve been napping a lot this week.”
“You’re okay, though, right?”
“I’m fine, Max. I swear.”
“Good. Let’s keep you that way, okay?”
“That’s the plan. Talk to you tomorrow?”
“I can’t wait. Sleep well.”
“You, too.”
As he ended the call, he wanted to tell her he was still crazy about her, but that could wait until he saw her.
Two more days.
Max flewfrom Burlington to Atlanta first thing Friday morning. Because he’d had to leave the house so early, Caden and Daisy had spent the night at the barn. Hannah and her family had been there when he dropped Caden off, and Caden was so preoccupied playing with Callie and Colby that he’d barely noticed when Max said he had to go.
He’d kissed him goodbye and told him to be good for Grammy and Gramps.
“I will,” Caden had said. “I always am.”
“Love you.”
“All the way to Pluto?”
“Yep—and don’t say it.”
Caden had given him a mischievous grin, and that’s what Max had brought with him on the trip, holding that grin close to his heart as he ventured into the world without his sidekick. It felt almost unnatural to be going somewhere without him, but he was determined to enjoy the break from his responsibilities and to make the most of his time with Lexi.
He couldn’t wait to see her. It’d been five days since he last saw her, and that felt like forever after reconnecting so completely the weekend before. It was the right thing to go there, to see her, to fully explore the connection with her that had never died.
But being without Caden for five days would be rough. It was the longest they’d ever been apart since his son was born. He hoped Caden would be okay for that long without him and wouldn’t further resent Lexi for keeping his dad away. Jeez, he hadn’t even considered that possibility when he made these plans.
With a two-hour layover at the massive Atlanta airport, Max found his departing gate and then went looking for lunch. Because he was on a mini vacation, he had a beer with his burger and fries and caught up onSportsCenterat the restaurant bar. When was the last time he’d looked at a TV that wasn’t playing a kids’ show or movie? He couldn’t recall.
His whole life was Caden, and even though he knew that wasn’t entirely healthy, it had worked for them. But now that he knew where Lexi was and that she’d never stopped thinking of him or caring about him, everything was different. The life he’d been leading before he saw her again didn’t seem as full and satisfying as it had been only last week.
He’d gotten a taste of what it might be like to have someone of his own to love, and he’d liked it a lot, especially because that someone was her. It was funny how being with her again made it so clear to him that the reason he’d struck out with relationships was because he’d never stopped loving her. She’d lived in his heart all this time while he tried to move on from her, refusing to speak of her or think of her because of how painful it was to not know where she was or if she was okay.
Hearing what she’d been through had been gut-wrenching for him—and heartbreaking. He wished he’d known about it at the time, but in some ways, it was a relief to find out after the fact since he wouldn’t have been able to do much to support her during that ordeal while managing single fatherhood, too. He would’ve worried himself sick over her from afar, so in a way, she’d done him a favor when she’d kept him in the dark.
He left a twenty and a ten on the bar to pay for lunch and returned to his gate, eager to get this last leg of the trip underway. In the gate area, he sat next to a young woman with a baby girl, who immediately wanted Max’s attention.
“She’s so cute. How old is she?”
“Nine months and full of beans,” her mother said. She was blonde with brown eyes and reminded him a little of Cameron. “This is her first airplane trip.”
“How exciting,” Max said, giving the baby a finger to squeeze. “Do you live in Houston?”
“No, my parents do. I used to live here in Atlanta. Not sure where I live now.”
Max didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t help being curious. “Are you okay?”
“Not at all.” She forced a smile as tears filled her eyes. “My husband confessed to having had an affair with a work colleague that’s gone on for almost as long as we’ve been married, so I left him. And now I’m going home to my parents, and I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Holy crap.“I’m sorry that happened to you.”
