Forever yours, p.9
Forever Yours, page 9
“I’ll have a beer and a slice of pizza,” Meg said.
“That’s cute. Except there isn’t any pizza because you two were supposed to order it and pick it up before Dr. Howard decided to turn my bathroom into a triage center.”
“Actually, a triage center—”
“Pizza,” Mallory stated. “Now, please. People are starving.”
“Now,” Meg mimicked with a whisper as soon as Mallory disappeared.
Aiden took her hand and pulled her with him from the bathroom and down the hall. Aiden pulled his keys from his pocket, but Meg grabbed them.
“Oh, no,” she said, holding up her keys. “When you drive, I get stitches.”
He rolled his eyes but laughed as he followed her out of the house.
The small gathering around Aiden started quietly counting down to midnight. Jessica was spending the night with Mallory’s parents, but Harris was sound asleep in his crib just down the hall. They all intended to keep him that way. Aiden looked around the room, and his throat tightened with an unexpected surge of emotion. He was bringing in the new year surrounded by his cousin and the new set of friends he was making. And Meg.
He thought they were really making progress. She didn’t seem to harbor the anger and resentment anymore, and he no longer felt the need to apologize for the past every time he saw her. They had started spending a lot of time hanging out with Mallory and Phil, helping with the baby and running errands for the new parents. They had even taken Jessica to a movie to give Phil and Mallory time alone while Harris napped. The easy relationship he had made with Phil and Mallory was more than Aiden had hoped for when initially reconnecting with his cousin. The fact that Mallory and Meg were already close friends had just been the icing on the cake.
The four of them were falling into a routine that felt so natural, Aiden couldn’t help but hope that this was what his life was going to continue to be even after Harris was bigger and his parents weren’t so exhausted from caring for a newborn. Aiden still hoped that Sunday afternoons were spent with Meg. Maybe not doing laundry and running to the store for Mallory and Phil, but maybe for themselves. Relaxing days off like they used to have.
The irony wasn’t lost on him that fearing a future like that was what had led him to run away from Meg in the first place. Back then, the normalcy of housekeeping and grocery shopping seemed like a curse. Now, it seemed like everything.
As the countdown to the new year reached one, Aiden was tempted to lean down and kiss Meg as the rest of the couples in the room were doing. But they weren’t a couple, and he was clearly reminded of that when she simply pecked a kiss on his cheek. “Happy New Year, Aiden.”
He pulled her closer and held her a bit tighter than he should have. “Happy New Year, Megumi.” This was the first time he’d rung in the New Year with her in a long time. Even though he refused to let it be the last, he was going to cherish this moment.
When she pulled back from him, she gave him a warning glare, but the smile on her face showed she was teasing. Aiden wished the night didn’t have to end, but soon people started moving toward the door.
Meg finished gathering dirty dishes, despite Mallory’s insistence that she would clean up in the morning. Aiden helped, mostly because he wasn’t ready to leave Meg’s side just yet. That was silly, he knew, but the ringing in of a new year had him filled with the stereotypical hope that so many had on the first of January. He carried a stack of empty pizza boxes through the kitchen door and out into the cold to stuff them in the already-full recycling bin. There had only been about a dozen or so people there, but they had certainly gone through the food and beer during their celebration.
Rushing back in to get out of the cold, Aiden stopped in his tracks when he saw Meg putting on her coat to leave. The evening they hadn’t technically spent together was coming to an end, and disappointment filled his chest.
Meg spotted him and flashed a smile. “Drive home safe, Aiden.”
“You too,” he said as casually as he could. He wanted to tell her to wait on him, that he’d walk her out, but she had her sister with her. No need to make them all feel awkward.
When she was gone, he turned to the kitchen where Mallory and Phil were filling the dishwasher. Or at least they had been. Now, Mallory was standing with her hand on her hip with her lips pressed together and Phil had his arms crossed, leaning against the counter and smirking.
“What?” Aiden asked.
“What?” Phil repeated.
Aiden lifted his hands. “What?”
Phil scoffed. “Dude, you are so obvious.”
“Do people still say dude?” Aiden asked Mallory.
“He just did,” she said flatly.
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
Mallory shook her finger at him. “You listen to me, Aiden. Family or not, I’ll rip your face off if you hurt Meg again.”
Oh. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he let out a long sigh. “Listen, I’m pretty sure Meg has no desire for us to be more than friends. But if, by some miracle, she did give me a second chance, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to blow it. I lost her once. If I had her back, I’d never let her go again.”
Mallory softened her stance. “You better not. I just had a baby. I don’t want to go to prison.”
Chapter Ten
Admitting that her anger had subsided seemed to ease the tension Meg felt around Aiden. New Year’s Eve had been the most fun she’d had in a long time, and though the regret of not kissing him at midnight had lingered in the back of her mind, she managed to ignore it…most of the time. Even better than she and Aiden moving on from the past was that Meg and Aya were actually acting like sisters instead of mortal enemies. They hadn’t been so close and easy around each other for years.
Meg felt like so many of the relationships in her life had mended, and that was easing stressors she hadn’t even realized were weighing her down. Of course, she still had a long way to go with her parents, but she wasn’t confident those were relationships that would ever be fully mended. She had spent too many nights lately tossing and turning, trying to find a way to make them understand she wasn’t a failure just because she didn’t have M.D. after her name. She was going to have to confront her father at some point, but for now, she was content just to accept that she had made peace with her ex-boyfriend and her sister.
The front door opened, and Meg’s heart fluttered a little as she glanced at the clock on her computer screen and confirmed the time. That should be her ex-boyfriend right now. Grabbing the folder with his name on it, she set the stack of papers on the opposite side of her desk and grabbed a pen.
“Hey there,” he said, walking in.
She smiled. “You ready for this?”
He rubbed his hands together and blew out a breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Taking the seat across from her, he stared at the stack of papers. “This is crazy,” he said, but the smile on his face wasn’t one of fear. He was so excited, and she was excited for him.
Meg chuckled. “Yeah. Quite the commitment you’re making here.” She grinned when he glared at her playfully and then snatched the pen she held out to him. “I’ve tagged all the places you need to sign and initial.”
He flipped through the pages, legally taking ownership of the home that had crept into her dreams more than once over the last few weeks. She chose not to analyze why her subconscious had continually put her in that home with Aiden. Just because she decided to give up the anger and bitterness that had hounded her for years didn’t mean they were going to go back to the way things were.
They had a good thing going here. They had become friends. The time they spent helping out Mallory and Phil had somehow become a regular thing, but eventually they weren’t going to need as much support as Aiden and Meg were giving them. Mallory and Phil had already resumed their own grocery shopping. Instead of roaming up and down aisles, Aiden and Meg had started sitting around their living room, but they couldn’t do that forever. With their parents rolling through to see them and the kids, they likely weren’t getting as much privacy as they needed. Eventually, Meg and Aiden would have to stop dropping in every Saturday afternoon to occupy their sofa.
Aiden turned to the last page and huffed out a big breath, pulling Meg’s attention back to him.
“Okay.” He glanced up at her and smiled. “This is it.”
As soon as he scribbled his name on the last line, she slid a ring full of various keys across the desk to him. “Congratulations. You are a homeowner. The previous owners labeled the keys. There are a few copies of front door keys, and the others—well, you can test them all out when you get there.”
He laughed as he picked up the keys while she gathered the papers. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Meg stopped moving. “Ready for what?”
He looked at her like the answer was the most obvious thing ever. “To go check out my new place.”
Her heart did a little flip in her chest. “Uh, this is usually the end of the line for the agent. You’re on your own now.”
“Come on.” He stood. “You know you want to come over.”
“No.” She chuckled. “I don’t.” She said the words, but as soon as they left her mouth, she realized they weren’t true. She did want to go over. She wanted to walk in and feel that rush of knowing that was her home. But it wasn’t her home. It was Aiden’s home, and she had no place there. The urge, however, made her realize that she was probably ready to get serious about looking for her first house. She’d saved enough for a down payment on a home she could call her own. It was time to start taking the same steps toward being a responsible, full-grown adult that Aiden was taking.
“Come on,” he pleaded. “Don’t make me do this alone. This is a big milestone for me. I want to share it with someone.”
The plea in his voice tugged at her heart, but she shook her head, refusing to let it pull her in. “Call your mother.”
“I can’t. She and Kara took Mira to the children’s museum today.”
Meg lifted her brows in surprise. “Together?”
“Together.”
“Wow. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be. At least not until they come home and we can verify they made it out alive.”
Meg giggled. Everything seemed to be falling into place for him. She was a little bit jealous if she were to admit it. She had to guess that was because he was being assertive, taking control, and making things happen. That had never been something Meg had been good at. She was usually pushed along. First, she let her parents dictate a future she didn’t want, and when the pressure became too much and she cracked, she fell into the habit of letting Mallory push her along.
That had actually turned out to be a good thing. Mallory’s insight and awareness had led Meg to getting the treatment she needed to battle the dark clouds that had always plagued her. With the right medication, she had finally been able to blossom on her own. But that didn’t mean she was good at plugging along like Aiden was doing. She tended to find a comfortable place and stay there until she no longer could.
If Mallory hadn’t moved to California after graduation, Meg never would have had her own place. A place she still lived in, even though Mallory had come home and gotten married and started a life of her own. Meg was still in the same spot she’d been when Mallory left her.
She needed a kick in the pants. Maybe this would be it. “Okay,” she conceded. “I don’t usually do this with clients, but I’ll go with you. Give me just a minute.” She busied herself with stuffing the papers in an envelope to be dealt with later and grabbed her purse from her desk drawer. She turned to leave with him and then stopped at the sight of him sliding a key from the jumbled keychain. He held one out to her. “Wh-What’s that for?”
“For the front door.”
Her heart did that funny little flipping thing again. He was giving her a key to his house? That seemed like…a commitment to something that they hadn’t committed to. “I know that, but why do I need a key to your house?”
He shrugged. “Somebody has to feed the dog I haven’t yet bought when I go on a vacation I haven’t yet scheduled.”
She moved around him. “That’s why you have Phil.”
“I’ll get him one too, but this one is for you.”
Meg didn’t take the key, but it clinked as he set it on her desk. He clearly didn’t intend to take no for an answer. The last time he’d given her a key to his place, it was like signing a death warrant on their relationship. They didn’t even have a relationship now, but she still felt the same sense of doom wash over her as she had felt four years ago. The first signs of commitment coming from Aiden Howard had been the first signs of the end.
Her mouth went dry as she tried to dismiss the feeling. “You should change the locks, Aiden. The previous owners may have kept a copy or have given a spare set to someone out there. You don’t know who might have access to your house. Change the locks before you move in, okay?”
He nodded and grabbed his key back. “Okay. I’ll give you one for the new locks.”
She didn’t respond as she led him out of her office. “I’ll be back soon,” she told Courtney.
The woman didn’t say it, but Meg was pretty sure she was thinking that Meg had been sucked into Aiden Howard’s trap again. The feeling began overshadowing the good she’d felt just an hour ago. Up until he’d tried to give her access to his home, she had been confident they’d made huge strides in their relationship. Him giving her a key shouldn’t have taken so much wind out of her sails, but damned if it hadn’t.
They’d lived together for just under a year before he left her. They’d had everything so well planned out.
“Are you okay?” Aiden asked after several minutes of intense silence.
“Yeah.”
“Meg?” he pressed.
She looked out the window. “I like where we are right now, Aiden. We’re friends. I like that.”
“Me too.”
“I don’t think trying to be more than that would be a good idea.”
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t know what else to say. They rode in silence until he parked in front of his new house. Meg’s heart grew inexplicably heavy as she examined the structure. Neither made a move to get out of the car when he cut the engine.
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel a few times. “I love you, Meg,” he blurted out.
Her heart dropped as she jerked her face toward him. She knew her eyes were wide and her mouth gaping from his unexpected words, but she couldn’t control her reaction. Of all the things she expected to hear from him, that was probably the last. When he’d left her years ago, he’d tried to tell her that he loved her, but she hadn’t believed him. How could he possibly leave if he loved her?
“Don’t lie,” she whispered before he could say more.
“I’m not.”
“Aiden.”
He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “I’ve always loved you. I wasn’t ready to love you, but I did. I thought of you every day when I was gone. I wanted to call you so many times—”
“Aiden.”
“It’s the truth, Meg. I’m not going to push for more because I’m the one who blew it, but I want you to know that I never stopped loving you.” He climbed from the SUV then and started for the house.
She hesitated before she followed him inside. All the furnishings and photos had been removed, but it still felt like she belonged here as she looked around the living room. She had felt that the first time she’d walked into this house. She remembered thinking that if Aiden didn’t make an offer on this house, she would. She felt at home here in a way she’d never felt walking into any other house. She’d shown hundreds of homes, but this was the only one that had ever resonated with her.
Something about this house made her want to be here. She wanted to be cooking in that kitchen and relaxing by the fire in this living room. She wanted to belong here. In this home. In Aiden’s home.
Damn it. She’d be stupid to let herself fall for him again. She’d be setting herself up for a fall. But looking at him, she believed he had changed. He had grown. So had she. There were many things about them that were the same, but they were different people now. They were the people they had been too afraid to be four years ago. They were who they were meant to be, and they still fit. When she blocked out what her brain was telling her and listened to her heart, they still felt right to her.
This felt right to her.
Aiden stopped moving around the empty house and stopped in front of her. “So what do you think?”
She creased her brow. “What?”
He grinned, but it wasn’t as easy and natural as it had been before his confession. “I knew you weren’t listening. Did you hear anything I said?”
“Sorry.” She dismissed her overwhelming emotions with a laugh. “I…”
Aiden’s teasing smile fell. “I shouldn’t have said that in the car. We’re in a good place, and I should have left well enough alone. I’m sorry.”
“No. No. I just…” She looked away from him as her heart screamed at her. Listen to me, it begged. Meg bit her lip and looked out the window at the big back yard where he said he wanted to let his dog roam and his future kids play. “I love you too,” she said before her mind interfered. However, her brain couldn’t let her stop there, so it quickly added, “But I don’t trust you. And I don’t know how to.”
He looked hurt by her words but not surprised. “I don’t blame you. I hurt you, probably more than I could ever fully understand.” A sheen covered his eyes, but he blinked it away and cleared his throat. “Do you think…” Clearing his throat a second time, he looked at her, staring intently in her eyes. “Will you let me try to earn your trust again?”
Holding her breath, she debated what to say. She wanted that. She hadn’t even realized how much she wanted that.
“I just want to try, Meg.”
