She turned her attention back to her phone.
Stop saying stuff like that.Remember all the reasons you shouldn’t kiss me?
And then we kissed anyway.
Dammit, that was true.
No more kissing.
“It’s definitely a he,” Ashley said, and Lydia looked up. “Just tell us who this nobody is and be done with it.”
“I can’t.”
Her sister gave her a sharp look, mimicked slightly by the two women who had been her best friends for her entire life. “What do you mean youcan’t? That’s very different fromwon’t.”
Her phone chimed again.
Okay.No more kissing.Gotta go.
Disappointment coursed through her, even though she was the one who’d put it out there first. And had something suddenly come up or had he lost his interest in texting her the second she ended any possibility of further intimacy?
“You can’t tell anybody,” Lydia said, setting her phone screen-down on the table. “I meananybody. Especially you, Ashley.”
“You know we won’t. And why especially me?”
“Because it was Aidan.”
Ashley’s expression didn’t change. “Aidan who?”
“Aidan Hunt.”
Her expression changed then, with her eyes and her mouth both making big O shapes. “He’s Scotty’s best friend.”
“Yeah.” Lydia took a sip of her wine because her mouth was suddenly dry.
“He’s a firefighter.”
“Yeah.”
“And he’s like a second son to Dad.”
“I know.” Strike. Strike. Strike. Three strikes and he should be out. She’d already done the baseball thing. “It’s no big deal. He texted something funny and I laughed. Not really a big deal.”
“And anybody but us might believe that,” Becca shot back.
“Are you sleeping with Aidan Hunt?” Ashley asked, her face still stuck in theyou can’t be seriousposition.
“No, I’m not sleeping with him.” Lydia paused for a few seconds, and then she shrugged. “But I did kiss him. Or he kissed me. We kissed.”
“When?” all three of them asked at the same time.
“A few nights ago, at the bar.” She told them what happened that night because, if she could trust anybody in the world, it was these three women.
“And you haven’t seen him since?” Courtney asked.
“No. We’ve both been busy and he did two night tours. He’s texted me a few times, but that’s about it.”
Ashley leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. “I can’t believe he had the balls to kiss you with Dad right around the corner.”
