The Avery Shaw Experiment - By Kelly Oram Page 0,60

girl, and…” He hesitated, shoving his hands in his pockets. “And because I was jealous.”

I stopped walking and gawked at him. “Jealous? Why? You weren’t interested in me. You had a girlfriend.”

We’d come to the edge of a small pond. The edges were iced over. We stopped and Aiden kicked a chunk of ice. “Because I’m selfish,” he said. “When you told me that you loved me and wanted to be with me, I hated that I was hurting you, but I was flattered at the same time.”

I felt like I was going to die from embarrassment any moment. I actually expected myself to drop dead right there.

“I’d never thought about us like that before,” Aiden said. “But after you mentioned it, I kept wondering. I knew almost immediately that I’d rather be with you than Mindy. I was going to break up with her right away, but it was too late. Grayson had already stolen you from me. You guys spent all your time together. He made you laugh and held your hand. I could see how much he made you happy, and I hated him for it.”

My heart hurt again. It hurt for both of us. It hurt for Grayson too. He was innocent in all of this.

“Please don’t hate him for that. Grayson has done so much for me. He’s one of my closest friends now.”

Aiden tensed again. “I know.” He shook his head in disgust. “And I drove you to him. I hurt you so bad that you needed him. I’m grateful he was there for you, but Aves, when I saw him kissing you, I almost killed him.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted it to be me.”

“You what?” I gasped.

“I still want it to be me.”

Aiden took my hand again and wet his lips as he pinned me with an intense gaze. “You asked me to kiss you once, and now I’m asking you, will you give me a second chance?”

I froze. And not because it was cold outside. For a second I convinced myself I was still in bed asleep. I’d wanted Aiden to kiss me for so many years, and now here he was asking to make that dream come true.

There was a part of me that wanted to say no—a piece of my brain, or maybe my heart that didn’t want to kiss anyone but Grayson. But this was Aiden. I had to know. I owed it to myself to see what would happen. In more ways than one, I needed this.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Okay,” Aiden answered. He took my other hand and stepped closer to me so that the tips of our shoes were touching.

He didn’t kiss me right away. He swallowed and wet his lips again. He was as nervous as I was.

My pulse skyrocketed, and I couldn’t keep any air in my lungs. I think I may have even been trembling a little when he finally leaned in.

He moved slowly, and I kept pretty still because I was scared of bumping his nose and hurting him. His kiss was shy at first as if he were testing the waters, and then his hand came up to my face, and he pulled me closer, urging my lips to part.

I liked kissing Aiden. He was sweet and considerate, and I could feel that when he pulled away, he wasn’t quite ready to let the kiss end. It was a good kiss, but that was it. This kiss was all of the anticipation but none of the excitement that I got when I kissed Grayson. There was no spark. At least not for me.

Aiden looked happy until he saw my forced smile, and then his grin faded. “It’s not going to happen, is it?” It didn’t sound like he needed an answer.

“It was nice,” I said.

“But it wasn’t like kissing Grayson.”

I felt my face go from polite to pained. The whole situation was so surreal. Who knew I’d ever be the one rejecting Aiden?

Aiden shook his head as if to let me know he wasn’t upset. “I had to try, but I think I knew it was coming.” He sighed. “As if I could ever compete with Grayson when he got all the looks and the charm.”

I felt awful and tried to lighten the situation. “But you got all the brains, so he may be the one to rule the country someday, but you’ll own it.”

Aiden forced his mouth to curve up, and he squeezed my hand again.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I’ll survive.” My heart sank a