“Comfy,” I agreed, letting myself lean against Aiden’s chest when he tugged me closer. We’d both be warmer and happier the closer we were, and it wasn’t as if anyone was likely to see.
My eyes fell closed as Aiden’s fingers carded through my hair, tension I hadn’t realized I was carrying slowly seeping out of my muscles as I relaxed into the makeshift bed beneath us.
Despite everything, this was kind of nice.
“Can’t believe Hallie does this on purpose,” I murmured, sighing as Aiden rubbed circles into my scalp with his fingertips. He was ridiculously good with his hands.
“Gets snowed in?” Aiden asked.
“Goes camping,” I said. “I assume this is what camping is like.”
“I’m the least outdoorsy person in my family,” Aiden said. “But even I know this isn’t what camping is like.”
I snorted. “Okay then, Mr. Expert. What’s camping like?”
“Have you… somehow never been camping?” Aiden asked, shocked.
“This is the closest I’ve come,” I said. “Hallie always went with a friend. We’re not camping people.”
“Used to go with my dad,” Aiden said softly.
I didn’t even want tobreathefor fear of interrupting him. Kieran never talked about their dad—none of them did, so much so that my mom genuinely hadn’t known he was dead. Not that it would’ve made what she said okay, but at leastthatpart hadn’t been malicious.
But Aiden talking about his dad was rare and precious, and I wanted to hear whatever he had to say. I’d been thinking earlier that I trustedhim, and I thought maybe this was a sign that he trustedme.
That was almost more than I could handle, but I’d handle it anyway, because I knew it was a gift. A gift he didn’t offer to just anyone.
“In the summer,” he continued. “No snow. He tried to teach me to fish a bunch of times, but I don’t remember ever catching anything. We had a boat, on a lake so blue it looked like it was part of the sky. His dad was a fisherman, and his grandpa. Used to tell us all there was salt water in our blood, but fresh’d have to do for now. Always wanted to take me to see the ocean.”
But he never got the chance.
Aiden didn’t have to say it for me to hear it, and my heart hurt for him.
“So the anchor is…”
“For him, yeah,” Aiden said, sighing into my hair. “You’re the first person to ask. That’s why it is where it is, too. Hurt like hell to get it done.”
“But it’s beautiful.” I tilted my head to look up at him, wanting him to see how much I meant that. Itwasbeautiful.
Aiden was beautiful. Everything about him, from the ink on his skin to the depths of his soul.
He smiled like I hadn’t really seen before, eyes shining with unshed tears.
“Thank you,” he whispered, voice cracked.
When he kissed me, it tasted of salt water and felt like a secret he was trusting me to keep.
“I’m sorry,” Aiden murmured as the kiss broke, our noses still touching, bodies finally starting to warm up under the coats and table cloths.
“What for?”
“Saddling you with that,” he said, licking his lips. “Not your problem.”
I reached out, swiping at a tear track with the pad of my thumb, drying it as gently as I could without the handkerchief I’d already given him.
Aiden didn’t cry. I’d seen him cry twice now, but I knew he didn’tdothis. Not around just anyone.
I was special.
