“You didn’t do any laundry this morning, did you?”
“No. And I checked the hamper to make sure I didn’t leave it in my pocket, even though I’ve never done that. Send me a text so I can listen for the ding.”
Lydia grabbed her phone and sent a happy face emoticon to his phone and listened for the notification. “I think it came from the couch.”
“I already looked there.”
“I have smaller hands. I can reach farther down in the cushions.”
A quick search turned up nothing, so Lydia typeddumbassinto the box and hit Send again. This time they were ready and she shoved her hand down behind the cushion, feeling around until she came up with his phone. She started to hand it to him, but then she noticed the text previews on his lock screen and pulled her hand back.
“Who isBlonde from market?” She looked at the screen again, then shook her head. “Wait. I’m the one who called you a dumbass. You have me saved in your contacts asBlonde from market?”
“It’s a long story.”
She crossed her arms, his phone still clutched in her hand. “If you want your phone back, you should probably make the time to tell it.”
He grinned. “You know I can take that phone away from you if I want to, right?”
“Maybe you can, but you’ll need bandages and Bengay later.”
“I believe you.” He sat down on the couch and laced his fingers together on top of his head as he leaned back against the cushion. It was a favorite position of his and usually she liked the effect it had on his biceps and chest, but she wasn’t going to be distracted right now. “Remember the day you texted me while I was on my way to a promotion ceremony?”
“Yeah.”
“When you sent that, I was mashed up against Scotty in the backseat of Rick’s truck and my phone was just kind of in my hand. I turned it before he saw your name on the screen, but I realized he grabs my phone sometimes. So I changed your name in my contacts.”
“Because you didn’t want him to know I was texting you.”
“He might think it was a little weird, and some of the texts you’ve sent...no, I don’t want him reading them.”
Lydia wasn’t sure how she felt about the depths Aidan was going to in order to keep their relationship a secret. It made her feel as if she was doing something wrong and she really wasn’t. But Aidan obviously thoughthewas, and so he was lying to his best friend. Then it got weird because Scotty was her brother and she knew his best friend was lying to him, which should make her angry on his behalf.
All of that on top of what Ashley had said was too much, and she wanted to kick a garbage barrel or something to let off steam. The entire situation was seriously messed up and obviously a huge part of why you didn’t sleep with your brother’s best friend.
“WhyBlonde from market?” she asked, because that seemed a little random. “You could have at least left me a brunette.”
“Scotty asked me how I saved her in my contacts since I couldn’t remember her name and it just came out of my mouth at the time,” he replied. When he shrugged his shoulders with his hands on his head like that, it made his biceps flex, which she liked. “I’m not a good liar, so it’s been a challenge.”
“Or you could just tell him.”
His mouth tightened as he considered her words. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
Lydia tried to imagine what her brother’s reaction would be if Aidan told him he’d been sleeping with her, and it wouldn’t be pretty. “I don’t like that you have to lie to him. I know that bothers you.”
“You’re right. I hate lying to him and the more I lie to him, the worse it’ll be if I tell him.”
She mentally flailed for a solution. “Maybe we can pretend we haven’t been seeing each other and you can bring it up to see how he reacts. If he freaks out, then we’re still a secret. But if he’s okay with it, then we go out on a date and pick up where nobody knows we left off.”
“If he freaks out, that would be the end of it. What I’m doing now is shitty. If I kept seeing you after he said no...I couldn’t do that to him.”
She could see in his eyes how much it tore him up, and she hated it. “I think Ashley’s starting to get bored and she’ll need to start making money again, so pretty soon I’ll probably be back in New Hampshire and you won’t have to.”
That didn’t seem to make him feel any better. If anything, his mouth got even tighter and his eyes more troubled. He dropped his hands to his lap and then held one out to her. “I don’t want to think about that right now.”
She thought he was reaching for his phone and, since he had told her the story as requested, she put it in his hand. But he just dropped the phone into his lap and reached out again. “Come sit with me.”
When she took his hand, he pulled her down so she was sitting next to him. Lydia wanted to change the subject to pretty much anything other than her brother and New Hampshire, and she had a good idea of how to do that.
