“You said that already. Twice.”
“Well, that’s pretty much all I can think right now! I can’t say I’m super shocked that you guys hooked up again. Piper and I have both noticed the way you two look at each other. But Iamshocked that you’re just going with the flow and not demanding to know exactly what it means and where you stand.”
“I think … I’m scared too. Ugh,” I grunt in frustration. I hate admitting a weakness to him, but we really have come a long way, so I push myself to continue. “I’m scared in general. It’s not that I don’t think we’re on the same page–I’m pretty confident that Lucy’s feeling what I’m feeling–but we’re just both so different. And neither of us has any experience with healthy relationships. Can we really mesh our lives, our personalities long term? I’m terrified that I’ll screw up the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Aidan just nods and I can tell he’s thinking over what I’ve just said.
“I know all about that fear–for different reasons, obviously–but I definitely experienced that with Piper. I was so afraid of losing her like I did Ava that I pushed her away instead. It seemed like the safer option, but I was already too far gone and it took my mom, and Piper being kidnapped, to help me realize that I was in love with her. And Noah? I gotta tell you, almost losing her? It brought some major perspective. I don’t know what I would have done if anything had actually happened to Piper, but I also know that it’s worth the risk. Love is worth the risk.”
The mood in the truck has shifted, just like that, and I can tell he’s back in that moment, remembering the panic–the fear–when Piper was taken. Aidan stares at the road as he drives, but I wonder if he’s seeing it. Luckily we’re the only ones out here on this country two-lane.
“You sound like a Hallmark movie,” I joke, to break the tension.
He shakes his head, snapping out of it, and offering me a light smirk. “I know it sounds cheesy, and it may seem cliché as hell, but all those clichés exist for a reason.”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
“Take the risk, Noah,” he says seriously. “Don’t live with regrets.”
“I don’t intend to.”
“Good,” he says, slowing and pulling onto the long dirt drive of the man we’ve come to see. “Now let’s get this interview over with so I can go home to my woman. Piper’s waiting on me for a couples bubble bath.”
“I can’t believe you just said that out loud. And with a straight face,” I murmur climbing out and slamming the door.
Aidan just winks at me over the hood of the truck.
“You’re so whipped,” I tease him, shaking my head.
But he just tosses his keys in the air and catches them before proceeding toward the house, calling over his shoulder, “I seem to remember you telling me about a late-night jalapeno popper run just the other day.”
Touché.
CHAPTER 16
LUCY
Twenty-one Weeks
Noah: Good morning, kitten.
Lucy:Rawrrr
Noah:Our baby is now the size of a large banana :-)
Lucy:OMG! Noah, you used an emoji!
Lucy:Are you feeling alright?!
Noah:I’m fine. LOL.
Lucy:!!!!!
Lucy:LOL!? Holy shit! Now I knowsomething’s wrong with you.
Noah:;-)
Lucy:Now you stop that right now! I can’t take it!!
