I laughed without meaning to, but Aiden brightened up as soon as I did. He didn’t want to have a sad conversation about the things he’d lost any more than I was equipped to handle it.
“Second, I wouldn’t be who I am today if my life was any different. And whatever anyone else thinks, I’m proud of me,” he added. “Dad would be, too.”
“I bet,” I said, squeezing his knee once more before taking my hand away. I wasn’t normally the kind of person who reached out to touch—even people I was sleeping with tended to have to initiate contact—but there was something different about Aiden.
He was so comfortable with himself that it was impossible not to be comfortable around him.
“So we probably should have discussed this more than five minutes before it’s gonna be a problem,” Aiden said. “But how were you planning to explain dating your best friend’s little brother?”
Shit.
I hadn’t been planning to explain it atall. I’d forgotten that it was the kind of thing that needed an explanation.
“Uh.”
Nope. Nothing came to mind.
“Umm.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Aiden was right. Wereallyshould have talked about this earlier.
“I’ll go along with whatever you want,” Aiden said. “Drunken New Year’s blowjob included.”
Despite myself, I laughed again. NothingworriedAiden. I wished I could have his level of calm in the face of stress.
Although, he wasn’t the one about to lie to his parents, was he? It was a little easier for him to be calm.
“I’d want to have been dating you longer than that,” I said. “New Year’s was a week ago.”
“Ooh, so this is a long-term deal,” Aiden said, wriggling in his seat like a cat about to pounce. “Are we in love?”
“I…”
I’m not sure I know what that’s like.
I absolutely couldn’t admit to Aiden that I wasn’t sure I’d ever been in love at all. What would he think of me?
“Would you be comfortable with that?” I asked, finally, hoping that’d be enough to cover up for the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.
Aiden shrugged. “Sure. Takes me about three minutes to fall in love with people, so if we’ve been dating longer than that, it makes sense.”
“Can we tell people we just… clicked while I was hanging out with Kieran?” I asked. That would at least sound like a thing that might happen. My family knew me well enough to know how I met people.
All my previous girlfriends had been friend-of-a-friend deals.
I saidall, I meant three.
Mandi for two years before she left me. The longest relationship of my life.
“I probably made the first move,” Aiden said. “You’re shy.”
“Figured that went without saying. I’ve never had a first kiss I wasn’t surprised by. Like, genuinely shocked, didn’t see it coming, just kinda went along with it.”
“Really?” Aiden asked, frowning at the road.
The sun was starting to set already, and I could see the warm glow of the hotel lights ahead. We only hadminutesbefore I had to introduce Aiden as my boyfriend.
“Really,” I said.
