The next morning, Tom woke up early. He showered, got dressed, and grabbed his new wallet before heading outside the room and over to the one adjacent to his, knocking loudly on the door. After a moment, Michael answered, sleep filling his eyes.

"What?" he asked. "Is everything okay?"

"I got us tickets to Disneyland, man," Tom said with a grin. "Park hopper, obviously. I have the whole day mapped out. Remember, we talked about this yesterday, during morning skate? You said you were in. You were excited about it. Please don't tell me you forgot."

"I didn't forget." Michael rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I sent you a text."

"My phone was stolen, remember?" Tom couldn't control the edge in his voice if he tried. "What do you mean, you sent me a text? Why are you sending me texts in the first place?"

Michael sighed. "Look, Tom," he said, shifting his weight. "I can't… I'm not going to make it. I'm sorry. I just have a lot I need to do today. We still need to prepare for Arizona and I'd like to get some more ice time with Cherney. He said he only had time to fit me in today."

"Ice time?" Tom asked. "There's no morning skate today. It's why I picked today to do Disneyland."

"I know," Michael said. "I meant one-on-one time with Cherney. He agreed."

"You never said you wanted one-on-one time with Cherney," Tom pointed out. The back of his neck was starting to prickle with uncomfortable caresses.

"I don't have to tell you everything I do, Tom," Michael said. His tone was tight but he wasn't trying to be cruel. It was as though he wanted to break the news to his brother lightly, while keeping a firm edge to his voice to restate how serious he was. "We're both looking at teams. We don't have to end up on the same one. We're not the Sedin twins."

"Yeah, but could you just, I don't know, let me know?" Tom said.

"I tried," Michael said. "I texted you."

"And I told you my phone was stolen."

"I'm sorry." Michael glanced down the hall. "Maybe Rory will go with you. She mentioned wanting to go to Disneyland. I don't think she's ever been before."

Tom didn't get a chance to respond because Michael shut the door. Tom knew better than to try and fight him. In fact, Michael made a decent suggestion. Maybe Aurora would like to go to Disneyland with him. He walked to the door on the other side of Michael's and knocked. He wasn't surprised when she answered almost immediately, toothbrush in one hand, hair wrapped up in a towel.

"Hey." Her voice sounded garbled.

"Look, this is going to be weird, but Michael just canceled on me and I don't want the ticket to go to waste since it was nearly two hundred dollars," he said. "Did you want to go to Disneyland with me?"

Aurora blinked once, twice. Then, her lips twitched up and she nearly choked on her toothpaste. "Are you serious?" she asked, eyes wide.

Tom chuckled despite himself. "Yeah," he said with a nod. "I am."

She squealed—Aurora actually squealed—and dropped her toothbrush in order to jump into his arms for a hug. Tom was startled and nearly dropped her but he held her steady. He was actually surprised to see her this way, hair damp and dripping, practically naked, with toothpaste bunched at the corner of her lips. For some strange reason, his eyes closed at the closeness of the two of them and he breathed her in. She smelled like vanilla and flowers. He immediately felt at home. At peace.

"Uh, I should probably go and get dressed then," Aurora mumbled, pulling away from him and staring at the floor. She jutted her thumb over her shoulder and backed into the room. "Did you want to—"

"I'll just stay out here," he said at the same time, then shook his head and forced a smile. "I'm fine right here. Really. Not a problem."

She nodded her head. "Okay," she said and then softly shut the door behind her.

Tom stood outside with the overwhelming sensation of not knowing what to do with his hands. He tried shoving them into his pockets but it caused his shoulders to bunch up. Hanging them at his sides felt awkward. Crossing them over his chest made him feel like an asshole.

This wasn't like him. Being uncomfortable because of a woman. Because of Aurora. For goodness' sake, he had known her for three years now, and besides the fact that she was smarter than he would ever hope to be and the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous, Aurora was known for getting on his nerves rather than actually affecting him in anyway. He started kicking the carpet with his toes. which made no sense but it gave him something to do that wasn't thinking of Aurora.

At that moment, Aurora popped out in a checked shirt—blue and purple—and shorts that revealed toned legs. On her feet was a sensible pair of Adidas. Her hair was pulled into two braids and he had to bite his bottom lip and resist calling her Pippy Longstocking to annoy her. The last thing he wanted was them at each other’s throats the whole day, especially considering he was already upset with Michael bailing on him.

"Ready?" Tom asked.

"Hell yes!" she exclaimed. He had never seen her look so purely happy before now, and it made him stomach flip again. Probably because he wasn't used to doing things, just the two of them. "Remind me when we get there to grab an autograph book. I'm just so bummed we're only going for a day. I don't think we can do all of it in one day, you know?"

Tom smiled and inwardly shook his head. He hadn't expected Aurora to be so enthusiastic, but he liked it. It was contagious.

The pair got into the SUV and headed up to Anaheim, taking the 55 freeway and then merging onto the the 5. Because they left relatively early, traffic wasn't terrible. It took them about twenty-five minutes to get to the Mickey and Friends structure. There was traffic inside the structure, however. Multiple lanes were clogged with people, who all had the same idea they did. They wanted to get to Disneyland early.

As they got closer to the ticket booth, Tom managed to catch sight of parking prices. "What do you think?" he asked. "Do we pay for a regular parking spot? Or do we go for broke and pay for preferred?"

"Let's do preferred," Aurora said. "We only live once, am I right?"

Tom grinned. He was hoping she would say that. It took another ten minutes to park his car. They were on the third level, which was Mickey, in the first row, close to the escalator due to the fact that they paid extra for preferred. Once the car was parked, they got out and headed down to the trams. They had to go through security. Because they only had Aurora's purse for the security guard to search through rather than multiple bags and a stroller, they got through security with ease and managed to hop onto the next tram. The tram ride was five minutes, slow and easy, but Tom felt his anticipation increase He was excited. Aurora was excited. He could feel it radiating off of her just as he was sure the same thing was happening to him.

When the tram dropped them off, they headed toward the park entrance. On their left was Disneyland, on their right was California Adventure. Disneyland's lines were longer but Tom didn't care. Without saying anything, the two stepped into the Disneyland line. Tom had the two paper tickets the hotel printed out for him. The ticket taker exchanged the paper ticket for a smaller one with Disney characters on it and took Aurora and Tom's individual picture to go with each ticket.

"Don't lose this," the taker instructed with a smile on her face. "You can get into both parks for today using this ticket."

They both nodded. Each of them grabbed a map and a white sheet of show times and headed into the park.

"Don't forget," Tom said as they followed the crowd to the left. "You want an autograph book."

"Right," Aurora said. There was a small shop just before the mouth of a small curved entranceway, underneath the black train that went around Disneyland. "Do you want one?"

Tom opened his mouth, ready to say no. He was excited but he wasn't planning on actually getting autographs from characters. That would be ridiculous.

"Absolutely," he found himself saying, regardless.

She bought him one, even though he was ready with his debit card. She waved him away and handed him an autograph book and a ridiculously sized Disney pen to go with it.

"Please," she told him. "You paid for my ticket. You invited me. This is the least I could do." She smiled as she stepped out. "Oh, look! It's Mickey, right there. Come on!"

Disneyland was much better than he expected it to be—which was saying something because he hadn't had any doubt that Disneyland would be fun. Aurora was the perfect person to go with. She was enthusiastic and never once made him feel bad for being excited to go on Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones. He didn't think it was possible, but she seemed to be more excited than he was.

They stopped and met as many characters as they could, getting pictures and autographs. Tom was still waiting for his replacement phone so everything was on Aurora's for now.

They did all the rides they could do in the amount of time they had, which meant they were at Disneyland the whole time, even though they technically could have hopped over to California Adventure. They ate breakfast at the Plaza Inn and lunch at the Jolly Holiday and dinner at the Blue Bayou. In all honesty, Tom thought he would want to go home after dinner simply because he had been here since eight o'clock in the morning. However, the fact that dinner came with reserved seating for Fantazmic, a show that took place on Tom Sawyer Island that was filled with villains and boats and dragons and Mickey Mouse, he had a spurt of energy.

The show was at 10:30pm, an hour after the fireworks began. Despite the fact that they were still doing things, they were taking it easier than they had. As the show progressed, Tom saw Aurora tear up and then comb her hair in her face so she could pretend the show wasn't moving her to the point of tears.

His heart squeezed at the sight.

The minute Mickey Mouse shot fireworks into the sky, Tom leaned over and took Aurora's face in his, leaning forward. His palm caressed her cheeks. What was he doing? Why wasn't she pulling away from him? Why was she looking at him like that? He couldn't answer that. Maybe it didn't matter. As reds and greens filled the night sky, he met her lips with his own. His eyes slipped shut. She pressed against his. They lingered.

It wasn't a kiss he had ever experienced before. It was more than a peck, but there wasn't that raw passion—at least not yet.

But there was…something. Something meaningful. Something more than he ever expected.