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I blink back at Aiden, spoon halfway to my mouth, having not heard any of the last few seconds of their conversation. “Sorry, what?”
“I asked Sophie what she wanted to do for her birthday,” he tells me. “It’s on Thursday.”
Sophie pushes up from her barstool. “I want to go to Disneyland!”
“Oh wow,” I say with surprise. “Disneyland?”
“Pretty lofty goals with my schedule,” Aiden chimes in bemusedly.
I laugh. “Yeah, how would you swing that?”
“Comeon,”Sophie whines. “Please?”
“It might be hard to do with how busy the restaurant has been,” Aiden says woefully. “Maybe in a month or so?”
Sophie’s face falls, her face turning to her cereal bowl as she pushes her spoon through the milk dejectedly. “Oh.”
“Sophie,” Aiden sighs. “You know I would love to—”
“Mom was supposed to take me,” she interrupts quietly. “For my birthday last year.”
I meet Aiden’s eyes, seeing the guilt there as he gives me a helpless look. I shrug, not knowing what to say, nodding toward Sophie in what I hope is an encouraging gesture. Aiden heaves out a sigh before running his fingers through his hair, reaching to pat Sophie’s head.
“I guess we can... make it work.”
Sophie brightens immediately. “Really?”
“I think I can manage a day off,” he tells her. “Anaheim is an hour’s drive... We could spend a day at the park and then come back the next day before work... I’ll figure it out.” He shoots her a stern look. “But you’ll have to ask your teacher if they can send home your schoolwork for the days you’ll miss.”
“I can run in and talk to them when I take her to school tomorrow,” I offer.
Aiden flashes me a grateful smile that makes my stomach flip.Curses.“That would be great.”
“And Cassie can come, too, right?” Sophie asks expectantly.
Aiden and I both look at each other, Aiden looking unsure. “I don’t know if Cassie wants to do that...?”
“She wants to come,” Sophie asserts, looking at me. “Don’t you?”
“I... I would hate to intrude on your family time.”
Sophie pouts. “It won’t be as fun without you.”
“I...” I glance at Aiden, looking for help. “I don’t know if—”
“You’re welcome to come,” Aiden assures me. “If you want to.” He gives me a shy sort of smile. “It wouldn’t be as fun without you.”
“Oh.” I can tell by the look on Sophie’s face there is no way to turn this down. “Well... if you’re sure that you want me to.”
“Maybe we could sneak away Wednesday morning?” Aiden pulls out his phone to check something. “It’s a day early, but midweek is usually our slowest time. Probably be better. Would that work? Do you have any plans?”
“Sounds perfect,” I say tightly, calculating cost in my head. “If you’ll tell me how much the tickets are—”
“Oh, no,” Aiden says with a shake of his head. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of it. I can make reservations tonight on my break.”
“I couldn’t let you—”
“I want to,” he says firmly. “Don’t worry about it.”
