“You got a dog?”
“Yeah, Keatyn and I always talked about getting a golden retriever and since she’s decided to slow down with work and spend more time at the vineyard, it finally seemed like the right time. I’m going to surprise her tonight.”
“You’ve always given Keatyn thoughtful gifts,” I say, following him to the bar in the kitchen.
“Well, I try to make them meaningful. I mean, any guy can shower a girl with jewels and expensive gifts.”
“Not any guy,” I mutter.
“Can you do the honors, so I don’t have to put her down? She whines if I don’t hold her when she sleeps,” he says.
“Already got you wrapped around her paw? Wait until you have a child.” I pour us each a glass of scotch.
Aiden beams.
“What’s the smile for?”
“We’re expecting.”
“You are? Wow. Congratulations, man. There is nothing in the world that compares to holding your baby.” I think about my girls, knowing there aren’t enough diamonds in the world—let alone Vanessa’s closet—that would ever mean as much as they do. “Children are the ultimate jewel.”
“I can’t wait to experience that,” Aiden says, rubbing the puppy’s head. “Although, I will admit I’m a little nervous.”
“Just spend a lot of time with them and always let them know they are loved. They will turn out beautifully.”
“Says the guy who’s already been through the sleepless nights and the terrible twos,” he says with a laugh.
“You’ll survive and forget how terrible it was. Now, I’m starting to have to worry about boys. And slumber parties. And mean girls. And soon, I’ll have to deal with them getting their periods.”
Aiden takes a drink and shakes his head, looking overwhelmed.
“One step at a time,” I tell him.
“So, you seemed upset when you called.”
“I was at Vanessa’s. Have you ever seen her closet?”
“No, but I’ve heard about it. Jewels, expensive paintings.”
“You mean that Monet was real?”
“Yep.”
“Holy shit.” I run my hands though my hair and pour myself another drink.
“What’s wrong?”
“She has everything. And I mean everything. Her ex came to her house tonight and pulled out a ruby the size of her fucking fist. I can’t compete with that shit. I can’t afford that lifestyle. I can’t give her anything like that.”
“Do you think she expects it?”
“You know what happened, Aiden.”
“Dawson, what do you like about Vanessa?”
“She’s amazing. Sweet. Sincere. Soft. Confident. I love her red lips and how she looks equally sexy in high heels and bare feet.”
“Not once in that list did you mention a single materialistic thing,” he comments. “You and Vanessa are sort of opposite in that respect.”
“How so?”
“Whitney left you with no money, but with something more important.”
“My girls.”
“Exactly. And Bam left Vanessa with more money that she knows what to do with, but without the one thing she wanted.”
“She came over the other night wearing nothing but a fur coat he gave her. She used to hate the coat.”
“Probably because it was something he gave her to make up for being an asshole. He was always trying to buy her love instead of trying to earn it.”
I study Aiden, knowing I don’t need to say it, but that I should. “I watched the movies before I went to work at Captive.”
“The Keatyn Chronicles?”
“Yeah, and I’ve never really apologized for being such a dick to you in high school.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” he says, repeating a line from the movie and what I had actually told Keatyn when we dated briefly in high school. Whitney had sent me a text—a simple text, baby, please—begging me not to go away with Keatyn for the weekend but stay with her and try and work out our relationship. She had devastated me when she had broken up with me a few months before and to have her now saying she made a mistake, was what I had longed to hear. I realized too late, that I was an idiot for not staying with Keatyn and tried to win her back. For a short period, she dated both Aiden and I.
“You wooed her. How did you know what to do? What would affect her?”
He shrugs. “I was just there for her when she was upset. I took her chocolate cake.”
I think back to the movie. “And gave her a four-leaf clover for luck, put stars above her bed, ran a feather earring across her neck, and brought her dirt. None of those things really cost money.”
“I bought her a purse she loved and some gorgeous gold feather earrings. But it’s not what you spend that matters, Dawson. You have to find what touches her soul and give from yours freely.”
“I was going to give her this.” I show Aiden the necklace I planned to give Vanessa tonight. “It’s just something the girls and I found in Venice, but the butterfly stands for rebirth and the infinity symbol on its wings reminded me of our path back to each other.”