Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Aaron
I run my hand over my face, yawning as I make my way to the bathroom.
It is after eight and I never sleep in, but lately it’s become easier staying in bed. I am still not cleared to go back to work, and it’s driving me out of my mind. I am not the kind of guy to sit around.
I prefer to stay active, working, riding dirt bikes, jogging, all the things I can’t until I am cleared by my doctor.
I flush the toilet and move to the sink to wash my hands.
When I lift my gaze to the mirror I notice my hair, and have to admit, I miss the length. I’ve always had a little length, just enough to tug on, but it’s never been this short.
Placing my hands on the edge of the sink I start to push back and freeze.
“What the hell,” I say, staring ahead, thinking that I can’t be seeing this right. But when I drag my fingertip over my brow, irritation shoots through me like a shockwave. “Kendall!”
I spin around and walk into the bedroom hollering out for her once more.
She appears in the doorway, with a look of innocence I know is nothing more than a bullshit act. “Yes, dear?”
“What the fuck did you do?” I ask, placing my hands on my hips.
“Whatever are you referring to?”
“This.” I point toward my eyebrow. “And before you pretend you have no idea what I’m talking about know that your innocent act is bullshit.”
“Oh that.” She doesn’t even try to deny it.
“Yeah that.”
“Payback.” She nods with a shrug.
“For?”
Kendall takes a step toward me, squaring her shoulders. “The lake,” she challenges me. “I told you to sleep with one eye open. You didn’t, so that,” she waves her finger in the direction of my eyebrow, “is kind of your fault.”
“It’s my fault you shaved half my eyebrow off?” I ask.
“Yep, exactly,” she says, dropping her hands to her sides before spinning around and walking away. “Next time you should really heed the warnings. It’s not my fault you didn’t listen.”
I leave the house a couple hours later and drive into Montgomery. Stopping into the office I decide to work on some paperwork here instead of home.
Kendall had gone into the shop and I hated the quiet.
I am buried in expense reports, going over the numbers for our supplies on our current jobs in progress when I hear someone clear their throat and I lift my gaze. There stood Bennett and Finn both standing in the doorway watching me.
I see the smirks on their faces and know it’s coming. I lean back and wait for it.
I should have known that the minute Kendall left the house, she would be on the phone telling the ladies what she’d done. The phone train was activated and everyone knew including the guys before I pulled into the lot.
“Go ahead.” I wave them on and Bennett chuckles.
“How did you sleep through her shaving off your brow?”
“Pain meds,” I say with a shrug. “And apparently she is a very sly little ninja with a razor.”
Finn loses his shit, hunched over holding his stomach and laughing so hard his body shakes.
“Get it out,” I urge them as I relax back in the chair, giving them the time they need. I know I won’t live this down, and I’ll admit now, it’s funny. She got me back.
“Aaron Randall O’Shay.” My mother marches toward me griping my face and turning it to the left. “What on earth did you do to your eyebrow?” I let her look me over and try not to laugh when she literally makes a tsking sound.
“Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t,” I tell her as she releases my face and places her hands on her hips, furrowing her brows in confusion.
“Well, then who did?”
“Kendall.”
I watch as my mother mulls over my response.
I’ve watched my mom slowly fall in love with my girl since we left the hospital together. I’ve watched her get to know the woman who holds my heart and I’ve loved every minute of it. Now here she is, trying to figure it all out in her head. I shouldn’t be surprised by her response.
“Well, what did you do to her to make her react this way?”
I chuckle.
“I tossed her in the lake.”
“Then she should have shaved them both, all the way off.”
“Thanks, Ma.” I sit down at the table and pick up the sandwich she’d made me when I first walked in. “I see where I rate.”
“I’m married to an older version of you, I know how you men work. So of course I’m on her side.”
She’s not lying. Us O’Shay men can be hard to handle.
“She is good for you,” my mom announces as I take a bite and pause looking up at her. “There is a happiness in your eyes that wasn’t there before.”
“She does make me happy,” I confess. “I asked her to move in with me, but she says she needs time. I’m trying not to take it personally.”
“She’s an independent woman, there is nothing wrong with that.”
“I love that about her.”
“Advice?”
“Of course.”
“A woman like Kendall needs to feel like it was her idea. She will never be happy with the idea of doing something you wanted her to do, you have to give that to her. You have to let her lead, let her come to you, and she will.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was once just like her,” she confesses before standing and getting back to the cookies she was making when I got here. “I’ll admit, she wasn’t what I’d imagined for you.” I feel like my chest tighten and I can barely breathe until she continues. “She is so much more.”
I look up to find her watching me and I offer a smile. “She is Ma, she really is.”