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Aiden’s smile was wide and a little bashful when he shrugged. “I just want to get this place nice for you.” A slight twang slipped from his lips and the sound of it wrapped around Janae, nearly making her melt. His Southern accent didn’t come out as often as she expected, but when it did, it was always a pleasant surprise.
“You are,” she replied before hiding her smile behind another sip of coffee. “I’ll shower after you then. I got up a bit earlier so I could take my time this morning.”
He nodded before giving her a little wave and continuing to the bathroom. Janae stood in the hallway for a moment longer before she was startled by her cell. She sighed and moved to the living room couch, sitting down carefully and answering her phone.
“Whatever it is, no. It’s too early in the morning for your mess, Braeden.”
“You wound me, sis,” Braeden said, laughter clear in her tone. “You don’t even know what I’m going to say. I could be calling to tell you I won the lottery and I’m flying us both to Bora Bora!”
“Did you, and are you?”
“Nah. I’d have to actually play for that to happen.” Janae sighed and shook her head as Braeden continued, “I was calling to give you the sad news that I’m having to push my visit back another week.”
Janae huffed out a soft laugh. “Oh, no. That’s tragic. Whatever will I do?”
“Yuk it up, chuckles.” That did get a laugh out of Janae before she took another sip of her coffee. “I would have loved to save this to tell you in person, but I need to get the sordid gossip out now before I burst.”
That perked Janae up. She never knew lawyers held such interesting lives until Braeden started keeping her abreast of the mess that went down at her firm. “Oh, lord. Who is sleeping with who now?”
“Well, not me, that’s for sure. So, you remember Daniella? The new intern with the fabulous ass and lackluster personality? Well, she apparently was seen with not only Edgar, the asshole partner’s wet noodle of a son, but also with Fargus, one of our clients with a very healthy hedge fund.”
Janae didn’t know what some of those words meant, but it still sounded salacious enough to grab her attention. “So, wait . . . wasn’t she recommended by the partner’s golf buddy from law school?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Braeden confirmed. “She came highly recommended, and I can’t even lie. The girl knows her stuff. If not for there being pictures to confirm all of this, pictures that were shared to social media no less, I would be hard-pressed to believe it.”
“Wow. This is like one of those soap operas we used to watch at Granny’s house after school.” She took another sip of her coffee and heard the pipes rattle, announcing Aiden’s shower. For a moment, her attention slipped as she imagined what he must look like under the water. It took her a moment to realize Braeden was talking again. “What did you say?”
“I said, HR is having an absolute meltdown about all of this,” Braeden repeated. “I mean. This isn’t the raciest thing that’s happened in the past three years since I started working here, but it is a lot. Usually, the interns don’t get involved like this.”
It was true. Most times, Braeden had stories about clients being bad actors in completely different ways.
“And they pulled me into the mess to smooth things over because of the social media spillover. I don’t even like social media. I had to dig through and update NDAs just to bring the panic level down to manageable. Next week is going to be a hot mess and I’m billing them all the overtime I can.”
“Get those big checks, sis.”
“You know it,” Braeden replied. “But the plus is that it gives you more time to get the house ready since you insist that I can’t be seen in anything less than a perfect abode.”
Janae smiled as she glanced around her. Aiden had planned to move on from the kitchen and start the living room, but the bathroom clearly took precedence after what happened last night. The air still carried the scent of sawdust, but it wasn’t as bad now that he’d spent time airing it out and had gotten the kitchen completed.
“The house is slowly but surely shaping up. Aiden is doing such great work. He really is incredible.”
“Incredible, huh?” Braeden said, her tone knowing. Janae rolled her eyes, even though Braeden couldn’t see her. “You’ve mentioned Aiden every time we’ve talked these past few conversations. You don’t typically go around rescuing strays, or allowing strange men to enter into your space, so this guy must be special.”
“It’s not like that,” Janae insisted even as her heart thumped. “He’s here as a favor. Winter will be here before we know it. Was I supposed to just turn down his offer to help?”
“I didn’t say all that,” Braeden said. “I’m just saying, maybe there’s more to this than a simple practical transaction.”
Janae groaned softly, but before she could reply, a sound from the hallway made her glance up in time to see Aiden sneak by. He was still damp from the shower, his hair dark and dripping wet. He was shirtless again, though he had on sweatpants. They hung on his body, making her mouth go dry. He walked into the kitchen and Janae tried to pull her attention back to the conversation at hand.
“Anyway,” Braeden continued, oblivious to Janae’s struggle. “I was going to see if you wanted me to bring you that espresso machine you left here. You’re still using that old drip coffee thing, right?”
“I mean, you can if you want. The drip one works just fine.” She could almost feel Aiden moving somewhere behind her. This awareness of another person was new. Or maybe not new exactly. She had been all too aware of her ex toward the end of their relationship. But it hadn’t been for good reasons. The arguments their conversations tended to devolve into had always started from the most innocent of interactions, leaving her on edge and hyper vigilant. This tension felt different, the type that left her longing for a glimpse of him around the doorframe.
When she caught the scent of soap, including that faint sweetness she recognized as just being Aiden, her eyes fluttered closed.
“That thing is almost older than you,” Braeden cut in, making her eyes slam open. “I swear you get attached to the strangest things.”
“I like consistency,” Janae said as she lifted her mug. “That coffeepot might be old, but it’s never let me down.” She took a sip before standing for a refill. It was definitely shaping up to be a two-cup kind of day.
