“I didnothug you enough as a kid and I’m so sorry,” he said. “You’re loveable. I love you.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I smiled wryly. “But that doesn’t mean…”
It didn’t mean I got to have someone like Aiden forever. Like Kieran said: he was out of my league. I had nothing to offer him, and he didn’t need me.
To Mandi, I was useful to take to work socials and to have someone to eat with at new places in town she wanted to be seen at. I scrubbed up okay and didn’t talk back to her friends and she got to tell them how good I was to her and they treated me like I was a purse or a pair of shoes. Pretty, functional, and ultimately not all that important.
Aiden didn’t want or need any of that. He could have anyone and he didn’tneedanyone, there was no benefit to him having me in his life. I wasn’t useful.
I still didn’t understand why he was here at all.
Dad didn’t say anything else, just wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight. My lungs caught, a sudden wave of something I couldn’t identify welling up in my chest and making it hard to breathe.
“Please don’t turn into your old man,” he said. “For my sake. Be happynow.”
Over my dad’s shoulder, Aiden beamed at me from halfway up a ladder on the other side of the room.
“He’s smiling at you,” Dad said as he pulled back. “I can see it in the look on your face. You oughta tell him how you feel,” he added, squeezing my arm.
If I had any idea how I felt, I probably would’ve taken that advice. All I knew was that Aiden wasdifferent.
I understood that I felt better being around him than I had being around anyone else, but what did thatmean?
Dad clapped me on the shoulder and brushed past me to grab the box of tablecloths in the corner just as Aiden finished up with the lights.
A moment later he switched them on, and the whole room sparkled, crystal chandeliers reflecting the light so it bounced off the walls, mimicking the snow outside. The lights twinkled slowly, blinking on and off so the walls and floor glittered with tiny spots of light.
“Wow,” I said, looking around at the half-decorated room. This was beautiful.
This was what Hallie deserved.
“Think I did an okay job,” Aiden said, suddenly beside me. I’d been too distracted by the lights to see him move, but my heart did a little backflip when I saw him within touching distance.
“This looks incredible,” I said, still in awe of what a difference a little lighting could make. This was a barn conversion, with high ceilings and what I supposed were charmingly rustic beams overhead, all of them with strings of delicate little lights wrapped around them.
Aiden’s hard work. Hard work he’d done for no particular reason—Hallie wasn’thissister, after all.
“Glad you like it.” He smiled at me, the lights making his eyes sparkle. “Wanna test out the dance floor?”
I looked down at Aiden’s offered hand, and my stomach dropped.
“I don’t, umm. I have no idea how to…”
Aiden snorted, grabbed my hand, and dragged me into the middle of the room before I could figure out how to tell him that I didn’t know how to dance, it’d never come up before.
“My skills mostly involve keeping the table and watching purses. I’m not really the dancing type.”
“Do you have a particular moral objection to dancing?” Aiden asked.
He was still holding my hand.
“No, but—”
“I’ll lead,” he interrupted. “Unless you really don’t want to?”
“I…”
Aiden let go of my hand, and he smiled at me, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s okay. Sorry for pushing.”
