The crisp notes of Vincent’s alarm stirred him from light slumber to full alertness, and he grabbed his phone with his eyes still closed to turn it off. For a moment he lay still and silent, listening to see if the noise had woken Mal, but heard nothing. Confident that he’d turned the alarm off before it could become an issue, Vincent dragged himself across the bed and went to wrap an arm around Mal to find that he wasn’t there anymore. The bed was empty and the sheets were cold.

Vincent opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbow. He listened more intently, searching for noise beyond the hum of the heater and the distant sound of people talking down the hall. He’d hoped to hear Mal in the bathroom, but the more he listened, the less likely it seemed that Mal was still in the room. There was no shuffle of bare feet on bathroom tile and no hint that the shower or sink was running. When Vincent looked down the short hall leading to the bathroom, he didn’t see a strip of light shine out from beneath the bathroom door.

Mal was gone. Vincent wasn’t going to get to say goodbye.

He plopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment, pulling himself out of his crushing disappointment, then turned his head to look at the space where Mal had slept. There, previously unseen, was a sheet of paper. Vincent plucked it from the bedding and held it up. The note was short, and the handwriting was shaky and rushed—or maybe messy by design.

Vincent—

Something came up, and I had to go. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye. I had a great time last night, and I hope you did, too. If you ever find yourself back in Aurora, let me know. I’ll make sure my pumpkin is available for a drive around town. :)

x Mal

Vincent frowned. He dropped his arm and let it bounce against the mattress. The paper crinkled beneath his fingers, but didn’t fold.

After what he’d shared with Mal last night, he’d thought that Mal would want to stick around. Mal had opened up to him, and Vincent had opened up in return. They’d been good together. But Vincent’s choice in lovers had been questionable in the past, and he wondered if he hadn’t been misreading the signs. Maybe Mal wasn’t the kind of man Vincent had imagined he was—but that didn’t explain why he’d leave a note like he had, complete with a hand-drawn smiley face.

Vincent slapped a hand over his eyes and groaned. What was it with him and smiley faces lately? It really was like he was twelve again, obsessing over every little punctuation and nuance in a text. If he was going to get hung up on details like this, then maybe it was a good thing that Mal had gone. His heart was too easily entangled. He’d been single for the last handful of years for a reason—it was safer to keep himself closed off than to fall fast and hard and be broken along the way.

Delicately, Vincent transferred the note to the bedside table, then sucked in a noisy breath through his nose and let it out just as loudly. He sat up, stretched, and was about to get out of bed when he noticed Mal’s vibrator was still on the bedside table, where he’d put it after retrieving it from the condom before they’d fallen asleep.

Vincent frowned. If he’d had the time, he would have given it to Gwynn to return to Mal—closely cleaned and discreetly packaged, of course—but time was a commodity he didn’t have in abundance. In a few hours, he was due at the airport. Nikki was waiting.

Maybe next month, when they said goodbye to the city they’d always known and hello to Aurora, Vincent could return the vibrator in person.

He left it on the bedside table to pack later, climbed out of bed, and went to start his morning routine. What a hell of a whirlwind weekend it had been.

Knowing his luck, it wouldn’t be long before that whirlwind turned into a hurricane.

“Hey, sweet stuff.” Vincent smiled at his phone, watching as his five-year-old daughter, Nikki, squinted at him on the screen of her tablet suspiciously. Her long brown hair was brushed so not a strand was out of place—Melissa’s doing, no doubt. It seemed that whenever Melissa had custody of Nikki, she went out of her way to prove that their daughter was better cared for than she was with Vincent. “What’s up?”

“Mommy says you’re coming home today,” Nikki said. “Are you?”

“Yes.”

“When are you going to get here?”

“In about…” Vincent glanced at the time on the display screen of his gate’s flight status. “Six hours.”

“That’s a long time.” Nikki sighed. “I was hoping you’d be back early today so that we could watch more Heaven, Locked together.”

“We might still have time. We can watch at least one episode.”

“Really?” Nikki smiled at him, looking far too much like her mother. “I don’t want to watch it with Mommy because she doesn’t get it like you do. She says it’s too grown up for me to watch. So you need to come home!”

Vincent grinned. “I’m on my way. I’m in the airport right now, waiting for the plane to get here. Why don’t you spend some time today helping your mom around the house? I’m sure she’d love the extra set of hands.”

Nikki scrunched her nose. “I guess.”

“That’s my girl.”

“But if I do, then tonight, we get to watch an episode for sure!”

“Deal.”

Heaven, Locked was rated above Nikki’s age range, but so far, Nikki had been handling it well. They watched every episode together so Vincent could be there to supervise just in case Nikki got overwhelmed, but so far, he hadn’t needed to police much. And, frankly, if he had a choice between cut-and-paste pampered princesses learning recycled life lessons and a young female demon with heavenly aspirations who’d discovered a conspiracy to keep celestials out of the divine plane, Heaven, Locked won out every time.

“Did you see our house when you were there?” Nikki asked. “Is my room nice?”

“I didn’t get to see it,” Vincent admitted. “But I know your room is going to be fantastic. Have you thought about how you want to decorate?”

“Yeah!” Nikki grinned, showing off her gap-toothed smile. “I want flames on my walls.”

Flames didn’t sound like they’d be easily painted over. “How about Heaven, Locked posters instead?”

Nikki looked at him like he’d just suggested that seawater was a fine replacement for saline.

“We’ll come up with something,” Vincent assured her with a laugh. He leaned back in the plastic airport chair he occupied and crossed one leg over the other. “Are you good with pizza tonight for dinner?”

“Can we make it?” Nikki asked, her outrage instantly forgotten. She smiled more widely than ever. “Please?”

“We’ll see what time it is when I make it home, okay? If we’re going to make it from scratch, we’re going to need to go to the store. I was thinking we’d order it.”

Nikki scrunched her lips to the side. “Okay. I guess that’s fine.”

Vincent had learned that “fine” wasn’t only a codeword for “not fine” in mature women, but in young girls as well. “We’ll have pizza night for sure next week. We can even roast some pepper slices just the way you like.”

“Okay.” Nikki smiled. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“Love you, sweet stuff. I’m going to get going, okay?”

“Okay. Love you, too.” Nikki blew him a kiss, then curled her fingers in a wave and turned off the video chat. When she was gone, Vincent dropped his head back so his neck was exposed and let out a long breath that ended once his lungs were flattened and his insides were compressed. Leaving Nikki behind had been hard. When he left town to attend conferences, he had work to distract himself with, and it was easier to cast aside his guilt. This was the first time he’d left on a vacation without her since she’d been born, and while she was handling it just fine, Vincent couldn’t help but feel like, no matter for how short a time, he’d abandoned her.

When he got home, he’d make an effort to get to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients they needed to make pizza. It was worth the effort. Nikki wouldn’t stay little forever, and before he knew it, she wouldn’t be excited to spend time with him anymore. The last five years had already passed by in a flash, and the next five were likely to hit him just as fast, if not faster.

He had to cherish these moments while he still had them.

Before Vincent could put his phone away, it buzzed. KnotMyProblem had woken up.

KnotMyProblem: @xVerity You sly dog, you. Harley and I each had a drink in your honor last night. You better have done us proud and gotten lucky. Didn’t know you were into older guys, but, you know, whatever floats your boat.

xVerity: You must have been out late if you’re only waking up now. It’s going on eleven in the morning.

KnotMyProblem: Nice attempt at deflection there, Mr. Smooth Stuff ;) but you can’t pull the wool over my eyes that easily. You boned him, didn’t you?

xVerity: I didn’t bone anyone.

KnotMyProblem: Sorry. I forgot. You probably whisked him off his feet with a rose between your teeth and made passionate love to him all night long, didn’t you?

Vincent snorted. A smirk crept across his lips.

xVerity: That’s a little closer to the truth.

KnotMyProblem: xV, you’re my HERO.

xVerity: I’m not sure whether to be flattered or offer my condolences

KnotMyProblem: Where are you rn btw? Harley and I were going to go get breakfast or something. I’m going to shower, then I’m going to kick his door until he wakes up. You’re welcome to join us

xVerity: Thanks for the offer, but I’m already at the airport

KnotMyProblem: Bummer

KnotMyProblem: When we come back for TD’s wedding, let’s book some time off so we can vacation together, okay? Because the couple hours we had together wasn’t enough by a long shot. Will your top-secret job let you off for a week?

Vincent held back a laugh.

xVerity: I think I can arrange for that.

KnotMyProblem: Then do!

KnotMyProblem: It’s going to be amazing. All us sort-of-Single Dads, chilling. By that time Gwynn won’t be a newlywed, so he can actually come hang out with us without sneaking off to a bathroom stall with his boy every half hour.

LoveHarley: omg he was all about canoodling yesterday. It was great haha

KnotMyProblem: Well, well, well… look who’s awake. How’s the hangover?

LoveHarley: I’m fresh as a daisy and my mind is crystal clear. You ready to go for round two? ;)

KnotMyProblem: You monster. You’re not really human, are you?

LoveHarley: Only half the time.

An agent approached the check-in counter by Vincent’s gate. He looked away from the conversation to watch as she keyed a few things into the computer at the desk. The information on the overhead screen updated—boarding was about to start. Flight staff had already arrived at the scene, and they filed in ones and twos through the doors at the gate and down the bridge. Less patient fliers began to crowd the cordoned-off area by the check-in counter.

xVerity: My plane is about to board. I’ll be skybound soon. Sorry I didn’t get to hang out with you guys more, but I’m looking forward to next time. Let’s try to coordinate our hotels so we’re all staying in the same place.

LoveHarley: Travel safe, xV. Tag all of us when you arrive back home, okay?

KnotMyProblem: You gonna work on getting into the mile-high club? ;) Or maybe you already claimed your membership on the way in. Fuck, I feel like I’ve still got so much to learn about our mysterious leader. You’re one hell of a guy, xV.

KnotMyProblem: Oh, and be safe and all that. Look at Harley, making me look bad. Don’t make the next Single Dad group event a funeral, okay?

Vincent smiled.

xVerity: Duly noted.

xVerity: Reminder: you guys are the best. I’ll see you in an hour or six.

Vincent returned his phone to his pocket before he could get sucked back into the conversation, then retrieved his wallet to have his driver’s license at the ready for the boarding agent. Tucked into the fold was a piece of paper, carefully creased. Vincent paused and ran his thumb over it, parting the corners to reveal the handwritten smiley face near its edge, then shook his head.

Back to Corvallis, back to real life.

At least, for now.

Soon enough he’d be on his way back to Aurora for good, and after that, who knew what would happen? The future was what he’d make of it. He’d proved that to himself last night.

The only one who could hold him back now was himself.