Page 105 of Happily Ever After

Smiling, she nodded. “Same here, but I’m sure you needed it more than I did.”

They sat side by side in the shade of the umbrella. The smell of salt hung in the air, and for a few long minutes, they did nothing but listen to the steady rush of the surf and watch Nolan glide across the water.

“I wanted to thank you,” Ollie said after a bit.

Maude turned to him. “For what?”

“For having Nolan over last night,” he said. “Pizza. Nightforge. The whole thing.”

She shrugged. “He’s a good kid. Believe it or not, I had fun.”

“He did, too,” Ollie said with a certain look. “He hasn’t stopped talking about you.”

Maude raised an eyebrow. “That sounds alarming.”

Ollie laughed. “In a good way. He said you didn’t treat him like a kid. Or act like you were being nice to him because of me. You were real with him and he got that.”

“Wasn’t hard. He’s interesting, and I do genuinely want to get to know him,” Maude said simply.

Ollie looked at her for a long moment, something thoughtful settling into his expression, but he didn’t say anything.

They fell quiet again, watching Nolan skim across the shallow water with mixed success. Milo lifted his head when Nolan wiped out, then settled back down when the boy came up laughing.

“Man, this is nice,” Ollie said quietly.

“Yeah, it is,” Maude agreed. She’d learned not to take moments like this for granted. Life had taught her better.

After another stretch of silence, Ollie shifted, clearly bracing himself. “You know, I’ve been thinking…”

Maude turned fully toward him. “About what?”

Ollie looked at her. Really looked at her. “You’d make a great stepmom,” he said.

The words drifted down onto her slowly, like a fragile little bird coming to light on her shoulder. Like if she said or did the wrong thing, the words would disappear. As a teenager, she’d fantasized about this moment. As an adult, she’d long believed her chance at a moment like this had passed her by.

Now it was actually happening. Her world tilted just enough to remind her that some moments arrived whether you believed they could or not.

Then she blinked and pulled herself back to reality. Was there any chance he was making a joke? He hadn’t laughed, so she didn’t either. She also didn’t shrug his statement away or make a joke to give herself an exit, just in case.

Instead, she took a deep breath as every part of her perched on the edge of that cliff that hadn’t been there just a second ago and tried to figure out a response. “That’s not a casual thing to say.”

“I know,” Ollie said. “I didn’t mean it casually.”

She searched his face, the familiar lines, the earnestness that had been there since they were teenagers sitting in the back row of chemistry class, passing notes and planning to meet up later. She needed to be sure they were on the same page.

“Are you asking what I think you’re asking?” she said.

Ollie nodded. “Yes. Is that okay?”

Maude swallowed, emotion rising up within her so forcefully she thought she might cry. She’d loved him once when she was young. Was that love really so different from what she felt for him now? This was just as real. And maybe more so because what they had now had been earned.

She exhaled slowly. “It’s definitely okay. But we should talk about it.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Ollie replied. “I want to talk about it.”

He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees, gaze still aimed at her. “To be clear, I’m not asking for anything immediate. I don’t think we should do anything immediately, and I’m not asking you to step into that role. Not sure how Nolan would feel about it anyway. He likes you, that much is clear. But he’s still in a tricky place.”

She nodded. “I get that.”