Well. Maybe her momdidhave some decent insights.
“Well, you’re right. And you’re wrong.” Carly twisted the wedding band on her finger. “I wasterrifiedto raise a daughter alone after your dad died. But then I fell in love with Peter, and yes, it was a big change for all of us, but I’ve never regretted marrying him.”
Thea wasn’t able to mask her expression quickly enough, and her mom burst out laughing. “Really! For one thing, he gave me Annabelle. And I know he’s opinionated, but those opinions are almost always meant to keep the people he loves safe and healthy. And that includes you.”
“His love language is tactlessness?” She and her mom laughed softly together, but then again, how often had Peter fussed at her about upgrading Juniper to a safer car? She’d always assumed it was because he was image-conscious, but maybe he’d actually been concerned about things like side airbags and crumple zones. Too bad he didn’t know how to be concerned in a less abrasive way.
“Everybody shows love differently,” Carly said quietly.
And like that, Thea’s mind got stuck on the idea of Aiden’s love language. He’d taken her by surprise that morning with an out-and-out declaration, but hadn’t he been telling her what he was feeling all along? He’d yelled at her about going onto the balcony. He’d trusted her with a dog. He’d begged her to take a key role in his family company. He changed his plans for her, for God’s sake, turning something fake into something very, very real. Maybe all that had been his way of saying he loved her. And if she’d cherished every one of those moments, along with countless others she’d shared with him, did that mean she’d fallen in love right back?
“You grew up to be so strong. You stand on your own two feet, and I love that about you. But there’s one more thing to think about, sweetie,” Carly said. “Your dad and I got married after knowing each other for three weeks.”
“You did?”
Her mom nodded, a secretive little smile on her lips. “Three incredible weeks. And we just knew.” She picked up the picture frame and smiled down at her husband. “There’s no right way to fall in love. And yes, there’s no guarantee that it’ll last. But what a tragedy not to find out.”
Her words knocked the breath from Thea’s lungs, and Carly leaned forward to press a kiss to her daughter’s forehead. “I’d better go see if Annabelle’s managed to sneak out with her friends yet. See you down there.”
“Yeah,” Thea said faintly. “See you down there.”
But she didn’t leave her room right away. She stared at the twenty-three-year-old photo of her, her dad, and her princess house, and she wondered if there was any way she could undo the mistakes of the past.
Twenty-Six
“Look sharp, gentlemen! Soft hands on deck!”
Aiden gritted his teeth at the shouted greeting but immediately replaced it with his usual grin as he joined the three-man crew in a kitchen swathed in tarps and plastic sheeting.
“Hardly. Ladies dig calluses.” He addressed the loudmouth in the group. “Speaking of, your daughter still dating that firefighter, Mendez?”
Ben Mendez’s eyes narrowed. “You stay the hell away from my little girl, desk jockey.”
Aiden raised his hands—sporting his many honestly earned calluses, fuck them very much—and said innocently, “Just asking.” That earned an over-the-top relieved sigh from Mendez, which he ignored as he turned to Gene Fitzsimmons. “Figured you could use a hand on the wall teardown today.”
He also figured if he spent another day chained to his desk, he’d lose his mind.
Fitz merely nodded, his dour face immobile. “Plenty of sledgehammers to go around.”
Leaving Mendez to chip away at the old tile with an assist from the kid they’d hired last week, he and Fitz approached the massive wall running the length of the kitchen to separate it from the living and dining rooms. He gave a low whistle. “This is it, huh?”
“Yep.” Fitz didn’t have to tell him how much work it would take to knock that beast down.
This time Aiden’s grin was genuine. “Let’s do it.”
Mendez’s barbs had hit home; now that he was officially running Murdoch Construction, he wasn’t much more than a pencil pusher, and compared to telling yet another client about the benefits of granite counters or figuring out why the hell his phone wouldn’t sync to the master calendar on their new management software, knocking down a wall was so much simpler. A safe way to channel the anger that had been dogging his heels since he’d stormed out of Thea’s house two weeks ago. So he pulled on a pair of work gloves, settled safety goggles over his eyes, grabbed a hammer, and got to work.
Swing, slam, repeat.He fell into the rhythm like he was rediscovering an old friend. The brainless, brutal work was the only good part of his June so far. Even better, Fitz wasn’t a talker, and even if he was, the radio was turned all the way up. Nobody was asking for an updated timetable or a delivery date or an estimated total. And thankfuck, nobody was hitting him with sympathetic eyes about the fact that his girlfriend wasn’t coming around anymore. Instead, he swung his sledgehammer and worked out his frustration through the magic ofswing, slam, repeatuntil his Murdoch Construction T-shirt clung to his sweaty chest and his back and arm muscles screamed for mercy.
“I think that’ll do it,” Fitz announced after a solid sixty minutes of grunting and drywall dust.
Aiden pushed his safety glasses on top of his head, absurdly pleased at the job he’d just done.
The older man turned to Aiden and clapped him on the back. “See? You’re not as useless as they all say. You can still do a man’s job.”
From the kitchen, Mendez and the new kid chortled, and Aiden deadpanned, “My delicate hands. I think I got a splinter.” Then he made a show of pulling out his phone. “Would you look at the time? I’ve got to get back to my pansy-ass office. Guess that leaves you guys with the cleanup.”
More laughter. More backslapping. But as he stepped through the front door, Fitz followed him out and walked with him to his truck with a serious look on his leathery face.
