Page 98 of I Loved You First

Brady nodded. “I told him that you told me that boogers are like dirt in your nose. Dominic said that isn’t true.”

Cam looked in the rearview mirror, noting the mutiny in Brady’s eyes as his son crossed his arms. “I guess not everyone’s a believer.”

Brady crossed his arms tighter. “I believe you, Dad.”

Cam struggled not to grin as he took the turn for Little Lake Road. “I appreciate it, buddy. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Dominic goes on eating his nose dirt.”

“Eew!”

Cam shrugged. “I completely agree, but some people like nose dirt.”

“Gross!” Brady yelled louder.

“Absolutely.” Then he turned down their long driveway, and the moment’s reprieve from his worries vanished as he stopped in front of the house. “Let’s get a snack and chat for a while.”

Brady unbuckled his seat belt. “Okay.”

Ten minutes later, he and Brady sat at the kitchen island, eating grapes and gluten-free crackers with cheese despite the dread sitting heavy in his stomach. “I’m glad you had a good day today.”

Brady nodded as he chewed a grape. “It’s hot. We can swim after our talk.”

“Definitely.” But he sighed, hoping Brady would still want to after he said what he needed to say. “Brady, Fiona had to go back to Seattle.”

Brady frowned as he picked up another grape. “Why?”

“Because she needs to work on a big party.”

Brady set the piece of fruit back on the plate. “The governor’s daughter’s wedding?”

Cam nodded because it wasn’t entirely a lie. “But she left you something.” Pulling his laptop closer, he double-clicked on the Brady file in the zip drive.

Fi’s face filled the screen, and Brady gasped as he grinned. “It’s Fiona!”

Cam watched Brady as Fi’s message played, searching for any telltale signs of sadness or stress.

“Bye, Fiona,” Brady said, kissing his hand like she did. Then he looked at Cam. “Fiona will come back at Thanksgiving?”

How did he tell his little boy with hopeful eyes that Fi most likely wouldn’t be coming back at all? “Fiona left you another surprise. It’s in your room.”

“A surprise?” Brady got down from his stool, taking off at a run.

“Let’s check it out,” Cam said, following Brady upstairs, eager to make Fiona’s sudden departure as positive an experience as he could.

Brady stopped in his doorway, grinning as he stared at the backpack on his bed. “It has dinosaurs on it!”

Cam nodded. “It’s pretty cool.”

Brady gasped as he moved farther into his room, picking up the box of Legos. “It’s a Lego Creator set! This one has the T-Rex!”

Cam nodded as his heart broke all over again. Fiona had certainly had a beat on what Brady liked. Because she’d cared enough to find out. “I think there might be a couple of things in the backpack.”

Brady set the box down to unzip the bag, unwrapping several children’s books about first-day jitters and other adventures about going to school. “I like these!”

“Good,” Cam said, moving to sit on Brady’s bed. “We can read a couple of them tonight.”

“Okay.” Reaching in again, Brady grabbed more wrapped items, discovering three awesome dinosaur T-shirts, personalized dinosaur pencils, and a cool dinosaur soup thermos for his lunch box.

Brady laughed as he beamed at Cam. “I have lots of neat stuff for big kid school.”