Chapter 12 #2
Aiden’s face darkens. He rubs the back of his neck. “Oh, uh. That didn’t work out.”
“Why not? I remember Mom and Dad saying they seemed pretty interested. It was a seed company, right? Like, a really big deal.”
“I don’t remember the details,” Aiden says quickly. “It was a long time ago.”
I don’t believe for a minute that he doesn’t remember the details, but he clearly doesn’t want to talk about.
I’m about to attempt to change the subject yet again, when he lifts one of the donuts over his head and lowers it around himself to hip level.
I can tell by the look on his face what he’s planning to do.
“Don’t!” I insist, widening my eyes at him. “You’ll mess it up.”
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.” His grin is devilish. Without another word, he spins the donut around hips like a Hula-Hoop. It quickly twirls down around his legs and ankles before landing on the scattered-hay-covered floor.
My eyes go wide. “Look what you did!” I bend over to pull the donut from around his feet. “Step over it,” I demand. I am affronted.
“What if I don’t?” His hands are on his hips now, and he’s giving me a defiant look.
I swat at his ankles. “Stop.” I laugh. “It took me a long time to make this.”
I tug at the donut probably a little too hard, and it hits the back of his legs. It pulls him off balance slightly, and the next thing I know, he stumbles toward me, and we go toppling together onto the pile of hay behind me.
Most of the air whooshes from my lungs when we land, and I immediately realize that Aiden is directly on top of me. Like, face-to-face, hip-to-hip on top of me. I seriously couldn’t have planned it any better if I’d done it on purpose. Which I definitely didn’t do.
I close my eyes. Oh damn, it feels a little too good to have his weight on me.
I bite my lip and shudder. Aiden’s forearms are braced on either side of my head.
, and the pressure of his hips on mine, his hardness pressing into my softness.
.. It makes me lightheaded. I suck in my breath when he pushes himself up.
But he lingers there. His weight balanced on his strong shoulders.
He’s looking straight down at me, his gaze soft as his throat bobs.
His breath is on my cheek. Another shudder runs through my body.
All I want to do is wrap my arms and legs around him, pull him back down on top of me, and kiss him.
He’s looking at me like he wants to kiss me too.
Like a real I-want-to-kiss-you look. Not a-spider-is-on-the-door-behind-you one.
It’s smoldering. Hot. Needy. I see it in his face when he makes the decision—I draw in my breath as his eyes slowly close and he bends his arms the slightest bit, lowering himself to me. His lips come closer, closer—
“Ellie, are you in here?” The shout from outside makes Aiden quickly roll away. He’s helping me up off the ground when Donny comes sauntering into the barn.
“I’m here, Donny,” I call as I wipe hay from my clothes and pluck it from my hair.
Donny strolls over and stops in front of us, clearly totally oblivious to what he just interrupted.
“Thanks again for letting Billy and Amber sit with you last night,” Donny says.
“No problem.” I stare at him silently for a few moments.
Aiden is glaring at him. Like, daggers-shooting-from-his-eyes glaring at him.
“Did you need anything else?” I ask. I’m pretty sure Donny didn’t come all the way out here just to thank us for last night, but with him you never know.
“Oh yeah.” He snaps his fingers and points at me. “You have a visitor in the lobby.”
***
It’s over half an hour later before I’m on my way down from the attic apartment to the lobby to see who is here.
Of course, I’m obsessed with the idea that it’s either Geoff or Steve.
Maybe they’ve both come to beg me to take my job back.
Maybe the whole project with the Bolt Hotel Group has been a mess since I’ve been gone, and they need me.
Maybe Geoff realizes what a great girlfriend I was and sees the error of his ways.
It would be so satisfying to reject him this time.
After rushing back from the barn to the apartment via the outside door, it took me fifteen minutes to pick the correct outfit with which to entertain groveling.
(The other fifteen was spent getting my hair and makeup in order.) I am wearing the black cashmere sweater with old-school jeans, black booties, and pearl earrings.
I am convinced that it says, “I’m relaxed and enjoying my vacation from assholes,” while also remaining classy and ready to lift my nose in the air when they beg me to return.
But the minute I step into the lobby, I realize I have grossly miscalculated the situation. Because it’s not Geoff or Steve sitting there. It’s Maria... standing there, with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
Oh crap. She looks pissed. “Hi!” I say, waving, and I know that she knows I’m being fake because I feel guilty.
She eyes me up and down before saying, “Based on what you’re wearing, I’m going to guess you thought I was Geoff or Steve.”
“What?” But Maria knows me too well. There’s no use denying it, and it feels good to have a friend who is so close that she can read your clothing.
It’s my turn to eye her up and down. Maria has long, black, curly hair and dark brown eyes and the kind of thick black eyelashes people pay tons of money for.
She’s always dressed in the latest fashion.
But I barely notice her clothes today because the look she’s giving me tells me that she’s here for the truth, and I’m quite aware that it’s time I share it with her.
“Come with me?” I say, pointing toward the front door.
“Would love to,” she replies with a tight smile.
Within minutes we’re behind the inn sitting in two black Adirondack chairs near one of the stone firepits under the wide oak trees.
A few leaves meander to the ground around us.
Since it’s morning, the firepits aren’t lit, but it’s beautiful out here at night when they are going.
The scent of burned wood from last night lingers, and I breathe it in.
Maria does too. She knows I’m acting suspiciously, but she is still enjoying the taste of fall that being at the inn provides. She’s not a robot.
“It’s really pretty here,” she allows.
“Isn’t it?” I say, grateful for the reprieve from explaining myself, however short-lived.
“I know you didn’t just come out here to see your family,” she says next.
Maria and I have had many talks about family over the years.
To her, family is everything. She flies to southern California multiple times a year to visit hers, while I have a mere train ride to get to my parents.
And yet I find excuses to stay away. But because she knows me so well, Maria is quite aware that my acting like I just up and decided to visit my parents on a random Wednesday is completely out of character.
I bite my lip. “You’re right.”
She crosses her legs and bobs her foot up and down. “Spill it.”
It takes me the better part of twenty minutes to explain my situation to Maria.
There is starting. There is stopping. There are many um s and uh s.
But somehow, I manage to recount everything, including last night’s near-kiss in the truck with Aiden and this morning’s shunning by the entire NYC event-planning industry.
To her credit, Maria doesn’t say “I told you so” until the end. And when she does, it sounds more like, “Geoff has always been a dick.”
I hang my head. “I know. I should have listened to you.”
“But honestly, I wouldn’t have guessed he’d be this big of a dick.
” She shakes her head. She is pissed, but she’s pissed at him, not me.
I’m relieved. I thought she would be mad at me for not coming clean via text.
I mean, girl had to hightail it all the way out to eastern Long Island to get the truth.
True to her eternally practical, get-things-done nature, Maria says, “We need to figure out what to do. Is there somewhere we can get a drink?”
“It’s ten a.m.,” I point out, only because I feel I must.
“Is there somewhere we can get a drink at ten a.m.?” she amends, smiling at me. “It’s Long Island, not Mars.”
I return her smile. “I think I know the perfect place.”