Page 39 of In this Moment

“We should probably get moving if you want to getback—”

“No way.” She moved faster than she thought possible, unzipping from the sleeping bag and straddling him, until he was pressed flat back. “We have plenty of time forthis.”

He chuckled. “I thought you might saythat.”

By the time they’d finished up with Declan’s distraction techniques, made a quick easy breakfast of coffee and oatmeal and packed up, it was later than they’d expected. Not that either of them cared. Especially Declan. He would have been more than happy to stay up on the mountain in their little piece of paradise all day. Heck, even another fewdays.

Forever.

The truth was, the last twenty-four hours had been some of the best he could remember and he didn’t want it to end. Being with Evie had been so natural and it just felt right. The little voice in his head had been screaming at him to stop. To not touch her. To not start something he couldn’t finish. But the other voice telling him the exact opposite had been louder.

A lot louder.

They grew quieter as they hiked down the trail back toward town as their spell broke, and their reality started to creep back in. He knew she would be thinking of Jonah and Tony, wondering how it had gone. No doubt planning for the worst, not really sure what the worstwas.

“Well, that was a whole lot more fun than having dinner with my family,” he joked to break the silence.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Dec. I totally forgot about your family. We’ll have to make it up to them. I didn’t mean to blow it off. It wasjust—”

“It’s fine.” He laughed and reached out his hand to her. “This was more important.” Evie threaded her fingers through his and he squeezed. “And like I said, a lot morefun.”

She blushed a little so he squeezed her hand again. Declan had no idea how things were going to be between them when they got back to Cedar Springs, but what he did know was that as long as he was close to her, he’d be okay. The rest he could figure out later.

It didn’t take long to reach the car and the drive back to Evie’s house was even faster. There was no sign of Tony or Jonah when they arrived so Declan offered to unload the gear while Evie cleanedup.

It was eleven thirty before Declan finally heard Tony’s car pull up out front. From the bedroom, Evie had heard it too and with her hair still wet around her shoulders, she ran out into the livingroom.

“Hey.” Declan stopped her with a gentle hand to her shoulder. “Be easy. I know you missed him, but try not to make a big deal about it. This was his first night with his dad. You don’t want Jonah to feel bad about leavingyou.”

She nodded. “You’re right.”

“Take a deep breath.”

Shedid.

“Okay.” He took her hand in his. “Let’s go seehim.”

They hadn’t even made it down the walk when Jonah flew out of the car and headed straight to her. Evie released Declan’s hand and crouched down just in time to absorb her son’shug.

“Hey, buddy, I missed—”

“Mom. I had the best time!” Jonah wiggled out of her arms. “First we went mini golfing and I totally beat Dad. He scored like a six on every hole. Six is the worst.” Jonah turned to explain to Declan, who nodded. “But Lauren is like a crazy good golfer and she got par almost every time.” He turned to Declan to explain what par meant. Declan tried not to laugh at how serious Jonah was, as if Dec had never played mini golf before. But he nodded and listened very carefully before Jonah returned his attention to his mother to tell her, “And I got a hole in one! My very first one and I got it on the windmill hole, Mom. It’s the hardest hole and I lined it up and swung and I made the shot. My firstone.”

“That’s awesome, buddy.” Evie ruffled his hair and smiled, but Declan could see the hurt in her eyes, too.

Tony and Lauren had joined them out of the car and stood with their arms around each other, beaming like proud parents, as if they’d done the hard job of raising him into the awesome kid he was and hadn’t just taken him out for a day offun.

“And then Lauren said I got to have ice cream because I got my first hole in one, and I got to pick whatever flavor I wanted.”

“Youdid?”

“Yup.” Jonah smiled. “And I picked strawberry, Mom, ’cause I know that’s your favorite and you would have wanted to celebrate withme.”

Declan’s heart squeezed in his chest, and he watched Evie carefully, but she only smiled and hugged her son. Declan could see how hard it was on her, but she did a good job hiding it and it was doubtful anyone else noticed.

They listened for another few minutes while Jonah excitedly told them every detail about staying at the hotel and swimming in the pools and how fancy the Springs resort was. Not one time did Evie let on that she was anything less than excited for Jonah to have had an awesome day with hisdad.

He didn’t know how she did it, though, because watching Tony’s self-satisfied smirk as Jonah went on and on about all of their experiences was starting to piss Declan off. He knew how hard Evie worked to give Jonah a good life. And of course it was fun to fill up a day with frills and fun and extras of all kinds, but that wasn’t real life. That wasn’t what raising a child was all about.

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