“I’ve missed him, too.”
She curled herself up next to me and sighed in contentment. Not just the postcoital sort of contentment, either, but something deeper than that. Everything felt right again, and it was an immense relief. That’s what it was—underneath all the other feelings, the happiness, the after-sex buzz, was the feeling of relief.
We were up early in the next day, even though I wouldn’t have minded staying in bed all day long. When Declan came downstairs, Allie was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, and I was mixing batter together for waffles. He stood there in the doorway for a minute, blinking, looking as if he thought he might still be dreaming.
“Miss Allie?” he said.
“Good morning, Declan.”
Declan looked from her to me, then a huge smile broke out onto his face. “Are you making waffles, Dad?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” I said. “So, I hope you’re hungry.”
“Did you sleep over last night?” Declan asked Allie, as he climbed up onto the chair next to her. “You look like you’re in your pajamas.”
She was actually wearing one of my T-shirts, a big one that came down almost to her knees, and a pair of my boxer shorts.
“I did,” Allie said, glancing at me. I just smiled and kept stirring the batter.
“So you and Dad aren’t fighting anymore?”
“No,” Allie said. “We weren’t really fighting to begin with, though.”
I opened the waffle iron and ladled out the batter, then closed the lid.
“Can you sleep over tonight?” Declan was asking.
I tried to hide my smile; he’d probably be more than happy to have her sleep over every night. Then again, so would I.
“We can talk about that later, buddy,” I said. “Want some orange juice?”
When the waffles were ready, the three of us sat at the table. It was the sort of domestic scene that I was used to during my own childhood, that probably would have made me cringe in my early 20s, and now, at 31, was exactly what I wanted. Declan and Allie were both here, and since it was Saturday, we had the whole day ahead of us to do whatever we wanted.
The next day when my parents came over, they took Declan out to the lake and then into town for ice cream. Allie had gone out with Amy for the day, so I went for a long bike ride. I stopped by Ben’s shop and hung out with him for a little while before heading back to the house. I took a quick shower, and as I was drying off, I heard my parents and Declan get back.
I went out back where they were sitting, and Declan told me about swimming at the lake and what kind of ice cream he’d gotten when they went out.
“I jumped off the dock five times!” he said proudly. He had a little smear of chocolate ice cream dried on his chin.
“Five times?” I said. “We’ll have to go there next time we go swimming, and you can show me.”
“Can I show Grandpa the tree I want to have the zipline on?” Declan asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
“A zipline, eh?” my dad said.
“Well, yeah...first, we need to do the treehouse.” I’d had my own treehouse when I’d been a kid and had always envisioned building one for Declan, though I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“I might be able to help with that,” Dad said.
“You could help build a treehouse? You know how?” Declan said, his eyes wide.
“Your grandfather’s very good at that sort of thing,” I said. “He built me a really great treehouse when I was a kid. I’ll have to show you a picture some time.”
When Declan and my father went to inspect the tree, my mother lingered on the deck, looking at me, as though she was expecting me to tell her something.
“Allie and I have gotten back together,” I said.