I nod.
He smiles in satisfaction. “Sometimes you have to get a hammer and nails to make sure that motherfucker stays shut.”
I hold out my hand to him. He takes it instantly, his fingers warm and steady around mine.
“Let’s go,” he says. There is no hesitation in his voice, just strength.
Together, we walk through the front doors—for what we’ll only realize later is the very last time.
The glass panes catch our reflection as we pass: two figures, hand in hand, moving forward. We don’t look back. We don’t need to.
CHAPTER 34
Aiden
Itake the long way to Katya’s place, so that I can clear my head.
But let’s be honest—there’s no clearinganythingwhen it comes to Mia. She’s in my lungs, under my skin, etched into the muscle memory of my life.
Every turn I take somehow leads me to her.
It’s been four weeks since I was fired as CEO of Winter Financial.
It feels like a lifetime.
Everything has slowed down, and it’s for the better.
I can’t, for the life of me, understand how I ever worked sixty, seventy hours a week. Now I’m getting a taste of what it means to actually live without an alarm clock.
It’s a forced vacation, yes, but it’s a break nevertheless, and I’m sleeping eight plus hours a night—if I can swing it at Katya’s place—in my wife’s bed. I wish we could sleep atourplace inourbed, instead.
I want her home.
Back in our bed, our kitchen, our mornings and nights.
We haven’t had anofficialdate since number six, the night she stayed over. I’ve been saving the last two for special occasions, hoping they’ll set the tone for what comes next—that dating each other won’t just be something we count anymore, but something we do all the time, the way we already are.
I’m going to ask her to move back in, I decide.
I’m still in the process of knocking on Katya’s front door when Mia opens it, making it nearly impossible to remember my carefully planned words.
She’s in a soft linen dress, her hair up in a loose knot, the faint scent of Gucci Flora emanating from her.
“Hey.” She lifts her face for a kiss, like it’s the most natural thing to do.
I press my lips against hers, and put my hands on her shoulders. “Mia, would you?—"
“No,” she says before I even get the rest out, lips twitching. “I’m not moving back in.”
I narrow my eyes. “You didn’t let me finish.”
“I know what you were going to say. You have the ‘come home, baby’look in your eyes.”
Busted.
I laugh despite myself.
She walks me into the kitchen, her hand wrapped around the crook of my arm. “I like how we are right now. I like the anticipation. The choosing. I like inviting you into my space…and being invited into yours.”
