Chapter 3
Chapter Three
B eth felt so stupid.
Not just because she’d shown up at work on her day off looking like a paranoid mess, but because of who she had run into. Of all people, it had to be Aaron.
If she hadn’t been so afraid, she would have died of embarrassment.
He’d been kind about it, though. So steady.
So calm. And she was sure he didn’t mean to make her heart race for entirely different reasons, like he always did, but here she was, still feeling the heat of his hand on her back as he led her into the security building, still hearing his voice in her head, low and gentle: I believe you.
God.
After the dining hall and the quiet support of Zoey and Elle, Beth had tried to leave.
Truly. She’d stood in the dining room with her keys in hand, the pie still settling in her stomach, telling herself she was being ridiculous.
But Zoey and Elle were having none of it.
Maybe because they could still see the fear in her eyes.
Maybe it was because her hands were still shaking.
Either way, she was thankful. Deep down, she hadn’t wanted to be alone yet.
Now, two hours later, she was sitting on the carpeted floor of Zoey’s office with a toddler in her lap while a seven-year-old braided her hair.
“Benji, honey, that’s my hair,” she said gently as the two-year-old started tugging at the ends of it like reins.
Paige, Zoey’s seven-year-old daughter, stood behind her, working hard on twisting her hair into what felt like knots. She tried not to wince, but every now and then, the girl would tug hard.
Emma and Evan, Elle’s twins, were engaged in a whispered war over a juice box and the last pack of fruit snacks that their mother had given them before heading out on some sort of emergency. There were always emergencies around the camp.
Like leaving her alone with four kids under eight. It was chaos. Happy chaos. Distracting chaos. And, oddly, Beth was grateful for every single second of it.
She’d watched the kids before, these four along with Hanna and Owen’s son James, or Scarlett and Levi’s son Samuel. And then there was the latest, Aurora Page, who was Aubrey and Aiden’s daughter. She was only a year old and by far the easiest to watch out of the group.
Not that she babysat them officially. Sometimes she only got to see them for a few moments at a time, when one of her bosses brought the kids to work and got called off somewhere for some reason.
Paige combed her hair and asked, “Are you going to be my new babysitter? You’re nicer than Uncle Owen or Uncle Liam. They say ‘don’t touch that’ a lot. Uncle Owen lets me braid his hair though.”
Beth laughed and joked, “Only if your mom starts paying me in pie.”
Just then, the door creaked open and Aaron stepped inside, his wide shoulders filling the frame of the doorway. Suddenly, she felt as small as the children. His eyes landed on her instantly, and then on the kid still putting knots in her hair.
She watched humor and kindness, a softness, reflect in his posture.
“Well,” he said, his voice dropping into that low, warm register that made everything inside her vibrate, “I see you’re getting your hair done real pretty.”
“Uncle Aaron.” Paige dropped her hair and rushed over to jump into the man’s arms. Beth’s heart did a little somersault. The man was really great with all the kids. She would often see him giving one of them a piggyback ride or pushing their strollers around on his rounds.
Benji spotted Aaron and immediately squealed with delight. “Guitar man!”
Aaron grinned and crouched down beside them, still holding Paige in his arms. “That’s right, little man. And what’s your favorite song?”
“Baby Shark!” the toddler shouted.
Aaron made a mock grimace. “That one again? You’re killing me, buddy.”
Beth giggled, and Aaron looked over at her with a smile that wasn’t quite teasing, but softer, like he was just glad to see her smiling again.
A moment later, Zoey walked into the room with a bottle of water and a cup of coffee balanced in one hand and a diaper bag slung over her shoulder.
“Oh good, they haven’t mutinied or mutilated you, yet,” she added with a wink. She set the coffee down and walked over to take her daughter from Aaron as she gave him a look. “You okay to walk our girl to her car now?”
He nodded. “Brett’s already on-site. I’ve been given the go-ahead to follow her home.”
She wanted to argue that she didn’t need him to follow her all the way home, but then, as if sensing it, Zoey glanced at Beth, her expression a little firm. “You know you can stay as long as you want. My office is your office.”
Beth stood slowly, smoothing her hands over her jeans. “Thanks. I just… I think I’m ready to go home.”
She wasn’t, not really. But she had learned that she couldn’t hide forever.
“You don’t have to follow me…” She started to say, but both Zoey and Aaron gave her looks and she quickly shut her mouth.
Aaron walked beside her as they made their way down the paths between buildings, the afternoon light fluttering down from between the leaves overhead.
The laughter from a group of guests floated in from the pool deck, mixing with the faint chirp of tree frogs and the rustle of leaves in the breeze.
A few pathway lights had already come on in the darker parts of the shade, their warm glow dotting the walkway like fireflies caught in jars.
Beth tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans. The hum of camp life really helped to ground her. It always had.
They were halfway to the parking lot when she realized that her hair was still hanging in a chaotic mess from Paige’s enthusiastic braiding job.
God, she probably looked ridiculous. Embarrassment caused her face to heat as she reached up and frantically tried to remove the worst of it. Aaron glanced over at her and chuckled.
“Here, let me help you. Hold still a second,” he murmured and stepped closer to her.
She blinked in surprise as he stopped directly in front of her, a heartbeat away, and raised his hands. He was close enough that she smelled his cologne. Soft, musky, sexy. She could feel the heat from him and willed her knees not to give out on her as she looked up into his sexy blue eyes.
His fingers brushed lightly through the tangled braid, undoing it gently, strand by strand. The sensation made her breath catch, not because it hurt, but because of how carefully he moved. No tugging, no teasing. Just calm hands working slowly in the warm light, like she was something delicate.
“You had a flower stuck in here,” he said softly, voice teasing but kind.
She let out a shaky laugh, one hand fluttering up towards her neck. “Kid-styled hair comes with a lot of accessories.”
When he was done, he didn’t step away from her. Instead, he looked at her for a long moment, the gold light catching the edges of his light brown hair and casting his kind eyes in shadow.
“You doing okay?” he asked softly.
She nodded, heart thudding quietly in her chest. “Better. I think the chaos of playing with the kids really helped calm my nerves.”
He gave a low chuckle and stepped back, his arm brushing hers for just a second as they continued walking towards the lot.
“Kids have a way of resetting emotions,” he said with a sigh. And despite whatever knots remained in her hair, and the ones still slowly unraveling in her chest, Beth realized that she was very thankful that she hadn’t gone home right away.
“Just so you know,” he said, his voice calm, “I didn’t see the car on the footage.
” Beth’s stomach sank a little as reality came crashing back to her.
“But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there,” he added quickly.
“We’ve got some blind spots in our camera coverage.
I’ve flagged the car description to Brett and the rest of the team.
Everyone’s watching out for it from here on out. ”
She nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek. “Thanks.” She felt like a fool. Even now, she was questioning if she’d just overreacted. Maybe she had imagined the whole thing?
They reached her car, and Aaron stood close, not crowding her but present as she dug her keys from her bag.
“I’ll follow you back home,” he said, reading her silence easily.
She hesitated, then looked up at him. His eyes were so steady. So real. She didn’t feel stupid when he looked at her like that. She felt… safe.
“You don’t have to,” she said again, though her voice was soft. Unsure.
His crooked smile appeared, just a flicker. “I know. Brett’s given me the rest of the day off, so I’m going to count that as a win.” He winked at her.
She unlocked her car, the click echoing between the trees. Before she opened the door, she turned slightly towards him.
“Hey,” she said, forcing herself to meet his gaze. “Thanks… for everything today. You didn’t have to?—”
“No problem,” he broke in. “Any time.”
The look Aaron gave her then would be in her thoughts always. Like from the first moment she’d seen him when he’d walked into the main camp building. He was almost always on her mind. He was even in her dreams.
Without saying anything else, she climbed into her car, and when she pulled out of the parking lot, she felt the steady comfort as his truck stayed behind her the whole way home.
Her fingers gripped the steering wheel a little tighter than necessary as she turned onto the narrow street that led to her apartment. The sun had sunk lower behind the buildings. Shadows were her enemies.
Normally, this part of the drive calmed her, the familiar sight of the antique bookstore, the old lampposts with hanging flower baskets, the window of the little café that always stayed open just late enough for the last few locals.
But not tonight.
Tonight, every shadow felt like it might hide something.
Or someone.
She glanced in her rearview mirror. Aaron’s truck was still there. Unwavering. Like a promise.
As soon as she turned into the small lot behind her building, he did the same, parking a respectful distance away but close enough to make it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere until she was safely inside.
She turned off the engine and sat there for a moment, watching the stairs that led up to her place through the windshield, as if waiting for something to happen.
There it was again, that tight coil of fear. Of shame. Of frustration. All of it sitting heavy in her chest.
Damn Ian to hell.
The knock on her window was soft but she still jumped. Her hands rushed to cover her heart as she turned and saw Aaron standing outside. He stepped back, giving her space as she opened the door.
She climbed out slowly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
They stood there for a moment, the soft hum of crickets rising around them, the scent of sea salt and jasmine drifting in on the evening breeze.
Her front door was just twenty feet away, up fifteen steps.
But her feet didn’t move. Refused to move.
She was locked and lost in his eyes as fear glued her feet to the pavement.
“I hate that I’m like this,” she admitted softly. “That I get so… spooked. I need to be stronger.”
Aaron’s head tilted slightly, his eyes catching the last of the fading light. “You’re really amazingly strong.”
She gave a shaky breath of laughter. “Tell that to the woman who shattered in a million pieces over the possibility that a car followed her.”
“Courage isn’t not being scared,” he said, his tone warm but firm. “It’s going through every single day despite the fear.”
Beth blinked fast. Damn it. Why did kindness make her more emotional than cruelty?
She cleared her throat and nodded towards the narrow wooden staircase leading to her second-floor apartment. “I should get inside.”
“I’ll walk you up.” He followed her to the stairs. At the top, she paused, keys in hand. She had a ritual here too. Testing the door first to make sure it was still secure before unlocking it. Glancing left, right, then testing the door again.
Aaron stood beside her, watching her quietly as she went through the moves.
Once the locks were released, she gave the door a push and didn’t move. Standing there with the door wide open, she reached inside and flipped on the switch, which turned on every light in her small place.
Once she’d scanned the entire space, she finally stepped through the door. Only then did she turn around towards him.
He stood at the top of the stairs, watching her. “I’m going to do a pass of the area. If you see or hear anything weird tonight, don’t hesitate to call me.”
She paused and then gave him a small nod. “I will. Thanks.”
He smiled and dipped his head slightly. “Goodnight.”
“Night.”
She closed the door behind her, starting her next ritual by clicking each of the locks in place firmly and double-checking them. But as she moved through the small space that she called home, she felt something else layering over the fear.
Something she swore she’d never feel again in her lifetime.
Desire.