Page 88 of Ardently Yours

“You can if you’re a fairy.” Bronnie, strapped into her booster seat between the two boys, nods and lifts her eyebrows.

“There’s no such thing asfairies,” Henry says.

“Yes there is! Grandma Miller builds houses for fairies. She puts doors on tree trunks for them so they can visit our world.”

“Those arepretend,” Henry explains. “She’s being silly.”

Bronnie scowls. “My grandma is not silly. You’re silly!”

I try to catch Henry’s eye in the rearview mirror, but he shakes his head at Bronnie in exasperation and pushes his wire-framed glasses up his freckled nose. “I suppose you think the tooth fairy and Santa are real too.”

Charlotte sucks in a breath of horror beside me.

Bronnie turns on Henry with wide eyes. “What does that mean?”

“Henry,” I say firmly.

He glances up toward me.

“Not another word,” I say.

“But, Dad—”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“Santa is too real,” Bronnie insists. “He leaves us presents on our porch.”

Gabriel picks up his brother’s torch. “That’s just D—”

“D’Amazingthat Santa leaves presents!” I say with exaggerated cheer. Talking over my sons is not something I would normally do, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I’ll apologize to them later when I explain whywe don’t ruin Santa for other kids. “Wonderful. Gabriel, mushroom houses aren’t made of mushrooms, but they are shaped like mushrooms.”

“Cool,” Gabriel says.

Bronnie imitates his exact tone and cadence. “Cool.”

Crisis averted, I shoot a glance toward Charlotte. “Sorry about that,” I say quietly.

“It’s a miracle one of her cousins hasn’t done it already.” She glances back at Bronnie with a wistful expression. “I’m not ready for her to lose the magic, you know? There’s so much joy and wonder in her.”

“There’s so much wonder and joy in you too.” She’s regained her faith that the world can have happy surprises, beauty, and opportunity.

“If we can find some time alone, maybe you can put some more joy and wonder inside me,” she teases quietly.

I shift in the driver’s seat, sending her a mock scolding glare. She twinkles back, then sobers as she glances ahead to the unmarked security team driving ahead of us.

“It’s not strange for you?” she asks.

I tap the steering wheel. “It’s life for me. The same way you’d grab an umbrella before heading out into the rain.”

“The boys like the team,” she notes.

“They’ve known most of them their whole lives. I don’t have a lot of turnover. The boys know them as individual people they care about, not a mass unit of unnamed guards in dark suits.”

She relaxes, her frown clearing. “It’s kind of like extended family.”

“That’s how we see it.”

Ilook in thecar’s visor mirror and tug the white Titleist ball cap lower over my eyes, then adjust the mirrored aviator shades on my nose. My disguise is pretty good, if I say so myself. Beard. Hat. Sunglasses. Board shorts and sandals. Gabriel giggled when he first laid eyes on me. Henry . . . well, he scowled and said I looked strange. He also suggested I wear socks.

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