After the whole fiasco with those evil toddlers, I decided I just needed Kiara to myself. Then it got me thinking about when I had to go to work. I didn't want to be leaving her home alone and I wasn't sure if she was ready to be around other humans. I already hated that stupid job. I didn't go through with a while engineering degree just to work a job I hated. I didn't want to see any of those women and based on our experience at the beach, Kiara didn't want any woman within a two mile radius of me.

"Alright. So, I've been thinking about when I have to go back to work. And I don't want to leave you everyday to go do a job that I never really liked to do." I told her, and suddenly her face morphed into a look of hurt, but it was more like guilt than anything.

I set the laptop down and placed her in my lap. She looked down, playing with the hem of my shirt. She didn't seem to be very happy about something I'd said.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I feel bad." She said, curling my shirt around her finger.

"Why?" I asked her.

"I r-ruined a lot of things for you." She told me. "You had to stop work, and then you had to do so much for me and now you have to go back but you're too worried about leaving me alone... I'm sorry I ruined everything."

"Hey. Kiara." I said, kissing her forehead. "Why would you say all that?"

I felt horrible that she felt like that.

"I'm sorry, Vivi." She said and she burst into tears, resting her head against my chest and crying

"Aw, don't cry, Kiwi." I said to her.

"I feel sad." She said.

"Don't be sad. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." I told her.

"That's not true. Your whole life stopped and then everyone got mad at you because of me." She cried.

"No. They didn't get mad at me because of you. They got mad because sometimes I'm a stupid guy and I do dumb things. They wanted to protect you, that's all." I told her.

"Y-you stopped work." She argued.

"If anything, I should be thanking you. I hated that job and who would complain about a break from work to take care of a gorgeous little kiwi?" I asked her.

"Micah would." She giggled through her tears.

"Ok, maybe Micah would. But I'm not Micah." I chuckled.

"B-but still... I ruined a lot." She said.

"No. You made everything so much better. I needed you so badly." I told her.

"Nu-uh... I'm the one that needed you." She told me.

"I needed you too. I was going crazy without you." He smiled.

"I love you so much!" She cried, clutching my shirt tightly and sobbing into it.

"Stop it, baby. There's no need to cry." I said, kissing her forehead. "Where's my happy little kiwi?"

She giggled through her tears.

"Come back to me, Kiwi." I chuckled, nudging her gently. "Where'd you go?"

She giggled some more and then she grabbed my face.

"I'm right here." She said.

"There you are. Is that a smile I see? Are you trying to hide that little smile?" I asked, tickling her and making her laugh loudly.

Once I knew all the sadness and self-doubt was gone, I kissed her forehead and stopped my tickling. I let her recover and helped her wipe her tears away before I got back to our topic of conversation.

"Ready to hear my going back to work plan?" I asked her.

"You're gonna leave me alone... or with someone?" She asked, looking down at her hands, a look of pure shame crossing her features.

"Will you let me speak, Kiwi? Stop it!" I chuckled, kissing her cheeks and her forehead and every inch of her face except her lips.

She giggled and all negative thoughts flew away.

"I'm quitting. I hate that job so much." I told her. "I want to.... do something pretty crazy."

"What?" She asked me.

"I want to start my own business but I don't know if I can." He said.

"Another Angel's Island business?" She asked me.

"Yeah. B-but I'm still in the planning phase. I don't know if it's possible." I sighed.

"Y-you... you want to start a business?" She asked me.

"I do." I nodded.

"Y-y-you.... you want to start a business and you're telling me first? You have a grandfather who started his own law firm and worked with so many businesses.... your other grandfather is a very successful businessman. Your aunt is the founder of like an entire empire.... y-y-y-you chose to tell me first?" She asked me.

"Of course." I smiled. "You're the most important. I'm going to spend every minute of every day with you. Of course I need to tell you first. My life is in your hands after all." I told her.

"B-b-but... I'm not that important." She said to me.

"In my life. You're the only one with an opinion that really matters, ok?" I said softly.

"B-but their opinions matter." She said.

"Yeah they do... but if they said it was good and told me to go for it but you told me not to, I wouldn't do it." I said.

"Wow." She said. "But I'd never stop you from doing anything."

"Well, you've been stopping me from telling you about this for the past like half an hour." I said with a laugh.

"Ok, ok." She giggled, letting me tell her about it.

"So I'm an engineer, an architectural engineer to be exact. I enjoy architecture itself and I also have the skills to make sure plans are safe and stuff... so I was thinking to start an architecture company.... maybe we could do landscaping and internal design as well." I said.

"Woah... like designing buildings right? And landscaping is like the plants outside and gardens and stuff.... and internal design is inside the building?" She asked me.

"Yup. Exactly." I nodded.

"Oh that's cool. So if someone wanted to build a house and design it and everything, you could do that?" She asked.

"Yeah. And if they wanted, we could design their house and then what would help with business is if we gave people a discount on the interior design and landscaping for their homes. We could make it a pretty large scale thing. We could partner with a construction company which would actually build the houses we design." I explained.

"Oh, Vivi! That would be amazing!" She said, making me feel like all the thinking and brainstorming that I'd been doing was actually worth it. This seemed like a dream job for me.

God knows I never wanted to be away from Kiara. If I ran this company it would be an office job with an occasional call to see some land with the other architects. It would be easy to have Kiara around all the time.

"What about me?" She asked.

"You could come with me. You'd be there in my office with me, I assume you'd eventually learn some stuff and you might be able to help me with some things if you ever wanted to." I told her.

"Oh... I'd like that." She said to me, nodding. "B-but Vivi... I don't think you want me around while you try to run a business."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Sitting in an office all day doing nothing sounds boring, I'd only distract you." She told me.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that, ok?" I asked her. "I'll have plenty for you to keep yourself busy with."

"Ok." She laughed, deciding to trust me on this one.

I went on to show her all the plans in more detail and she almost seemed more excited than me. There was something so special about seeing Kiara get excited for me. She was genuinely happy about it, she was prepared to support me in it all. She'd already planned out how she was going to help me design my office and set it all up. She was absolutely adorable.

But this had me genuinely intrigued. She was planning the colour of the curtains and the couches in my office. As well as where the bookshelves would go and where she would put the desk. She may not have realized that she was basically taking over the interior design of my office.

It came out of nowhere. She was just so excited.

"Do you like planning out the colours and placements of things like that?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I just like it when things are perfect." She giggled.

"Remind me why the couches have to be that specific brown?" I asked her.

"Oh, because it's nice and lively but still professional." She told me.

"Is that so?" I asked her.

"Yeah. It gives off the right kind of vibe for a company that's trying to build homes and design them nicely for people." She smiled.

"Hm... you're right, I think." I smiled, looking up into her excited eyes.

"And when clients come to talk to you, they'll get that excited feeling from the office. I promise I'll make it perfect. You're going to let me design it all, right?" She asked me.

"Of course, Kiwi." I chuckled, feeling like maybe Kiara could play a bigger role in this than I originally thought she would.

"Ok... I have a little teeny, tiny, mini question. And it's ok if you say no." She said to me.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Can I please, please, please.... change the set up of our bedroom?" She asked me.

"Yes." I laughed, wondering how long she'd wanted to do that.

"Good. Thank you!" She said, sighing in relief.

"Is it really so bad?" I asked her.

"You're killing the room's potential, Vivi. It's so bad!" She said.

"Alright. Alright." I laughed. "Do whatever you want."

"Thank you! Can I go shopping with Ari then?" She asked me.

"When?" I asked her.

"Uhm... after tomorrow? Micah's taking the girls out and she said she wanted to hang out anyway... so maybe we could go shopping and get some food... maybe... please! Pretty please?!" She asked me.

"Of course you can go. But on one condition." I said to her.

"What?" She asked me.

"I want to come." I said to her.

"Ok!" She immediately agreed.

"Ok. Good and no shorts." I said to her.

"Why?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Because men look." I told her. In all honesty, I'd scare of as many men as I needed to if she wanted to wear shorts. But I see her pulling on them in discomfort whenever she wears shorts in public.

"I wasn't planning on it... but what if we go to the beach before?" She asked me.

"Still no shorts." I said, knowing that she'd be the one complaining about it, not me.

"Fine." She said, rolling her eyes as if she was annoyed.

"So you like my business plan?" I asked her.

"Yes! It's going to be amazing!" She giggled, kissing my cheek.

"I've been so excited to tell you, and you made it so worth it." I laughed.

"Really?" She giggled, looking into my eyes with a smile.

"Yup. Really." I chuckled. "I just didn't think you'd be this excited and it really made my day." I said to her.

She giggled and her fingers brushed against my cheeks.

"They're reddish.... did you put sunscreen on?" She asked me.

"Ye-.... I forgot." I said with a nervous smile.

She was going to smack me, I could see it in her eyes.

"Ok.... let me get this straight.... you literally lathered me in like eight pounds of sunscreen before we got to the beach, but didn't put any on yourself!" She growled at me.

"I'm sorry. I genuinely forgot." I said to her.

"Vidal! You're so dumb. I should've made sure you put sunscreen on myself." She groaned.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Say sorry to your skin." She said to me.

I chuckled and that's when the smack came directly at my arm. She was pretty strong too.

"Ow! Kiwi! Don't be mean!" I said to her.

"Come here!" She said, dragging me to the bathroom and pulling my shirt off my body.

She examined my shoulders which were turning red and my chest and back.

"Look at you!" She said. "Doesn't it hurt?!"

"No. Not really." I shrugged.

She pulled a little tube of some weird green goopy gel out of the cabinet and she started rubbing it all over me.

"Wow... what's this stuff? It's kind of sticky." I said to her.

"It'll help with the burns." She told me.

"Will it?" I asked.

"Yes." She nodded, putting it back and taking my hand.

For the rest of the night, she sat against my chest, scrolling through her phone looking at pictures of curtains and bedsheets.

"What're you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm picking new bedsheets.... can I buy a new comforter? Ours is pretty beat up." She told me.

"Yeah. Buy whatever you want, baby. I don't care." I said to her.

"Can I get those fluffy pillows?!" She asked me.

"The ones with hair?" I asked her.

"It's not hair. It's just a bunch of soft strings." She told me.

"Yeah, no. That's not happening." I said.

"Why not?!" She objected.

"Baby, we don't need fluffy pillows." I said to her.

"But they're fluffy." She said to me. "Ok. Ok. Fine. I promise not to buy anything we don't need. But let me have the freedom to buy anything I think will make this place more homey." She said to me.

"Fine." I nodded. "Nothing too girly and weird."

"I promise." She smiled, kissing me on the cheek.

I forced her to get up and get ready for bed before she continued her search for stuff she needed in the house. As soon as we were both in bed, she was back at it. And that's how she fell asleep. She was scrolling through her phone with her head rested against my chest. Eventually the phone fell onto my chest and she was completely out of it.

I locked her phone and I put it down on the bedside table beside me. I pulled her even closer and cuddled her between the cozy blanket and pillows. And that's how we both slept that night. In the comfort and safety of our snuggles.