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“Morning,” I say lightly as I head to fix myself a cup as well. The pot looks extra dark and extra strong, just the way I want it.
“Hey!” Jolie says. “Sleep well?”
“Oh yeah,” I lie.
“Good. I was worried you’d be upset about Brent leaving yesterday. I feel bad we didn’t get to talk about it when you got home last night.”
I’m sorry, who?
“Oh, it’s okay.”
“I don’t get it. He just up and left you the day before Christmas Eve? What kind of boyfriend does that?”
The fake kind.
“It’s not a big deal. We weren’t even serious.”
She seems surprised by that. “But you invited him here for the holidays?”
To make Aiden jealous, Jolie. Keep up.
When I don’t offer a response, she asks, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?” Aiden inquires.
I whip around to see him walk into the kitchen wearing jeans and a hunter green long-sleeved t-shirt. His hair is inky black and still damp from the shower.
“We were talking about Maddie’s breakup.”
Aiden laughs.
LAUGHS!
Then he turns and heads toward me and I freeze like a deer caught in headlights. He looks ready to pounce. Oh my god, he’s going to kiss me in front of my sister! He’s that confident!
He strolls right up to me and I brace myself against the counter, waiting for it. My hands grip the edge so hard I’m about to break bone.
Then he stops and peers down at me. His long lashes—the kind that are absolutely wasted on men—encase sharp green eyes.
I blink and hold my breath…waiting…waiting.
His smile widens. “Mind if I…?”
He points to the coffee pot behind me. The thing he came over to get—coffee. Not me! COFFEE.
I’m so mortified I could melt into the floor. I laugh so loud and so shrill, Ford starts to cry.
“Ford, shhh. It’s okay,” Jolie says, picking him up out of his highchair.
Just great.
“You have such a way with children,” Aiden teases, and I intend on punching him in the arm before remembering we don’t do that kind of thing anymore. Friendly behavior is totally off the table. After last night, this is war.
“How’d you sleep?” I ask, sounding bored.
“Oh great. Think I got a solid eight. You?”
“Pfft.” I snap my fingers. “I was out like a light.”
“I’ll bet. That sort of activity really tires you out.”
“What activity?” Jolie asks.
She’s done tending to Ford and has apparently been listening to us.
I glare at Aiden with a warning that if he so much as breathes a word of last night to my sister, I will end him right here, right now.
“Oh, Maddie and I walked around Vail Village last night after dinner. We watched the ice skaters.”
“That sounds so fun. I’d suggest we all go back tonight, but I booked us reservations at the Four Seasons for Christmas Eve dinner. It was surprisingly difficult to get on the list. Vail society is extremely difficult to break into…”
I stop listening at some point as she drones on about things I couldn’t care less about. Besides, Aiden is still close to me, and I’ve yet to move so he can get his coffee.
He arches a brow as Jolie continues to instruct us to be on our best behavior tonight, and it’s like he’s challenging me right then and there.
“It’s not my behavior you have to worry about,” I tell her. “It’s Aiden’s.”
He laughs and nudges me out of the way so he can get his coffee.
Jolie takes Ford into his room for a diaper change, and I lean in toward Aiden.
“What’s gotten into you?” I hiss under my breath.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re different. Before, when we lived together…you never…” WENT DOWN ON ME, is what I want to shout, but instead, I settle on, “Flirted with me like this.”
“Yeah, well I don’t have the same amount of patience as I had back then.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He sips his coffee nice and slow, watching me over the rim before finally deigning to answer me.
“I’m going after what I want, Maddie.”
“You can keep trying, but—”
“But what?”
“But it’s not going to happen,” I say, sounding definitive. “Last night is over. Find some other girl to entertain yourself with. I’m sure there will be plenty of willing women at the Four Seasons tonight.”
Especially if he turns that green gaze on them like he’s trying on me. I attempt to skirt around him then, feeling as though I’ve done a very good job of laying down the law. But then he uses catlike reflexes to reach for my hand and stops me before I can pass him.
We’re side by side when he turns his head and, with a tone so dead serious it makes my toes curl, asks me, “And if I want you?”
My mouth drops open, and he uses my momentary shock to turn me around so my back is against the counter. He steps in front of me, putting us chest to chest.
