AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The peas plopped back onto the plate. “My mum died.”
Jacinta looked stricken. “I’m so sorry.”
Silence fell across the guests and Aaron felt the need to elaborate to ease the sudden tension, which was particularly emanating from Alice. Why would she worry? She knew the story. Well, as much as he’d ever told anyone, which was practically nothing. “A car accident, when I was twelve.”
“Oh, how awful, I’m sorry.”
“To be honest, that time in my life is pretty hazy.” He tried again and this time the peas got to his mouth safely. He chewed, swallowed. “Andrea has been my stepmum since my mid-teens; the benefits are obvious.” He waved his fork at his plate and beamed out his best smile. “Though I have to say I don’t think I’ve tried this one in her repertoire. Delicious.”
The conversation moved on quickly to when Stella’s baby was due, and the imminent baby shower.
“Alice, why don’t you come? You must come.” Stella’s grey eyes were full of genuine warmth.
Alice let out the sound Aaron had often heard her make when she didn’t know how to respond. A little musical hum with a kind of question mark on the end.
Aaron jabbed at his salmon. If he had known how cosy this whole thing was going to be… how smug and adult andcommittedeveryone was… he’d have had his excuse not to come much better prepared.
Except… damn it, he’d actually been looking forward to seeing Alice after his crazy first week at Trojan’s.
He stole a glance at her. She’d put her cutlery down and a forefinger hovered close to the bridge of her nose, then dropped away. His lips twitched despite himself. She thought she was still wearing her glasses and had gone to shove them up her nose. A wave of nostalgic longing hit him. He missed those glasses.
Earlier, when he’d picked her up, he couldn’t bring himself to look in her eyes as she answered the door. She was wearing another outfit he’d never seen. A cornflower blue dress with a little knot over the centre of her breasts, the material falling in soft folds from there, stopping a few centimetres short of her knees. Cute knees. And cherry-pink lipstick that defined the full outline of her upper lip. He’d carefully kept his eyes off her after that. He couldn’t risk any more action in his groin.
In the confined space of his car they’d made polite and stilted conversation about his work.
When they got here, he’d grabbed Alice’s hand as the door opened and was sure he felt her flinch. She’d removed it swiftly to give her coat to Jacinta and had kept a careful distance since then.
Well, damn it. Good. That’s what he wanted. Right?
It suddenly occurred to him that maybe Alice would want some flirting practice after this as payment. He shifted to try and re-arrange himself in his seat.
“So how about you two?” Stella pressed her pregnancy-engorged breasts against the table, leaning eagerly towards him and Alice. She placed her chin in her hands and popped her eyes wide. “Will we hear the patter of tiny feet any time soon?”
“No!”
“No!”
Everyone was staring at them. Almost without thinking, Aaron reached for Alice’s hand and brought it to his mouth, planted a kiss on the back of it, then intertwined her fingers with his. He felt the moment of resistance then a tentative pressure as she returned the squeeze, and once again the sensation of her hand in his made his cock stir.
But he couldn’t drop her hand. Not without looking like a complete… well…dick. He cleared his throat, but his voice came out weird and husky. “What Alice is trying to say… what we mean is…thisperiod of our relationship is so special, we don’t want to rush into…”
The words ground to a halt so he replaced them with a stupid grin. And still his body refused to behave anywhere close to normal. Swiftly he let go of Alice’s hand.
He sensed Alice’s smile was superglued on and everyone madeoohandaahand “that’s cute” noises. Blain, the father-to-be, looked at Aaron with a tinge of envy.
Willing the throb in his groin to take a hike, Aaron focused on his food.
Alice kicked him under the table.
And that, thankfully, seemed to do the trick.
When they were walking back to Aaron’s car after what seemed like hours more of torturous dinner party conversation, Alice said, “I can drive if you’ve drunk too much.”
He probably had. After the baby discussion incident he’d needed to fortify himself and he’d guzzled down more red wine than he’d meant to. Luckily they’d done the table swap thing for dessert and Alice had been hustled to the women’s end of the table to discuss all things baby-related, while he, Hamish and Blain had talked work. Blain was a cabinet maker and it felt kind of good to talk to someone who worked with his hands and couldn’t give a rat’s about who around town was ripping off who for the most money.
Aaron tossed her the car keys. “Okay. I could be over the limit.”
“I think you probably are.”
