Kaleb clung to her like she was his whole goddamn world, and the worst part was—She held him just as tightly back.
"Missed you, missed you so much!" he whined into her shoulder, fists curling in the fabric of her top.
"I missed you too, my baby," Aria murmured, her voice thick with emotion as she pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. "I got you something. Two somethings, actually."
His head snapped up, his face lighting like the sun had cracked open just for him.
"You got me presents?!"
"Of course," she said, ruffling his hair.
I stood there, an outsider in a scene that somehow hit me harder than anything had in years.
Maybe ever.
Because when Aria smiled like that, so wide, so real, so full of unfiltered love...
It wasn't the same woman who snapped at me at work or tried to push me away. It was someone even more dangerous. Someone who could rip me apart from the inside out without even trying.
I didn't fucking know what to do with the way it made my chest ache.
