Page 73 of Everything We Give

“Tomorrow ought to be interesting.” Not awkward at all. I aim my index finger at the ceiling. “One condition. I’ll give it another day. I’ll ask Reese straight out what she plans to write. If I don’t want my name in the byline, I’m calling Al and pulling out.”

We finish dinner and afterward the cook invites Aimee into the kitchen to discuss Galician recipes and local delicacies. “Don’t be surprised if I add a few Spanish items to one of my seasonal menus,” she tells me.

I grimace.Please, no octopus.

“Dinner was amazing,” she says.

Dinnerwasamazing. Because Reese wasn’t here.

I draft a text to her that I’m leaving early in the morning on the same trail. One more shot to find and take shots of the herd.

I review the message, then swallow the maturity pill Aimee prescribed.

Sorry about earlier. No hard feelings. Let’s make this work.

Satisfied, I send it off.

“Ready?” Aimee’s back. She rests a hand on my shoulder.

“Yep, let’s go.” I push up from the table and we leave the restaurant, my hand on her lower back. “We didn’t talk about the café during dinner,” I say as we walk to the room. “What’s going on with the expansion?”

“It’s not.”

“No?” I look down at her face, trying to read her expression.

“You were right about what you said earlier. I’ve lost sight of why I opened a restaurant in the first place. I’ll admit, the idea of having three locations seemed cool. It was like I’d made it. I was better than Starbucks and Peet’s because I’m thriving where other indies are closing. But what I really want is to be back in the kitchen. I want to bake for my favorite customers and concoct new recipes.” She stops and I turn to her. “I don’t want to be stuck in an office, running numbers and paying bills and managing three times the staff I currently have.”

“Are you sure? You aren’t doing this because I’ve been complaining?”

“You mean whining?”

I lean back, appalled. “I don’t whine.”

Aimee laughs. “No, you don’t. You’re very good at keeping me grounded.”

“We balance each other.”

“Yes, I love that about us. Because there’s something else I want.”

“Anything.” I’d give her the stars and the moon, the whole freaking solar system.

“You and I both grew up as only children. I don’t want that for Caty.” She inhales deeply and grins. “I want us to have another baby.”

My heart sinks and my shoulders drop.

She bounces on her toes and smiles so big because she can’t contain her grin. I immediately wrap her up in my arms and bury my face in her hair. Because I can’t smile with her. Not yet.

For the moment, I just hold her.

“Ian?” She wiggles in my embrace. I detect the note of uncertainty in her voice and my chest clenches. “You do want another child, don’t you?”

I loosen my arms and clasp her face. My thumb skims her upper lip, a caress. Her eyes search mine. “What’s wrong?”

“I do want to have more kids. But let’s talk about this when we get home. Right now ...” I stop and swallow roughly. “Right now ...”

Her eyes close and she nods rapidly. “I get it. It’s too much at once. I should have waited. I’m sorry for bringing it up. It’s just ...”

“No, no, don’t apologize. You have nothing to apologize for. Let’s get through the next few days. Then we’ll talk.” I kiss her forehead, then her nose and her lips. She looks so dejected and it breaks my heart to put off this discussion. But how can I return home and be the man my family needs—the one I committed to be when Aimee told me she was pregnant with Caty—when the mistakes I’d made in the past are still festering within me? I fear I’d only make more.

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