“Honestly, I don’t have a lot of time to be—oh.” She halted two feet in, which caused Killian to crash into her. He grabbed her before she could fall face-first onto the ground. “Okay, I have company.”

“What was I?” he asked into her ear, helping keep her upright.

“Not company,” she said, then gasped when he nipped her ear before letting her go. She put her bag on the floor and walked over to greet her unexpected guests lounging at the end of her bed. “Cassie, Trey, nice to see you both. Sorry about the last game, Trey.”

He smiled, his arm slung around Cassie like he didn’t have a care in the world. “It happens. Sorry you missed it.”

“It happens,” she echoed, grinning as he did. “Are you two in hiding or something? What’s going on?”

“The opposite, actually.” Cassie straightened on the bed, shifting so that her legs crossed beneath her. Her feet were only in socks, with her running shoes on the floor by the bed. “We’re ready to make an official, on-the-record statement about our relationship. Sort of our preemptive strike for when we’re seen together in public.”

“I’m done with the hiding,” Trey growled.

Cassie patted his thigh. “Yes, yes. No more fake glasses for you.” They grinned at each other, enjoying the private joke. Aileen glanced at Killian, who looked equally confused. So at least she wasn’t alone in being outside the loop there.

“Okay,” Aileen said slowly, opening her tote and taking her laptop out. She set it on her desk, along with her phone, and stored the bag to the side. Sitting in her computer chair, she was an arm’s length away from the bed. Killian perched on the arm of the sofa. “And you want me to help you figure out the next step? Pick a news station? Go with you to the interview? What?”

“We want you to do it.” Cassie reached over and grasped Aileen’s hands in hers.

“I’m fired/quit,” she said, deciding that combo worked best to describe her current unemployed status. “Why don’t you use the guy who did your interview with your dad when you guys first—”

“Different situation,” Trey cut her off. “We want you.”

There was only one thing she had to know. “Why?”

“Because you’re good,” Killian said. She looked over and found him staring straight at the floor, his arms crossed defensively. “You’re honest, you’ve got integrity, and you’ll respect their boundaries. They trust you.” He looked at her then, his eyes burning with words unsaid.

Words she hoped sounded like I trust you, too. But maybe that was wishful—hopeful—thinking on her part.

She squeezed Cassie’s hand and let go. “Yeah, sure. What do you want me to do with it afterward?”

“That’s up to you. However you best see fit. Use it as leverage for a new job at a station or network, go freelance and get paid for it solo, totally up to you. We trust you’ll do what’s right with it.” Trey hugged Cassie to his side and kissed the top of her head. “We just want things out in the open so we can move on and have a life together.”

Aileen’s smile widened, and her eyes stung a little. It was sort of beautiful, watching two adults who’d found each other despite the odds, making it work and carving out their own path with their bare hands. “I’ll ask questions.”

“I figured you would,” Trey shot back.

“Some, you won’t like.”

“I figured I wouldn’t.”

“I’ll annoy you.”

“Starting now?” he asked, blinking innocently when she laughed.

Throwing her hands in the air, she conceded. “Fine, fine. Let me get my tripod and camera. It’s going to be informal, I guess. Low-tech and—thanks to my menial editing skills—not all that visually stimulating. Are you wearing that?”

Cassie looked down at their outfits. Both wore T-shirts—Trey’s a broken in-Bobcats shirt; Cassie’s, a shirt with a waving flag carrying the word “Nerd”—and jeans. Though Trey had kept his running shoes on. “We want it to be casual. Like it’s no big deal that we’re dating, so we didn’t get all glossed out to do the interview. Just a casual one-on-one with a friend.”

“Two-on-one, but gotcha. Works for me.” She moved them over to the couch and asked them to hold still for a while while she fixed up the tripod and some lamps. “Killian, are you staying?”

“Just consider me your assistant.”

She glanced toward Trey and Cassie, cuddling on the couch, and lowered her voice. “Where’s Charlie?”

“Emma got him early this morning.” He hadn’t bothered to lower his voice at all. “Before that, Irene babysat him while I was at the game, and Mrs. Reynolds while I was at practice.” When she blinked in surprise, he added, “Irene Jordan, Coach’s daughter?”

“Yeah, I . . . oh.” When she glanced back at the couch, Trey and Cassie were smiling widely at them, clearly in on the situation. “So they know about Charlie.”

“They do, and a few others. I’m not going nuts like these two and broadcasting his existence, but its time to stop being scared about it when I’m with people I trust.” He brushed a hand over her cheek, working his way around to the back of her neck to cup her head. “We’ll talk about it later. But just know . . .” He kissed her gently before stepping back. “I’m done with secrets.”

“Oh,” she breathed. It wasn’t quite the declaration of love she’d hoped for, but it was something more than she’d had five minutes ago. Something to build on. “Okay, well . . . if you’re staying, can you run down to the manager’s office and confiscate two lamps?”

As he gave her a little cheeky salute and headed out the door, she blew out a breath. Time to make some magic.

And then, time to do it all over again. With Killian.

* * *

Killian and Aileen waved good-bye to Cassie and Trey as they headed out her door, letting it close behind them. She flopped onto the couch with an exhausted huff. “That was insane.”

“That was . . . actually fun.” He sat next to her, pulling her feet into his lap. She’d kicked off the dressy flats an hour earlier, and he rubbed a thumb against her arch. She purred, the sound sending a bolt of lightning straight to his groin. “Different being on your side of the camera. No wonder you like it.”

“You were just an assistant. When you’re the one calling the shots, asking the questions, and trying to coax the right answers out, it’s not so much fun as a big puzzle that you’re not allowed to lose.” Her eyes sank closed and she nudged at his wrist with her other foot. “Switch, please.”

He did.

“Do you miss him when he’s gone?” she asked quietly after a minute had passed.

“All the time. He’s a cool kid.” He waited for her to shift and settle back down. “He loves Legos and the Avengers. He’s awesome with numbers, but hates spelling. Identical to me when I was that age.”

“He’s exactly what I think of when I try to picture you as a kid.”

“You’ll meet him next visit.” When she didn’t answer that, he looked at her. She was watching him with intensity, but no hint of where her mind was heading. “If you want to, that is. Do you like kids?”

“I do, for the few I’ve had interaction with.” She slid her feet from his lap and sat up, putting a distance between them he didn’t care for. “Killian, I feel like we’re skipping a dozen steps here. There’s still stuff I don’t know, that you don’t know, that—”

“I know you never would have run the story about Charlie, even before we first made love,” he interrupted, wanting to get through the worst of it before she could argue. “I know I should have trusted you sooner. I know your job and my job together might make things awkward from time to time, and I know I don’t care.”

“Killian—”

“I know that the last week without having you near me sucked so much, I was ready to come kidnap you in the middle of the night just to have you near me.”

She breathed in deeply, but didn’t try to interrupt.

“And I know I love you,” he finished quietly, watching her eyes widen in shock. “I know I could have really broken something forever—or maybe I did—and I’m too stubborn to admit it. But I know I won’t give up on us yet.”