The opening and closing of the garage door let me know someone was home. “I’ll tell everyone about your porn bookmarks if you don’t,” I threatened her with a snicker.
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
You never forget accidentally coming across your friend’s—predominantly man on man—porn bookmark folder, no matter how hard you try. “No.”
“Like you’ve never seen gay porn,” she sniped bitterly. “You think Susie might be at your mom’s?
And just like that, my nice, fine day was kicked in the shin. I bit the inside of my cheek and reached up to push my glasses further up my nose. “I don’t know. I talked to my mom a few days ago, but she didn’t mention anything.”
Not that my mom would.
If I did see Susie, chances were high it wasn’t going to end well. It never had. Even people I didn’t know who knew about our situation, were well aware that was a fact. We were like two magnets constantly repelling the other.
Damn it. I knew Diana was just trying to be helpful, but simply thinking about Susie made my head start hurting.
“I don’t think you should go by yourself or with Aiden, for the record.”
That wasn’t surprising. I just wished she wouldn’t have brought up Susie. “I know.”
“But you’re still going?”
I’d already given my word I would. How could I take it back? “Yes.”
She didn’t approve and it was evident over the phone.
“I want to finish eating so I can get back to work. I’ll text you later. Give the demons a hug from me next time you see them, and tell Drigo I haven’t forgotten he still has the DVDs I let him borrow a month ago,” I said to her, rubbing at one of my throbbing temples.
“I will. I’m babysitting them tomorrow. I’ll let you know when I’m off next week so I can do your hair again, ‘kay?”
We hung up just as the door that connected the garage to the kitchen opened and Aiden came in, his duffel in hand.
“Hi,” I said, turning off the stove.
“Hi, Vanessa.” Aiden dropped his bag on the floor by the door and then made his way toward where I was standing, his nostrils flaring at the smell of lentils, chopped vegetables, and sundried tomatoes mixing together. “Smells good.”
I gave him a side-look, only letting what seemed to be an extra-large shirt on his double-extra-large frame distract me for a second. “There’s enough for both of us, if you have a normal, human-sized meal instead of a Hulk-sized one.”
He sniffed, and I think it was more at my comment than to actually smell the food again. “Thank you,” he said, making his way toward the sink to wash his hands. He seemed to hesitate at the island for a minute before taking two plates down from the cupboard and setting them on the counter by the side of my hip.
When the timer for the noodles went off, I drained them, splitting up half the pot on two plates and leaving the other half in the pot. I scooped up the stir-fry and placed it on top of the noodles as Aiden put two red apples side by side in the spot he usually ate at.
We sat down to eat. Each of us just sitting there, not on our phones or computer or anything. Just… sitting there.
“Has Zac come down?” he suddenly asked.
“Once. He came out of his room around noon, but that’s it.” It had been almost a week since he’d been let go from the team, and apart from the day we’d gone out, he hadn’t left his room more than he needed to, which was solely for meals. He didn’t want to talk to anyone or do anything, and I wasn’t sure what to do, if I should even do something.
Aiden made a “hmm” noise.
“I don’t know what to say to him, or if I should do something,” I admitted. I wasn’t good at consoling people. I really wasn’t. Some people knew what to say in all types of situations, knew what words were needed, and they used them perfectly. Me? I usually just settled for an “I’m sorry.” I wasn’t good with words even though I did want to do something for Zac. I just didn’t know what.
The big guy raised his shoulder. “Give him some time,” he suggested.
Mr. Congeniality right here was trying to give me advice on what I should do? Did that mean I should do the opposite?
“Yeah, I guess I will,” I said, before my conversation with Diana came back to me. “Umm, I’m going to El Paso for a few days this weekend. Remember I told you?” I stabbed at a few pieces of pasta scattered around the plate. “It’s my mom’s birthday.”
He shifted in his stool, the side of his knee touching mine. “Okay.”
There was no reason for me to feel awkward. None. If he said he’d go, great. If he didn’t want to go, it wasn’t a big deal. “I was thinking… maybe you could come with me. I haven’t told her we got married, and I would rather tell her in person than let them find out some other way.” I fidgeted in my seat and slanted him a look out of the corner of my eye.
Aiden simply forked some food into his mouth, chewing slowly.
I scratched at my ear. “If you want.” Then I added, “It’s just for the weekend.”
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Why had I even bothered saying anything?
Aiden scratched at his jaw with the end of the fork in his hand. He twisted his lower body in his seat, his knee hitting the side of my leg again before he said, “I’d need to be back Sunday night.”
I almost had to do a double take. “Really?”
He shrugged down at his food, super casual, or at least as casual as someone his size could be. Honestly, I was surprised he could fit that butt onto one stool. I was even more surprised the stool’s legs hadn’t given out yet under his weight. “Yeah,” was his reply.
“Oh… okay. I was planning on leaving Friday. It’s an eight hour drive.”
That had his face swinging to me, his expression going from blank to disturbed in a second flat. “You want to drive there?”
I nodded.
He stared at me for a second longer before reaching into his pocket, pulling out his black leather wallet, and then holding a silver credit card out in my direction. “Buy two tickets and rent a car. I don’t do long road trips.”
Did I know he didn’t like riding in a car for longer than absolutely necessary? Yes, but I wanted to cross my eyes anyway. If I didn’t have to do an eight-hour road trip, I wasn’t going to, especially not if I wasn’t paying for it.
He couldn’t be considered my sugar daddy if we were legally married, right?
Shoving the thought aside, I took the card from him hesitantly. “Are you sure?”
He didn’t hold back his eye roll. “Get an afternoon flight, they usually let us out around three.” He eyeballed me from the side. “Don’t rent one of those tiny economy cars either just to save money.”
Yeah, his bossiness was bringing back not the best of memories. I nodded anyway and held his card between my fingers, hesitating. “Is this supposed to be a test?” I asked hesitantly.
Back to being busy eating, it took him a second to answer before he turned to me with a furrow between those thick eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”
“Is this a test?” I wiggled his credit card. “To see if I’ll spend your money or offer to pay for my own ticket.”
That full bottom lip of his dropped just a little, his eyelids hanging low. Then he shook his head slowly, so slowly I knew he was exasperated… or he thought I was a complete idiot. One or the other. Maybe both. “Don’t be dumb. I wouldn’t offer to pay for the tickets if I didn’t want to. You know me better than that.”
He had me there. I shrugged. “Okay. All right.” Sheesh. “I just wanted to be sure because if you want to pay for them, I’m not going to tell you no.”
“Just buy the tickets and rent the car.” He got up with his plate in hand and walked around to the sink before adding, “Where are we staying?”