Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,43
hour? Clearly I haven’t taught you well enough.”
“I have to take care of some stuff back home,” Aiden clarifies, choosing to ignore Noah. “Can you take the twins? I’m going to go back and Amelia volunteered to keep me company. We’ll be there later tonight, don’t worry.”
He’s covering for me so I don’t need to explain or lie about why I need sleeping pills in the first place. Also, he’s saving me from looking like a complete dumbass for forgetting something so important to me.
“Aiden, I—” He quiets me with one look and I stop my protests.
Noah and Julian exchange glances.
“Sure, they can ride with me,” Noah says, eyebrows drawn together. “But can’t whatever it is you have to do wait until after the trip?”
“No,” Aiden replies, his body relaxed, as if he has nothing to hide, but his broad shoulders are set as if daring anyone to challenge him. “Some stupid police release forms or something, I don’t know. I just got a call, it needs to be settled now.”
“Okay, then, but you’re forfeiting your right to have first dibs on a room, you know that, right? Once we get there it’s an every-person-for-themself race to pick a room,” Noah adds, only half joking; I’ve seen the guy push a twelve-year-old out of the way for the best seat in a movie theater.
He opens the door to his truck so the twins can get in beside Charlotte.
“I trust Char to beat you all up in order to get the best room for us,” I say loudly enough for her to hear.
“Already got my elbow pads out and itching to use them!” she yells out the window, even though I know she has zero intention of racing for a room.
Noah closes the door once the twins are in and comes back over to us.
“Make sure they help you bring all the stuff inside, not just go straight to playing,” Aiden tells Noah and Julian, gesturing to the twins with a nod.
“You got it.”
“Guess we’ll see you in a few hours,” Julian says, and they start to turn back to their cars.
“Wait!” I say, remembering something at the last minute.
Aiden glares at me, thinking I’m going to undo all his work, but instead I run back to the passenger side of Aiden’s car and pull an envelope from my purse.
“This is some of the money from the race. You’re going to be hungry and we probably won’t be back in time to go grocery shopping with you, so here. Just get whatever.”
Noah holds out his hand to take the envelope and I’m about to hand it to him when I think better of it and hand it to Julian.
Noah scowls adorably and Julian laughs. “No problem. Text the group chat when you’re on your way back.”
“We will,” I say, and we all head back to our respective cars.
Once we get in the car, I put my seat belt on and then turn to very obviously glare at Aiden. He puts his seat belt on, starts the car, and executes a smooth U-turn, all while ignoring my heated glare, which I know he can feel.
He sighs in defeat. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because this is so unnecessary! I didn’t want you to turn all the way back just for me. I’m a big girl, I can deal with my own consequences.”
“Thea, I know why you need pills to help you sleep. I’m not going to sit back and watch you torture yourself over memories and worries when there’s something I can do about it.”
My heart pounds in my chest with the weight of his words. “But it’s still so out of the way. We’re going to be in the car for another seven hours. I feel bad.”
“Don’t,” he says, looking back at me, his steely gray eyes set with determination. “I want to do this for you. Let me.”
He wants to do this for me. For me.
“Plus,” he adds, a flirty smile spreading across his handsome face, “I get an extra four hours alone with you. I don’t think I pulled the short straw here.”
Again and again I’m reminded why it’s Aiden that I fell for. He’s not frustrated, bothered, or annoyed at all about having to turn around for me. He does things for me all the time without even being asked. Like the incident with Ethan Moore or when my car was vandalized—he just takes care of the people he cares about, no complaints or holding it