We laugh together, staring out at the trees as our breathing returns to normal.
I murmur, "Oh – your bedroom passes the test, by the way."
"Good. We can rearrange-slash-redecorate anything you want, of course."
"We'll see. Or, you know… I could just park the RV in your living room and be done with it. There's almost enough space, I think."
Kai rolls me onto my side, propping himself up on an elbow. "Leah, I really do love you. I really do want you to move in with me. And I want to travel as much as humanly possible while still keeping us both grounded. You’re seriously on board with all of this, even though it sounds like it’s a huge shift in your life plan?"
"Yeah. I really am." I smile. "And if I ever have any doubts, just jump me like that again. That should do the trick."
He squeezes my ass firmly. "Oh baby, I'm going to be jumping you constantly. You have no idea?—"
His mouth opens, then closes again as he blinks sharply. Spinning, he digs frantically in his pants on the floor for his phone, then dictates a message: "No more using the spare key without knocking first. There is now a beautiful woman living in my house. I repeat: there is now a beautiful woman living in my house."
His gorgeous eyes shine as he grins. "Just sent that to my brothers. You know… Just in case."
He's already incorporating me into his family. Their habits. That feels healthy.
Kai flops back beside me, grinning. "Let's take a quick road trip tomorrow. You can drive whichever of my vehicles you like. Any town nearby, and we'll have dinner. I want to start showing you around my mountain."
That’s so sweet it takes me a second to find my breath. "Okay, sure."
"You'll see. It's not one small town. It's lots of them. Always something new to explore. And we're only about two hours from Charlotte when we want to fly somewhere."
Kai kisses my fingertips, then brushes his nose against mine. "And baby, I really am going to take youeverywhere.”
EPILOGUE
KAI
* Eight Years Later *
It’s my turn to let Leah eat while her food is still hot, and I help Theo by cutting his meal into toddler-size bites.
He gazes around the room at the brightly painted murals, then grins up at me. "Daddy, are we in Greek now?"
"No, buddy. We're in Toronto, Canada. But this neighborhood is full of people that came over from Greece. That’s the country. The food and the people and the language are called Greek."
He takes a small bite of chicken souvlaki, now safely removed from the skewer, and his eyes light up.
"How do you like the food?"
"Ithink it's amazing," Leah says, her smile and nod encouraging Theo to speak up. He grins from ear to ear.
"This chicken slow Vicky is way better than the nuggets in…” His nose crinkles. "What was the place with the red tablecloths?"
"That was Rome, buddy."
Trust our son to be in Rome and have a hankering for chicken nuggets. Though to be fair, he did try a lot of the pasta dishes, cheeses, and cured meats. And pizza, of course.
"This chicken is called souvlaki. Try saying it:soo-vlah-key.”
Theo carefully repeats that twice, and a waiter walking by gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up.
We’ve learned that servers around the world are very forgiving of a child’s table manners as long as you go during non-busy hours and teach them how to say please and thank you in the local language. We’ve also learned that Toronto is a great place to try new foods, since it has Greektown, Chinatown, Little Italy, Little India, and Portugal Village. Plus a funky neighborhood called Kensington Market, which Theo refers to as “the fruit place” thanks to all the greengrocers there.
We still travel a lot, but not every city is easy with a five-year-old. Leah still travels with me as often as possible – sometimes with Theo, or sometimes we leave him with Mom for a few days.
