“I’m hungry,” Aiden announces as he bounds back into the room, and I have to turn away so I can calm myself the fuck down.
“That was the fastest shower ever,” Willow says, eyeing him.
“I’mhungry,” he repeats, making her laugh. “And your meatloaf is my favorite.”
“Well, it’s ready,” she replies and starts passing bowls to us to set on the table. When we’re all seated, we dig in, heaping food on our plates, and Aiden eats as if he’s never seen food before.
Or as if he’s a fifteen-year-old kid.
“You didn’t come out with us today,” he says as he shoves a heaping forkful of potatoes in his mouth.
“I was in my office all day. I’ll be out with you guys tomorrow.”
He nods and then turns to his aunt. “What kind of book are you working on?”
Her fork stills halfway to her mouth, and she stares at Aiden in surprise. “I’m sorry, are you talking tome?”
Aiden frowns as he puts more food on his plate. “Yeah. Are you still working on the football book?”
“No, I finished that one.” She sets her fork on her plate and blinks at the boy. “I’m working on a romantasy book now about dragons and witches.”
“That’s cool,” he decides.
I’ll enjoy listening to that one.I listen to all her books. For years I did it just so I could hear her voice when I couldn’t talk to her. Then, it got to where I actually enjoyed the books themselves. Willow’s excellent at what she does. I admit, she’s damn good. When she acts out the sex scenes, I have to make sure I’m by myself so I don’t humiliate myself in public. And she’s great at accents, which surprised me at first.
“Do you take dialect training?” I ask her, grabbing her attention.
“I did,” she replies. “Sometimes I have to brush up on accents, if I haven’t done one in a while. Some are harder for me than others.”
“What’s the hardest for you?” Aiden asks.
“Irish,” she replies, and resumes eating her dinner. “British is the easiest for me.”
“That’s really cool,” Aiden says, and I notice she pauses eating again.
The teenager has opened up quite a bit in the last week, talking more at dinner and asking questions, and I know she’s not used to it. It hurts my heart for her because I know how much she loves her nephew.
When Aiden reaches for thirds, Willow’s eyebrows climb into her hairline. “You must be burning a ton of calories. I’ve made this a thousand times, and I’ve never seen you eat this much.”
She’s laughing, obviously not bothered at all, and Aiden grins at her.
“I told you, I’mhungry.”
“Well, eat up. I’d rather you were full than we have leftovers.”
When we’re finished eating, Aiden offers to help with the dishes, but we both shake our heads.
“Go on out and relax,” Willow says, reaching up to ruffle his still-damp hair. “Sleep well, okay?”
“Okay. Good night.”
He pats her back and offers me a high five, and then he’s off to the bunkhouse.
“He’s almostjovial,” Willow says after the door closes behind him. “And he asked me about work. He’s honestly never done that.”
“This ranch is good for the soul,” I reply and help Willow load the dishwasher. “I heard a rumor about you.”
“It’s probably true.” She shrugs and then snickers. “Okay, what was it?”
