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For a minute, I thought maybe I’d been wrong. She wasn’t pissed at me after all. But then color crept up her throat and thunderclouds gathered in her eyes. She was pissed all right. The only question now was how we were going to have this out without giving away our secret.
“Liv, I’m hungry,” Bran said casually as Layla’s roommate disconnected her call.
“You know where the–” Liv broke off suddenly, almost like she’d picked up on the charged silence between Layla and me. “Me too,” she redirected.
“Great. Let’s grab a bite somewhere.” Bran held out his arm, so effortlessly cool and adult that I suddenly felt even older than my forty-two years. It was one thing for Layla to be an adult, but when the hell had the younger ones grown up, too?
They made quick work of their exit. After the front door closed behind them, Layla stood up slowly from the couch. Her eyes were big and angry in her face. “You’re really playing fast and loose with this so-called secret,” she bit off.
“You weren’t answering my calls,” I countered. “What the hell was I supposed to do?” I looked over at the closed door. It was like Bran had known that we were about to argue. “Do they know?”
“Yes.”
I knew I didn’t have room to be angry, but I couldn’t help the frustrated oath that slipped out.
“Oh, don’t you dare.” Layla jabbed her fists into her hips. “Don’t you dare act like I’m the one being reckless with this secret when you took it upon yourself to assign me a babysitter for the charity ball and then told my dad about it. Would you do that for all your employees?”
“No, but I’m not in love with all my employees,” I snapped back before I even realized what I’d said.
Layla’s eyes widened further. Then her brows crashed down again. “Don’t try to get out of this fight by claiming you’re in love with me, Aiden. That’s the lowest thing you could do right now.”
I ground my back teeth together. “I’m not trying to get out of anything, Layla. I’ll fight with you all day about this. All night, too, though I’d rather be doing other things. Because I fucking love you.”
Every time I said it, I felt her anger deflate a little. Then I felt it puff up all over again because she was so mad that I was making her forget that she was mad. It made me want to laugh, to shake her, to kiss her.
“I love you,” I repeated, this time because it felt good. It felt right. Like I was finally telling a secret I’d kept in too long. “I’m in love with you, Layla. Do you love me?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped, still wanting to be angry.
I couldn’t help it. I did laugh now. “You do.” Risking her wrath further, I crossed the distance between us and caught her chin, angling it up so I could get the full effect of that lethal blue glare.
“Maybe, but I’m still furious.”
“I get it. But listen–” I smoothed my hands into her hair and held her head. “New plan. I’m not sending Joe.”
“Good.”
“Because I’m going myself.”
Layla hesitated, clearly seeing the benefits to the two of us getting out of town together. “Won’t that look suspicious?”
“Maybe,” I said slowly. “But maybe I don’t care anymore.” Because she hadn’t taken her fists off her hips to sock me in the stomach yet, I lowered my mouth to hers.
Her lips yielded beneath mine reluctantly. The kiss was long, slow, and it felt like we were sealing an agreement with it. When she pulled back, her eyes were focused on mine.
“Maybe I don’t care either.”
CHAPTER23
LAYLA
Aiden and I were still careful at work, but we let our guard down outside of it. We went to dinner together on the other side of town, and once in a while, he even spent the night at my place now that he knew that Liv and Bran were in on the secret.
Liv and Bran had their own secret they thought they were keeping, but Aiden and I were experts at this by now. We knew my brother didn’t really crash on the couch at the end of a long night, and we heard him on those nights he pretended to leave and then doubled back.
It was nice to see my brother and my best friend falling for each other, even if it was kind of strange. I hoped that when he eventually found out about me andhisbest friend, my dad would feel similarly.
“Don’t count on it,” Aiden said when I mentioned it one night. We’d driven across town to eat at a restaurant we figured was far away enough that no one we knew would be there. We were doing that more and more. It was starting to feel normal to be out with him in public. It was the hiding that was beginning to feel strange. More and more, I wondered,could we just tell him?
