“How do you know?”
A small hand pulls my eyelid open. I groan and turn over.
“He’s awake!” a childish voice announces jubilantly.
“No, I’m not,” I grumble.
“How can you talk if you’re sleeping?”
I crack open my eyes and see Preston looking at me, waiting for an answer. Damien sidles up to the bed. “You have hair on your face,” he lisps.
“That’s because…” I grab them both and pull them onto the bed. “I’m a monster... grr grr grr.”
They’re laughing hysterically when I notice their mother at the door.
“Breakfast,” Rachel announces. The boys whoop and run out of the room, abandoning me. “You too.” She peers at me. “You look like hell.”
“That’s how I feel.” I shrug, then frown. “You weren’t here last night.”
“Nope. We decided on an impromptu visit this morning.”
“Or last night when Wilson called and told you I was here, in a state.”
“Actually, it was Betsy.” Rachel shrugs. “She said you looked like you were going through a lot.”
I groan and roll off the bed.
“Why don’t you take a shower and
join us for breakfast?” she suggests. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
She leaves me alone to do as she asked. Downstairs, the kids are joyous at the unplanned family reunion and they laugh and scream and race around the house despite all attempts to calm them.
Landon hovers between amusement and disapproval at their antics. He’s feeding Penelope, and the little angel is kicking in her highchair like she’d love to be running around with her brothers.
“Where’s the nanny,” I ask, settling at the kitchen table.
“Day off,” Rachel says. “It’s just us.”
After breakfast, the children go to play on the beach, and we watch them from the back porch while Penelope snoozes in her rocker.
“So, you want to tell me what happened?” Landon asks.
“Nothing that required you to bring the whole family down here,” I reply with a shrug.
He laughs. “We needed a vacation, anyway.”
I snort to let him know what I think about that lie.
Rachel calls out to the children then turns to look at me. “If it’s Liz, you shouldn’t be giving her a hard time. Not now, after she lost her father.”
Oh, I’m the villain giving saint Liz a hard time? “She’s leaving the play,” I mumble.
“Oh!” Rachel looks from me to Landon. “Oh Aidan, I’m so sorry.”
I’m quiet. She knows what that means to me. I’m probably the only one who has spent all this time denying what Liz leaving again would do to me.
Rachel exchanges a look with Landon, and he rises to his feet. “I’m going to watch the kids and make sure they don’t get too close to the water.”