Chapter 27 Annalise #2
As my body melts into him, I can’t keep my eyes off Tara and the way she flinches when Greg moves too fast in her direction. The signs are all there, and I can’t help but wonder where Scion found our mock targets.
Turning in Aiden’s arms, I stand on my toes to whisper in his ear. “There’s something off about Greg. Please be careful.”
He pulls back, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Are you ok? Did something happen?”
“Everything’s fine, just don’t want anything to happen to my husband,” I say, needing to keep character but hoping he takes my warning seriously.
For the next few hours, Aiden and I make small talk with all of the Rowes’ neighbors and friends; sometimes together, sometimes on opposite sides of the house. Despite my suspicion that the drive is in the city, we each find time to search the rest of the rooms, to be on the safe side.
When someone suggests a toast in the late afternoon, I make my way out back to find Aiden. Standing with Greg, cigar in hand, he’s listening to a tall, beautiful, Viking-like man with long blonde hair recall a funny story from a vacation he and his wife took over the summer.
As soon as Aiden sees me, he extends his free arm for me to come lean against him.
When the story ends, Tara takes off to refill glasses while Greg moves toward the stairs leading down to the beach, taking up the perfect spot to give his toast and have all eyes on him.
“So,” a woman in a floral sundress says, stepping toward us with a grin, “I completely missed your story earlier. How’d the famous honeymooners meet?”
Cigar gone, Aiden wraps his arms around my stomach from behind. His smile comes easily, natural in a way I would believe if I weren’t his teammate.
“We met in a bar in the capital about three years ago,” he says. “Total cliché, I know. She was in her final year of school to become a therapist, and I was drowning in my first year as a prosecuting attorney.”
The woman gasps dramatically. “A lawyer and a therapist? That’s either a perfect match or a recipe for disaster.”
Aiden chuckles. “So far, it’s working out in our favor.
” His smile lingers, gentler now, his eyes flicking to mine with a quiet weight that makes the air seem to fall still.
“I interrupted her when she was trying to order a drink and convinced her to dance with me. She tried to brush me off after that one song, but I couldn’t let her go.
I felt like I’d finally found my home. Two years later, at the peak of our favorite mountain, I got down on one knee and asked her to change my life forever. ”
A few awws ripple through the group.
“Took him long enough,” I add. Earning a wave of laughter.
“So I’ve been told,” he teases, “but here we are, one month into marriage and she’s still letting me chase her.” His voice dips, lower, more intimate. “Sometimes, I think she only lets me catch her because she feels bad watching me try to keep up.”
More laughter. More awws. Someone raises a glass. The warmth of the attention feels almost too real, too easy to lose ourselves in.
Then, from somewhere near the back, the girl from Scion calls out, “What’s the first thing you fell in love with? That’s the real test!”
Aiden’s hand tightens around my waist, barely, but I feel it. But instead of fumbling, his expression softens.
“The first thing?” he repeats, his tone no longer playful.
His gaze lingers on me, and suddenly, the noise around us feels like it’s fading into the background.
“It was the way she hums without realizing it. She did it when we first got into the cab on the night we met, and she does it when she’s nervous or when she’s thinking too hard.
Just soft little notes under her breath to steady herself. ”
“Yup! Definitely a lawyer with that smooth tongue,” one of the guys calls from the back, but his voice barely registers.
Because that—that wasn’t in our cover story.
It’s real. Something I used to do when dad would be screaming for me while I hid under the bed. What I do when I need something to drown out all of the noise in my head.
I force a laugh, nudging him lightly with my elbow. “You left off the fact that I can’t actually carry a tune to save my life.”
“It sounds great to me,” he says, still smiling, but there’s a flash behind his eyes, a look that feels far too genuine for this to be an act.
The crowd melts back into chatter, the moment slipping into another story, another glass being filled. But Aiden’s arms remain around me, calm and warm, his thumb brushing absent circles against my side the same way he did on the night we met.
I try to steady my breathing, to remind myself this is part of the job. That every gesture, every word, is for show, but I’m not sure it is.
Once Greg has given his ‘thanks for coming’ speech and wowed the crowd with his witty sense of humor, Aiden and I give each other slight nods, our sign that we’re ready to go.
After saying too many goodbyes and promising to text Tara after we make it home tomorrow, Aiden leads me into the sand, carrying my shoes as we walk back to our rental house.
For a minute, neither of us speaks. The night is thick with the smell of ocean salt and grilled meat, and the noise of the party behind us is slowly fading.
When we make it back to our porch, I slow, not ready for the act to be over quite yet. “Aiden?” My voice comes softer than I mean for it to.
“Yeah?” There is a hint of something there—hope?
“Do you think they’re still watching us?”
“I’m sure they are.” He says with a smile. “Should we play up the ‘newlyweds alone at last’ act?”
“Make them believe it,” I sigh as he steps into my space, brushing my cheek with his thumb before running his fingers through my roots and kissing me like it’s something he’s been dying to do all day.
For a beat, nothing else matters. It’s just us on the porch, the world outside distant, the tension of the evening forgotten. But then, the soft echo of cheers carries from next door, exactly like we planned, breaking the spell.