“How about you enjoy the bagels I’m not going to ask you to pay me back for and we never again talk about any woman I’m dating in terms of how they might benefityou.”
“You’re going to get me banned from Sweet Creams if I don’t stop talking about this, aren’t you?” Matt said, his face goingslack.
“Hadn’t thought of that, but now that you mentionit...”
Matt put up his hands in surrender and started backing toward their office’s small kitchen. “Hey man, I know when to stop rocking theboat.”
“Thanks.”
Aidan didn’t realize he kind of wanted to punch Matt in the face until he had to relax to dig up his phone. Sometime in the seconds between the elevator and Matt’s ambush, he’d missed a text fromShae.
See. Back inbed.
Aidan felt himself smile as he looked at the pictures she’d texted him. She was back in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin, flashing a huge smile. She had her hair wrapped up in a shiny, black bandana with some of her curls springing out of thetop.
Lookinggood.
Enjoy your dayoff.
Oh Iwill.
I still have the nudes you sentme.
When Shae sent a Boomerang gif of herself biting her lip and waggling her eyebrows, Aidan’s laugh echoed through theiroffice
Just promise me you won’t hurtyourself.
I’ll do mybest.
“What’s so funny?” Matt asked as he came back to theirdesks.
“Nothing. Eat yourbagel.”
?
Shae needed keys to Keira and Daniel’s house, just for the winter. It was another freezing cold Monday night, standing on their porch waiting for Keira to answer the door. Okay, maybe Shae was cranky as hell for some unexplainable reason and she was taking it out on the thirty extra seconds it was taking one of them to respond to the sound of theirdoorbell.
She’d spent the whole day bouncing between feeling pure elation and gut-wrenching dread. Spending time Aidan was great. Sex with Aidan was even better. Between the ice skating, his adorable commentary during not one, but two different Christmas romance flicks and the sex—Shae had to keep the sex in mind because it was that good— she wanted to smile whenever she thought abouthim.
But for some unknown shitty reason, the butterflies in her stomach would suddenly turn into rabid zombie reindeer, pummeling her already rattled nerves. She’d spent most of the day trying to figure out why and all she could think about was Harvin and that just made her feel worse. And thinking about thinking about Harvin made her feel evenworse.
She took a break from the shitty feelings to bake some massive cookies and that had helped a little. Still, she wasn’t able to shake the icky feelings that had almost ruined her day off. The only thing that had saved it was the texts she’d exchanged with Aidan. And the nudes she still had of him on her phone. The nudes she might have referred to before she got in theshower.
She might have been thinking of one of the better shots on her phone when Keira’s front door finally opened. Her fiancé, Daniel, who looked like a male supermodel on a bad day, stood on the other side of thethreshold.
“Hey Shae. Come onin.”
“Hey.” Shae stepped inside and gave her cousin-in-law-to-be a quick hug. “Did you get your cupcakes? We had to wrestle Meegan away fromthem.”
“I did,” Daniel said with his handsome smile. He reached out with his prosthesis and took the bag containing this week’s desserts out of her hand. “They were great. You ever think about sellingthem?”
“Ha! Good one. Keira’s marrying a natural born comedian,” Shae said, shaking her head. She shrugged off her jacket and followed him into the kitchen where Keira was stirring what smelled like chili. The house was still decorated to accommodate Santa and his whole village, but some Guns N’ Roses song was playing over their stereosystem.
“Hey!” Keira set down her wooden spoon and crossed the kitchen to give Shae ahug.
“I’ll be in the bedroom.” Daniel leaned between them and kissed them each on the forehead before handing Keira the bag Shae had brought withher.
“Thanks,baby.”
