Eric puts the truck into park, and I help Nina out of her seatbelt.

“Are there gonna be piggies, and doggies, and horsies, and—”

“Yep,” I say, “All of them!”

Nina’s face lights up, and she grabs Eric’s arm. “Daddy! Daddy! Can I ride the horsies?”

We look at each other. I don’t want to let Nina onto a full-sized horse.

“We’ll see,” Eric says.

“That means no!” Nina says, crossing her arms.

Eric ruffles her hair and grins. “Smart girl.”

Aiden and Maya walk out the front door and onto the porch. Felix runs up behind Maya and grabs hold of her leg.

He’s a few months younger than Nina, but I can tell he’s definitely afraid of girls.

I give Maya a hug, and when I go to shake Aiden’s hand, he hugs me instead.

Maya and Aiden got together shortly after the bet incident—and they even ended up winning New York’s Best Couple.

After it got out that Dmitri was on the other end of the bet, people figured out how much Aiden had helped to bring him down. He became a pretty big deal, and then when it came to light that he’d grabbed Maya on the rebound—another girl from the same Brooklyn bike shop—the tabloids went crazy for that perfect storm of gossip fodder.

Eric and I had a huge laugh about it all, especially because Aiden hated it. He begrudgingly went through all the motions for the whole year, and everyone ended up going crazy when Maya ended up pregnant right at the end of their “term” as best couple.

I was just happy that they absorbed the spotlight away from us. The tabloids never quite forgave Eric—it was too easy for them to buy back into the idea that he was a bad playboy who cared nothing for my feelings.

When we stayed happily together for six months, then a year, and then had a kid... it was too late, and they’d lost interest in us anyway.

Aiden said that him no longer being a billionaire played a lot into it.

“We can only stay a few days,” I say. “But this is so great of you to have us.”

Aiden smiles. “Big important lawyer lady can only spare a few days for my simple farm?”

It still feels weird to actually be a lawyer. I only got a real job beyond document review a few months ago. All of the hard work finally paid off.

“Do you have pigs?” Nina asks Felix.

Felix looks shyly out from behind Maya’s legs.

“Come on, son,” Aiden says. “She won’t bite.”

“I’m not afraid of a girl!” Felix says, finally letting go of Maya’s legs. “Yeah, we have a lot of pigs.”

“Are they fat?” Nina asks.

Felix nods.

I lean down a bit to get closer to Nina and Felix’s level. “Can you show us, Felix?”

“This way,” he says, suddenly looking a lot more brave.

We go on a tour of the farm, and Nina almost dies of happiness when Aiden’s three dogs run out from the barn to follow us around.

He has a golden retriever, a corgi, and a pug. The corgi tries to herd the other two, who will have none of that, and the retriever keeps picking up sticks and bringing them to Maya, who ignores him. The pug wheezes and breathes heavy, just happy to walk along with the humans.

“He wants Mom to throw it,” Felix says to Nina.

“I’ll throw it.”

“Make sure you wash your hands after!” I say, terrified at how much I’ve come to sound like a mom.

Nina reaches out and grasps the stick. The retriever pulls a little bit, but Maya scowls at him, and he finally releases the stick.

Nina throws it as best she can, but it only goes four or five feet. The retriever overshoots, expecting an adult’s throwing distance. The corgi runs after, trying to herd the golden retriever as it turns back for the stick.

Nina laughs as the retriever picks up the stick and brings it back, its tail wagging wildly.

* * *

After the tour, Nina decides she’s going to be a farmer when she grows up. But not just a farmer, a farmer who also does competitive horse riding, dog breeding, and is also somehow a princess.

“I’d rather live in the city,” Felix says.

“Let’s trade,” Nina says. “Or Mom, you can quit your boring job and we can get a farm too.”

I kiss her on the forehead and say as sweetly as I can, “We are never going to live on a farm, sweetie.”

Eric laughs, and Nina pouts.

“Dad!” she whines. “Tell Mom to change her mind!”

“We can visit here whenever you want,” Eric says, avoiding picking a side.

Eric has gotten really into carpentry lately. It wouldn't be fair to say he’s just “into it,” he’s good at it. Not that we even need the money, but a single table from Eric Prince is worth over ten thousand dollars, and not because of his old tabloid infamy. His products are just that good.

I know he’d be pretty happy to live on a farm, or to at least live a bit out of the city. I can imagine him chopping wood in a tight shirt, then going back to some kind of workshop he made with his own two hands to process the logs into boards.

I smile thinking about it. “We’ll think about it, sweetie, maybe we don’t have to live in the city. I’d still have to be able to take the train to work.”

“As long as we can have horsies, and pigs, and three dogs, and…”

I let her go on imagining it. I’m not ready to raise a whole barnyard of animals, but if Eric wants to get out of the city, I’d be willing to compromise.