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When I reached a hand out to Emma, she took it, and I tried like hell to ignore the zap of energy that raced from her body to mine. Clearly, she didn’t feel it, because she didn’t falter one bit.
“I’ll see you later tonight,” I said.
“See you later, Aiden.”
She turned and headed out of my office. Before shutting the door all the way, our eyes met once more, and we both smiled before Emma pulled the door shut and it made a soft click.
And it was only then that I could finally breathe.
CHAPTER TEN
EMMA - VOLUNTEER WORK
“Emma, what a surprise seeingyouhere,”Nancy said with a smirk on her face.
It had been two weeks since I’d run into Nancy at the grocery store, and I wasn’t the least bit happy to see her again. The coast was clear all morning, but now she stood in front of me with a large basket in her hands.
“Hello, Nancy. Tammy asked me if I would help with the fall carnival.”
With narrowed eyes that looked almost black, Nancy gave me a once-over and sighed. “You don’t think it’s sort of sad that you’re still playing this part?”
“What part is that?” I asked, forcing myself not to react.
Snarling her lip, she leaned in closer and hissed, “You’re not his type.”
“Emma! Emma, over here, I need your help!” someone called out.
I ignored Nancy’s words and forced a smile. “See you around, Nancy.” Quickly, I made my way over to the area where I’d heard my name being called.
Tammy and another woman—Kasey, I thought her name was—were attempting to hang a banner.
“Is it straight?” Tammy called out.
“A little up on…um… Is your name Kasey?” I asked.
“That’s me!” the woman said with a smile.
“Just a tad more up on your side, Kasey.” She lifted the banner, and I held out my hands. “That’s it. Perfect.”
Suddenly, my body was racked with a shiver, and I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off a tingling sensation racing up and down my spine.
“Texas girl can’t take the cold, huh?”
Spinning around at the familiar voice, I sucked in a breath when I saw Aiden standing behind me. Had I picked up his presence before even seeing him? Impossible.
“Aiden, what are you doing here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I have Friday afternoons off, remember?”
It didn’t occur to me it was Friday, and likely wouldn’t have remembered it was his day off. Especially sincelastFriday Aiden had worked late trying to track down a group of kids who were driving motorcycles off the trails in the park.
“Right. So you’ll be picking up Hadley today.”
Aiden nodded and looked around. “Looks like you guys are doing a great job getting everything set up.”
I laughed. “Not me, I’m just an extra set of hands, but Tammy and the other moms who run this carnival are amazing. I’m not sure how they do it all.”
Aiden smiled. “They have it down pat, it seems.”
