The Wedding She Survived novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Saturday Rules

Killian was at the harbor park forty minutes early on Saturday.

He had a paper bag in one hand and a folding chair in the other, and he put the chair down a careful ten feet away from the bench I'd claimed.

"That's far enough," I said.

"I wasn't going to ask."

The kids came running across the grass in their jackets with the zippers up to their chins.

Poppy stopped three feet from him and looked him over.

"Mommy says you don't give presents," she said.

"That's right."

"What's in the bag?"

"Sandwiches," Killian said. "Is a sandwich a present?"

Poppy looked at me.

"Sandwiches are allowed," I said.

Finn took one before the bag was open and sat down on Killian's shoe.

"I'm Finn," he said. "I'm the middle one."

"I know," Killian said. "You're the middle one, and you were born second."

"How do you know?"

"I asked your mother."

He hadn't. I had told him by text on Thursday night, in one line, so he wouldn't ask for more.

Sebastian stood back and watched with his arms folded.

"Do you have a boat?" he said at last.

"My family builds them," Killian said. "I could show you pictures."

"Did you build the red one at the end of the dock?"

"My grandfather did."

"Cool," said Sebastian, and sat down in the dirt next to Finn.

I watched my son choose to sit beside him.

I hadn't prepared for how much that would hurt.

For the next hour, Killian did what I'd have asked of him if I'd thought to ask.

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