Page 159 of Collide
I’M MAKING MICKEY Mouse shaped pancakes when a little voice calls for me.
“Mommy?” Aurora, our three-year-old, climbs her chair, her bright pink tutu flowing like a cloud. Her blonde hair is in a messy braid that Aiden did for her last night. She refused to let me redo it for her this morning.
“Yes?” I ask, plating her breakfast.
Today is the opening day for my new sports clinic. It took slaving over my Ph.D. and then burning myself out while working for Team Canada for me to settle down in my hometown. I’m still on retainer with the Olympics committee, but it’s a contract basis. Traveling all the time and barely seeing my family was depressing. With Aurora in our lives, it didn’t feel right to be gone all the time.
I got pregnant with Aurora with a year left on my Ph.D., and as tough as it was, it helped that she was born in the offseason.
Aurora bites a strawberry. “Are you and Daddy fighting?”
I freeze. They never tell you how perceptive kids are. I slide her plate across the island. “What makes you think we’re fighting?”
“You didn’t hug yesterday.”
I’m living with a CIA-level spy. How she deduced that just from mere seconds of interaction last night is beyond me. She’s right though. Daddy and I are fighting.
The other day, Aiden watched all the episodes of our favorite show while I was at my clinic. It was his recovery day, so he spent it with his legs in his compression technology sitting in front of the television, betraying me. It didn’t help that my hormones were out of whack, so when I cried over it, he felt terrible. Not terrible enough for me to let him sleep in our room, though.
“We’re not fighting, sweetheart,” I lie. Daddy’s little girl doesn’t need to know her hero is also a dumbass.
The devil himself walks into the kitchen. He slept in the guest room last night and slipped out early this morning for his workout. Now he strolls in, hair damp from a shower, gray sweats, and a tight shirt hugging every muscle. The years have been nothing but kind to my husband, his face and body aging like fine wine. He looks sohotI have to stop myself from staring as he goes over to Rory and kisses her. She giggles and I bite down my smile.
Aiden comes to me as if he’s forgotten that I’ll stab him with a butter knife if he gets too close. Aurora watches us, waiting for the interaction to prove her analysis. She knows Aiden’s routine. He always kisses her first, then comes to me.
“What were you asking Mommy, Rory?”
“If you’re fighting,” she mumbles through a mouthful.
“And what did she say?” His gaze holds mine hostage.
“You’re not.”
He hums in acknowledgment, eliminating the space separating us. “Is that right?”
The big brown eyes watching me across the island force me to give Aiden a tight nod.
His smirk is infuriating. “Then how come I haven’t gotten a kiss?”
“Crawford,” I warn, using my favorite name for him in college.
His lips tip into a smirk. “Crawford,” he shoots back. Suddenly, I remembered why I stopped using it. “I’m sorry, baby,” he whispers, trying not to alert the hawk watching us.
The icy exterior that he melted away years ago is too flimsy to hold up anymore. Just one of those earnest looks, and I’m ready to forgive him. Especially when he looks so damn sexy while he’s saying sorry. What am I mad about, again?
He lifts my chin and when my eyes meet his again he smiles, kissing me so thoroughly that I almost don’t hear the gremlin squealing across the island. I pull away to see her covering her eyes.
“She’s getting too smart,” I say to him. “And I don’t like that she’s always on your side.”
“Someone’s gotta be, or you’d have me on my knees day and night,” he says. “Not that I’d complain.”
I’m hoping my face isn’t red when Rory pipes up. “Daddy, are we seeing Nanna and Nanni today?”
She’s talking about my parents. My family and Aiden’s fawn over her like I’ve birthed the Stanley Cup. Which is saying a lot, because Aiden has won an actual Stanley Cup, and so has my dad.
“We are. Finish up, and we’ll take the big truck today,” he says.
She beams, gobbling the rest of her food. Much to Aiden’s and my dad’s pleasure, Aurora loves hockey. So they play at my dad’s rink every week. They both say she’s a natural born star, but they might be a little biased.
