Page 78 of Canadian Boyfriend

“But will the pioneer museum still be open in September?”

“Should be, but I’ll double-check.” I turned to Aurora. “There’s an old fur-trading fort near where I grew up.” I aimed a thumb at Olivia. “She’s been before, but now that you’ve introduced her toLittle House, she’s keen to go back. It has preserved frontier buildings and a replica pioneer village.”

“My mom and I go to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet, South Dakota, every summer, so I’m quite familiar with the pioneer village genre.” I shot Aurora a quizzical look as Olivia squealed over the idea of a Laura Ingalls pageant. From what I had seen and heard of Heather Evans, spending a day with her on the frontier seemed like no fun at all. Aurora, apparently hearing my unspoken question, said, “It’s a tradition. One I should probably take my leave of, but…” She shrugged.

“I want to go to the pageant!” Olivia exclaimed. “Can we do that too this summer?”

“I don’t see why not.” I glanced at Aurora. “As long as we aren’t cramping your style. Will it be weird if we run into you there?”

“Not at all. Anyway, it runs for a bunch of weekends, so I’m sure we won’t overlap.”

I kind of wanted to overlap. But maybe I needed to let my not-nanny do her own thing.

“Let’s all go together!” Olivia nearly shouted—apparently I wasn’t the only one who wanted to overlap with Aurora. “We’ve never met your mom.”

Aurora met my eyes over Olivia’s head. I wasn’t sure what message she was trying to send. But since she hadn’t embraced the idea of a group trip to De Smet, I needed to shut down the idea. “Don’t forget you’re also going to your grandparents’ in Chicago this week,” I said to Olivia.

Aurora whipped her gaze to mine, and because Olivia was looking at the calendar—my redirection had worked—I shot her a quick wink. I was pretty sure we were both remembering what had gone down last time Olivia was with her grandparents.

I wondered if there was any way it could happen again.

After dinner, it sort of seemed like Aurora was hanging back. I’d made Olivia load the dishwasher, and we quite clearly didn’t need her help, but she just kind of… stayed.

“OK, you’re excused, Liv,” I said, eyeing Aurora. After Liv had run off, I said, “Everything OK?”

“I have a crazy idea.”

“Hit me.”

“Maybe weshouldall go to De Smet together.”

“Wow, yes, that is insane,” I teased, even as the notion of spending the day inLittle Houseland with Aurora and Liv made something warm happen in my chest.

She laughed. “You know how I’ve been working on boundaries with my mother?” I nodded. “If we went to De Smet together, I could drive up with you guys. We could meet my mom and spend the day. You and Olivia might want to check out the covered-wagon camping they have and spendthe night—it’s a long round trip for one day—and I’ll drive back with my mom. Only going one way with her will shave hours off the time I have to spend with her. It’ll be kind of like Christmas—a planned reduction in exposure time.”

“Sounds like a very mature approach.”

“I must be maturing. I guess I’m a late bloomer. I mean Ijustwent to my first school dance last week. Can you believe it?”

I winked. “Must be all that therapy.”

“I have to say, the NHL plan is really working for me.” Her eyes danced, but she quickly sobered. “But also, I think it’s you.”

“What? No.”

“I’m serious. Watching you and Olivia… get better. I don’t know, it’s been inspiring. I mean, yes, I’ve been through some shit. But it’s nothing compared to you guys.”

“My shrink says that your suffering is your suffering and there’s no point in comparing it to anyone else’s.”

“I know. I just mean that I’ve felt sort of… stuck in recent years. But I don’t anymore. Or at least I feel less stuck. I have you to thank for that.”

“I think you have yourself to thank for that.”

“Will you shut up and take a compliment?”

“Yeah, yeah, OK.” I grabbed the calendar and pointed at the weekend I thought we were talking about. “De Smet here?”

“Yes, if you’re OK with it. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Olivia in case you weren’t. You’ve met my mom. She’s kind of horrible.”

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