‘Dinner tonight with your family, Manny and Stanley Poochie.’
‘I can’t wait.’
‘Wednesday, I’m taking you salsa dancing and to the carousel.’
She smiled at him. ‘Are you recreating our first date?’
‘Yes. I’m trying to redeem myself.’
‘Pretty sure you did that last time we went.’ The third time Mike had taken her to the carousel, he’d proposed. Sophie hadn’t thought she’d marry again, but with Mike . . . it feltright with Mike. ‘You didn’t panic and shove me into a car that time.’
‘No, but I did sit in someone’s dropped ice cream cone.’
‘I forgot about that.’ She hadn’t. The ice cream had been chocolate. The placement on his trousers had been . . . unfortunate.
‘Oh no you didn’t. You took a photo. It’s favourited on your phone. I’veseenit.’ He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. ‘But I appreciate the lie.’
‘I wanted to document our engagement. Is that so wrong?’ She batted her eyes at him and he smiled.
‘Brat.’
‘You love me,’ she said, before bringing them back on-topic. ‘Okay, so Wednesday we go to the carousel, and you try to leave with your dignity intact.’
‘What’s left of it.’ Mike sighed. He leaned back into the seat and closed his eyes. ‘I swear, any time I go out with you, something like that happens. I’m a little shocked you married me.’
She nudged him with her shoulder. ‘I like adventureandcomic relief.’
He grinned.
Sophie waited for a few seconds before she lost patience and poked him.
He laughed. ‘Do you want me to tell you about Thursday?’
‘Yes.’
‘OnThursday, after I feed you and keep you in bed as long as I can . . .’
She glared at him, which only earned her another laugh. ‘Get to the best part.’
‘I happen to think that last part was pretty good.’
She continued (mock) glaring.
‘Fine. On Thursday, we go over to Tom and Marisa’s flat where you’re going to bask in the joy of holding ourgranddaughter for a little while, and then we’re going to help them pack up their flat.’
‘That’s good, but it’s not the best part.’
The plane started to move then, all of the machinery making noise that made her shoulders want to hitch around her ears.
Mike leaned in close to her so she could hear him over the noise. ‘Thebestpart is that on Monday, we ship off their stuff and they come back to the hotel with us and then onTuesdaywe get back on this plane and take your family home. What do you think of that, Sophie Tremblay?’
‘Our family,’ she corrected automatically.
He smiled his crooked smile. ‘Our family.’
It was weird having a new name after all these years. She hadn’t wanted to keep Swann, though she still had it as her pen name. For a bit, she’d considered taking her maiden name again. Mike had told her he didn’t carewhatname she used as long as she came home to him at night.
In the end, she’d gone with Tremblay. Much like marrying Mike, it had felt like the right move for her.
