The cross for Aiden sat heavily in my purse. Was that the wrong gift? I tried to ignore my trepidation and forced myself to think about the case.
Florence was still planning on giving most of the money to Lawrence’s son, and I’d convinced her to wait until after the reading, just in case. Then I’d worked with clients for the rest of the day, having reported the prank call to Detective Pierce to add to my new and odd stalkerish-themed case file. He’d promised to have a friend on the Spokane force try to trace the call, but neither one of us had much hope we’d find anything but a burner phone on the other side. Somebody had followed me and I hadn’t noticed. In addition, Pierce had called all the flower shops in the area but hadn’t found where the roses had come from.
He had, once again, suggested I get a dog.
When we got off the phone, I turned to my computer and brought up the online version of theTimber City Gazette. Bernie and I had made the front page with the picture of us leaving the courthouse. The headline read: “A Killing for Christmas.”
My blood heating, I read the entire article by Jolene, and yep, she made mention of me and the trouble I’d gotten into that summer after breaking into a funeral home. She more than hinted that I hadn’t been charged with a crime, although the words were ambiguous enough that I probably didn’t have a libel case. The woman had also chosen a picture that had me shielding Bernie, but since he was much taller than me and still wearing his Santa hat, plenty of him was visible.
I groaned.
Wishing a massive yeast infection on her, I turned off the website and returned to my case files, working through the divorce and the other timber case we had going on. At this juncture, I was at the paper filing stage, which was fine with me.
My legwork would be focused on Bernie and the Santa case for now. The sooner I helped Bernie, the sooner he could go back to his life, and Jolene could get her teeth into another story that did not include me.
I fielded calls from several of my family members after they’d seen the article, and Tessa’s offer to egg Jolene’s house cheered me considerably. Oh, we wouldn’t do it, but sometimes it was nice to dream.
After finishing work, I drove home past houses all lit up for Christmas, along with several sparkling deer figurines decorating lawns. I ventured around my smaller lake and turned down my driveway by the trees, keeping an eye on the surrounding area.
The snow-covered black truck by my garage made my heart leap through my throat. I parked, grabbed my bag, and jumped to the snow, hurrying through the blizzard conditions to my front porch and past the solid Santa figure that my aunt had given to me. The walkway had been shoveled, but snow was already piling up. I opened my door to the delicious smell of a Vinnie’s pizza combo with extra spice.
My skin sensitized, and I walked inside, dumping my bags near size thirteen boots before shutting out the storm. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Aiden performed a full body scan on me as he leaned back against the bar separating my living room and kitchen, a full glass of red wine in his hand. He wore faded jeans, a dark tee, and a lot of dark facial scruff that matched his unruly black hair. A white bandage showed on his muscled bicep.
My body reacted to his scan, my heart rate picking up and my anxiety ratcheting even higher. “How bad?” I whispered, fighting the very odd reaction to flee at the sight of the sexiest man I’d ever seen in real life.
“Not bad.” His expression didn’t reveal his thoughts. “Through-and-through on the arm and barely a scratch on the leg. Saber didn’t even have to dig out a bullet and just was being a baby.”
Saber was anything but a baby, but Aiden did look strong and formidable standing in my small cottage. The fact that he was standing calmed a fear I’d been carrying around all day—but it wasn’t the only fear.
I cleared my throat. “Are you breaking up with me?” The words came out of nowhere, but I didn’t call them back. I did, however, scramble to keep talking so he couldn’t say anything. “We don’t have to end things. How about we see other people and just take it casual?” I sounded like a pathetic dork, but the panic consuming me felt heated and sharp.
His pause didn’t make me feel better. Finally, he spoke. “I don’t share, Angel. Neither do you.”
I wavered. What did that mean? “You feel…off.” I still didn’t move.
“I am,” he said, his gaze sliding to the red roses I’d placed in the center of the table gifted to me by my Nonna Albertini.
I followed his focus. “Those flowers aren’t my fault.”
“No, they’re not,” he agreed softly, the tension from him tightening the room in the manner of an oncoming explosion.
I set my stance out of instinct, not knowing him like this. Not recognizing him. Aiden Devlin had always been a force beyond nature, while most of the time I felt like I was pretending to be a grownup. I glanced at the cheerful lights on my Christmas tree, acutely aware that I hadn’t purchased many presents yet and Christmas would be here in a heartbeat. I winced and then faced him. “I think you should say the words.” The ones I so didn’t want to hear.
He gently placed the wine glass on the granite counter. “All right.” Then he moved for me, reaching me in two long strides and cupping my face. His hands were warm and strong. “I’m sorry. What I said the other night about us, I didn’t mean. It was a shitty night that turned into a horrific and even shittier day, and my philosophical side is an asshole who deserved to get shot.”
The words filtered through the buzz in my head, and my knees weakened. Relief would come later. I had to get control of this infatuation I had for him, but I didn’t know how. Especially with him right there holding my face. “How did they know just to shoot that side of you?” I murmured.
His lips twitched into almost a smile. “Just lucky, I guess.” He leaned down and kissed me, taking his time and spiraling a lazy heat through my entire body. When he released me, I was breathless, turned on, and slightly disoriented. “We’re not breaking up.”
It was a statement and not a question. Considering I’d kissed him back and shown him how much I’d missed him, he probably felt secure in making the claim. I wasn’t ready for happily-ever-after, but my rapidly thumping heart hoped he was in my future. Right now, I wanted to deal in the present. “We did go from zero to a thousand very quickly,” I said, my body humming for him, even as I tried to force my brain to stay in the moment.
“Maybe,” he allowed, watching his thumb caress my tingling bottom lip. “Although we haven’t been in the same town for more than two weeks at a time and haven’t had the opportunity to settle into any routine. I’m not sure either one of us knows how to do a routine.”
The man was not wrong. I sucked in a breath. “Maybe we’re not routine type of people.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “The bad news is that my op got busted, but the good news is that we can spend Christmas together. We have a couple of weeks to see if we need a routine or if we can create one of our own. Whatever that means.”
