“Obviously. I’m using you for laundry service.”
She shrugged. “As long as we’re on the same page. Let’s do it.”
Twenty-Three
“Okay, I’ll admit it. I was wrong.”
Aiden leaned forward and cupped a hand around his ear. “I’m sorry, what was that? I couldn’t quite hear you over the gentle lapping of the water.”
Thea scooted closer to him on the bench seat of Trip’s boat to poke Aiden in the ribs. “I was wrong! Boating isincredible.”
It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and three weeks since he and Trip had made peace on the way back from Chicago and he and Thea had agreed to be an “us.” He and Trip were getting along better than they had in months as they collaborated on new systems at the office, and the work on Thea’s house was essentially done. Life was good, particularly with Thea sitting next to him, vibrant and laughing and thoroughly kissable.
He captured her hand and brought it to his mouth, nipping at the tip of her finger. “No,you’reincredible.”
She just laughed him off, but he meant every word. She was fucking phenomenal, reclined against the boat railing in nothing but cutoffs and a yellow polka-dot bikini top, aviator shades hiding her eyes, and her dark hair whipping around her face in the late May breeze. She turned and laughed at something Ashley said as Trip steeredthe Hammerheadin a lazy loop around the Illinois River.
“Hey, watch it!” she called up to Trip. “If you don’t snorkel to the narwhal side, your starboard port’s gonna mess up the rigging!”
His brother burst into a loud guffaw, and Aiden draped an arm around her shoulder. “I don’t know how a woman as good at everything as you are is so bad at nautical terms.”
She leaned back with her elbow on the railing. “I can’t be good ateverything.”
“Bullshit!” Trip said good-naturedly. “Did Aiden tell you that Gil McConnell’s hiring us to redo his bathroom?”
“For real? That’s so great!” Then she tapped a finger to her chin. “But I do believe I was promised a finder’s fee…”
Aiden hauled her onto his lap and kissed her thoroughly, loving the sun on his back and Thea snuggled against his front. And he loved it even more when she murmured against his lips, “Sorry, I accept cash only.”
When they hit a wide section of the river a few miles outside of Beaucoeur, Trip killed the motor on his Catalina 34 and moved away from the helm to sit next to Ashley.
“Um, don’t you need to, like, steer?” Thea asked nervously.
“Nah,” Trip said. “If we had the sails out, the wind today might carry us all the way to Chicago before we could stop it, but without them we’ll just drift. I’ll flip on the motor if we get too far off course.”
Ash draped her legs over her husband’s lap. “This is a time-honored tradition. Find a wide part of the river, float along, and make out.”
“Don’t make a boat-orgy joke, don’t make a boat-orgy joke, don’t make a boat-orgy joke,” Thea intoned under her breath to laughter all around.
“No, boat orgies happen on Thursdays,” Trip said.
Thea threw back her head with a delighted snort, and in that moment, all the pieces of Aiden’s heart snapped into place. Things at work were humming, his brother was making jokes, and Ashley and Thea had spent most of the afternoon chattering away like old friends. His fake girlfriend was apparently the glue he’d been needing to fit all these bits of his life together.
Now if he could just convince her to remove the “fake” part from her title. He’d been trying to show her how good a life together could be, and he hoped like hell the blissed-out expression on her face meant she was feeling it too.
“Okay, what’s it gonna take to get you to come work with us?” Trip asked.
“These guys could use the help.” Ashley looked up from the cooler, where she was rooting around for her preferred flavor of seltzer water. “I heard all about how amazing you were at the home show too.”
Thea’s laugh mingled with the warm May air to brush across Aiden’s skin. “You’re far too nice. I didn’t do anything anybody else couldn’t have done.”
“Not true. You’re great with customers,” Aiden said.
“And you’re a hell of a lot better than I am on the phones,” Trip added, but she just waved away their praise.
“You guys want somebody who’ll stick around for the long haul, and that’s not me.”
The words echoed in Aiden’s head—that’s not me—as Thea turned her attention to Ashley. “You’re a teacher, right?”
