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Thatch made a gagging noise.
His thoughts exactly.
Aiden ignored them. “Maybe this woman who has you all messed upisthe right person.” He shot Silas a knowing glare. “She obviously got to you.”
Damn.And they were right back on the road to Tess.
“Who is she anyway?” Thatch pestered. “Someone you met at the party?”
“There’s no woman.” No woman he could tell them about anyway. Aiden would lose his shit if he realized Silas had been anywhere near Tess. Thatch would get all annoying and probably remind him he had no business hooking up with their dead best friend’s wife. “I just… feel like I need more. More challenges. More opportunities.” More distractions.
“Why don’t you go on vacation?” Aiden suggested. “Take a few weeks off in some exotic place. Go deep-sea diving, cliff jumping, whatever you need to do to get your adrenaline rush, and then come back?”
“Maybe,” Silas mumbled. But unfortunately, he couldn’t leave tomorrow. Not when Tess was counting on him to help with Legacy.
CHAPTER FIVE
Tess stood behind the curtain in the living room and peeked out the window. She wasn’t spying, exactly. More like… watching the Cowboy Construction office door to see if Silas had changed his mind about the sandwiches. Seriously. She’d invited the man inside her housefor foodand he’d turned her down.
Ugh.Would things ever go back to normal between them? She moved the curtain into place again and walked into the kitchen where a platter of beautiful roast beef and Asiago sandwiches still sat, untouched. It used to be that she and Silas could joke around. Some might have even called the banter between them flirting, though it had always been harmless. But now… she kept overanalyzing everything. Was he upset with her? Annoyed? Did he feel like they’d betrayed Jace too?
The front door opened, and her heart stuttered to a stop.
Aiden cruised into her house with a breezy hello. “Oh, sandwiches. Yum.” He sauntered to the kitchen island and helped himself to three. “I’m starving. Keep forgetting to stock the office refrigerator.”
“Glad I could help.” Tess pulled two glasses out of the cabinet and poured them each some iced tea. So, the cowboys didn’t have any food in their fridge and yet Silas still wouldn’t come in here and have a late lunch with her…
“Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t come by this morning,” Aiden said around a mouthful of sandwich. “I didn’t realize today was the twelfth. I should’ve remembered.”
With all he had going on—and a new engagement—it wasn’t surprising he hadn’t. “It’s fine. I don’t expect everyone to swarm over here the second they wake up in the morning.” A year ago, Aiden had been on her doorstep first thing. He’d made her coffee and had seen her off on her ride. But this year… everything was so different.Hewas different. She was different too. And she wasn’t sure what grief was supposed to look like two years out. After Jace had passed away, her heart had gone dark, along with all of her sensual desires. And then the wrong man had woken them both.
Her brother stopped eating and set his sandwich on the paper towel. “It’s okay you forgot the date, Sis. You know that, don’t you?”
It didn’t feel okay. She didn’t feel okay about forgetting at all. “What else am I going to forget?” That’s what really haunted her. “Will I forget the sound of his laugh? Will I forget how he’d look at me first thing in the morning, when his eyes were all droopy and sleepy and he had a lazy smile on his lips?” Would the countless memories of the moments they’d shared all start to fade with time? She closed her eyes, trying to see her husband’s face. “I don’t want to forget.”
When she opened her eyes, Aiden looked at her sadly, the corners of his mouth drooping with empathy. “You won’t forget the best parts of Jace because those things are part of you. They’re part of your story, Tess. And no one forgets the best parts of their story.”
“Today, when I realized I’d forgotten our anniversary, I felt like I was losing him again.” She put her hand over her mouth to hold in a sob. She’d just started to feel like she was making real progress—that she was not only living but alsoenjoyinglife again—and then this reality she’d never asked for came barreling into her again and knocked her backward.
“Maybe you shouldn’t look at it like you forgot,” her brother suggested. “Maybe you should think of this as a sign that you’re ready to add a new chapter to your story. Jace would want you to add new chapters. You know that as well as I do.”
“Wow.” Tess raised her eyebrows at the sudden role reversal. What happened to her being the one who always got to impart the wisdom? “Kyra is really rubbing off on you, huh?”
“I just never knew.” Her brother’s eyes were positively shiny with the light of new love. “I never understood how someone—therightsomeone—could make me want to be better, to be healthier and stronger and more understanding and more perceptive so I can give her the best of myself. She’s it for me.”
Based on that speech, Tess would agree. “And you’re it for her.” And in the fall, they would get married and build a beautiful new life together. Tears built in her eyes. Happy tears, sad tears. Tears of longing. Tears of heartache over what she’d lost. Her emotions hadn’t been cut and dry since Jace had died. They’d all blurred together. “You know when you’ve found the right person. That’s for sure.” She’d known with Jace even though she’d only been sixteen years old.
“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell Silas.” Aiden went back to eating his sandwich. “That being with the right person can give you a higher sense of purpose.”
At the mention of Silas’s name, Tess stood up. “Really?” She could feel her face flushing—the heat, the mad rush of blood—so she turned to the sink to wash the dishes. “You and Silas were talking about relationships?” Damn it, her voice went too high. She had to be cool.
“Yep. He’s acting weird.”
A glass bowl nearly slipped out of her hands. “Oh. Really?” She fumbled with the dish, finally setting it down on the drying rack.
“We know he hooked up with a woman at the party and now she won’t call him back or something.” Irritation flickered in his tone.
Tess eased out a slow, controlled breath before answering. Unfortunately, she was working on the last plate in the sink and then she’d have no reason to continue hiding her face from him. “Why, um… why would you think that?”
