Page 115 of Northern Stars

He chuckled. “You’re going to help me get happy?”

I nodded. “I’m going to help you get happy.”

“Jerry?”

“Yes, Tom?”

“I’m in love with you.”

“I’m in love with you, too.” That never stopped. That never went away.

We’d spent the next hour creating the list of things to try over the next few years to help Aiden and me unlock our ultimate level of joy.

Go skydiving

Have Aiden take a drawing class for fun

Build a snow castle

Travel to see the northern lights

Take a cooking class

Say no to more people

Don’t feel bad about saying no

Travel the world outside of work commitments

Hailee gets into a master’s program

Get married

Start a family

As we made the list, we laughed with one another, and it felt as if we were seventeen, sitting between our homes, falling in love with one another all over again. Being loved by that boy felt right.

“I’m a little mad at you,” I confessed.

“And why’s that?”

“Because you’re even more handsome than I remember.”

He laughed. “You look better than when I left you, which says a lot because you always looked perfect.”

“Screw you.”

“Please do.”

My cheeks heated. “I’m serious, Aiden. I feel like when we hooked up on the staircase, it happened so fast that I didn’t get the chance to do my overthinking thing. Now, we can’t hook up again because my thoughts would be too loud. It’s not every day you hook up with Superman.”

“We can literally make it an everyday thing, Hailee. I promise you, that’s an option.”

I laughed. “We aren’t going to do that.”

He moved in closer to me. “You know the best way to get comfortable with someone in the bedroom?”

“What’s that?”

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