“I know. So in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you that you should be afraid, very afraid.” She cupped his cheek lightly and then tapped it—not so lightly. “Now go away, baby. The adults want to get back to their date.”
“Fine. Have it your way. But be careful, Mom, okay?” He leaned down to brush her cheek with a kiss and knew he didn’t imagine the way she clung to his arm just a moment longer than necessary.
Aidan made his way back to Gray. Lily and Jonathan were still there, as was Shelly, all of them watching him like he was better than a sitcom.
“Well?” Gray asked. “Did she understand—” He broke off, staring over Aidan’s shoulder across the bar. “What the—Aidan, why is Marcus putting his arm around Mom? And now he’s leaning in and— Shit, he’s going to kiss her! He is kissing her! What the hell did you say?”
Aidan just shook his head and looked at Shelly. “I really need a drink.”
She smiled evilly and produced two beers. Aidan reached to take one.
She slapped his hand away from it. “Not that one. That one’s Gray’s.” She handed it to his brother. Then she held out the second.
Aidan stared at it. “Do I even want to know what you’ve done to this one?” he asked.
She smiled. “Nope.”
Shit. He set the beer down.
Lily stood and kissed Jonathan on the cheek. “Well, this has been enlightening, but I’m out.”
Aidan started to follow her, but Gray stood up and got in his way.
“What are you doing?” Aidan asked.
“Stopping you from making your second mistake for the evening.”
“Hey, talking to Mom was your bright idea,” Aidan said.
“Yeah but you’re the one who screwed it up.”
Aidan blew out a breath. “Whatever, man. Get out of my way.”
“Fine.” Gray lifted his hands in surrender. “Apparently you haven’t gotten in enough trouble tonight. You need more. Go for it.”
Aidan shoulder-checked him on his way toward the front door and then was stopped again. He turned, ready to rumble, but it wasn’t his brother, it was Jonathan. “Listen, about Lily,” he started.
Shit. Aidan liked Jonathan, he really did. But if the guy was about to try to lay some kind of claim on Lily and then ask Aidan to back off, they were going to have a problem.
He got that such a thing made no sense at all. He didn’t have any plans to go after Lily for himself, so it shouldn’t matter one little bit if Jonathan did.
But it did matter.
A whole hell of a lot. “What about her?”
Jonathan paused, searched Aidan’s gaze, and smiled. “Never mind. You already answered my question.”
“Wasn’t aware you asked one.”
Jonathan looked away and then back to Aidan. “I’m about to overstep my friendship boundaries with her to tell you something because I think you need to know it. Don’t disappoint me, okay?”
Aidan narrowed his eyes. “Is she in some sort of trouble?”
Jonathan relaxed his shoulders and smiled. “Yeah, you’re not going to disappoint me. You do know why she’s back, right?”
“She lost her job.”
“And to face her past,” Jonathan said. “Which we both know sucked. She blames herself for what happened to Ashley.”
“She shouldn’t,” Aidan said.
“No shit.” Jonathan slid his hands into his pockets. “But have you ever successfully talked a woman out of believing something she wanted to believe?”
Aidan huffed out a barely there laugh. “No.”
“Yeah. So good luck with this one.”
“Wait—What?” But Jonathan was already walking back to the bar, whistling to himself like he had no care in the world.
Aidan was pretty sure he’d just been tasked with relieving Lily of her guilt, which was a bad idea.
The worst of bad ideas.
He stepped outside into a summer night mist and found Lily in the parking lot on her bare knees fighting with the lug nuts on her back left tire, which was flat. When she couldn’t get them loose, she smacked the tire with the wrench.
“Yeah, that’s not exactly how to fix it,” he said.
Her back to him, she went still and tipped her head back to stare up at the misting sky. “Seriously?” she asked it. “What have I ever done to you?”
“Who are you talking to?” he asked.
“Karma. Fate. God.” Getting to her feet, she swiped the rain from her face with a forearm and turned to face him. “Whoever’s listening.”
Walk away, he told himself. Just walk away.
But he couldn’t. One, because he was an idiot. Two, because she had muddy knees and that, combined with the killer dress, did him in. He loved a woman who could get down and dirty.
And three, because there was something in her voice he hadn’t heard earlier. A sadness that gripped him by the throat. He hated this for her. She was carrying way too big of a burden, one she didn’t deserve.
Christ, Kincaid, don’t do it.
But he did. He stepped closer. “Lily—”
“No. Stay back,” she said, pointing a finger at him.
He went still. “Why?”
“Because when you come close I do stupid things.”
“Like?”
“Like let you kiss me.”
“Let me?” He laughed ruefully. “Lily, you just about crawled up my body to get at these lips.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Like I said. Stupid.” Turning away, she hugged herself tight.