Page 74 of I Loved You First

Fi wrote it down. “We’ll have to add some of the balloons with confetti in them for some extra fun.”

Brady nodded excitedly. “Uh-huh.” He patted the cushion next to him. “Dad, you can come over and help.”

“Sure.” Getting up, Cam walked over as Brady threw out ideas when Fiona asked about sleepover snacks. Brady was happy, and Fi was here now, helping to make his son’s very first sleepover a special event. That’s what he needed to focus on. “What about s’mores if we can find some gluten-free graham crackers?”

Brady beamed. “I like it, Dad!”

Cam grinned as Fiona did, tossing her a wink before she wrote down the idea. This was the time they had. He planned to make it count.

nineteen

Fiona sat next to Brady at Cam’s dining room table, grabbing the street view person on the corner of her Google Maps screen. She dropped the figure outside her downtown high-rise building. “Here we go.”

Brady blinked as he stood on his knees in his chair, already dressed in his swim trunks and a T-shirt for some lake time later in the day. “There’s lots and lots of buildings.”

She nodded, wearing dark-wash overall shorts and a white tank shirt. She’d added simple silver hoops to her ears and tied her hair back in a half ponytail before she’d left for Cam’s this morning. “Everywhere you look.”

He frowned. “Where are the trees and stuff?”

She smiled, forever fascinated by Brady’s brilliant brain. “There are trees planted in those sidewalk spaces.” She pointed to several leafless trees lining the streets in the winter image. “But mostly you see lots of trees in the parks when you live in a city.”

His frown stayed in place. “Oh.”

Clearly, Brady was as unimpressed with urban living as his father had always been. Cam had visited her numerous times during her college days in DC. They’d always had a blast touring the museums and other iconic sights, but Cam had never loved the noise and crowds. “This is where my house is.” She pointed to the screen.

“Hey,” he said with his hands on his hips. “That doesn’t look like it touches the sky.”

Using the mouse on her keypad, she moved the angle of the image so he could see the vertical view of the building. “How about now?”

His eyes grew huge. “It does go up to the sky!”

She chuckled, grabbing her phone, pulling up the pictures she’d flipped through in bed early this morning, looking for images with views from her condo’s windows. “This picture is from my living room. The house I live in is called a condo. You can see the water⁠—”

“And mountains with snow on them. And more buildings that reach the sky. What’s that thing that looks like a spaceship on a stick?”

She grinned. “It’s called the Space Needle. You can go in it and look through a whole bunch of glass to see the entire city.”

He laughed in amazement. “I love Seattle.”

She laughed, adoring Brady Bennet. “I’m glad you do.” She pulled a book out of her bag that she’d been waiting for the mail to deliver. “I brought this if you want me to read it to you. Stanley the Seal takes us on a tour of Seattle.”

He nodded. “Let’s read it on the couch.” Getting off his chair, he picked up the card that had fallen. “What’s this?”

She looked at it. “This is my business card. It has my work phone number on it and it says my name. Fiona Willis,” she said as she pointed to it. “I give this to people so they can call me when they want to have a party.”

“I need this for my birthday. For when I turn six.”

“We’ll tuck it in the book just for you. It’ll be a business card and a bookmark.”

“Okay.”

They walked to the couch, snuggling on one of the middle cushions. “Are you ready for your tour of Seattle?”

“Yeah!”

Opening to the first page, she introduced Brady to the city she’d made her safe haven when everything had fallen apart. After several minutes of reading the story and answering a million questions, she closed the book. “The end.”

“I like this one.”