Page 76 of Came the Closest
Milo frowns. “Huh?”
“Colton slept in your bed?”
“Oh.” His foot starts thumping again. “Yeah!”
Colton slept in Milo’s bed. My mind refuses to wrap around it. The twin mattress is too small for someone my size, so I can’t imagine it would’ve been comfortable for Colton. His knees would’ve had to be curled, or he’d have to hang halfway off.
“Do you have a daddy?” Milo asks, pivoting conversationally yet again.
I swallow. I reach around him for the comb in the medicine cabinet, cupping my hand around the mirror corner so he doesn’t bump his head. “I do.”
“Do I know him?”
“No, sweetheart.” Trying for a smile, I start working the comb gently through his curls. “You don’t know him.”
He quiets. “Can I know him? Is he nice? My dad’s not very nice. But Colt is,” he adds seriously. “That’s why I told him I want him to be my daddy!”
I bite the inside of my lip. “Yes, my dad is very nice.”
“Will he be at the ding today?”
Wedding, I correct silently. I set the comb on the Formica countertop and wrack my brain on how to explain my dad’s situation. “No, he’s…” He’s what? How does one tell a four-year-old that, yes, her dad is still alive, but no, he’s not truly alive? “You know how you take naps?”
His nose wrinkles. “Yeah…?”
“Well, my dad is kind of taking a really long nap right now,” I say. I honestly have no idea if it’ll make sense, but it’s my best shot. “He got hurt, and the only way for him to get better is to sleep for a while.”
“Oh!” Recognition lights Milo’s features, dimpling his cheeks and creasing his mouth. “Like a coma?”
I blink rapidly, taken aback by the question. “Um, yes. A coma. How… How do you know that word?”
“‘Cause Inni was a coma!”
What?
Shock ricochets through my body, a jolt from my spine to my toes. I couldn’t have been more surprised if he would’ve told me the kitchen came alive at night, Beauty and The Beast style. “Indi was in a coma?”
“Uh-huh! But I don’t know it.”
And that’s that. Milo reaches out to touch the diamond pendant resting on my collarbone like he didn’t just drop a complete bombshell and then counteract himself. Justin gave me this necklace before my wedding, and while I prefer not to think about that day, I love the necklace and I love my brother.
I don’t love feeling like there’s a lot more to Indigo Del Ray than I know. More than her brothers and her father know.
And she doesn’t trust any of us enough to explain it.
Sunlight dances mesmerizingly over the shimmering blue lake, bathing Ember’s bare shoulders in golden light and highlighting Graham’s clean-shaven jawline. A soft breeze rustles the flowers tucked artfully into the handcrafted wooden arch, carrying with it their fragrance. Sweat collects under the satin of my dress, especially where Milo sits on my lap, and I tipped my sunglasses on after John walked his daughter down the aisle.
The perspiration, however, might also be because Colton keeps looking over at me.
The man looks devastating today. He stands tall beside Graham, his hands are clasped, his shoulders broad, and feet braced apart. He’s classy in tailored navy slacks and a white dress shirt, but playful in the sailboat tie that matches Milo’s. His dark curls are styled with product, but the breeze twists them in a way that makes me want to comb my fingers through his thick hair. Every time he looks at me, the corner of his mouth curves up.
That amused mouth is one that I would very much like to kiss again. But for real this time. Since our conversation on the dock, we haven’t kissed. Which is mostly okay—if he needs time to decide how much he wants us, that’s what I want, too.
It doesn’t mean I haven’t wondered what it would be like to be good and truly kissed by this version of Colton. The one who wears suits to work, and who swims with Milo even when he’s tired, and who tries with everything in him to put his feelings into words.
A tug on my arm steals my attention away from the best man.
“Annie, look!” Milo points toward the row of chairs across the rose petal dotted aisle. “It’s that guy who said he’d take me on his sailing boat!”