Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AIDEN
I’d forgotten what it was like to not get a full night’s sleep.
In the time Avery had spent in my bed, her presence lulling me into dreamland, I’d forgotten what my schedule had been like before she’d come into my life.
Forgotten how it was to fall into bed exhausted, only to lie there for hours, staring at the numbers on my clock change while the amount of time I had before my alarm went off rapidly diminished.
Or to sleep for an hour, only to wake up at three in the morning and not be able to get back to sleep.
I’d taken for granted how it felt to lie there with her in my arms. To fall asleep with the weight of her body on mine, her soft breaths against my chest, and the scent of her hair filling my nose.
I was exhausted, both from the lack of sleep as well as everything that had fallen back into my lap since she’d been gone. Things she’d taken care of in the time she’d been here that I now had to shoulder once again.
But I had to learn to deal. She’d made her choice.
Seemingly without a second thought. She didn’t want to be here, and she’d made that abundantly clear when she fled without a backward glance, breaking the contract she’d signed with the resort more than two weeks early and not even once mentioning the event she’d promised me she’d take care of in my place.
She’d left so quickly I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d embellished how good we’d been together.
How we’d clicked, both inside and out of the bedroom.
How it had felt like she was the other half of my soul I didn’t even know I’d been missing.
Wondered if maybe what we’d had hadn’t been anything special to her, and that was why she’d so easily chosen that other life.
Even with how much I hated it…even with how much it hurt—especially after everything I’d shared with her, after cracking open my chest and laying its contents at her feet—I couldn’t begrudge her that choice.
I wasn’t about to stand in the way of what she’d been dreaming about since she was a little girl.
I wanted the best for her. I always would.
I just had to accept the best for her wasn’t me.
I also had to accept that I was completely and utterly fucked in her absence.
I’d spent the past five days trying to figure out how I could be in two places at once.
How I could handle what was needed for the resort while still meeting my commitments to my publisher. And the short answer was, I couldn’t.
There was no way I could do this on my own.
Which left me with only one choice…
I found Addison sitting on the couch in the parlor, all her shit spread out on the coffee table in front of her.
Strolling into the room, I cleared my throat. “We need to talk.”
She barely spared me a glance before returning her attention to her tablet. “What’s up?”
I shifted on my feet, running a hand through my hair. It didn’t matter how long I’d had to come to terms with this. Didn’t matter that I was no longer given any other choice. Forcing myself to speak the words that I had kept hidden for years was exactly as difficult as I’d thought it would be.
“We need to grab one of the other guys to fill in for me next week because I won’t be here.”
“Because of that conference in California?” She rolled her eyes, swiping a hand through the air. “There are dozens of accounting conferences all over the country, Aiden. At any given time of the year. Hell, there’s probably one next month. You can go to that one instead.”
“I’m not going to California.”
Her brows rose, even as she kept her attention on her tablet. “That was easier than I thought it’d be.”
None of this was what I would call anything remotely resembling easy.
“No, what I mean is I’m not going to be in California next week because I’ll be—” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, knowing there was no coming back now “—in Germany.”
She froze, her finger hovering above the tablet screen, and slowly turned her head to stare at me. “You’re what now?”
“Going to Germany.”
“I heard that. And yet it still doesn’t make sense. Why the fuck would you be going to Germany?”
“So I can attend the Frankfurt Book Fair.”
With a sigh, she braced her elbows on her knees and dropped her head into her hands, massaging her temples. “I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but it’s not funny. I have a lot of shit to handle before next week, and I don’t have time for—”
“You remember the book everyone was talking about on Thanksgiving?”
With a huff, she dropped her arms and turned an exasperated look at me. “What about it?”
I’d spent so much time worrying that Avery would spill my secret and blow my cover.
That she’d destroy years of careful plans and throw everything I’d kept hidden out into the world.
But in the end, she hadn’t needed to tell anyone.
I did that all on my own. And the relief when I finally said the words—when I finally spilled the secret I’d kept for years—was palpable.
“I’m the author.”
She snorted and shook her head. “No, you’re not. That’s written by A.M. Kins—” She gasped, her eyes going wide, no doubt realizing just how close it was to Aiden McKenzie. Mouth agape, she stared at me with a look of utter shock written across her face. “Holy shit. Holy shit.”
Basically what I had been repeating to myself nonstop for the past two days.
“My publisher is sending me there to meet with foreign publishers about expanding into different languages. They’ve already booked my flight and my accommodations…have set up all the appointments I’ll be attending. So we need to figure this out because I have to be there.”
“Well, of course you do!” she snapped, like any other possibility was absolutely not an option. She grabbed her phone, her thumbs flying across the screen. “What I want to know is why the hell I’m just now hearing about this. Why the hell would you keep it a secret?”
Because we were brought up thinking the kinds of books I wrote were trash. Because I was worried about what other people would think. Because, after years, it had seemed easier to keep up the lie than it would be to just tell the truth.
Because I’d been scared. I was still scared. Especially now…when we had everything to lose.
Instead of saying all that, I narrowed it down to my current worry. “The resort.”
She snapped her gaze to me and huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “The resort? What does that even mean?”
I gestured behind me to where we’d had that conversation with Mabel back in October.
“You heard what Mabel said when she was here. You know just how many subscribers the newspaper has lost because a handful of people were offended that she’d suggested my book.
How do you think those same people would react if they knew the author was one of the owners of the resort? ”
“I think bookings would go through the fucking roof.”
“Yeah, exactly. They’d— Wait, what?” I shook my head. “No, people would—”
“Lose their shit because the author who spiced up their comatose love life runs a resort where they can escape to and have even more hot sex while possibly catching a glimpse of the elusive author himself?” She raised a brow and then gave a definitive nod.
“I agree. This is gold. I’ve already thought of a dozen angles we can go in for our social media. ”
“And what about the people who won’t see it that way?”
She lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve also got counterpoints for any assholes who want to try me. I’ll happily eat them for breakfast.”
Addison was a shark and a honey badger all rolled into one.
Tough as nails, obstinate as hell, and not giving a single fuck what anyone else thought.
A giant pain in my ass most days. But she was also a fierce mama bear to our family, despite her being the youngest, and despite the fact that we were supposed to protect her.
Family was the most important thing to her, and she’d sharpen her claws on her enemy’s teeth and dig them into anyone who threatened that, without hesitation.
So, yeah, she was a force to be reckoned with, but she was our force, and I didn’t know how this resort—how this family—would run without her.
“It’s all making so much more sense. This is why you’ve been such an incompetent idiot lately. I thought you were just getting old.”
“I’m thirty-four, Addison,” I said dryly.
She lifted a brow as if to say, exactly. Baby sisters were the worst.
With her gaze still on her phone, she said, “This trip had to have been booked for a while, but you’re just now telling me about it. What was your plan?”
My plan? My plan was a girl with sunshine in her eyes and fire in her soul. My plan was the woman who’d danced into my life like a whirlwind and altered it forever.
Memories of Avery flitted through my mind—her slapping her hand over her T-shirt the first time we’d met, like that would stop me from seeing what I’d already seen, her laughter when my siblings had been ragging on me at Thanksgiving, and the light in her eyes when we’d shared dinner on the rooftop.
How she looked under me, taking everything I had to give her.
How she whispered my name in the dark. How perfect she tasted, how sweet she smelled.
I cleared my throat, shoving back the thoughts I didn’t need to be thinking. “Avery was my plan,” I said, talking about so much more than just this.
Silence filled the room, and I glanced at Addison, only to find her narrow-eyed stare fixed on me instead of her screen.
I shifted under her scrutiny. “What?”
She pressed her lips into a flat line and shook her head. “It was more than a fling, wasn’t it?”
I recalled moments with Avery—tiny details that had made me fall in love with her. How she’d had this amazing way of making you feel like you were the most important person in the room.
And then I thought of the phone call that had changed everything.
How her face had given nothing away. How, with barely a pause, she’d told her mom she’d be there.
How she’d packed up her life here in two hours and left without more than a soft brush of her lips against mine, a murmured thanks, and a smile that spoke of mischief and adventure. Of excitement and anticipation.
Just not here. Just not with me.
I shook the thoughts from my head and strode out of the room. “Not for her.”
Group text between Brady, Aiden, Beck, Ford, Levi, and Addison
2:17 p.m.
Addison:
Time to stop fucking around, boys
Beck:
You’re the youngest one out of all of us. You don’t get to call us boys.
Addison:
And yet I just did
SOS SOS SOS
We’ve got a code red situation over here
Brady:
Is this actually a code red situation, or is it like the time you ran out of peanut butter cup ice cream when you had your period and demanded one of us pick some up for you?
Addison:
That was literally a code red situation
And you can’t pretend otherwise
Levi:
that was an unnecessary visual I could’ve lived my whole life without
Addison:
Thanks again to Ford for being the only decent one of you assholes
Ford:
Happy to be of service.
Beck:
Suck up.
Ford:
She’s in charge of handing out my resort tasks. Fuck yeah, I’m sucking up.
Addison:
FOCUS
We need all hands on deck this week
The documentary is wrapping up
And it’s going to be an absolute shitshow around here
I can’t handle that and the resort on my own
Brady:
Good thing Aiden is there, then
Addison:
Aiden won’t be here
Hence my SOS
I need everyone’s help
That means Levi can’t hide on his boat
Levi:
that’s my job
Beck:
“Job”
Addison:
Ford can’t hide at the fire station
Ford:
Okay but that actually is my job…
Addison:
Brady can’t hide in his police car
Brady:
Also my job.
Addison:
And Beck…
Okay, Beck can hide at the diner
But only because we’re going to need him there
Brady:
And Aiden…?
Addison:
I’m going to tell you something
But you should probably sit down
Are you sitting down?
Yes?
Last chance…
…
Aiden
Will
Be
In
GERMANY!!!!!
Ford:
At the Frankfurt Book Fair?
Addison:
At the WHAT?
How the hell do you know about that??
And how are none of you acting surprised at what I just said???
Addison:
Hello?
Addison:
HELLO???
Levi:
this should go well
Addison:
One of you better tell me what’s going on RIGHT NOW
Brady:
We already knew.
Addison:
You WHAT
Ford:
Relax, little D.
Addison:
I swear to God, Ford, I will kill you
Beck:
We sort of figured it out the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Addison:
THAT WAS ALMOST A MONTH AGO
Levi:
it sure was
Addison:
AND YET YOU DIDN’T TELL ME
Beck:
Gee, I’m not sure why…
Brady:
We figured Aiden had his reasons not to share. Were we right?
Addison:
It doesn’t matter!
FFS you should’ve told me
And his reasons are stupid anyway
If assholes want to push their puritanical bullshit onto us, I’ll be there to push back
Beck:
I kind of hope they do. Maybe then you can take some of your aggression out on them instead of us.
Addison:
I’m going to find you all and aggressively murder you if I don’t get some answers to my distress call
Brady:
I’ll be there.
Ford:
With bells on.
Levi:
yeah fine
Beck:
Can’t, but I’ll make sure none of you starves.
Addison:
I don’t say this enough
But you’re not assholes all the time
Ford:
Aww, we love you, too, little D.
Addison:
You just had to ruin it, didn’t you?