Summer's End (Wildflowers #5) - Jill Sanders Page 0,83

a tear slipped down her face.

“Don’t cry,” Aubrey begged.

“Hormones.” Zoey waved her hand, the one that was attached to Hannah’s. “I’m allowed to cry. My point is, Aiden is the right person for you. We may not have known it for the past three years…”

“Because you all thought I was into girls,” Aubrey added with a chuckle.

Zoey’s eyes narrowed as she smiled. “Okay, I take it back, Aiden is all wrong for you. If he can’t keep a secret—”

“No,” Elle jumped in with a chuckle. “That just means that love was more important to him than the friend code.” She squeezed Aubrey’s hand. “I’d break the friend code for Liam. It’s love.”

“Friend code, but not Wildflower code, right?” Zoey asked.

“Of course not.” Elle chuckled. “Wildflower codes are unbreakable.”

“Agreed,” everyone said quickly.

“I want some wine.” Aubrey sighed. “Do we really have to work dinner tonight?” She almost groaned it.

“No,” Elle jumped in. “That’s the joy of being the bosses. What do you say to taking this party up to the apartment? Now that it’s empty, we can hide ourselves away up there and have some sister time.”

“That sounds like a perfect ending to an otherwise shitty day.” Aubrey stood up and then hugged her friends, her sisters, and knew that just like her father, she had to come clean with Aiden and admit that she was in love. For the first time in her life, she was going to give a man the one thing she’d hidden away and protected all of her life.

Chapter 26

Aiden had been so busy over the past week that he hadn’t even realized that Aubrey was purposefully avoiding him.

There had to be a better way for preparing for a storm. He and his crew had done it more than half a dozen times since he’d started working at the camp. Most of the storms had passed with only an hour or two of heavy rain, while others had taken out trees or just caused a mess with leaves and branches.

Cleanup usually took a day or two, but preparation took much longer. Small things like a stack of two-by-fours could turn into deadly projectiles and had to be stored properly.

They had small metal storage pods for most of their building supplies, to keep them out of the weather or out of sight. But some of the bigger supplies couldn’t fit into the pods. There were only three cabins left under construction, but plenty of supplies and equipment had to be moved and stored.

It was not only keeping him busy, but very tired and sore. By the time he crawled into bed each night, he was too tired to notice if Aubrey had been there for long. Instead, he pulled her close to him and held onto her while he slept. If he couldn’t have as much time with her as he wanted during the day, at least he could dream about her.

The following morning, he made a point to carve out time in his morning and drove her up to the main building to enjoy breakfast with her.

“My dad called me last night,” she said as he pulled away from their place.

He glanced over at her. “And?” His stomach knotted just thinking of her being left alone after such a call.

She sighed and rested her head back. “For what I suspect is the first time in his entire life, he apologized.”

“Really?” He shook his head. “Guess you can teach an old dog… and all that.” He reached over and took her hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, my sisters helped me.” She smiled at him. “It’s the reason I got home just before you.” She giggled. “And have a slight hangover this morning.”

He glanced at her and chuckled. “It looks good on you. Being happy.”

Her smile fell instantly, and he wondered what he’d said.

“Is it weird that we never fight?” she asked as he parked.

He flipped off the truck and turned to her. “No, not considering I’ve seen you in action, remember?”

Her smile was back. “I mean—”

“I know.” He pulled her closer. “I guess because we started out with things between us just being physical and let it grow into something more, we focused on pleasing one another instead of the relationship aspect of things.” He shrugged. “But if you want… I could always start complaining about how you never carve out time for me or you can nag me about working too late.”

She sighed. “What’s the point. You’re getting things ready around here for the storm. If you