or anything. We can keep in touch and see what happens.”
She flinched. See what happens? Those words, more than anything else he’d said, showed she’d perceived their relationship much differently than he had—regardless of his heat-of-the-moment proclamations.
She left the swing, crossing her arms against the sudden chill in the air. She was shaking, trembling from the inside out. “I think you should go now, Aiden.”
He rose, giving her that puppy dog look. “Come on, Sophie . . .”
“I mean it, Aiden.” Her voice somehow sounded like steel even though she was melting inside. “If you want to go, then go. But don’t think I’m going to follow you or hang around here waiting on you.”
He searched her face somberly, his eyes drooping sadly at the corners, his smile long gone.
Sophie didn’t wait to see what he’d say or do next. She had her own life, her own problems to deal with, and he was leaving her here to do it. Without another word she turned away from him, opened the door, and slipped inside.
chapter twelve
Piper’s Cove
Present Day
The potty run was taking longer than Aiden anticipated. Pippa didn’t seem to know what to do on the newspapers he’d spread across the floor. She must’ve never been paper-trained.
He guided her back to the papers. “Go potty, girl,” he said for the tenth time.
The dog peered up at him mournfully, eyes glowing in the beam of light, tail drooping.
“It’s okay. Go ahead and potty.”
He left her there and wandered around the perimeter of the garage, surveying the tools organized on the Peg-Board. Mr. Foster was a tidy man. The walls were bright white, and the concrete floor was clean enough to eat off of.
If Aiden was honest, he didn’t mind that Pippa was taking her own sweet time. Part of him dreaded the upcoming conversation with Sophie even though it was necessary. He was afraid he wouldn’t have answers for her questions about what he’d done.
What if, when they walked away from each other this time, they were no closer to a resolution? What if Sophie still hated him? What if leaving her still felt like the biggest mistake of his life?
The jingle of Pippa’s dog tags pulled him from his thoughts. The dog had done her business on the newspaper. She stared up at him, pride shining in her eyes.
“Good girl, Pippa. Just needed a little privacy, huh? Let’s go see Mama.”
Pippa darted to the door, tail wagging.
Aiden wished he felt as optimistic as the dog. He closed the garage door behind him and returned to the living room.
Sophie lifted Pippa onto the sofa. “All better now, sweetie?”
“She wasn’t too crazy about the newspaper, but she finally went.”
Sophie looked at him across the candlelit room. “Thank you.”
A long beat of silence hung between them, punctuated by the pounding of rain and the rattling of shutters. He sensed her reluctance to return to the topic at hand. She probably wouldn’t bring it up again if he didn’t.
“There’s something I never told you,” she blurted.
His gaze fastened on hers. This was going to happen then. “All right . . .”
Sophie stroked Pippa as if she needed to occupy her hands with some meaningless task. “The night you came over to tell me you were leaving . . . It was the same day my dad left us.”
Aiden reared back. “Left you?”
“When I got home from school that day, my mom was a wreck. All my dad’s stuff was gone. He left us—and he never came back.”
Aiden felt all the breath leave his body. “Oh, Sophie. I didn’t know.”
How had no one told him this? Well, it wasn’t as if he’d ever spoken to Sophie again. And once Grant had started dating Jenna, Aiden had shut him down whenever he brought up Sophie or her family. It was somehow easier if Aiden knew nothing about her life.
“He divorced your mom? When she was all but bedridden?” Craig Lawson had left his family to fend for itself at the worst possible time. Heat flushed through Aiden’s body.
“In record time.”
Aiden wished he could take back the condolences he’d offered the man last night. He thought it odd that Craig had moved on so quickly after Rose’s death, but that sometimes happened after a spouse’s long illness. Aiden wanted to throat punch the guy now. No wonder there’d been so much tension between Craig and Seth during the wedding festivities. It was a wonder Jenna had even wanted her father to walk her down the aisle.
“But if he