*****
“We’ll be home in five minutes,” Steven announced as he guided the car down the exit ramp of I-94.
“There’s no place like it,” Tierney said, smiling. It had been a wonderful weekend, but she had to go to work tomorrow. She was glad they’d left reasonably early, right after brunch. It was only three o’clock.
“And a good time was had by all,” Steven concluded.
Sienna piped up from the back seat. “I had fun at Miss Tracy’s, Daddy.”
“I’m real happy to hear that, Sienna. I know you and Kylie had a good time.”
“Can we go back soon?”
“We’ll see what we can do about that.” Steven smiled at Tracy across the console, then addressed Sienna again. “You know Daddy loves you very much, don’t you?”
Sienna beamed in the unabashed happiness of a child with no reason to hide her emotions. “I love you, too, Daddy.”
Tierney took a deep, satisfying breath. This weekend away had been just what they needed. Sienna felt happy and loved, and all three of them had a wonderful new life to look forward to.
It wasn’t until Steven had pulled into a parking space and turned off the ignition that she recalled what Steven had said to her on Friday night after they made love, just as she was falling asleep…
“You’ll always be special to me, Tierney. I’ll always be grateful to you for taking care of us.”
This weekend had been wonderful…and Steven had said some wonderfully sweet things to her, both Friday and Saturday nights….
Except the one word he’d just said to Sienna…the one word that mattered the most.