Page 68 of Knox

I chuckled. “I’ll take it.”

“What about me?” Crew teased.

Grady wrinkled his forehead. “What do you mean? You’re my dad.”

Crew ruffled his son’s hair. “Fair enough. Now it’s time for bed.”

He yawned again. “Will you read me a story?”

“You’re already up way past your bedtime, kiddo.”

“Just a short one. Please,” Grady pleaded.

Crew looked at me through the screen. “Want to listen in on story time?”

I nodded. “I love story time.”

With one hand on Grady’s shoulder and the other holding the phone, Crew led his son to his bedroom, propped the phone up so I could see the bed, and got him tucked in before grabbing a story about a T-Rex and his dinosaur friends.

Grady passed out only a few pages in, and I watched as Crew pulled the blanket up around his shoulders, kissed him on the forehead, and took the phone and moved out of the room as quietly as he could.

He eased the door shut behind him and walked back to our bedroom. “I’m glad you called. I’m missing you already.”

“Miss you more.”

“That’s impossible.” He smirked.

“At least this should be the last road trip without you.”

“It needs to hurry up and be over with already.”

I laughed. “You’ll have me back home soon enough.”

“Looking forward to that,” he confessed.

“And what exactly do you plan on doing to me when I get back home?” I asked, followed by a huge yawn that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Crew barked out a laugh. “As much as I would like to explain it to you in vivid detail, you look exhausted. You should get some sleep.”

“I’m never too tired for you,” I mumbled, my eyelids getting heavy.

“Right.” He shook his head. “Still, I don’t want to risk getting a call from Skip bitching at me for keeping you up too late. We can chat tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’ll be dreaming of you, though.”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

As soon as I ended the call, I stripped out of my clothes and climbed into bed.

The space beside me might have been empty, but my heart was full, and in the grand scheme of things, that was all I really needed.

Four days later,when we rolled into Chicago, the doubts and fears were trying to take root in my mind, but I forced myselfto focus on the positives. Crew had answered most of my calls, even if we could only chat for a few seconds. He’d replied to my texts even if it took a while to get a few words back from him. And sure, his phone had gone straight to voicemail when I had called him from the airport, but that didn’t mean I needed to be worried. At least I hoped it didn’t.

As soon as we were on the bus, I sent him a text:

Tried to call you. Hope all is good