Summer's End (Wildflowers #5) - Jill Sanders Page 0,22

minutes, he filled his boss in on their joint project before Aubrey and Hannah returned to get them for pictures.

He didn’t know why he was dragged into the large group, but he stood beside Aubrey and itched to grab her as the photographer snapped pictures of the smiling bunch.

He sat and enjoyed the dinner that the famous chef Isaac Andrew and his team had prepared for the crowd. He chatted with friends while keeping as close to Aubrey as he could.

When the band started to play, he pulled Aubrey out on to the crowded dance floor. The moment her body glided across his, he hoped that the night would never end.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked and, by the way she sighed as an answer, he knew she was more than a little drunk.

He’d enjoyed a few beers himself and knew that if he’d allow himself, he would be right there with her. Still, he knew she was drunk enough to not care who saw her rubbing her body up against his.

The music slowed and she plastered herself to his body, and he was thankful the lights had dimmed some time ago.

“Aiden.” She sighed, “Why is it I can’t stop thinking of you?” she said against his chest as she rested her cheek against his shoulder.

“The same reason I can’t stop thinking of you either.” He closed his eyes for a brief moment, wishing to hold onto the memory of how she felt against him, how her perfume filled his senses and had his loins aching for her.

“I told myself I wasn’t going to do this.” She glanced up at him briefly, then looked around. “I love my friends, but so help me, if they start getting ideas…”

“Why don’t you believe you are due happiness?” he asked, then silently cursed himself when the music stopped, and the band explained that they were taking a fifteen-minute break.

Taking her hand, he pulled her towards the glass French doors and didn’t stop walking until they stood on the narrow strip of secluded beach.

“Why?” he asked her after they stopped. “I’ve avoided asking you and you’ve avoided telling me. I think after everything we’ve been through together that I’m due a few answers.”

Chapter 7

How could Aubrey explain her pain in such a powerful setting? The sun had gone down a few hours ago when Zoey and Dylan had been exchanging their vows. But with the soft sand between her toes, and the gentle sound of the water lapping at the shoreline, she had only to close her eyes to remember the beauty of the place.

She knew she owed Aiden an explanation. After all, over the past three years she’d grown closer to him than she had ever allowed herself to be to a man, even though she still thought of what they had as just physical.

She’d locked away her heart so long ago, she didn’t think she knew what it felt like to love anyone other than her friends. And that was a different kind of love than she could ever feel towards a man.

“You know about my father?” she said, pulling her heels off and tossing them into the sand before moving over to sit on one of the swings that Liam had hung from a thick oak branch.

Aiden followed her into the underbrush of the trees and sat beside her on the swing.

“These are nice,” he said to her. “I haven’t gotten to enjoy them yet.” He pushed off, sending them swaying in the breeze. “Go on. I know a little about your father. What you’ve told me, or I’ve heard over the years.” He motioned to her.

It was officially the last day of summer, which in Florida meant very little, except that it would be cooling down in the evenings soon.

“Not even my sisters know everything.” She sighed and rested her head back. He’d wrapped his arm behind her, so her head rested on his bicep. She remembered how wonderful it felt to be held by those strong arms.

Maybe it was all the champagne she’d had over the last few hours, but she no longer cared if anyone saw them together. She knew she could fend off her friends nagging if she had to. After all, the five of them were like sisters. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been nagged before this. She had just hoped to keep this part of her life a secret.

“I was eight when I went to live with my father. My mother had… died a day before