He’s always been handsome. But now he looks softer and entirely unfamiliar in a way that makes my heart ache.
We drive back home in a good mood, passing pinetrees frosted in moonlight, and dark barns with string lights curling around their porches.
“Aiden, youreallydon’t care that Nelson is going to get you kicked out of the company that you built?”
His hands tighten briefly on the steering wheel. “No.”
“Are you sure?” I press.
He’s silent for a beat, then he shakes his head. “I know you don’t believe me because of what I’ve done in the past. But just like you learned some truths about yourself these past months, I have as well.”
He turns on the blinker as he changes lanes to give way to an Audi that wants to pass. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to prove myself to a man who was never going to give me approval. Being CEO was never really about the work. It was about finally having my father say, ‘Good job, son.’But when I lost you….”
He signals again, taking the exit to Katya’s place. “That was the only wake-up call I needed.”
I breathe through the pressure in my chest. “Do you think he’ll succeed?”
“I don’t know.”
He drives me back to Katya’s, and walks me to the door.
“Even if I lose my job, Mia, I won’t lose myself again, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I nod thoughtfully. “I…worry that you’ll resent me for?—”
“Not going to happen. I don’t want this job if it means I have to stay under my father’s thumb. If it meansI have to work with Diana. If it means that it takes my focus away from what really matters.”
My mouth goes dry. “And what really matters to you, Aiden?”
The porch light casts soft shadows on his face, and when he leans in and brushes his lips over mine, he’s gentle. Careful. Reverent.
He pulls back before I can even process it.
“Youmatter, baby,” he whispers.
The door opens behind me.
Katya has a glass of wine in hand and a smirk on her face. “It’s past your curfew, Mia, so say goodnight to your date.”
Aiden salutes her with a broad grin, and jogs to his car.
I step inside the house.
Katya shuts the door, and raises an eyebrow. “Well?”
I press my fingertips to my lips, dazed. “I think…I think he’s slipping back into my life.”
She gives me a look that’s equal parts triumphant and amused. “And you’re pretending not to like it?”
I send her a flat, unimpressed stare. “He's making it really, really hard for me to pretend.” I groan at the truth that my ex-husband is wearing down my resistance. “I’m so fucked, Katya.”
“Come on, I baked some cookies, you can have a few,” she offers, wrapping a comforting arm around me.
CHAPTER 24
Aiden
“Please, let me tell him,” I hear Jolene say in her ‘don’t fuck with me’ tone as she bars the entrance to my office.
