“Doubt it,” I called back, but I had an idea that she might be right.
When I walked around the front of the house, I found myself stopping once more. There was Aiden, putting Ben in his car seat as he spoke to him. “Are you excited about story time, little buddy?”
Ben nodded, and I melted.
“Aiden?” I asked as I walked up to him and looked at Ben in his seat. “I know that you’re smart and everything, but why do I get the feeling this isn’t your first rodeo with a car seat?”
He laughed. “It’s not. One of the guys on my team had a baby. He didn’t even get to see him until he was almost five months old. His wife had him while we were deployed.”
“That’s so sad,” I said, leaning in and checking Aiden’s work because…well…I’m a mom. It’s what we do. I wasn’t too surprised to see he had him buckled in right.
“Yeah, when we got back, a lot of us spent time with Rick and his wife, Melanie. Their son’s name is Bryce.”
“Why did you spend so much time with him?” I asked, shutting the back door and watching as Aiden stood there, lost in memory.
“He was something good. We’d seen a lot of bad on that deployment, lost one of the guys, so being around Bryce was…a good thing.”
My stomach felt sick knowing it could have been Rick who died, leaving his wife alone with a child who would have never met his father. Or it could have been Aiden.
I chewed on my lip as I thought back to the night in the barn. A part of me had always known why Aiden pushed me away. He never wanted that life for me, and I honestly wasn’t sure I could have lived it. It was hard enough worrying about him as it was; if we had been married, or worse, had kids…
I pushed the thoughts away.
“Bryce brought all of us happiness. Plus, he wasn’t ours, so we got to leave after we had our fill.”
I laughed as I shook my head at him, and then looked down at the ground before back up at Aiden. “Did you lose a lot of friends?”
He shrugged. “One is one too many.”
I nodded.
Aiden cleared his throat. “Right, so I’ll meet you at the bookstore.”
I met his gaze, and for a moment, I wanted to reach up and cup his face in my hands and tell him everything was okay. Something deep inside of me told me that he needed to hear it and that I needed to be the one to tell him.
With a smile on my face, instead, I replied, “Meet you there.”
Aiden
The second little Ben had lifted his arms for me to pick him up, I knew I was in serious trouble. He won my heart with one smile. Then he laughed, and I was a goner for sure.
I loved kids. They kept my mind off of all the shit that was rattling around in there. So when Lacy mentioned story time and a chance to spend more time with Willa—and now Ben—I’d jumped on it. I wasn’t able to read Willa’s reaction in that moment, but she didn’t seem all that pleased about me coming with her and Ben.
I parked two blocks down and over from Main. Christ, story time must be pretty freaking popular. I glanced around to see if I could find where Willa parked, but didn’t see her anywhere, so I started to walk to the bookstore.
After waiting outside for five minutes, I stepped inside the shop, thinking maybe Willa had beaten me in. I glanced around and saw nothing but little kids and parents trailing behind them. When I searched the room again, I found familiar eyes. Not Willa’s, but Greer’s. She did a double take and then stared for a few seconds before turning and saying something to the folks she had been talking to. She maneuvered around all the little people and parents sitting on the floor as she made her way over to me.
I smiled as she threw herself into my arms. “Aiden O’Hara! I can’t believe you’re standing in my bookstore.”
Laughing, I gave her a quick squeeze and then let go of her. She kept her hands on my shoulders and gave me a once-over. “Are you on leave?”
“Not this time; I didn’t reenlist. I’m home for good,” I said.
A wide smile crossed her face. “This is such wonderful news! I can’t believe you stopped by to see me. You picked a crazy day.”
Before I had a chance to correct her, Willa’s voice came from behind me. “There you are, Aiden.”
Greer’s gaze moved over my shoulder. Her smile faltered for just a second, and if I hadn’t been paying attention, I wouldn’t have noticed it.
“Willa?” Greer asked, letting her smile grow bigger as Willa and Ben stepped up next to me.