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Ahh. We were back to Ward.
I’d never had the sound of my last name spark such immediate and hot rage. My bones practically melted from the force of it.
Gavin’s eyebrows lifted briefly. “You okay if I go?” he asked quietly.
Aiden’s countenance darkened even further.
I gave Gavin a subdued smile. “Yes, thank you.”
He nodded deferentially to Aiden as he left my office. I crossed my arms as Aiden closed the office door behind him.
It took him a second to say anything once we were blocked from prying eyes.
Oddly enough, it was the first time I felt no butterflies, no flutters, no walking-a-tight rope feel in the fact that he and I were alone.
No, I was too frustrated with him for that. So even when he walked closer and tilted his head to look at my bandage, I didn’t move, didn’t smile, didn’t break the silence.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“Fixing the schedule you messed up.”
“I didn’t …“ He took in a deep breath. “Okay, I probably did.”
My eyebrows lifted. “And making sure you didn’t do the same thing to payroll. If you plan to keep your employees, you kinda need to pay them.”
“They’d forgive me,” he answered simply.
I exhaled a laugh. “Well, at least you’re feeling more confident in your role.”
“Because of you,” he explained. “They’d forgive me because of you.” At my silence, he took a step closer. “But none of that matters because you should not be here. You’re supposed to be off work for at least four days.”
“I’m done resting, but I appreciate your concern.” I hooked a thumb at my desk. “Is that all? I’d like to get back to work.”
My tone remained calm and even, but my heart started to race at his nearness. An unconscious reaction that I had no control over. Born from the frustration of that, I turned my back to Aiden and walked to the storage cabinet in the corner. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for; I just needed space. I needed distance between his body and mine, and my desk didn’t provide enough of that.
Aiden’s response took a long moment to come, but when it did, it stopped me in my tracks. “You’re mad at me.”
In the middle of pulling a stack of shirts out of the cabinet, my hands froze.
“Is that it? You’re mad about the other night.”
Not in a million years did I expect him to push this. Push what had happened—or not happened—in his bedroom. Slowly, I slid the shirts back into place and closed the cabinet.
When I turned, his face was impossible to read. I’d need a chisel and crowbar to get this man’s thoughts out of his head clearly. Leave it to me to find someone like this to finally light me up inside. Someone guarded and cagey. Someone who couldn’t—or wouldn’t—make things easy.
It was … poetic justice at its finest. I deserved someone like Aiden because this was how everyone, in my entire life, had always felt about me.
And it was the only reason I started laughing. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.
Aiden looked at me like I’d lost my fucking mind because I kinda felt like I had.
He clenched his jaw, crossing his arms over his chest, but he didn’t say a word as I tried to get a hold of myself. Eventually, I did, and as I wiped away tears underneath my eyes, he shook his head.
“You done?”
“The hell if I know,” I said around a few stray giggles. I never giggled. But this—him and me—it was too much. And if I didn’t laugh about it, I’d probably cry. Finally, I took a deep breath. “You are … impossible, Aiden Hennessy.”
His face went blank with shock. “Me?”
