Page 11 of Pillowtalk

Kennedy nodded, pushing away at the niggling picture of Aaron kissing the redheaded beauty. That shouldn’t matter to her. It didn’t matter.

“You aren’t a fan of dogs, either,” Kennedy said with a grin. “Why doesn’t Aaron’s girlfriend just…deal with it?”

Chelsea turned a suspicious eyebrow toward her, and Kennedy bit her lip and concentrated on running a hand over Charlie’s back, hoping nothing in her expression said anything other than casual conversation.

“Hmm,” she hummed under her breath. Kennedy turned her round eyes at Chelsea’s narrowing ones.

“What?”

Chelsea inhaled, her back straightening as she unclipped the leash from Charlie’s collar. He instantly took the opportunity to go sniff at some bushes.

“Natalie isn’t Aaron’s girlfriend,” Chelsea said after a moment, obviously not divulging the meaning behind her previous thoughtful hum.

“Oh,” was all that escaped Kennedy, a surprising amount of relief and confusion swirling around in her mind. It didn’t matter that he was available; he was obviously something with that woman, andshewas obviously still very much broken inside. Jared still had her heart in his clutches, and the thought of tearing it away from him to give to another was devastating. So it didn’t matter how comfortable it was speaking to Aaron. Or how easy he made it feel to talk about Jared and feel joy from the conversation instead of sorrow. Or how very, very handsome he was. Jared was the love of her life, and she was a firm believer that you only get one. How unfair would it be to anyone else to pursue any kind of relationship based on physical attraction? How unfair would that be to Jared?

Her eyes flicked up to find Chelsea studying every twitch in her expression. A slow smile broke out on Chelsea’s lips before her gaze dropped to the urn resting on the steps between them. Kennedy’s eyes widened in worry that Chelsea had heard her impure thoughts.

“The Sheppards are two of the nicest and sexiest men to ever grace this planet.”

“Huh?”

“Austin and Aaron? Between the two of them, they’ve got the muscle and the brains. Growing up, this girl right here”—she pointed to herself—“had someone to turn to no matter what the problem.”

Kennedy jumped at the opportunity to turn the subject to the brother she hadn’t been thinking about. “How was Austin on the boyfriend scale?”

Chelsea let out a belly laugh. “You heard about that, huh? I guess Aaron was more talkative than usual.”

Kennedy tilted an eyebrow to encourage her to answer the original question; she hoped that Aaron’s name wouldn’t be brought up again.

Chelsea reached for the knot in her scarf and let it loose. The light material fell from her head and she crumpled it in her lap. “He was interesting, obviously. I think I’d always known he was gay, but it was still a bit of a shock when he said it out loud.” Her grin faded as the look in her eyes grew distant. Kennedy sensed a long history between the two families; she felt a twinge of anger seep into her heart that she’d never even heard of the Sheppard brothers until she ran into one of them. The anger was quickly pushed away—there was no room for it beside everything else when it came to Jared.

“He tried to convince me that I handled the news well,” Chelsea continued, her eyes now in the present. “But I don’t believe him one bit.”

The laugh that escaped her was contagious, and Kennedy felt her own smile take over. At the sound of their laughter, Charlie cantered over, his nose covered in dirt as he pressed it against Kennedy’s leg. She indulged him in his quest for attention.

“So, how did you…” Kennedy’s question floated off into oblivion as Charlie straightened his spine and took off at the sound of an engine coming up the drive. He leaped around a red SUV while Aaron, in the driver’s seat, maneuvered around his hyper pet. Kennedy’s thoughts were muddled at the sight of his closely trimmed beard, the grin that was more prominent without the overgrowth as he greeted the pup. She didn’t even notice Chelsea eyeing her with an intrigued grin until the creaking of the porch steps pulled her from the daze.

“You owe me a free website design!” Chelsea called out as she stood and set a hand on her hip. Aaron’s smile was in his honey eyes when they met Chelsea’s, but it faded quickly when they slid over to Kennedy. She jerked back in surprise at the formal expression.

He nodded to her as his only greeting before turning back to Chelsea. “You got it. Thanks again.”

Chelsea waved him off as if she were just giving him a hard time, but Kennedy had a feeling that he’d probably hold up his end of the bargain. Aaron patted Charlie on the hindquarters and he hopped up into the vehicle. Aaron waved goodbye to both women, keeping his eyes definitively on every other thing but Kennedy. Ignoring the curious—and unsettling—feeling that gave her, she turned her back on him, picked up the urn, and led the way back inside with Chelsea in tow. The possibility that the initial conversation she’d had with Aaron was a onetime occurrence made it that much easier to stomach. The only interest she had in Aaron…inboththe brothers…was finding out how exactly they’d impacted Jared’s life while he lived in Lyra Valley.

Kennedy’s hands squeezed the urn. Or while he lived in general.

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