Aidan stood outside the café, breathing like he had just run a marathon, and feeling his heart shatter.

“Daddy, can we go back and see Kenzie?” Walt asked. “Can we get hot chocolate?”

“No,” Aidan said, pulling himself together for his son. “Let’s go make a snack at home.”

Walt began to pout, but came along willingly enough. As they headed to the crosswalk, the last few moments replayed in Aidan’s head.

He and Walt had enjoyed a really fun day exploring the community college campus. They had visited the little fishpond, eaten their packed lunch at the rose garden, and then chased each other across the fields, which were still covered in a shallow layer of crunchy snow that was so satisfying to break.

Aidan hoped that wearing the boy out would have him drained enough to sit quietly and watch The Nutcracker with Kenzie this afternoon. He was planning to get them a quick hot chocolate to share on the way over. Kenzie had said she’d meet him out front.

Stepping into Jolly Beans brought with it the delicious scent of cinnamon, and the sight of Kenzie’s long cornsilk hair. Aidan had moved toward her without thinking, drawn like a moon to orbit his golden sun.

It wasn’t until he was close enough to hear what they were saying that he even glanced at who she was with.

The man in the leather jacket with the sharp jawline was strangely familiar. Aidan searched his memory, surely he would remember someone like that if he had ever met him before.

I couldn’t ask for a better partner, the man said then. And in that moment, Aidan knew exactly who he was looking at. This was the man in the photo, the one who had been there for Kenzie in her moment of need, carrying her offstage weeping, her body curled into his chest.

The rest of what they said washed over Aidan like a tidal wave. The man wanted Kenzie to go away with him. They would live alone together far away…

“Aidan,” Kenzie called to him, her voice bell-clear and frantic, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Every instinct told him to run, but Walt was tugging his hand, and he was standing in the middle of the sidewalk in his own hometown. People he knew wandered among the shops, and the rumble of the train pulling into the station meant more witnesses to his misery would soon be here.

“Hey,” he said, turning to her with a calm he didn’t feel. “Listen, we both know it was never going to work out with us. Go and be happy. You deserve it.”

“Aidan—” she began.

“I mean it,” he said sternly, wanting to end it quickly because he couldn’t stand the pain in her eyes. “I have my own life right here, and there’s no room in it for a relationship. Come on, Walt.”

“Daddy,” Walt said, his little voice uncertain.

Aidan tried hard to give himself grace as a single parent. He knew he had made mistakes and would keep making them. But if he tried his best, he hoped Walt would grow up strong and happy in spite of his father’s missteps.

Letting Kenzie into their lives hadn’t been that kind of mistake. Aidan had a feeling it would be a long time before he forgave himself for it.

“It’s okay, Walt,” he told his son gently, bending to look him in the eye so he would know everything really was fine. “Kenzie is spending time with a friend she hasn’t seen in a while. You and I are going to head home now.”

When he straightened up Kenzie was gone. And though he knew he should be relieved about that, he found himself feeling disappointed instead. Maybe he would never see her again, and he had wasted the last moments freeing her without committing every detail of her to memory.

Walt was mercifully quiet. He clung to Aidan’s hand as they crossed the street and headed down the block to Aidan’s truck.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said. “Aidan Webb. Get in here.”

He looked up to see Mallory standing in front of her bakery, eyeing him with a concerned expression.

“What do you want?” he asked brusquely.

“Oh wow, I guess Mr. Grouchy is back,” she said, stepping back slightly and arching a brow. “Come in and I’ll tell you, you idiot.”

“We don’t call each other that,” Walt piped up.

“You’re exactly right, Walt,” Mallory said before Aidan could even react. “But I really, really want you guys to come in. And if you do, maybe your dad will let you pick out something nice to take home, on the house.”

“The house?” Walt echoed, looking up to the rooftop.

“On the house means for free,” Aidan told him. “Like a present. Fine, Mallory, we’re coming in, but we don’t need any handouts.”