Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
F or two weeks, Aiden and June worked different schedules. He hated it, both because he felt bereft without June to prop him up and because he didn’t want to allow her time to sulk about her wounded hand. They texted each other often during that time, but June was always upbeat. It was hard to discern tone through text. He knew because he sounded upbeat, too. In truth, however, he struggled.
How had Erica abandoned him on the very day of their wedding? The basis of his relationship with Erica had been friendship, if nothing else. How had she, of all people, left him holding the bag, not only emotionally, but financially, too? The callous, thoughtless treatment seemed nothing like the woman he knew, and it shook him. If someone he’d spent three years of his life with could turn out to be that way, what did it say of everyone else he knew? He found himself scanning everyone he knew through the new filter. Could they really be trusted?
Could June?
That was the thought that plagued him during those two weeks they spent apart. If Erica, the woman he’d been ready to pledge his life to, the woman he’d spent three years of his life with, could walk away without a glance, what hope did he have with June, who didn’t want a relationship to begin with?
He let himself into their shared home, pausing on the threshold to take his shoes off. Removing his shoes had been Erica’s rule, and he was so into the routine that it had become second nature now. From the kitchen, music blared, too loud for June to have heard his arrival. He made his way there, drawn by the sounds, the smells, the Juniness of her presence. I miss her so much, he realized. Even in the midst of his grief over Erica, he felt bound to June in a way that felt rife with excitement and possibility.
His first sight of her after two weeks did not disappoint. She had her back to him, attending to something on the stove, as she sang and danced to a song from the fifties, her hips swaying magnetically. She was so beautiful, so feminine, so lovely. She stole his breath away. All he could do was stare as she shimmied and sang, going up on her toes and back down, in time to the music.
When she caught sight of him lurking in her peripheral, she tossed her wooden spoon in the air with a yelp.
“Aiden.”
“June,” he said and his feet began to propel him forward, before he finished the word.
June reached for another wooden spoon and held it menacingly in his direction. “You stay over there.”
“Why?”
“Because you have that look in your eye, the one that ends with me nicking an artery.”
He grinned. “It’s been two weeks, June.”
“I know,” she said.
“I missed you. Didn’t you miss me?” He gave her his best puppy eyes.
She swallowed hard. “You know I did. But I’m also a bleeder, you know this about me. And I have a rare blood type, so…” She tried to sound stern, but the look she gave him could only be described as yearning .
“I’ll stay here,” he promised.
“Okay, good,” she said uncertainly, cautiously lowering her spoon.
“You come here.” He crooked a finger at her.
She froze. “That’s…that’s not a good idea.”
“It’s the best idea I’ve had in two weeks,” he said.
“Aiden…” she lamented.
“Let me hug you. I need a fix. These fourteen days have done terrible things for my June addiction,” he said.
She swallowed hard. “This is not fair. You’re wearing scrubs. You know what that does to me.”
“Is it the same thing that dress does to me?”
She glanced down at herself. “This old thing?” Obviously she was lying. It was a nice dress, and the thought that she might have put it on for him was enough to make him explode with need and longing.
“June, please.” This time he motioned with his head, obviously not above begging, if the rasp in his tone was any indication.
She took a tiny step forward. It felt like a giant leap for mankind. “Just a hug?”
“A teeny tiny one. You’ll barely know I’m here,” he promised, grinning like a moron when she took another step forward.
“Oh, I’ll know,” she said. She reached him and leaned into him, stepping into the intimate circle of his personal space. He longed to crush her to him, but thought better of it. Instead his fingertips skimmed her waist, barely glancing her hip bones.
“Hey,” he said softly, staring down at her.
“Hey,” she returned. She was so close to him that she had to tip her head straight back.
“If I weren’t a man of my word, I would kiss you right there.” He touched the elegant column of her throat and watched it bob with a hard swallow.
“Good thing you have so much integrity,” she whispered, pressing her face to the hollow of his throat and bestowing a kiss in the same spot on his neck.
“June,” he groaned, in actual pain now. But he would remain frozen forever, if it made her comfortable enough to touch him, to reach out without fear of catastrophe. She stood on her toes, her fingers on his hipbones now and his entire body felt like it was pulsing, one giant throb of energy that wouldn’t be contained much longer. He wanted to pick her up, to squeeze, touch, kiss, everything that had been denied him the last two weeks.
Either June was as distracted as he was or the house was incredibly soundproof, because they didn’t hear their guests until they started to yell.
“Junie!”
Denver’s unmistakable bellow echoed down the hall. June and Aiden froze.
“Did you invite your family for supper tonight?” he whispered, feeling oddly disappointed. Had she invited them for a buffer, so she wouldn’t have to be alone with him? The relief he felt when she shook her head was short-lived.
“Smells good in here,” her father announced, as he and Denver stepped into the kitchen. The kitchen was huge, but it felt small, with both June’s relatives taking up all the space.
“Dad,” June said, a question.
“We’re hungry,” Denver announced.
June blinked at them. “You showed up at my house, unannounced and uninvited, and let yourselves in?”
“You do the same to us,” Denver accused, unbothered by her words and her incredulous tone.
“Yes, but Aiden doesn’t live there.” She pointed to Aiden, who watched the exchange curiously, taking his cues from June. Did she want or need a rescue? When the eyes of the Kellogg men rested on him, he thought he might be the one who needed a rescue.
“Aiden doesn’t want us here?” her dad tried, his tone jovial.
“We’re not welcome in our family’s house?” Denver added, cracking his knuckles ominously.
“That’s not the point,” June said. She sounded furious and her brother and father smiled, as if they found her ire feminine and adorable. Okay, Aiden did too, at least a little, but he hoped he wasn’t fool enough to show it. And he was fully team June, so he definitely had to keep his expression neutral.
“What’s the point?” Denver asked, eyes shifting hopefully toward the stove and whatever smelled so good. Whatever it was, it was also making Aiden’s stomach growl.
June seemed to have maxed out her frustration and it left her speechless. She clucked and looked up at Aiden, and he knew that was his cue.
“The point is that even though you are always June’s family, she is a grown woman, and a married one at that. This is our home, ours , and we are newlyweds. You have to respect us and our space and time.” He slid his arm around June’s shoulders, drawing her against him, aligning them as a team. Did he use the moment to slide his hand up to her neck, caressing with his thumb the spot he wanted to kiss? Yes, yes he did. Did he feel bad about that opportunism? No, no he did not.
“So, we’re not allowed to eat?” Denver asked. How such a large man managed to sound so pathetic was anyone’s guess.
June sighed. “Yes, you can eat. But you can’t barge in anytime you want. Do you get that?” She bypassed Denver and focused on her dad. “Dad, do you get that?”
Her dad had both hands in his pockets, a sure sign he knew the lecture was deserved. He shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll work on it. It’s just…” he eyed Aiden. “We didn’t think this was a real marriage.”
June opened her mouth, but Aiden preempted her. “It is, and it’s also our home. June wants to have a relationship with you, but you have to respect her boundaries.”
Her dad nodded. Far from looking affronted, he looked tickled, almost gleeful at Aiden’s defense. “Whatever you say, doc,” he muttered, pushing back his smile.
June sighed again. Aiden wasn’t sure if it was because her father had the wrong impression or if it was because the impression was actually wrong. Did she want a real relationship with him? Was it only fear that held her back? He hoped so. He was counting on that fact, putting all his eggs in the basket he’d marked “we’ll figure it out.”
“Junie, I’m starving here,” Denver whined.
June’s sigh this time was exasperated, but Aiden could tell she had been charmed and placated by her relatives. He gave her shoulders another squeeze before dropping his arm. “I’ll set the table,” he said.
“Thank you.” The eye roll and smile she gave him were conspiratorial before she turned her attention to the stove once more.
Aiden began unloading plates from the cupboard when his phone chimed with a text. His little sister’s name popped up and he flicked his thumb over the screen, freezing when he read the caption.
Ding dong the witch is back. Along with that, she sent a picture of Erica, having lunch with a friend at a restaurant in town.