He looked over and winked, handsome and rugged in his Silver Island hat and shorts. She was wearing the baseball cap he’d given her the second day he’d helped at the restaurant. “I thought I felt your eyes on me. Do you need something, babe?”
Yes, your lips on mine, please.
She shook her head and said, “Just enjoying the view.”
Last night, when he’d thought she was asleep, he’d whispered about how he didn’t want to leave her and how that freaked him out a little. She’d been tempted to let him know she was awake and tell him that she was thrown by the power of their relationship, too. But she’d lain still. She may have hoped she wouldn’t form expectations, but they were blossoming anyway, and hearing his private thoughts had helped tamp down the anxiousness those feelings caused.
But he deserved to have his worries eased, too, so she said, “Actually, I was thinking about how much I’ll miss you when you’re gone. Other than my father, I don’t think I’ve ever missed a man.”
“I’ll miss you, too,” he said, emotions taking root between them like the vegetables they were planting. “We won’t go long between calls.”
Cait looked up from where she was working, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses as she said, “If we’re confessing, can I get in on it? I missed you guys when I was gone, and I never miss anyone. It was weird. Tank realized something was wrong and thought I had found a boyfriend and wanted to come check him out.”
“We thought about you when you were gone, too,” Abby said. “Aiden and I were talking the other day about how it felt weird when you were gone. I had joked about how maybe the stars were starting to align for the first time in our lives, and you were helping it happen.”
“I like that thought,” Cait said.
“I do, too. I guess this means I haven’t totally failed in the new-sister department.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. You and Deirdra are awesome,” Cait reassured her. “I think Deirdra might have started texting me because she wanted to be sure you were okay and Aiden wasn’t a jerk, but we’ve become friends. She’s always so busy. I have no idea how she can live like that. I mean, we all work a lot, but we have downtime, too, and I have a bruised butt to prove it. But even at night she’s working when she texts.”
“Sounds like my normal life,” Aiden said.
“We’re all workaholics,” Abby said. “But there’s this new guy in my life who keeps giving me a reason to slow down and smell the roses.” She never would have taken an entire day just to enjoy being back on the island if not for him. And she was so glad she’d done it.
He blew her a kiss. “I can say the same for you.”
Aiden’s phone rang. He wiped his hands on his shorts and pulled it from his back pocket, glancing at the screen. “It’s Remi. I guess Mason gave her the Mother’s Day gift I sent.” He pushed to his feet, walking out of the fenced area as he answered the FaceTime call.
Remi’s voice exploded from the phone. “Aiden! Thank you! I love my gift so much!”
Aiden had shown Abby a picture of the gift he’d had made for Remi’s first Mother’s Day as a foster parent. It was a framed collage of family photographs from Remi’s childhood, with a picture of Remi, Mason, and the girls in the center. The mat around the collage was made of paper ornaments Remi and her mother had made from the pages of their father’s favorite books. Aiden had gone on to describe how much Remi loved making them, and he’d said that when they’d moved from West Virginia, she’d taken their father’s books and their mother’s crafting supplies. To this day, she continued making ornaments and had even taught the girls to do it.
It was such a thoughtful gift, Abby had fallen harder for the man who was nothing like the regular guy he claimed to be.
She didn’t want to eavesdrop, but their voices were hard to miss. She heard Aiden talking to Patrice and Olive, the love in his voice inescapable.
“Abs, Cait,” Aiden hollered. “Come say hello to my family.”
Cait looked like she was going to beg out of it, so Abby dragged her to her feet.
Cait gave her an imploring look. “I don’t want to impose. You’re his girlfriend. You should go.”
“You’re my family, and he’s my guy. Do it for me?”
“Fine,” Cait said begrudgingly, though her smile told Abby she didn’t really mind.
Aiden introduced Cait to Remi and the girls, and he introduced Olive, a pretty blonde with a sweet face and wavy hair that hung just past her shoulders, to both of them. Since Abby had already told Cait about Remi being the Remi Divine, she kept her fangirling to a minimum. But it was cute to see her gushing. While Patrice chatted about the breakfast they’d made for Remi, Olive kept looking at Abby and Aiden.
“Can you believe I ate four pancakes?” Patrice exclaimed.
“I believe you,” Remi said, kissing Patrice’s head. “You’re my little pancake gobbler.”
Patrice beamed at her. “And I’m Uncle Aiden’s Patty Cake. Are Abby and Cait your girlfriends, Uncle Aiden?”
“He doesn’t have two girlfriends at the same time,” Olive said sharply.
Aiden chuckled and said, “Abby is my girlfriend, and Cait is her sister.”
“Olive is my foster sister,” Patrice chimed in. “I’ve had lots of foster sisters, but I love Olive, and I hope she’ll be my forever sister.”
“Me too, squirt,” Olive said. She and Patrice did some sort of secret handshake, which made Patrice giggle. The girls turned to Remi, and she did the handshake with them, too, followed by a group hug.
“Hey, I want in on that secret handshake and hug,” Aiden said, and the girls lectured him about not being a sister or a mom.
Cait nudged Abby and whispered, “He really loves them, doesn’t he?”
“He does,” she said as the girls giggled.
“They’re lucky,” Cait whispered. “All of them.”
Abby stepped closer to her and said, “I think we’re pretty lucky, too. All of us.”
After chatting with the girls and Remi, and finally meeting Mason, they said goodbye and went back to gardening. They worked until they’d planted everything they’d bought, and when Cait went into town to run an errand, Abby and Aiden decided to check something off his Let Loose list and sacked out in the hammock. The feel of Aiden’s arms around her, the sure and steady beat of his heart against her cheek, and the warmth of the sun lulled Abby to sleep.
When Cait got home, they headed inside and went through their mother’s bedroom. They boxed up her parents’ belongings, most of which would go to Goodwill, and Aiden carried them out to the garage as quickly as they could fill them up. They each chose a few items from their mother’s jewelry box as keepsakes. Abby kept the ring her father used to wear and her mother’s necklace she’d worn the first night Aiden had come over for dinner. Even though Deirdra had been adamant about not wanting anything, Abby saved the necklace Deirdra had made for their mother when Deirdra was nine. It was strange picking through her parents’ things, but it was also cathartic, getting rid of the clutter of bad memories and holding on to the good ones.