The name dumped a shot of ice water into his veins.“Aubrey?”
“Yep.”
“Why the hell is Aubrey texting you?”
Paige turned. He didn’t like the look on her face—much too sly. “Because. I texted her first.”
His fingers tightened around the wheel. “About?”
“Here. Read it.” She offered him the phone.
He glowered. “I’m driving.”
“Fine. I’ll read it to you. But at least look at the picture, first.” Paige flashed the screen, which showed her at school, flexing beside a line of math trophies longer than his arm. “I sent this to her and wrote, ‘Sorry, but the queen has been dethroned. Actually, on second thought, I’m not sorry at all.’”
He snorted. “What’d she say back?”
Paige read off the message. “‘Congratulations. I knew you could do it, and I can’t think of a more worthy successor.’ Then a little heart emoji.”
Raw emotion punched him in the chest. “She likes you.”
“Yeah. I like her, too.”
When he said nothing, Paige sniffed. “Like, a lot. You know that, right?”
He did. He wished he didn’t.
He pointed at a sign rising in the distance. “Hey, look. A Waffle House. We haven’t been to one of those in ages. What do you say we stop in and have pancakes for lunch?”
“Pancakes?” Paige said flatly. “I want to talk about Aubrey, and you try to distract me with pancakes?”
“Yeah. Is it working?”
“Ugh,” she said. “You’re impossible.”
Yeah. Didn’t he know it.
An hour after lunch, when they finally reached Chicago, they parked downtown, then spent an hour browsing a bookstore that made Nick feel like a kid in a candy factory. Afterward, they bought hot apple ciders from a streetside vendor and wandered down the Magnificent Mile, oohing and aahing at the cascade of lights while the day tilted toward dusk.
The mug warmed his palms through his gloves. He sipped, rolling the sweetness on his tongue and telling himself life wasn’t so bad. At least until Paige pulled him onto a bench, set her cider aside, and fixed him with a stare about twenty years too grown-up for his liking.
“So,” she said. “Wearegoing to talk this out, before the day ends.”
He tensed and gulped the cider. It turned rancid on the way down. “Okay. I guess it’s been coming for a while.”
“Do you have anything you want to say? Up front?”
His throat thickened. “Er, no. Maybe. Just that... no matter what, I love you. I love you so much that no one’s invented a word for it yet. Whether you’re my biological daughter or not, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. You’re still the best and most important thing in my life, and that’s never going to change.”
Paige’s breath whooshed out of her. “Oh. Well, I knowthat. That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s... not?”
“Wait.” She studied him with no small amount of alarm. “Isthatwhat’s had you all grouchy and broody for the past month?”
Nick frowned. “I don’t brood. Why is everyone always saying that?”
“Come on.” Her vivid blue eyes turned thoughtful. “I just... I thought you knew I figured out who my dad is weeks ago.”
