Page 16 of Almost Always

Rafferty shook his head. “Dad and the grandparents talked about you a lot when he was growing up.”

“Nonna said that you and Dad were the best of friends. Then you went away.”

She swallowed hard, fingers gripping her spoon and cup tight as she nodded. “That’s right. My dad got a job in a different city, so we had to leave.”

“We did too!”

She arched an eyebrow “You left New York?”

“Just moved here a few weeks ago,” Rafferty replied.

Oh no, this is not good for my heart.

“Did you know that Dad has a picture of you in his wallet?”

“Callahan.” This time he sounded frustrated and resigned. Clearly the things his son knew about her hadn’t only come from his great-grandparents.

“Is it…” she said, smiling as she pulled out the bottom half of a photo booth strip from her purse, “like this one?”

“And another one.”

Rafferty made a sound between a grunt and growl, and it was weirdly attractive. He pulled two pictures out and set them on the table. She peered at the other half of the strip—they were laughing so hard their eyes were closed, while she had the two where they were smiling at each other. However, she was drawn to the picture of her lying in the grass with a giddy expression, while daisies were falling on her.

She remembered that day so clearly. It was a dual family outing to Central Park, like they did one Sunday every month. While their dads and his grandparents lazed around eating snacks, the two of them had gone exploring. He found a daisy field and wanted to take pictures of her in the flowers. They picked a few and she lay in the grass as he dropped them on her while taking the picture. She’d never seen the picture, but she recognized the giddy look on her face.

I’d been so deeply in love that day.

It was around the time her feelings were starting to surface and every minute spent with him was the best time of her life. She touched the edge of the photograph with her finger and smiled, remembering how much joy being around that boy brought her. When she lifted her eyes to his, he matched her smile.

“That was a good day,” she whispered.

“We had a lot of good days, Daze.”

He was the only one who got away with calling her different things. She’d never refused him anything. Not when he was a teenager and she had hearts in her eyes and most likely not now, when he was a mountain man with an adorable son.

“So, what made you pick Wildes?” she asked, sliding the picture back.

“Thought it was time to get out of the city and Cal picked it off a map.”

She chuckled. “Wildes shows up on a map?”

Callahan grinned, flashing his ice cream covered teeth. “Dad said I couldn’t use Google, so he got ahugepaper one and a magnifying glass.”

“Well, you’ve got good taste.” Without thinking about it, she used her napkin to wipe his mouth. Callahan smiled sweetly and went back to his ice cream. “What have you two been up to since you got here?”

“We got a dog!”

“Finish eating your ice cream, son.”

“Why aren’t you eating yours?” the kid asked, pointing at the slowly melting goop in their cups.

“I’m having such a good time talking to you, I forgot,” she said, adding a dramatic flair for the fun of it. That made him laugh, but when the ice cream started to drip down his fingers, he was distracted again.

Her feelings for Rafferty had always been so intense, enough to create dreams of grandeur and hopes that she could have it all. Life kicked her in the ass for that, though. Shaking away the thoughts, she ate some more of her ice cream.

“You look incredible, Hero.”

She’d never get over hearing him call her that, especially now that his voice was deeper and felt like it was brushing against her body intimately.

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