CHAPTER 11
Eight months ago
Acadia National Park
Ash Riley
“Please, Dads,” Hallie begged. “The rails are up and everything! It’s not like I’m gonna fall down.”
I was on the fence. So was Nate.
I checked the sturdiness of the rail on top of the RV. Dylan wanting to sleep on the roof didn’t worry us as much. He went bouldering with me in the summers, and he had coordination skills. Hallie could still trip over her shadow. Or, as today’s hike had proven, over a pebble.
We’d rented this particular RV this year because of those rails. Dylan had been quick to ask if he could sleep under the stars, and we’d spent a couple of sunsets up here already.
I went over to the ladder and climbed down, and I met Dylan’s gaze.
He shrugged. “I can keep an eye on her.”
Until he fell asleep. Then what?
Nate left the grill and came over to us. “Maybe we give it a try? We don’t know yet if it’s going to be too cold for her. She might climb down before midnight.”
Wewerehaving an awfully chilly summer vacation, and it wasn’t just the fact that we were in fucking Maine.
Hallie beamed. “Yes! We’lltry.”
She might climb down before midnight.
She might also fall down and break her neck.
God. What was it with this family and wanting totry? Had they no damn respect for the risks?
I released a heavy breath and put my hands low on my hips. “All right, but on one condition,” I told Hallie. “You and Dylan sleep head-to-head, not next to each other. I want you both at the center of the roof.” I looked at Dylan. “Inflate the mattresses before you climb up, and bring the mosquito canopy. I can already picture her batting some critter away and falling off the roof.”
Dylan cracked up. “Yessir.”
Mikey came over to me and hugged my hips. “Can I also sleep on the roof?”
That was funny.
I smiled down at him and wove my fingers through his hair. “You get to sleep in the big bunk with me.”
“I’m not sleepy, Daddy!” Lily hollered over by the table.
I chuckled. “I know, princess. I’m talking about later tonight.”
“’Kay.” She returned to guarding the ketchup bottle.
“You don’t want to sleep up there anyway, sweetheart,” Nate told Mikey. “It’s gonna be cold, and there are mosquitoes everywhere.”
Mikey scrunched his nose. “Why do Dylan and Hallie wanna do it?”
We sent the two eldest warning looks, so they didn’t sell the idea to him. Hell, even I wanted to sleep up there, preferably alone with Nate, but life didn’t work that way.
Hallie shrugged. “I’ll probably come down in the middle of the night.”
“I want more space,” Dylan said. “You hog the bed.”
