Episode 7: Steely Sibling Fun

Jack Steely rubbed the grit from his eyes. It was too damn early to be up after a late night closing the bar. His limbs felt heavy and his eyes burned. If he’d had his way he’d still be snuggled up to Patricia…or wait—Petunia? Penelope? Damned if he could remember.

“Last load, boss,” Greg, the day manager called down from the delivery truck full of liquor. Jack watched sleepily as the younger man and the grisly delivery man wheeled two red dollies loaded with boxes of every brand and kind of liquor a man could dream of.

“Good deal,” he nodded as the two men wheeled the wears past him and into the back store room of the bar.

“Dag-gummit, Jack!”

Turning to grin at his sister, Jack suddenly felt a lot more awake.

“Aren’t you looking lovely this morning?” he took in the coffee stain on her shirt and the glitter of annoyance in her eyes. He did so love annoying his sister. Even when he hadn’t meant to.

“I would have met the delivery, you big dope,” she smacked him on the arm and he wrestled her into a headlock to rub his knuckles on the top of her head. She shoved at him, a rare four letter word escaping her lips.

Releasing her, he chuckled. “Good morning to you, too. Guess Laurel was wrong.”

She shook her hair out if it’s now disastrous ponytail and glared at him. “I swear, that woman should be run out of town on a rail.”

Jack laughed at his sister and slung an arm around her as they headed through the storeroom and into the kitchen. “She’s not so bad.”

“Of course not to you. You don’t mind people speculating on your sex-life.”

“Probably because I actually have one.”

“Shut up.”

Grinning, Jack tugged the doors open on the industrial sized fridge and removed two rootbeers and a glass cake dome. He'd spied the special treat Dewey had left Amrys when he'd checked the stock the night before and he wanted to get a share before she could get her little manicured hands on it.

“She’s going to kill you,” Jenna rolled her eyes and took one of the dark bottles from him.

“With her pointy little boot,” he agreed with a careless shrug. He slid the cake onto the prep counter and reached into the cutlery tub for a fork. “Ahhhh,” he praised when he removed the lid. “Coconut. My favorite.”

“It’s Amrys’ favorite, too,” Jenna fingered a slather of the icing and stuck it in her mouth. “And mine,” she grinned.

Slicing them both a large portion, Jack watched his sister from the corner of his eye. Jenna was younger than him by two years and older than Amrys by three. But of his two sisters, she was the one he worried about the most.

Their parents always said they worried about her the least because she had her shit together. She owned her own home, kept the business end of the bar running smoothly and up until recently, had been settled quite comfortably, drama free.

But Jack worried plenty. Watching her eat the frosting first, it struck him as odd that  no one else saw the vulnerability there. Of the three Steely children, Jenna had been the one given the least amount of attention. As the middle child, she’d often gotten pushed to the back of the line in favor of the football hero eldest son and the princess baby daughter.

As children he hadn’t really noticed it so much. But now…seeing her so fearful of others and so quick to spend her life alone—it worried him.

“Stop,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m fine.”

“So you weren’t making out with Aiden in the parking lot last night?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No. Son of a biscuit tried, though. Honest to Pete, I don’t know what he was thinking.”

“Probably that he still loves you, Jen. Can’t you cut the guy some slack? He did rescue you last night, after all.”

“I’m not discussing this. I didn’t ask to be rescued and screw you for taking his side.”

Jack pushed away his half eaten cake and grabbed her wrist when she would have fled. “You know I’m always on your side. I threatened to kick his teeth in, didn’t I?”

She sniffed and leaned against the counter, hugging herself. “I didn’t want him to wreck your pretty face,” she nodded. “Maybe I should have let him.”

Flicking cake crumbs at her, he wondered if he shouldn’t have let him, too. Jenna badly needed someone to stand up for her. Damn that Aiden Blackston for failing her.

“My cake!” Amrys’ shriek made his ears ring and Jack shook his head to diminish the echo.

“Oh this was yours?” He slid his cake back towards him and forked up a big bite. “It’s good,” he taunted, his mouth full.

“You’re a real jackass,” Amrys huffed as she marched across the kitchen to survey the damage. Seeing the cake partially eaten, she whirled to Jenna, hands on her hips. “I told you to bring it upstairs to the office. My cake,” she moaned, turning back to the cake. “My beautiful delicious cake.”

“Oh stop,” Jenna laughed and placed her cake crumb spattered plate in the sink. “There’s still plenty left and it isn’t as though you’ll eat more than a taste anyway.”

“You’re both evil.” Amrys’ eyes glittered as she slammed the dome back on the cake plate and hugged it to her chest.

Jack snickered. He loved annoying Amrys even more.  Whoever said having sisters wasn’t entertaining? “I keep waiting for her to say she’s gonna tell Mama on us.”

“You laugh, Jackson Marcus Steely but I just might. Or worse,” her eyes took on that mischievously evil glint she was best known for, “I’ll tell Dewey on you.”

Faking a shudder, Jack playfully declared, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, but I would.”

Jenna rolled her eyes and made her way past them, pausing to kiss Jack’s temple as she collected her root beer on her way out. “Clean that up before Finn gets here or you really will be in trouble,” she called, flipping them a wave as she left.

Amrys glared at him a split second longer before heaving a martyred sigh and removing the cake dome again. She grabbed his fork and dug a large corner out of the cake, shoveling it in her mouth with a moan.

“Classy,” Jack teased.

“You know it.” Amrys swallowed her cake and chased it with a sip of his root beer, making a face. “I don’t see how you two drink this stuff. Nasty.”

He merely grabbed his fork back and dug out a bite for himself. “No one asked you to drink it.”

“And still, you’re eating my cake. You’re from the devil, you know that?”

“So you keep saying, little sis. So you keep saying.”

Episode 6: Meet Amrys Steely

Note from the author: Sorry gang. I've been so busy inhaling BigMac's and Frappes in celebration of my birthday I almost forgot to post. Please excuse my lateness. ;-)

“You little hussy,” Amrys Steely called out as she entered the office she shared with her older sister.

Jenna looked up from her computer, her reading glasses perched precariously on her nose. “Who are you talking to?”

“You, you skank. Why didn’t you tell me you and Aiden were back together? I swear. Nobody in this family ever tells me anything. I had to hear it from the girl behind the counter at the Donut Shack.”

Setting the cardboard crate of coffees on her desk, Amrys dropped her purse on the chair and looked back to her sister.

“We’re not,” Jenna muttered, dipping her head back down to glare at the computer screen.

Sipping from her coffee, Amrys carried the other cup over to Jenna. Her sister muttered her thanks but didn’t look up again.

Well, crap. Amrys had been tickled pink when Laurel had informed her that it was all over town that Jenna and Aiden had been seen kissing in the parking lot. She’d assumed that the two buttheads had worked things out.

Apparently not, she mentally sighed.

“So you’re not going to tell me why the town's buzzing that you are?”

Jenna yanked her glasses off and tossed them on to the stack of last night’s receipts. Jerking her coffee from her desk, she swore when the lid popped off and the hot brown liquid spilled down the front of her gray t-shirt. “Dangit, Am.”

“What? I didn’t put the stupid lid on. Go yell at Laurel.” Sauntering back to her desk, Amrys booted up her compute while watching Jenna from the corner of her eye.

“Stop staring at me,” Jenna grumbled. She wiped at her t-shirt with a tissue. “I don’t know why the town thinks we’re back together. Probably because no one around here has anything better to do than gossip about things they know nothing about.”

“So you and Aiden weren’t making out in the parking lot last night?”

Jenna slammed her hand on her desk. “No, dangit. And would you please stop saying his name?”

“Aiden, Aiden, Aiden,” Amrys taunted.

Her email popped up just then and she smiled at the list of new messages. Most of them from Nate. Jokes and forwards, looked like. Either he thought about her an awful lot or she’d somehow gotten on a group list.

Probably the latter, she thought morosely.

Nathan Matthews was simply too hot for his own good. And in his uniform? Fuggetaboutit. And though technically they were only friends, Amrys couldn’t help but fantasize that he wanted her. And why wouldn’t he? She knew she was pretty. She certainly worked hard enough at it.

Unlike Jenna. Amrys looked across her desk to Jenna whose desk faced Amrys’. Jenna’s hair was once again pulled back in a mostly messy ponytail and her face was scrubbed clean, save for a pale smear of lip gloss. And Amrys would give her eyetooth to look that good in a careless ponytail, stained t-shirt and jeans. Her sister was a natural beauty. The snot.

Glancing down at her own form fitting black sweater, camel colored skirt and knee high black leather boots, Amrys nodded in approval. She knew looked good, too. Surely Nate could appreciate that, right?

Aiden, she recalled rather dreamily, had sure always appreciated Jenna’s more natural beauty. The way he had looked at her sister sometimes stole Amrys’ breath. What she wouldn’t give for a man—any man—to look at her that way.

Jenna is so dumb, she shook her head and quickly went through her emails. Joke, joke, spam, joke, spam, spam, spam…Good grief, didn’t these people have lives? She wondered after deleting what felt like the millionth spam message.

“I’m going downstairs to get a root beer,” Jenna pushed away from her desk. The coffee stain on her t-shirt had spread across her left breast and Amrys tried not to laugh. Even as a ridiculous mess, her sister managed to look good. Too bad she was a waste of time to the men of the world. Jenna, she lamented, would never let herself give in to the idea of sharing her life enough to allow for something so all encompassing as romance.

Poor Aiden.

“No,” she told her sister but remembered the cake Dewey had left in there before he’d headed up to Oklahoma. “Wait, cake. Coconut cake. Just bring the whole thing and a fork,” she called after Jenna who was already halfway downstairs.

If she couldn’t have Nate the least she could do was enjoy a morning dessert.

Episode 5: Parental Confrontation

Mornings were Johnny Steely’s new favorite time of day now that he was retired from the bar. Much like his son, Jack, did now Johnny had kept late hours tending bar, managing the kitchen and shooting pool with the regulars. And he’d loved every second of it. Mostly because it meant he got to snuggle in with his wife in the mornings instead of rushing off to some office job.

He’d decided to turn the bar over to his kids two years ago.  Retirement had seemed like a golden ray of sunshine at the time. The late nights at his age were getting to be too much and he’d wanted more from his marriage than mornings. He’d wanted to snuggle in front of the television with her in the evenings, go to bed with her at night, spend time with her during the day. Mostly he’d wanted more time to work on everything that had been going wrong between them in the past several years.

But Vicky hadn’t wanted any part of it. She liked attending her meetings and functions on her own. And she liked having the house to herself at night. He was only in the way.

He hadn’t meant to cheat. Or at least, he clarified to himself, he hadn’t gone looking to cheat. He loved his wife. He adored his children. He had merely been too weak to resist the sort of attention the much younger Alexa had lavished on him. A foolish move, for certain. Even more foolish, he’d left his wife to be with Alexa half thinking he deserved someone who actually wanted him around and half hoping Vicky would fight for him.

But she hadn’t. And he couldn’t blame her. She hadn’t deserved his infidelity. Looking back, he realized he shouldn’t have taken her seeming indifference to heart. He’d changed the rules in their relationship and in turn had depended on her too much for his happiness. He’d never considered that she might have had her own ideas of how to spend her time. He’d only expected she should want to be with him more.

Now, standing on the front porch of the house they had shared for thirty years, he squinted in the glaring morning sun and contemplated his next move. So far coming back and asking for a second chance had only sent her running. Staying had only kept her away. Leaving wouldn’t accomplish anything.

Turning at the sound of tires on gravel, Johnny squinted at the silver sedan pulling up in the drive. His heart leapt in his chest at the sight of her and he had to swallow back a victorious whoop.

Her long shapely legs swung out of the car and his chest tightened in anticipation as she appeared.

Slamming the car door, she crossed her arms in front of her and glared at him.  “Don’t throw a welcome home party yet. I’m only here to tell you to get the hell out of my house.”

Johnny knew a challenge when he heard one, he inwardly grinned.

***

It wasn’t right that he should still look so damn good. Vicky narrowed her eyes at her former husband…well, technically not former. Not yet. Estranged, she amended.

She could not let that man get to her or wear her down. He was completely clueless of how thoroughly he had destroyed her when he’d left her for that little bimbo. And she wanted him to stay that way. The more fully he believed Vicky to be over him, the better.

Brushing her bottle brown hair over her shoulder, she sailed past him on the front porch and bristled when he touched her arm. Pausing, she glared from his hand on her arm to his face.

“You’re ruining my blouse with your stench,” she informed him coolly and deliberately pulled herself from his grasp.

The warmth from his touch lingered, though and Vicky tamped down the shiver that threatened to skitter down her spine. No way. He would not affect her that way. Not anymore.

“You look good, Vic,” he smiled. He seemed to have missed the part about her loathing him. Smug SOB.

“You look like shit,” she lied and pushed the door to their house open and stepped inside. He followed suit and she slammed the door in his face. Never mind that he was a mere two steps behind her and took the door to his nose.

“Dammit Vic,” he groaned, rubbing at his nose.

“Pity,” she said after a brief inspection. “I was hoping I’d broken it.”

Johnny’s hands dropped from his face and he stood staring after her as she continued on into the kitchen. She noted that he hadn’t bothered to load the dishwasher, much less run the damn thing. Her kitchen was a mess.

“You’re cleaning this up,” she informed him.

Wrinkling her nose at the scent of the strong coffee he’d brewed, she promptly pulled the carafe from the burner and poured the tar like liquid down the drain.

“Hey,” he called, darting across the kitchen as though to stop her. “I just made that.”

“And now you can save your poor kidney’s the bother. I assume you remember how I like the dishes loaded?” she motioned toward the dishwasher and went about the task of rinsing the coffee carafe.

“Are you never going to just hear me out, Vic?” he asked, his voice soft. He was doing that whole quiet cajoling thing that he did when he was trying to get his way. Well it wasn’t going to work on her. Not anymore.

“No.”

“Vic—“

“No, Johnny. You can’t possibly have any excuse, logic or reason for screwing around on me that would change a damn thing. So no. I’m never going to hear you out.” Calmly filling the carafe with water, Vicky went through the motions of brewing a fresh pot of coffee. She needed the caffeine, minus the tar. Glancing over her shoulder at him, she ordered herself not to actually look at him. “Do us both a favor, why don’t you? Go. Away,” she emphasized.

“No. Just…” he nudged her out of the way with his hip and started loading dishes into the dishwasher. “I’m not leaving. This is my house, too.”

Trying not to think about how closely he was standing, Vicky’s hands trembled while she pulled a clean mug from the cabinet. “It won’t be your house for long. Once the divorce is final, it’ll be mine.”

“There isn’t going to be a divorce. Not anymore,” he calmly informed her.

This can’t be happening, she thought. Not after what he did. He couldn’t just go changing the rules again.

“Need I remind you that you’re the one who left me? You found greener pastures. So go back to them and let me get on with my life.”

He slammed the dishwasher  shut and turned to lean his back against the counter, his arms folded across his still—damn him—impressive chest.

Damned hell wasn’t fair that he still looked good enough to eat. Time and distance and age hadn’t diminished him at all. He still looked like a tanned, muscle-y god. If anything, the grey at his temples and the laugh lines around his eyes and lips only made him look better.

While she…no, she decided. I’m not going down the list of personal shortcomings that age and giving birth to three children had done to her.

“I miss you, Vic,” he murmured, his cat green eyes practically oozed sadness and maybe even, dare she think it? Loneliness?

But how could he be lonely while he’d been shacked up with a booby blond?

“That is not my problem. I never left.”

“Yes,” he contradicted, his murmur gaining strength. “You left long before I did, Vic. I did everything I could to—“

“We’re not detailing my so-called failures,” she interrupted. “I had my own life, yes, but it’s one I developed over years. And then without any discussion you just decided for me that the status quo wasn’t good enough. You never—“ she stopped and slammed the empty mug on the counter top.

“Vic—“

“No. I’m not doing this again, Johnny. This is old crap and there’s nothing gained by continuing to argue the point. Besides, you fixed all that when you starting banging that little tart. Which only serves to prove that I didn’t wreck our marriage, Johnny. You did. And I have no interest in patching it back together.”

“Never mind the thirty years we have invested in each other?”

She snorted at his audacity. “Oh, and I suppose you were really concerned about our thirty year investment with each thrust into that tramp?” Her laughter was bitter to her own ears and she swallowed, knowing that the tears would soon follow. And crying in front of him was not going to happen.

Screw Jenna for forcing her to face this…this…this beast again.

Rubbing her hands down the thighs of her slacks, Vicky pushed past him again and headed for the door.

“I want you out of my house and out of my life, Johnny,” she practically yelled over her shoulder. “Today.”

God help her, she didn’t know what else to do but run.

Episode 4--A Suprise at Home

“Where have you been?”

Jenna sighed as she dropped her house keys on the entry table. Toeing off her shoes, she tugged her hair free from the elastic band.

“Mama, I told you you can’t keep staying here.”

Just what I need, she thought, on top of the near panic attack at Steely J’s and the ever-so-delightful confrontation with Aiden.

Bypassing the living room, Jenna headed down the hallway to her bedroom, her mother following close behind. She’d shown up three days ago needing a place to stay. And Jenna loved her mom. God knew she did.  But Jenna’s house was her safe haven. Her soft place to land now that Aiden was no longer in the picture. The one place she never had to pretend to be okay.

“And I told you it’ll only be for a few more days. Your dad’s having some kind of buyer’s remorse with his new little girl toy and decided to come home. Says he wants to start over. Can you believe his nerve?”

Jenna studied her mother from the corner of her eye as they moved down the hall. Vicky Steely looked young for her age and acted even younger—at least, that had been the case ever since her parents had split a year ago. “I know. You already told me all about it. Many times. But as I’ve said before, Jack’s got way more space and he likes entertaining.”

Jenna tried to be sympathetic. Her dad, Johnny, had been a complete bastard, for sure. After thirty years of marriage he’d had some sort of mid-life crisis involving a twenty-two year old and had decided Vicky was no longer what he wanted. But Jenna had been through enough with the two of them. They’d pushed and pulled she and Jack and their baby sister, Amrys so much throughout this whole mess when all Jenna wanted to do was be left alone to lick her own wounds.

“But Jack’s a man. He needs his privacy. And your sister doesn’t have a spare bedroom. Besides,” Vicky followed Jenna into her bedroom, “you need me.”

Wheeling around to face her mother, Jenna paused in the middle of removing her t-shirt. “I’m thirty years old, Ma.”

“And alone. And lonely, I imagine. With Aiden no longer—“

She tugged her t-shirt over her head to hide a grimace. “Can we not talk about him right now, Mama? Besides, I’m perfectly fine on my own, as you well know. Aiden was—“ Everything, she finished the thought in her head but aloud she lied, “He was an aberration. A blip in the course of my life of voluntary solitude. I like being single. And alone.”

A statement that hadn’t always been a lie. Before Aiden she’d reveled in her solitary life. People—all people—grated at her mental and emotional well being. They were nosey, noisy and more often than not, more trouble than they were worth. She loved her family, sure. Heck, Jack and Amrys were her best friends and business partners. Dewey was one of the few reasons she ever ventured out of her house. And despite her need to escape them just now, she couldn’t imagine life without her folks. Mama and Daddy were, well, amazing when they weren’t tearing her to shreds.

But she’d enjoyed living her own life. She could lounge in her pj’s and eat peanut butter straight out of the jar any darn time she pleased. And the remote? All hers. She had her job, her Jeep, her expensive chocolates and her cozy two bedroom home. And that was all she’d needed.

 Aiden had somehow unexpectedly burrowed his way in under her radar and before she’d known what hit her, he was as much a part of her life as the air she breathed. And her mother was right, in a way. She was lonely. Lonely for Aiden. But not enough to ever let him back in her life. And certainly not enough to forfeit her solitude and allow her mother to move in with her, no matter how temporary Vicky tried to make it sound.

“Jenna—“ Vicky wheedled, handing Jenna a fresh tank top from the stack of laundry on the bed.

Tugging the tank top over her head, Jenna continued exchanging her clothes for the comfort of pajamas. “I love ya, Ma, but you gotta go. You’ve been here three days already and if you don’t have the guts to tell Daddy to get out then you’re gonna hafta figure something else out.”

Vicky sank to the bed, frowning. “Can I at least stay again tonight? You’re brother’s tending bar and I can’t stand the thought of finding a motel.”

“Tell you what, Mama. You can stay tonight and then tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you and Daddy are going to have it out. Either he goes back to his apartment and his little tart or ya’ll patch things up. Whatever. But you can’t keep hiding out forever.”

“Why not?” Vicky lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

“Nope,” Jenna sassed. “I’m simply getting my life back to normal.” A partial lie. But who was counting?

Kissing her mom on the forehead, Jenna scooped up the newest novel she’d started reading and pointed her mother toward her bedroom door. Once her mother was safely returned to the living room Jenna closed her bedroom door and turned to face the room. The sight of the bed made her shiver with all the sensations nearly kissing Aiden had stirred up. Bypassing it, she curled up on the overstuffed chair by the window instead. The lighting was better there anyway, she told herself.

She tried focusing on her book but after reading the same page three times, she dropped it to the floor and shut off the lamp before shifting the curtains aside to look out at the dark night sky.

Touching her fingers to her lips, she tried to shake loose all thoughts of him. But it was no use. She still couldn’t believe he’d nearly kissed her. And she’d very nearly let him. Kissing Aiden had always been as natural as breathing but tonight it would have been a huge mistake. A disaster, even.

She couldn’t regret having fallen in love with him. It had been thus far the sweetest, most amazing thing she’d ever done.  And when it had all ended it had been near devastating.

Letting him break her heart again would be a colossal regret she would likely never recover from. That knowledge alone had been all she’d needed to put an end to the temptation. And danged if she hadn’t felt some satisfaction in punching him in the gut.

She giggled, recalling his grunt of surprise. Much more rewarding than any kiss. Or so she told herself.

Episode 3

Aiden swallowed back the torrid of questions hovering on the edge of his tongue, begging for answers. How was she? Did she need anything? Did she miss him?

Damn. He was such a girl, he inwardly snorted at his weakness. Ignoring the nagging impulse to reach across the table and clasp her hand, Aiden concentrated on not noticing how good she looked. Her long chocolaty brown hair was pulled back in her customary ponytail and her eyes were painted up to look all smoky. As though her dark grey eyes weren’t expressive enough.

He easily recalled marveling as he’d watch her brush the stuff on every morning and how all those pots and tubes and pencils would transform her from a fresh faced girl into a smokin’ hot little number. He could never decide which he liked best since he’d loved everything about her so thoroughly.

But for as much as he focused on ignoring those sexy as hell eyes, he absolutely could not allow himself to look directly at those glossy pink lips. Those lips, he tried to forget, could do things to him that nothing and no one else ever had or ever could.

Thank God she was wearing an oversize t-shirt over her second skin Levi’s. The very last thing he needed in his weakened state was to catch a glimpse of any of those lush curves he knew with precise detail were hidden beneath all that cotton.

“See something you like?” she taunted, bringing his focus back to her face. Her left eyebrow was lifted in that sexy little way she had and those wickedly full lips were tipped into a sexy smirk.

He miserably regretted his impulsive need to protect her earlier. He should have just forced her to face her fears and get on with her life. Instead, he’d had to go and play the hero. Again.

Shrugging carelessly, Aiden lifted his water glass to his lips only to realize that it was empty. Damn.

“Want a sip of mine?” she tilted her root beer bottle toward him, her smoky grey eyes shimmering with laughter.

Damn, but she looked good. Hell.

Calling her bluff, he took her up on the offer and wrapped his hand around the cold bottle, unable to resist brushing her fingers with his as he did so.

Stupidest move he’d ever made, he realized too late as sparks of that same old electricity shot up his arm and straight to his groin. The only benefit to his stupidity was the almost imperceptible blush that rose to the surface of her skin.

She’d felt it, too.

“Dessert?”

It took him a moment to realize the invitation was coming not from his former lover but from the cute waitress standing beside their table.

“No,”  he and Jenna replied simultaneously, their eyes locked on each other. He would swear that he could almost hear her pulse throbbing at her throat.

“Alrighty then,” the waitress grinned and slid a check toward Aiden before sauntering off.

Jenna was the first to break eye contact, flustering around patting her pockets and muttering under her breath. Presumably searching for her keys. Or maybe her sanity, he mused. He knew she regretted even seeing him, much less sharing a meal with him. And if he had his own sanity he would leave her there right then. Escape her and the hell he knew he’d be in if he stayed.

Instead, he found himself tossing a wad of bills on the table before sliding from the booth and tugging her along with him. “Come on,” he urged and gave her a good tug when she refused to move her feet.

“Let go you brute,” she snapped and tugged at her arm.

“I will. When we’re outside.”

But even when the cool evening air brushed his skin he couldn’t let her go. The moon washed over her giving her an ethereal glow, momentarily erasing all that stood between them. Before he could stop himself, he found his head dipping towards hers as though her gravitational pull was too much for him.

A sudden sharp pain to his midsection had him staggering backwards slightly and he gasped.

“Dammit, Aiden!” she hissed and jerked free from him. Before he could gather the breath to say anything much less stop her, she was halfway across the parking lot climbing into her sexy red Jeep.

He couldn’t see her face once she was inside, the windows up and the engine cranked. But as she backed out of her spot, he saw clearly which finger she was flashing him and it wasn’t her index.

A short chuckle escaped his lips as he watched her drive away. The regret, though, would last forever.