Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,89

on.”

“Seriously? To who?” Cassie demanded, looking outraged.

“I don’t know, but I saw her with him, coming out of the pub just now.” Aidan sighed. “Tall guy, blonde hair.”

“Mackenzie’s cousin,” Luke said, nodding. “The firefighter.”

Jesus. Aidan slumped lower. He was doomed.

“Don’t count yourself out so soon,” Cassie said, patting his shoulder. “I mean, sure, he’s handsome, and heroic, and—”

“Hey!” Jackson gave her a playful shove. “Don’t kick the man when he’s down. I’m sure Aidan could take him, any day.”

“Right. Of course he could!” Cassie said quickly, giving Aidan a supportive smile that only made him feel worse. “So, what’s your big move?”

“My move?” Aidan echoed.

“You know, your grand gesture.”

Aidan stared back blankly.

“You know,” Luke pitched in, “the big declaration, the thing that proves to her how much you care.”

“Oh.” He stopped. “I hadn’t planned one.”

“Seriously?”

“C’mon!” His brothers chorused in disbelief and even Earl shook his head.

“Why, did you do something?” he asked them.

Jackson nodded. “I gave up my globe-trotting ways for Alice, and moved her to be with her.”

“I built Natalie shelves, and found her a piano,” Luke pitched in.

“And I sold my RV,” Chase said. “Only Tish turned around and bought it right back for me.”

“Double grand gesture. Sneaky.” Luke said, looking impressed. “What about you, Cassie?”

She gave a shrug. “I let Wes win the argument.”

They all laughed, as Aidan sat there, his hopes sinking even lower. Suddenly his spontaneous drive didn’t seem like such a great idea. Just telling Stella how he felt hadn’t worked out too great the last time around. His family was right. He needed more than that now.

But what?

And just as he was despairing that he could ever figure out how to show her how much she meant to him, Aidan felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Earl.

“Well?” his grandpa asked. “Where do you want us to start?”

And Aidan looked around at his family, and realized: He wasn’t alone in this, after all. “Anyone got a good idea?” he asked.

21

“Can I get the blue blanket? And the shower caddy?”

Stella smiled. “Are you sure you don’t want to go crazy and get any fun stuff, too?” she teased Matty, as they pushed an already full cart down the superstore aisles. “You know, video games to rot your brain and buy you new friends?”

“But I need this stuff,” Matty was consulting his list, and missed her teasing grin. “Bryce and Laurie said everyone always forgets the basics.”

“OK, OK,” Stella laughed. “Go be practical. I’ll be here, picking out something that says, ‘my mom sent me to boarding school, and all I got was this lousy shirt’.”

Matty took off down the homewares aisle, leaving her to take in the piles of stuff they’d already found. Bathroom kits, and clothes, and school supplies… And that was just for today. Matty wasn’t starting at Hillcrest until after the holidays, but he’d insisted they get an early start on shopping – and had the to-do lists to match. Usually, a full cart like this would be giving Stella heart palpitations, trying to keep a running track of the total, but this time at least, she knew, they could afford the cost.

Her parents’ trust fund was good for one thing, at least.

More than one, if she counted the eye-watering tuition check she’d just sent to secure his place. She’d been right about scholarships only putting a dent in the cost, but seeing Matty’s excitement in the week since she’d agreed to let him go, Stella knew in her bones that she was doing the right thing.

But that didn’t mean she was ready to let him go. She was counting down the days with dread, bracing herself for when he left for Connecticut, and she was left to face her life alone.

“Look!” Matty reappeared with an armful of three-ring binders and ballpoint pen packs. “They were on sale!”

“You know, most people don’t think ‘new stationary’ when they get a shopping spree,” she said, trying to force a smile again. But her mood must have shown, because Matty’s smile slipped.

“You know, I don’t have to start in January,” he said, scuffing the floor as he walked beside her. “I could wait until summer semester, if you really wanted…”

“What? No!” Stella insisted, fixing an upbeat expression on her face. “I’ve already made plans to turn your room into a home gym.”

“Mom!”

“You’re right, I never exercise. I better make it a nap room,” she continued. “Get rid of all your furniture, and just have a pile of blankets in the corner, for when