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Yes, I am only Aiden’s younger sister by a few minutes. We share the same birthday and are the same age. But I’ve always felt like the little sister who was trailing after him, begging Aiden to include me in his fun.
“Let’s just go already,” I say, trying to shake it off. But my face is still red when we climb into my Jeep. “Okay, passenger princess, let’s get to the carnival.”
He just shakes his head and makes himself comfortable in my front seat. There’s a black ball cap in his lap, which I’m sure he’s going to be wearing in order to keep himself from being noticed.
I ease my way into the busy parking lot. “We should have gotten here earlier.” It’s the only words that have been said during our fifteen-minute drive over.
“I suppose we should have. But you know someone was so busy getting ready,” he mocks me yet again.
I just shake my head.
“You look pretty damn good, though,” he remarks, shooting me a wink.
That wink heats my cheeks and core, making my stomach flutter a little bit more than it should. “Thank you.”
“There’s that flush,” he says, running the back of his hand along my cheek as I pull into a parking space. “Do I make you nervous?”
I put the car into park and turn to face him in the car. “You have no idea how intimidating you are, do you?”
“Me?” He places a hand on his chest. His eyes are wide, like he couldn’t imagine that someone who spends his life serenading screaming crowds could possibly make me and every other girl in the world speechless in his presence.
“Yeah, you. Come on. Have you not seen yourself?”
“I have no idea how to answer that question,” he says with a chuckle.
“Then allow me to elaborate a little bit for you. You’re one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen and the fact that you have no idea makes you that much more attractive to me.”
He stares at me, mouth agape for a moment.
“Really?” I ask him. I’m not trying to call him on his bullshit, but that’s exactly what I do.
“Fine, I know that I’m an attractive man. Women wouldn’t be throwing themselves at me if that wasn’t the case. But they have no idea who I am. They’re just looking at me because of the way I’m dressed, the way I sing, and the way I look. You, however, actually know who I am. You have seen me at my worst and maybe even my best. So, hearing you say that I’m attractive makes me think there might be something to it.”
“For a moment there, I almost believed you weren’t feeding me a line. But Walsh, you, and I both know that those type of lines don’t work on me. You’re as confident in your looks as you are your singing voice.” I roll my eyes and exit the Jeep.
He’s laughing when I find him on the other side of the Jeep, pulling his ball cap down over his eyes. “It didn’t even work just a little bit on you?”
“Nope,” I say, popping the P. “It wouldn’t work on someone like me. But you know one of those bus bunnies that show up hoping for the thrill of a lifetime might actually believe it.”
“Who told you we call them that?”
“Ace,” we say at the same time.
I laugh and bump my hip into his. I almost wish he hadn’t been bullshitting me back there in the Jeep. I wish he thought I really saw him. But I know that’s not the case. I wonder if the farce that he put on in the car was just his way of distracting the both of us from the tension I felt bubbling up. I’d like to believe that it’s not all in my head, but I wouldn’t put it past me.
“Audrey. Earth to Audrey,” Derek is saying when I finally bring myself out of my thoughts.
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask.
“Where did you go?”
“Just deep in thought.”
“Thinking about your dad?” he asks me.
“Mm-hmm.” I lie so easily because why bother saying to him that I was thinking about how I wish he saw me as more than Ace’s little sister.
“Any news from home?”
