“Paige!” the excited little voice carried down the hallway, his face mirroring the excitement in his voice. “It worked! It worked! Daddy ate all the chocolate and then watched a movie with me!”

“He did? That’s great, Bayles!” she returned his enthusiasm, glad to see him smiling again. “What did you watch?” she asked as soon as he reached her, kneeling down so that she was eye-level with the small child.

“The Lion King. It daddy’s favorite,” Baylee responded, giving Paige the biggest smile he could muster. “Thank you for making daddy not be mad at me anymore,” Baylee graciously stated, wrapping his little arms tightly around her neck in a hug.

“Awww, Baylee. You don’t have to thank me, kiddo,” she told him, returning the hug with just as much fervor as the young boy. “But I love hugs. You can give me a hug anytime you want to.”

“Okay!” he exclaimed, his smile brightening even more – if that was at all possible.

“Hey, I have an idea, Bayles. Why don’t we go to the San Diego zoo? You know, they have one of the best zoos in the world,” Paige suggested, looking at Erica for her approval as she joined the duo. “What do you think, Erica? Do you think Brian would mind?”

“I don’t think he’d have a problem with it,” Erica responded before turning her attention to the miniature version of her boss. “What do you think, Baylee? Want to go to the zoo?

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, starting to jump around in his excitement. “Can we bring Uncle Nick? He loves the zoo. But he’s afraid of the sharks,” Baylee grimly informed the rest of the group.

“Uncle Nick has rehearsals all day today. But we’ll still have fun just the three of us, right Kiddo?” Paige regretfully informed him, upset that she was disappointing him – even if the situation was out of her control.

“Right!” he announced, the smile once again returning to his jubilant, young face.

“Let me go get my purse and tell Mr. Littrell where we’re going, and I’ll be right back,” Erica declared, already headed back to the dressing room to retrieve said purse. As if reading Paige’s mind, she added, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him you’re going with us. Some things are just better left unsaid.”

“Thanks, Erica,” Paige gratefully responded, glad to have another ally on her team.

*At the zoo*

“Ooooh! That’s awesome! Did you see it roar? I wish I had a pet tiger. Do you think it would daddy could buy me a tiger for my birthday? It’s only six months away. I’ll be six! I can take care of it all by myself. Do you think he’ll get me one?” Baylee asked, never once stopping to give anyone else a chance to speak. He had been a constant ball of energy all day long – just like his father had always been. It was actually quite cute to watch, and Paige was having genuine fun for the first time since the loss of her family. Baylee was just what she needed to get her life back on track, and she was extremely grateful for the chance to spend the day with him, no matter how quickly it seemed to be passing.

“I think a tiger is too big for you to have as a pet. How about a cat instead? They’re just like tigers, only a little bit smaller,” Paige suggested, laughing at the crestfallen look that appeared across his pouting face at her refusal.

“Okay. But can I get one with stripes? And can I name the cat ‘Tiger?’” he questioned, his eyes shining with hope. “That way, I can still pretend he’s a tiger and then have him jump through the hoops and roar at people.”

“You can name him whatever you want to,” Paige agreed, her smile showing her amusement. “Hey Bayles? Are you hungry?” she asked, noticing for the first time that they’d made it to the food court.

“Yeah!” he shouted, his smile once again returning full force.

“What do you want to eat, Little Man?” she asked, looking around and examining her options. “There’s chicken, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, and nachos,” she listed, her eyes darting between the two restaurants in front of her, Flamingo Café and Lagoon Terrace.

“PIZZA!” he excitedly announced, giving Paige a smirking smile, which she had dubbed the Nick smirk, named after the culprit who was undoubtedly behind teaching Baylee how to do it.

“Alright. Pizza it is,” she agreed, heading toward the Lagoon Terrace restaurant.

“Pizza is Uncle Nick’s favorite! He used to eat it all the time, but not anymore. Since he went on his diet,” he explained, drawing out the word “diet” so that it sounded like he was saying something entirely different. “He doesn’t eat ice cream anymore either. Or chips. Or cookies and cake. Or McDonald’s. He eats salads and vegetables now,” he added, skewing up his nose in disgust as he said the word “vegetables,” which came out sounding more like “veggie tables.”

“Uncle Nick wanted to get healthy for the tour. That’s why he’s on a diet,” Paige explained. “He wanted to be able to perform on tour better, so he decided to lose some weight and start exercising more.”

“And so he can pick up chicks and get married someday, right?” Baylee innocently questioned, not knowing the meaning behind his words.

“Where did you hear that?!” Paige exclaimed, shocked to hear that sentence coming from the 5-year-old boy by her side.

“Uncle AJ said…” he began, before being cut off by Paige.

“That’s all I needed to know,” she laughed, unable to believe AJ had let that slip in front of Baylee. Over the years raising her son, Tristan, Paige had learned a valuable lesson about the interactions between children and adults. Children were acutely aware of everything being said by the adults in the room. However, the adults usually either had no idea there were children in the room, or they just didn’t realize that what they were saying should have been edited for the children’s sake. “Remind me to have a talk with Uncle AJ, okay Bayles?”

“Uh oh! Uncle AJ’s in trouble,” Baylee observed, knowing those words well from the times his mother and father had argued. “You’re not going to leave because Uncle AJ’s in trouble, are you?” he questioned, thinking about his own mother and how she had left when his father and her had fought.

“Oh Baylee, no! I’m not going to leave because of Uncle AJ. I promise. It will take more than that to get me to leave you, kiddo. And I promise, when the tour’s over and I do leave, I’m still going to call you all the time and hang out with you. How’s that?” Paige promised, touched by the thought of Baylee’s growing fondness for her.   

“Promise?” he mumbled, his pout making it hard for him to talk clearly.

“Promise. You can’t get rid of me that easily, Bayles. I’m here for a long time,” she assured the worried child, pulling him in for a big hug. “What do you say we go get some food now, huh?” she questioned, changing the mood. “Should we call Erica and tell her we’re eating?” After nearly three hours straight of wandering the zoo, Erica had gotten tired and had opted to stay at one of the coffee shops by the entrance while the other two continued on their journey, un-phased by the lack of their third group member’s presence.

“Yeah. She was really tired. I think she misses her boyfriend,” Baylee added, suddenly worried about his nanny and friend.

“Why do you say that?” Paige asked.

“Because she talks to him all the time on the phone, and then she cries. She said she cries because of her boyfriend, so I think she misses him. She has a big, sparkly ring on her finger, like mommy used to have, so I think she’s going to get married to her boyfriend,” Baylee informed, looking up at Paige with worried eyes. “If she gets married, who’s going to take care of me?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m sure that if she gets married, you’ll be fine. Your daddy wouldn’t let you be alone. He loves you, honey, and it’s his job to protect you,” Paige told Baylee, easing his worries. “Besides, if Erica does leave, you can always hang out with me instead.”

“Really!? Cool!” he yelled, excited by the prospect.

“Way cool,” Paige agreed, smiling at the little boy who was so full of life. “Definitely way cool. I’m hungry kiddo. Let’s call Erica and then get something to eat! That way we can finish looking at all the animals,” she declared, already pulling her cell phone out of her purse.

“Alright!” Baylee sang, sounding just like his father at the end of the chorus in “Everybody.”

“Backstreet’s Back, alright,” Paige joked, before returning her attention back to the ringing phone in her hands. “Erica, hey….”

“Man, for a little guy, this kid is kind of heavy,” Paige noticed, the weight of the sleeping child in her arms making it hard for her to walk. “Or maybe I’m just weaker than I thought I was.”

“I can take him, if you’d like,” Erica offered, already reaching out to accept the little boy into her own arms.

“Naw, I’m fine. It’s just that he’s sleeping, so it’s dead weight. Besides, we’re almost to the room. I’ll be fine,” Paige declined, adjusting the boy again so he didn’t start slipping out of her grasp. “But I do think you’re going to have to open the door,” she kidded, looking at the other woman with a playful, joking smile on her face.

“I think I can manage,” she joked, flashing the first smile Paige had seen all day.

“Baylee told me about your boyfriend,” Paige mentioned, carefully broaching the subject. “He said your boyfriend makes you cry.”

“I had forgotten how observant kids were,” she smiled, looking down at the floor as they continued their journey back to the hotel. “We’re just going through a rough time right now. He proposed just before I left for this job, and I think it was just an attempt to keep me from going. Now, whenever I try to talk to him about getting married or setting a wedding date, he gets upset. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still with him if he gets that upset about the thought of marrying me,” she confessed, playing with the engagement ring on her finger as she spoke.

“Have you told him all of this? Have you told him that you feel like he doesn’t want to marry you – even after he proposed?” Paige questioned, adjusting Baylee again before returning her attention to the woman in front of her.

“Yes, but it only makes him that much more upset. It’s better to just ignore it instead of bringing it up anymore. But I just don’t know what else to do. I’m tired of fighting with him about the same things over and over again, but at the same time, I love him too much to just leave him now.”

“Well look at it this way,” Paige advised. “If you’re already tired of fighting with him now and you guys aren’t even married yet, how do you plan on making your marriage work? I hate to be the one to break it to you, but marriage isn’t this perfect little dream world everyone always likes to tell you about. I learned that the hard way. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of effort from both sides to make it work. If you’re tired of fighting now, there is no way your marriage will survive. Don’t get me wrong, if you find the right guy, it is totally worth the fights and the arguments, but you have to have the kind of guy who will be willing to work WITH you, not AGAINST you. Do you understand what I mean?” Paige asked, trying to help the younger woman make up her mind.

“Yeah…” she sighed, taking the other woman’s words into consideration. “But I can’t just stop loving him because we argue all the time,” she protested.

“I understand. But truthfully, sometimes love just isn’t enough,” she stated honestly, hating the truth of the situation, but know that it needed to be said.

“I’m beginning to see that,” Erica agreed, letting out a tired, disappointed sigh. “But how do I tell him that love just isn’t enough for us?”

“Just like that. Tell him that you love him, but you can’t live the rest of your life with someone who won’t work with you, who won’t compromise. Start with that and the rest will come,” Paige responded, stopping outside the door to Erica and Baylee’s room.

“Why does love always have to be so difficult?” Erica sighed, letting out a forced laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Because it wouldn’t be worth it in the end if you didn’t have to work for it and fight so hard to keep it,” she wisely explained, drawing from her own experiences with Shawn.  

“I know I haven’t told you this before, and I know it won’t help any, but I’m really sorry about your husband and son. It’s terrible what happened,” she sympathized.

Paige drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Yeah. I miss them both dearly, but I’m starting to think God has another plan for my future. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what that plan is and trust that God won’t lead me down the wrong path.”

“That’s all any of us can do,” Erica smiled. “Here, I’ll take Bay so that you can get some sleep,” she offered, holding out her arms for the sleeping child.

“Thanks. If you need to talk, I’m just down the hall,” Paige offered, carefully sliding the sleeping figure in her arms into the awaiting arms of the younger woman. “Thanks for letting me join you guys at the zoo.”

“I should be thanking you for giving me the day off,” Erica joked. “Anytime you want to hang out with us, you’re more than welcome to. And thanks for listening to me vent about Ryan. I guess I have a lot of thinking to do.”

“Anytime. Goodnight Erica. Night Bayles,” she added, kissing the little boy’s exposed forehead.

“Goodnight Paige. Sweet dreams.”

Sweet dreams? Yeah right. Paige thought, closing her own door softly behind her.