Claire
“Let’s go,” Aiken called from my back porch. Smitty was already out there, running circles, tail wagging, zipping around the yard, thrilled to be with his main dude. I looked out my bedroom window and took a deep breath, filling myself with false confidence. I might have been slightly older, but that didn’t mean doubts didn’t fill my head.
They did.
Like a hot-air balloon.
Zippering my suitcase, I took a few deep breaths, inhaling, exhaling, and repeating.
We were off to New York. Aiken had never seen the city, so we were spending a few days sightseeing, doing the tourist thing, before heading to a beach bungalow somewhere on Fire Island. I hadn’t planned any of it. Aiken and his computer skills did all the research, even locating a pet-friendly hotel in the city and a beach rental that allowed dogs.
I hadn’t left Smitty in three years, I wasn’t about to now.
He was my steady.
“Here I am,” I said, lugging my suitcase down the steps and out the back door.
“Richards, that’s what you have me for—the heavy lifting. I thought you would’ve swapped places with me and sent me back up. Now, I see I gotta tell you what to do every step of the way.”
“I’ll have you know, this is my workout for today.”
He snatched the suitcase, easily carried it down the driveway, and tossed it in the back of his truck, secured the cover, opened the door for Smitty and me, and off we went.
“I made a small list of things to see, but you can tell me what’s at the top of your list,” I said when we exited our little town for the highway.
“You, smiling in bed, coffee on the nightstand. You underneath me. You next to me, walking, holding hands.”
“Come on, play along with me. What do you want to do?”
He turned for a quick second, and I caught my reflection in his mirrored aviators. I pulled my hair out of my messy bun and tried to smooth the lines in my face. If I was honest, I felt older for the first time since we’d been together.
“Uh-oh, the wheels are churning. I see them chugging. Chug-a-chug-a-chug.”
I didn’t know how he continued to do that, but he seemed to read my mind.
“Aiken—stop. Come on. Don’t push me.”
“I need to check out the 9/11 memorial and definitely want some New York-style pizza, but I think today we should do Central Park. We can take Smitty, so he’s not cooped up in the car and then the hotel.”
“Really?”
Like that, I felt light again. It was impossible to be serious around Aiken’s zest for life.
“Yeah, really. I’m a thoughtful guy, remember?”
I nodded, my words getting clogged up in a traffic jam in my throat.
He was.
“Sounds perfect. We can grab a pretzel and a hot dog from one of the vendors in the park.”
“Now you’re speaking my language.”
For most of the drive, we listened to music and chatted about scenery, Smitty sprawled out in the back. Aiken’s dad called, and he sent him to voice mail, saying he’d call him back later. His phone rang a second time, and he said, “I got to take this. Do you mind?”
I shook my head and checked the email on my phone.
“Hey, Bruce, what’s up?”
