Page 14 of Pillowtalk

Aaron chuckled at the response, knowing he should continue on his way now that he was sure he hadn’t hurt her, but unable to resist the urge to talk with her.

For just a minute,he told himself.One minute will not risk anything.

“What are you doing out here?”

Kennedy lifted a single shoulder, her gaze falling to the gravel beneath their feet. She looked positively adorable. “Too many people,” she said, the tip of her shoe prodding the rocks.

“Not a fan of crowds?”

Her eyes lifted as she processed her answer. Aaron counted about twenty seconds on the clock of his allotted sixty. “I actuallylovecrowds. I like social events, going out, getting out of my head….”

He raised a brow and they both chuckled at the irony of her wanting a reprieve from the noise just behind the wall they stood by.

“I didn’t count on how hard it’d be,” she admitted after a beat. “Being around so many people who knew him.”

The smile faded from Aaron’s lips, and he nodded, unsure if what he was thinking was what needed to be heard. Half his minute was gone already.

“Everyone here knew Jared.” He paused. Counted five more seconds. Opened his mouth and closed it while he contemplated what he really wanted to ask. It was almost as if he were fighting a devil on his shoulder who was begging him to jump into his wicked ways.

Offer to walk her home,it whispered into his ear, and Aaron argued with it until his minute was nearly over.

“Jared was loud,” Kennedy said, breaking him from his internal debate. “I bet everyone in the biggest town would know him. I should really get over it.”

That pulled at Aaron’s heart surprisingly hard. “You have every reason to want some space. Small towns…we just don’t know how to back off sometimes.”

She nodded. His sixty seconds ticked on by, yet still he stood with her, the devil now pleading in his ear.

“Well,” he said, letting out a long breath. He still wasn’t sure what his next words would be, if the devil would win, or his conscience. “Guess I’ll see ya around.”

Her doe eyes widened at the abrupt end to their conversation. He watched them ice over as he waved a stiff goodbye. Her arms crossed and pulled at the ruby red top she wore, and by then the devil was a bloodcurdling scream echoing around in his head.

But the memory of what he’d done to Jared flashed behind his eyes. A minute was all he’d given himself—and his minute was up.

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