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His eyes widen and suddenly, dinosaurs lose his interest. “You’re a firefighter? They came to my school and told us anything you plug in can start a fire.”
“That’s basically true, but it usually takes a lot of extra steps before things will cause a fire.”
“See?” Aria says to him with an attitude. “He keeps thinking I’m going to set the condo on fire with the toaster.”
He goes back to the dinosaurs. “That’s because you keep burning toast.”
I fight a snort-laugh, and she smirks. “Okay, smart guy. Time for bed.”
“Aww, Mom!”
“You heard me. Wash your teeth and brush your face.”
My son giggles, and it’s just the best sound in the world. He stands up and says with a practiced voice, “It’s the other way around.”
“That must be how I ended up with toothpaste on my face,” she teases.
He giggles again, then scurries off to the bathroom. I climb onto the sofa next to Aria. “Wow.”
She looks toward where he ran. “He’s a good kid.”
“He’s more than that, Aria. So much more than that.”
She nods. “I have no idea how it must be to be in your shoes right now, Everett. But it’s not always like this. There are hard times and—"
“I’m aware. I might not be old hat at this, but I remember being five. Falling off my bike. Getting into fights. The time I broke my arm jumping off a balcony—"
“You did that when you were five?”
“Six, but who’s counting? Point is, I know I’m out of my depth, but I have a little familiarity with things on the other end of them, and I think that might be useful.”Please let me be useful.
She sits back and thinks. “Honestly, I hadn’t considered that part of it. You have a unique perspective on what it’s like to be a boy that I’ll never have…that could be a good thing for him.”
Now that that’s out of the way… “It’s a little thing to you, I’m sure, but I liked playing with him. Getting an idea of how his mind works. It felt natural, and that’s the last thing I expected.”
“How come?”
“Like I said, I never planned on kids. I’ve never spent much time around them, either. Since Cormac’s kids were born, I’ve been gone most of the time. With Owen…it’s this strange, comforting thing to see myself in him. I can’t explain it.”
She smiles. “You don’t have to. I get it.”
Owen comes out of the bathroom. “Okay, ready.”
“Excuse me,” she says as she stands. “It’s bedtime.”
“Oh, um, I’ll go—
“For him. I’ll be back in a minute.”
He yawns and waves. “Goodnight, Everett.” That tiny, half-asleep voice shreds through my soul.
But I manage to keep my emotions in check. For now. “Goodnight, Owen.”
The pair leave for his room. Only then do I notice their place. Whenever he’s in the room, it’s impossible for me to pay any attention. All my awareness of my surroundings—the thing drilled into you during smokejumper training—goes out the window when I see him. Nothing else matters when he’s around.
Their home is quaint and clean. It smells like chocolate, but that might be the hot cocoa in my hand. A lot of blues and beiges, as if she wants to keep things as serene as possible. Makes me think her job must be very stressful. As much as I’m curious enough to snoop, I know I’m on thin ice at the moment, so I stay on the sofa.
And it’s killing me.
