“That’s not enough of a confession for you?”
She narrows her eyes, waiting.
“That’s all you’re getting for today. Feel better?”
“Yeah.” She stands and pushes her hands through her hair. “Come on, I’ll make us some food. I skipped lunch.”
“For you to do that, I have to show you how to get the generator running. It’s easy.”
With her hand in mine, I lead her out to the garage and over to where the box is mounted on the wall.
“This is not what I remember from when we were kids.”
“I know. It’s solar.” I open a panel. “I had it installed last month but haven’t needed to use it. You just flip this switch.”
I show her, and her whole face lights up as we hear the house whir to life.
“It’s attached to thewhole house? Not just the fridge and stuff?”
“Whole house,” I confirm. “I’m fancy, remember?”
“Youarefancy.”
We return to the kitchen, and Willow pulls out ingredients for what looks like spaghetti.
“Hey, speaking of Seattle,” I say, leaning on the counter. “We’re going in a couple of days.”
She pauses what she’s doing, and her gaze darts up to mine. “We?”
“Yeah,we. I have to go to wrap things up with the team, give a press conference, all that stuff, and I’m not willing to be away from you for that long.”
“How long will you be gone?” she asks.
“Wewill be gone for about four days.”
“Ry, I have to work.”
I shake my head and step closer to her, pull her against me as I wrap my arms around her waist. “Are you telling me that we can’t figure something out, sweetheart?”
Her hands slide up my chest to my neck, and I want to growl. I fucking love it when she touches me.
“I guess I could see if I can juggle some things. Work longer days before and after, if it’s that important to you.”
“I don’t want to be without you that long.” I press my lips to her forehead.
“Okay—Seattle, here we come.”
“You’re going to Seattle?”
Our heads jerk to the side, to where Aiden’s standing in the doorway, wet from the rain still coming down, his eyes full of hurt.
“We were just talking about it,” Wills says, trying to pull out of my arms, but I hold firm.
We are not a fucking secret.
“Oh, cool. Glad to see you’re okay. I’ll head back out to the bunkhouse.”
He turns to leave, but I call out, “Stop.”
