be nice for you both to get some fresh air together rather than staying cooped up inside all day.”
And with those words, she brought my happy little high back down to earth with a bang. I really struggled to keep the disappointment from my face. Jade had totally thrown me under the bus. I knew she hadn’t done it on purpose, but it was still frustrating.
Aiden’s puppy-dog eyes were quick to disappear, and he struggled not to smile when he saw my reaction. His eyes seemed to sparkle with anticipation, and I had to wonder exactly what he hoped to achieve out of our little expedition. I was very suddenly wishing the lockdown rules surrounding the number of people you could be out in public with were even stricter.
“Just make sure you’re both careful and keep an adequate distance from other people,” Jade continued. “No touching your faces while you’re out, wear a mask, and don’t forget to take that bottle of hand sanitizer I got for you, Aiden.”
“Yes, Mom,” he said, giving her an overly exaggerated eye roll.
Jade stood up from her stool and gathered her phone from the table as she went to leave the kitchen. “I’ll probably be home late again, so don’t get up to too much mischief while I’m gone. And no breaking lockdown rules.”
Her eyes were narrowed on Aiden, who was smiling wickedly like that was exactly what he planned to do. She let out a long sigh, as though she was realizing there was no way to completely control her son. From my experience, I felt the same.
“I’ll see you later, Clary,” she said.
“Have a good shift,” I replied as she left the room.
That left me alone with Aiden, who was still smiling at me smugly.
“You’re probably going to need a shirt if you want to go out in public,” I said, hoping to wipe the pleased look from his face. My comment only seemed to feed it though.
He walked over to me and leaned against the counter, standing far too close for comfort. “Don’t pretend you don’t like what you see,” he said.
I kept my eyes on his face. It was tempting to dip them lower, because as much as I hated to admit it, Aiden was hot. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that. “You know, your inventory of sleazy pickup lines is growing old real fast.”
“You think I’m trying to pick you up?”
“I really hope not,” I muttered.
He struggled to withhold a smile. “You say that now, but I’m fairly certain I can win you over.”
“And I’m fairly certain you’re wrong.”
“I guess we’ll see.” He continued smiling at me like he knew I had no chance of resisting him. He was in for a rude shock when he realized he was wrong.
“Anyway, I’ll go print out some cards,” he continued.
“What?”
“For our card drop…” he said slowly.
“Oh, right, the card drop.” He’d annoyed me to the point where I’d completely forgotten about it. I kind of wished I could forget about it again, because the idea no longer held as much appeal.
“I think I saw some templates online that will make it easier,” he continued.
“You saw some templates?” I repeated back to him in surprise.
“Well, yeah. You didn’t think I was pretending I wanted to do this thing just to annoy you, did you?”
That was exactly what I thought.
He chuckled when he saw the confused expression on my face and then turned to leave the room. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, and we can get started,” he called back over his shoulder.
I stared after Aiden, slightly speechless and feeling like a bit of a fool. It was only when he’d left the kitchen that I found my voice again. “Don’t forget a shirt. You don’t want to scare the neighbors!”
I could hear his laugh from deeper in the house. It was probably funny because the only person his naked chest really scared was me.
7
Aiden
“Isn’t this fun?” I beamed at Clary as we walked down the street together.
She’d been muttering under her breath ever since we’d left home, and I got the feeling my exuberance was bothering her. As much as I loved seeing the cute line that knitted her brow together, I would have preferred a smile. And while her dark grumblings were about as adorable as you could get, it would have been much better if she actually enjoyed my company.
She was probably still mad about me working out in her room