8. Aiden
CHAPTER 8
AIDEN
I’d been on the verge of baring my soul to Paisley when Shane burst through the front door for the second time in a week. I jumped off the bed and pulled on my jeans as his loud voice echoed through the bunkhouse.
“Aiden? You in here?” Shane called out.
“Stay here,” I told Paisley. She’d pulled the covers up to her chin, her eyes wide with worry. “Be right there.”
Shane didn’t wait. He jerked the curtain back and stared at me, his eyes dark with anger. “I just got back from town. Looks like someone broke into the shed and helped themselves to a bunch of our equipment. You know anything about that?”
Paisley pulled the covers up even higher, like she wanted to disappear.
I grabbed the shirt I’d tossed on the floor and tugged it over my head, then nodded toward the main area of the bunkhouse.
“Can we talk out there?” I asked.
Shane nodded and moved toward the kitchenette.
I leaned over Paisley and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
“How long have you been back from town?” Shane asked as I joined him.
“Paisley and I left about an hour and a half ago. What’s going on?” I didn’t like the suspicion in his eyes.
“You tell me.” Shane pulled something out of his back pocket and tossed it on the table. “I found this just inside the door of the shed. Any idea how it got there?”
I reached for my baseball cap. The same one I’d been wearing around the ranch since the day I arrived. “You think I had something to do with this?”
“No, but someone sure as hell wants me to.”
Movement by the curtain caught my eyes. Paisley stood there wrapped up in a bright pink fluffy robe. “Why would someone want to frame you?”
Shane turned toward Paisley. “There are a lot of people around here who don’t like the idea of having a bunch of guys who spent time behind bars living so close.”
Paisley’s gaze shifted to me. My lungs seized while I waited for some sort of reaction. I’d been about to open up to her and tell her about my past when Shane barged in. Now it was too late.
“Well, they can just fuck off.” She followed up her f-bomb with a bright smile as she crossed the room.
Shane let out a laugh. “I can see why you and Caitlin are such good friends.”
Paisley stopped by my side and slipped her arm around me. “I think what you’re doing here is important. You’re giving those men a safe place to land. It will probably take time, but once everyone sees that they don’t have anything to worry about, they’ll find something else to focus on.”
“Are you sure you’ve never lived in a small town before?” I pulled her closer, grateful to know how she felt.
“No, but I’ve helped enough clients through past trauma that I have an idea of how things can go south when they feel like their whole town has turned against them.” She rested her cheek on my chest. “So, what do we do now?”
Knowing I had both Shane and Paisley on my side, I cleared my throat. “There’s something I need to tell both of you.”
“Should we sit for this?” Shane pulled a chair away from the table.
“Is this a put-a-pot-of-coffee-on type of talk?” Paisley asked, already moving toward the counter.
I nodded. “It might take a little while.”
“What’s up, man?” Shane leaned back in his chair.
“When we were in town last week, some guy came up to me at the Merc. He said no one wanted a bunch of ex-cons living on the edge of town and offered me a bunch of cash if I could ruin things and force you to sell it.”
“I hope you told him to fuck off,” Shane said.
“Hell yeah. But that’s the night the horses got out. And now someone broke into the shed? It’s got to be related.” I got up to help Paisley pour the coffee and carry the mugs over to the table. “I can’t help but think this is somehow my fault. That maybe you’d be better off without me here.”
Paisley sucked in a breath. “Why would you think that?”
Shane crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t flatter yourself, brother. You’re just the first to settle here. There are going to be others, and I have no intention of letting this land go. It’s been in my family for generations.”
“I don’t want to cause any trouble—” I started.
“You’re family, asshole.” Shane slapped his palm down on the table. “That means we’ve got each other's backs. You just need to be honest with me and tell me about this shit from now on.”
“You got it.” Knowing he believed me filled my chest with a steely resolve. We were in this together and would face whatever threats came our way.
“I’m going to go check the rest of the buildings. We’ll figure out a plan in the morning.” Shane pushed back from the table and stood.
I got up as well. “I’ll come with you.”
His gaze jumped from me to Paisley. “I can handle it. Looks like you already have your hands full here.”
Paisley’s cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, almost as dark as her robe.
I set my hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got a little catching up to do.”
Shane grinned. “He’s a good man, Paisley. I wouldn’t have opened up my home to him if I didn’t believe that.”
“Thanks, man.” I walked him to the door of the bunkhouse and locked it behind him. Then I turned back to the woman sitting at the table—the woman who deserved to know the truth about my past.
“Why didn’t you tell me what happened while we were in town?” she asked. I expected an accusation, but she seemed curious, not angry that I hadn’t shared.
I took her hand and led her over to the couch. “This might take a while. Will you sit with me?”
We settled onto the cushions, me on my back and her snuggled into my side. Once I’d pulled the thick hand-knit blanket over us, I started to talk.
“Shane and I met in prison. We even shared a cell for a while. I’d been there for a few years already when he showed up and had pretty much convinced myself I deserved to rot there forever for what I did.” I slid my hand under the edge of her robe and made small circles on her shoulder. She deserved to know the truth, but that didn’t mean it would be easy to tell her.
“I was involved in an armed robbery right after I turned eighteen.” My pulse thundered in my ears. I’d never opened up like this to anyone. Even though Paisley didn’t seem like she’d pass judgement, I didn’t want her to think less of me.
“I’d been seeing this girl and her brothers asked if I’d give them a ride up to the gas station on the corner to pick up some beer. Turns out they pulled a gun on the cashier and made out with a couple hundred bucks. When they ran out of the store and jumped in the car, they yelled at me to drive, so I did.”
“But you didn’t know you were committing a crime.” Paisley’s brows knit together. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Yeah. It’s why my sentence wasn’t longer. They shot the guy in the leg. I should have known better. Both of them had records, but nothing like armed robbery. Still, I never should have agreed to take them anywhere.” Shame coursed through me. Trying to focus on something good, I smoothed my palm over her hair. It looked like spun gold with the way the light from the kitchen fixture danced across the strands.
“It’s not your fault.”
“Maybe not the robbery, but I didn’t turn them in. My girlfriend begged me not to. Then one of them got caught bragging about it in a bar and decided to take me down with him. You deserve to know the kind of man I am, Paisley.” I bit down on my lip and waited for her reaction. She had every right to toss me out and tell me she never wanted to see me again. It’s what my mom and stepdad did when I showed up at home after I got released.
“People change, Aiden. You were what, eighteen at the time?”
My jaw clenched tight, I nodded.
“If you had it to do over again, would you handle it any different?” She propped her chin up on my chest and stared at me.
I forced myself to meet her gaze. “Hopefully, I’d be smart enough to not put myself in that situation. And if I did, I would have left their sorry asses in the parking lot while I called 9-1-1.”
“See?” She pushed herself up until she hovered over me, her lips not more than an inch away. “You’re not a bad person. You made a bad choice, but you learned from it.”
The pressure in my chest eased. “Does that mean you don’t want me to leave?”
“Leave?” Her brows shot up. “No chance of that. Like Shane said, we’ll face this together. Not even your grumpy-ass attitude and inability to smile could scare me away.”
“Grumpy-ass attitude?” I smirked. I suppose I had been a bit of a jerk since I’d moved in.
“Yes.” Her fingers worked the knot at her waist and she pulled the robe open. “I think you need to make it up to me for putting up with your piss-poor attitude for the past couple of weeks.”
It didn’t seem fair. I’d done some bad things, made some horrible decisions, and people had suffered because of it. “I don’t deserve you, Paisley.”
“You’d better stop talking like that or I won’t ride your beard again, big boy.”
“We can’t have that.” For the first time in eight years, I laughed out loud. Then I mimed zipping my mouth shut and throwing away the key.
Paisley pulled her arms out of the robe and disappeared under the blanket. She tugged my jeans down low on my hips. Then she licked the full length of my cock with her hot, wet tongue, chasing all of my worries away.