34. Aiden
AIDEN
The knocking on Aiden’s door roused him, and he blinked hard, his mind foggy with sleep.
Beside him, Isla gave a soft groan. “How is it morning already?”
But somehow, it was morning—sunlight streamed in through the curtains of his bedroom. He closed one eye as he stared at them sleepily. He was usually gone before the sun came up. Even on the weekends, he usually ran with Callum to start the day.
Shite. That couldn’t be Callum, could it? They hadn’t texted about running today.
But he had told Liddy he’d do something to take Callum out for brunch and hadn’t. He’d gotten completely sidetracked with Isla.
Isla grappled with her phone, then sat bolt upright. “Oh my God. Callum’s on his way here.”
Fuck.
Aiden scrambled from the bed, his heart pounding. “What?”
Isla continued scrolling through her phone. “I have a bunch of missed calls from Elle and Kyle—and my mum, apparently. Oh God. He must have found out.” She jumped out of the bed. “Dammit, where are my clothes?”
Another loud knock.
Aiden yanked on a pair of trousers and a shirt. “Stay in here. Close the door—just in case.”
“Well, I’m not going to greet him naked?—”
He was already out the door and on his way through the hall. Hurrying down the stairs toward the front door, he braced himself as he unlocked it.
Sharp relief sank through him. Not Callum.
Elle and Kyle, instead.
Out of breath, apparently, with red faces.
They pushed past him like a SWAT team, Kyle slamming the door behind him like they were dodging sniper fire.
“Nice to see you too,” Aiden muttered. “Make yourselves at home. Raid the fridge. Hide the evidence.”
“What the hell is going on? Why are you and Isla both ignoring our phone calls?” Elle asked with wide eyes.
Aiden almost cringed. They already knew she was with him, but the assumption that they’d ignored them spoke to the breach of trust.
“We weren’t. We were just asleep.”
“Told you,” Kyle said with a smirk at his sister.
“Oh, save it.” Elle rolled her eyes and turned back to Aiden. “Callum’s on his way here. He texted you to find out if you wanted to run and then when you didn’t answer, he decided to run here to ask. Kyle and I had to book it to beat him, but he’ll be here any second.”
Goddammit.
As if on cue, a key scraped into the lock behind them.
Aiden shoved them both toward the stairs. “Go!” he hissed. “In my room.”
“He has a key?” Elle asked with wide eyes.
He didn’t have time to explain. They had barely vanished from sight as the door opened behind him. Aiden whirled around as Callum stopped in the doorway, surprise on his face.
“I thought I heard someone at the door,” Aiden said as smoothly as possible. He’d given Callum the key years ago in case he ever needed someone to check on things while he was out of town.
Callum withdrew it from the lock, a sheepish expression on his face.
“Sorry about that. I tried texting and calling. Didn’t know if you wanted to go for a run.
I could use a moment out of the house. Between my mum in one guest room, Liddy’s parents in the other, and Kyle crashing on the couch, it’s been a lot. ”
That explained Kyle’s presence here—but Elle’s?
Elle and Quinn maintained a house in London in addition to Littleton, which was closer to Oxfordshire.
But since Quinn had started renting Littleton out to film crews and for parties a few years earlier, the house wasn’t always available when they wanted to come to England.
Aiden checked his watch.
Then again, it’s almost nine. Goddamn jet lag. No wonder he hadn’t woken up. Between an exhausting night with Isla and still being accustomed to the East Coast time zone, he was a mess.
“Yeah, I can grab my trainers.” He almost added, wait here, but would that seem oddly suspicious? He’d never made Callum wait in the foyer before.
Callum followed him up the stairs. “You doing all right? Liddy said you closed that deal with Ipolymer.”
“Yeah, it’s great,” Aiden said, summoning what little enthusiasm he could fake as he came to the main level.
Shite. Isla’s knickers still lie on the floor beside the sofa, from where they’d been discarded the night before. He stopped abruptly, his hands clenching by his side.
Oh God. What was he supposed to do—shove them in his pocket and pray Callum didn’t ask why he’d suddenly developed a fondness for lace accessories?
He glanced down the hall toward his bedroom door, which remained shut. “Can you see if I have any bottled water in the fridge,” he blurted, sweat breaking out on his neck.
Callum gave him an odd look, then nodded. “You going to run with it?”
“Thinking about it. I’m parched.”
Callum rounded the island and froze, gaze snagging on the edge of the boots poking out from beneath the barstools. He glanced around, then his eyes focused on the knickers.
Fuck. Me.
“You have company?”
Aiden’s mouth went dry. “Not right now.”
Callum’s gaze flicked to the boots. “Huh. She leave in a hurry?”
That eyebrow lift. That smirk. He knows—or he thinks he does.
“I had someone over before New York. I didn’t even know those were still there. Got in late last night and went straight to bed.”
If I rot in hell, it will be in whichever circle holds the liars of the world.
The words tasted like acid. Aiden had told lies before—he’d grown up in a house where evasion was an art form—but not to someone who mattered like this.
Not to him.
He kept his face still, but inside, something cracked.
Because this wasn’t just a lie. This was betrayal.
Of Callum. Maybe Callum had been Quinn’s friend first, but since Aiden had moved back to London?
This friendship that had carried him through every bad moment.
They’d become closer than Aiden had ever imagined, despite already being like an honorary brother in his family, and Callum had always believed in him—until now.
No wonder his family had no faith in him. Maybe all this time the only person he’d been deceiving about any goodness he possessed was himself. Had he always been so selfish? So willing to be so cold and detached to get what he wanted?
He used to think he was different from his father—used to pride himself on it. But now he was hiding the woman he loved in a bedroom while lying to his oldest friend with a straight face.
What would Isla say if she saw him now?
No. He didn’t want to know. Because maybe, deep down, he was exactly the man they all believed him to be.
The moment held, and Callum’s eyes continued to focus on Isla’s shoes as though he was lost in his own thoughts. Then he gave Aiden a tight smile. “For a moment, I figured that you had taken back up with Lola again in New York and flown back with her.”
Aiden went over toward the knickers, then gathered them from the floor.
Right. Because Callum wouldn’t assume his own sister had taken that place in Aiden’s life.
Of course, Lola would be a major obstacle to convincing Callum that he loved Isla. Callum had been there through that entire debacle. No way he’d easily accept that in the span of a few months, Aiden had not only moved on so wholly but also fallen completely and utterly in love with someone else.
Aiden barely believed it himself.
But it was also true. He loved that woman.
Hated that he had her hidden away in his bedroom, though.
“No, it’s safe to say Lola will not be returning to my life,” Aiden said, at last.
Callum set his hands on the island, then nodded. “Good. She was terrible for you. Though I have to warn you, my father invited her to the damn party tonight. He got a little carried away talking to her and her father at the Masters. I nearly wrung his neck for it on your behalf.”
Guilt had a way of making everything so much worse. Every comment Callum uttered, however innocuous, ripped through him like battery acid clawing its way through his gut.
When he didn’t answer, Callum frowned. “You sure you’re all right? You look pale.”
No, I’m not all right.
Every fiber of his body was screaming at him to just tell Callum already.
Because that was what he’d promised Liddy he’d do.
That was what he should do. That was what needed to happen.
This thing had become such an awful, toxic secret burdening him down, threatening to tear his world to shreds.
And he didn’t want it to be. God, he wanted to shout from the rooftops how much he loved Isla.
But their argument last night had worried him, too. If they were a team, partners in this—or at all—telling Callum without her wasn’t fair either.
“Actually, you caught me at a bad moment,” he admitted at last. He cleared his throat. “I was planning on coming over and stealing you away from the women for a while later this morning while they get ready for the party. Just trying to finalize the plans.”
Before Callum could respond, he added, “But let me grab my trainers. We’ll run first, then we can go afterward.”
Congratulations, Camden. You’ve officially hit rock bottom: hiding your best friend’s sister from said best friend in your own bloody bedroom. What’s next—tax fraud?
He headed down the hallway and slipped into his bedroom, locking the door behind him.
Elle, Kyle, and Isla all hung by the bathroom door, close to the door to his bedroom, watching him. Isla was dressed, thankfully, and he held out her knickers. “These are yours,” he whispered.
A faint blush lit her cheeks, and she took them. “Sorry.”
“Not your fault.” He moved past them and went toward his closet.
“Geez, you guys,” Elle breathed with a shake of her head.
“Eh, this isn’t my first sibling scandal. But it’s definitely the most naked one,” Kyle hissed.
Isla gave Kyle a look of indignation. “What the hell are we going to do?” Isla whispered as Aiden reached for his trainers.
“I’m going for a run,” Aiden said simply. He glanced at Elle and Kyle. “How did you know to come warn me?”
“Callum’s mom called me,” Elle said with a grimace. “I called Kyle and got him to delay Callum, then ran out of the house. Quinn has already texted me twenty times.”
“My mum knows?” Isla asked, eyes wide.
Elle nodded with sympathy on her face. “I think Liddy told her last night.”
This was completely, utterly out of control.
Aiden closed his eyes, trying to think. At last, he said, “I think we should tell him.”
“No!” Elle hissed. “Not before the party. It might ruin the day.”
“I agree,” Kyle said with a wince. “I mean, not that I want to be in the middle of this, but maybe just wait until tomorrow?”
Aiden rose, his heart thrumming at a quickened pace. He went over to Isla, then kissed her gently. “We need a plan.”
That did nothing to erase the worry from her face, but she nodded wordlessly, as though afraid of being overheard.
He turned to Kyle and asked quietly, “In the meantime, can you all call some places and make a brunch reservation for us and Callum? Call my brothers. Maybe the fathers, too. Liddy had asked me to last night, and I...forgot.”
He saw the flinch in Elle’s face.
Yes, I know I’m a terrible friend.
“I can ask Quinn?—”
“No, I’ll handle it,” Kyle said, nudging his sister with his elbow.
Aiden nodded his thanks, then slipped back out the door.
If Quinn knew about Elle being here, it would only be one more thing his elder brother wouldn’t want to forgive him for. He’d pulled Elle and Kyle too deeply into this now.
This day was one giant disaster waiting to happen.