Chapter 65


    With a statement like there, I had no polite way of backing out. Not that I would. These kids needed me,


    and Elva was already having fun with them, ying on the slides.


    Nichs and I would just have to put aside our differences long enough to help the kids. After that, we


    could go back to not getting along as usual.


    After confirming I would be staying, the caretaker offered to lead me and Mark inside.


    “I’ll stay out here,” Mark said. “Keep an eye on the kids.”


    I was grateful. If he watched Elva, I knew I wouldn’t have to worry.


    Inside, I joined Nichs in the kitchen. He was washing dishes, preparing for the day’s main event:


    lunch. And what an extravagant lunch it would be, if the piles of containers were any indication.


    “Did you bring all this from the pce?” I peeked under the aluminum foil on one of the containers.


    Inside was at least ten servings of garlic potatoes.


    “One of the cooks is particrly fond of me,” Nichs said. “She makes special servings when I ask.”


    “She must really like you. There’s a ton of food here.”


    “She knows it goes to a good cause. Plus, I make sure she’s wellpensated for the extra effort.”


    More money? No wonder she liked him.


    Nichs finished washing a te then set it aside on a wet stack. Grabbing a towel, I went to his side


    and began to dry.


    This was… domestic. Him washing and then passing the dishes to me to dry. It reminded me of when


    we


    had been dating. How many times had we shared moments just like this?


    Even the location wasn’t all that different.


    “Do you remember at the Academy? We used to help out the kids at the orphanage like this all the


    time.”


    I had felt that with all my good fortune from being there, it was the least I could do to pay some of it


    forward and help the less fortunate.


    Nichs had always apanied me. Often times, he went even when I couldn’t.


    never stopped,” he said.


    I wished I could say the same, but after Elva, with her sickness, we couldn’t always go like I had used


    to:


    “Once a year, Elva and I help out at an orphanage closer to home. For the holidays.”


    Nichs grunted in acknowledgement.


    He probably didn’t want to reminisce, but it was hard not to.


    “You and I had some of our best conversations like this,” I said. “Do you remember that time when you


    dropped that dish and I caught it? I’ll never forget. I felt like a superhero with quick reflexes.”


    “I’d asked you a question, and you knew you were going to surprise me. You were ready for me to drop


    it.”


    “I was?” I didn’t remember that. “What was the question?”


    He stopped scrubbing at a dish to nce at me. His face was entirely passive, but his eyes almost


    looked sad.


    I tried to remember on my own.


    We’d been–talking andughing. Someone had mentioned the future. Had we been talking about kids?


    “So what about it? If we had kids someday, how many would you want?” Nichs had asked me. He’d


    been holding that dish right in front of his chest. It was wet and he was gripping it too tightly, like he was


    nervous.


    “Ten, at least,” I’d said with a cocksure grin, only half–joking. If he’d wanted that many, I would have


    gone


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    for it in a heartbeat.


    His eyes had gone wide. That te had fallen.


    And I had caught it.


    Now three years and a handful of dayster, we stood in a different kitchen, in a seemingly different


    life,


    staring at each other. Frowning.


    The air between us was thick. Just like then, I could tell he was building up to asking me something.


    But


    unlike then, this time I was sure to dislike the question.


    “Piper, did you break up with me so you could marry and have children with someone else?”