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“I understand. But promise you’ll try it one day.”
He cupped her cheek again and stared at her for a beat, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“I will. I’m sorry I ambushed you like this. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
She felt his heart close off in that moment, and she knew he’d shut the door on them for good.
“Take care, Aiden. You deserve to be happy.”
“You, too, Dakota.”
Dakota. She wasn’t sure he’d ever called her that before.
She escaped into her office and buried her face in a towel to muffle the sobs.
So much for avoiding heartache.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Aiden
“Dad, come on—you promised you wouldn’t treat me like a baby!”
He studied the belly dancer Halloween costume Kailey was proposing he buy for her.
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.”
“Why not?”
He gestured to the bodice that would reveal entirely too much skin of his almost sixteen-year-old daughter. “That’s why not. I was a teenage boy once, Kay Cat. That would make their heads explode.”
“Boys are different these days, Dad.”
He snorted. “Bull. Shit.”
Gesturing to the princess costume next to it, he said, “What’s wrong with this?”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the aisle labeled “Toddlers” and found the same exact costume, only smaller, and gestured to it with both hands.
“That’swhy not.”
Aiden heaved out a sigh. He was not prepared for this shit. “Fine, no princess costume, but there has to be a compromise. Something that isn’t going to give your cardiologist father a heart attack. I’d never live it down.”
Kailey rolled her eyes, “Oh, Dad.”
They started walking toward the end of the aisle when a little boy came around the corner and looked past them, crying out, “They have them here, Nana!”
A woman came from the next aisle over and almost ran straight into Aiden’s chest when she rounded the corner.
“Oh, excuse me.”
The realization of who each other was hit them at the same time but took Kailey about three seconds longer.
“Dakota!”
Dakota drew her wide-eyed gaze away from Aiden’s and looked at his oldest with a friendly smile.
“Hi, Kailey.”
