His jaw moves side to side, and he winces. “I kind of…”
“What?”
“Agreed to help coach the hockey team at Lake Spark Academy.”
My body halts as I let that sentence melt into my brain. It’s like a ding in my head, and my laugh is beyond bursting, it’s a volcano. My laugh is so powerful that it causes Nash to be kind of annoyed. “Really? Like,reallyreally?” I flop to my back, feeling tears forming because my stomach is hurting from my laughter.
“Yeah, really.” He moves to his side and looks down at me. “I can do it,” he protests.
“Sure you can.” I pat his arm because he’s adorable.
“Calm it down, will ya?”
I swallow my last chuckle. “You’re right. My apologies. I do think you will be good at it. Just the full circle of life is hitting us in one big wave. Except this one? My hockey guy returns to the birthplace of his wildness to try and tame teenagers. This is going to be… a little epic.”
“Ha, ha.” He tickles me and now my face hurts from smiling.
But then the room calms, and it’s a heavy silence.
“Uh, Summer…” He swipes his thumb across his morning stubble.
A ting hits me, but I stay poised. “Bo.”
He nods once.
I reach up to comb my fingers through his hair. “You’ll be as good a father to him… but we’ll always remind him that you’re his uncle.”
Fondness floods his face. He doesn’t need to say any words, we’re both on the same line when it comes to that. Deception has no part when you’re living in honesty and memory.
It takes a moment for us to snap out of our serious moment, but I know just how. My finger lands on Nash’s mouth to shush him. “No marriage talk now, mister.”
Because he’ll bring it up again.
He bites my finger playfully. “Fine.”
I hum that I’m in a peaceful state. Nothing is heavy around my heart anymore.
As flawless as waking up like this is, we also have to hustle our way out of bed and get a move on. I begin to wiggle, and Nash takes it as our sign.
“How could we forget that we have a little guy to pick up?” he says as we both leave the warm sheets.
“We didn’t forget. We just chose to discuss important matters… and perhaps, steal a few extra minutes of sleep.” I ramble that sentence out because it’s completely true.
Nash is already walking to the bathroom with a grin.
My eyes wander the room, and a shiver hits me that causes me to feel cold then instantly warm, and my lips quirk from that, and I step comfortably forward in the direction of the bathroom, to a door.
Doors open.
“Thank you again.I know it was only supposed to be a few hours, and then, well, that plan changed and?—”
Harlow calms me by sputtering a laugh, with her hand on her belly, as we sit in the lobby of the Dizzy Duck Inn. “Oh, honey, I never thought you would be gone for only a few hours.” She glances down to Bo in his stroller. “Mommy was being silly, wasn’t she.” Her baby voice doesn’t need any improvement; she’s going to nail the mom thing. “Then when Holden and Lexi texted about the fireworks on Main Street between your mommy and uncle, then you and I just got cozy for the night, didn’t we?”
My son giggles and grabs his feet in the air. He doesn’t seem to have missed me.
“I guess it was obvious.”
“Well, I mean, all of us are already aware, it’s just you two kind of kept it under the radar, so we were never sure how to act. Are you openly together so we can all calm down?”
