Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)

Elaine put a restraining hand on his arm. “Aidan, don’t. You’ll upset your father.”


“Yeah, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

He turned away and started for the nursery. Anything to get away.

A few minutes later, as he stared unseeingly at the tiny babies behind the glass, he felt more than heard Shelby come up beside him. She stood close.

“I heard the fight,” she told him quietly.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay.”

“Just like that?”

“Sometimes talking isn’t required. You’ve taught me that.” But she did reach for his hand.

They laced their fingers together as they watched the sweet new babies sleep through their first day in Fool’s Gold.

*

“YOU DON’T REALLY need my help,” Shelby teased. “I’ve seen you make much more complicated things.”

Aidan dumped the graham-cracker crumbs in the bowl. “Are you kidding? This is done in three parts. I’ve never made a three-part dessert before.”

She wondered how many desserts he’d ever made before they’d met. Maybe cookies. With the help of a girlfriend. Since they’d started hanging out together, he’d learned how to cook all kinds of things. At first Shelby did most of the work, but these days she simply supervised and offered advice.

On the menu for today—key lime pie. Aidan had already squeezed a cup of key lime juice. He’d been shocked when she’d told him it would take over a pound and a half of limes to get that much. Then he’d seen how tiny they were and how little juice came out.

They were at his place. His kitchen was a little bigger than hers. More important, he had to get used to working there. Because she wasn’t always going to be around to help. A thought that made her feel strange, so she didn’t linger on it. Even so, the truth was there. June was getting closer and closer. Their six months would end and they would resume their regular lives. While she was sure she and Aidan would always stay in touch, she knew that everything would be different.

He pulled the melted butter from the microwave and added it to the graham crackers. He put on disposable gloves, then mixed the two ingredients with his hands before pouring the mixture into the pie pan.

“You want to get it even,” she told him from her seat at the island. “I know it’s counterintuitive, but do the sides first. Try to get the thickness the same before worrying about the bottom. If there’s too much crust left, we can scoop it out. If it’s too thin, we can make a little more.”

He worked intently, pressing the graham crackers into the side of the pie pan.

“I’m sorry about my dad.”

The statement was unexpected. Since they’d run into Ceallach and Elaine at the hospital, he hadn’t said anything about the incident. She wasn’t sure he would ever want to talk about it.

“If you’re apologizing for what he said, you don’t have to. I know he’s a jerk.”

Aidan looked at her, his brows raised. “Are you being critical of my father?”

“Yes, and he deserves a lot harsher than what I said. He’s awful. I’m sorry—I know he’s family and I should keep my mouth shut, but I can’t. You never say very much, but I hear things. And now I’ve seen him in action. What’s wrong with him? Why on earth would he blame you for Nick leaving? You had nothing to do with that.”

“I might have suggested it when we had our fight. That night in the bar.”

The night that had changed everything, she thought. The night she’d watched Aidan and his brother argue and not hit each other. When she’d realized that even furious, Aidan was still reachable. Everything she’d read in her self-help books, everything she’d talked about in therapy, had suddenly made sense. What her father had done, who he’d been, wasn’t normal. She didn’t have to be afraid all the time.

“Are you saying Nick is so spineless that you tell him to do something and he does it?”

Aidan grinned. “Of course not.”

“So how is this on you? Besides, you’re not the problem. Ceallach is. He’s not a nice man.”

“No, he’s a genius.”

She snorted. “That’s no excuse for bad behavior. Kipling was a world-class athlete and he manages to be a decent guy. Being gifted isn’t an excuse to be a jerk.”

“You’re so fierce,” he teased.

“You’re my friend. I don’t want anyone hurting you.”

His humor faded. “He can’t hurt me, Shelby. That power ended a long time ago.”

She knew he believed what he was saying, but she was less sure. From all that she’d learned and experienced personally, parents could always hurt their children. It was just one of those things that came with being a kid. Being someone’s child wasn’t a connection you outgrew.