Page 36 of His Surrender

Beside me, Aubrey breaks into a run, one hand holding the blanket securely over the stroller while the other keeps her ponytail from whipping into her face.

“I can’t believe this!” she shouts over the rain.

“You wanted fall in New York!”

“I was picturing colorful leaves!”

“You got the full experience!”

She laughs so hard that she has to catch her breath.

Water splashes beneath our shoes as we hurry down the sidewalk, weaving around people scrambling for awnings and umbrellas.

“I think”—Aubrey pants between laughs— “I liked it better when we were lying in the grass.”

“I’ll make a note of that.”

By the time my building comes into view, we’re both completely drenched.

My clothes cling to my skin.

Aubrey’s sweatshirt is soaked through, dark strands of hair escaping her ponytail and sticking to her cheeks.

The doorman rushes toward us the moment he sees us. “I’ll get the door, Mr. Ledger!”

“Thanks.”

We wheel the stroller inside as quickly as we can.

The lobby feels wonderfully warm compared to the chilly rain outside.

Aubrey immediately kneels beside the stroller and lifts the blanket. “Dry as a bone,” she says with a relieved smile.

I lean over her shoulder, catching Liana yawn. I let out a quiet laugh. “I think she handled that better than we did.”

Aubrey brushes a damp strand of hair behind her ear and looks up at me, rainwater still dripping from the tip of her nose. “I don’t know …” she says with a grin. “That was kind of fun.”

I catch myself smiling back before I can stop it.

Yeah, it was.

The elevator doors slide shut behind us. Rainwater pools beneath our shoes as we stand in silence, both breathing a little harder from the run back.

I glance down at Liana, who is still asleep.

“Unbelievable,” I mutter.

Aubrey smiles. “She slept through all of that.”

“I don’t know how.”

The elevator dings.

As the doors open into the penthouse foyer, Aubrey immediately laughs. “I’m freezing.”

Without thinking, she peels her soaked sweatshirt over her head.

She’s left standing in a fitted white tank top that clings to her from the rain, the damp fabric outlining her silhouette far more than either of us expected.