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When her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, Striker couldn’t hold back.
“Come here,” he said, drawing her into his arms. “Please don’t cry over me. I’m not worth it.”
That only seemed to make her cry harder.
“I hate that I’m the one who makes you sad.” He drew back and wiped her tears. “I don’t want to make you cry, Aine.”
She shook her head. “It isn’t you. I’m the one who shouldn’t be here. Just because my sister is married to Tabon, doesn’t mean I have to be around all the time.”
“Not just your sister; your best friend is married to Mercer, and your half-sister is married to Gunner. Seems to me that you’ve got an awful lot of ties to this group.”
“I’m sorry,” she said for the third or fourth time. He’d lost track of the number of her apologies.
“Stop this.” He looked into her eyes. “After Thanksgiving, when things have calmed down, you and I will talk. Really talk. I haven’t been completely honest with you, and I see now how unfair that is. You deserve to know the truth.”
“I see, I guess that means…” Aine cried harder than she had before, pulled back, and put her hands over her face.
“Means what?”
“You said you weren’t completely honest with me. Does that mean there is someone else?”
Striker smiled and pulled her back in his embrace. “No, Aine. There isn’t anyone else, and there never will be.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Let’s not get into this now. I promise, next week, when there aren’t so many people here, we’ll talk.”
When she rested her head against his chest, he wove his fingers into her hair. “Sweet, sweet Aine,” he murmured, wishing so much that things were different.
“Am I interrupting?”
When Striker looked up, Stuart was standing in the doorway.
Aine pulled away from him as though they’d been caught doing something wrong. Striker wished she hadn’t, because they weren’t. “Stuart…”
“Would you excuse us?” the plumber asked.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Aine and I are friends. That’s it.”
“I’d like to talk to Aine alone if you wouldn’t mind.”
“It’s okay, Striker.”
He walked out of the workout room, but didn’t go upstairs. Instead, he went into the office and left the door open. If things went too far south between Aine and her boyfriend, he wanted to be close enough to intervene.
17
“I guess I shouldn’t have assumed it was okay for me to surprise you.”
“What Striker said is the truth, Stuart. He and I are just friends. He was comforting me over something that happened with Tara and Pen. It was nothing more than that.”
“Aine, please. I know what I saw, and that wasn’t a friend comforting another friend. I don’t know what happened between you two, but it’s obvious you still have strong feelings for each other.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t say he was wrong. She’d already lied to him enough each time she told him that Striker was just someone who worked with Tabon.
“I’m sorry, Stuart.”
“Walk me upstairs so I can say goodbye?”
