Page 35 of Pillowtalk

“Tell me again.”

A long huff escaped, his internal torment draining him. “Stable ground? I want something…more than what I had.”

“Did you come back for Lissa?”

She nodded toward a canoe down the lake a ways, Lissa’s long, highlighted hair easily spotted among the crowd. Aaron felt his breath seize for just a moment, only long enough for the shock to wear off. It was getting easier to see her around town—when she’d helped remove the tree, it was awkward every time their eyes connected. But he’d been a bit more distracted by another pair of eyes, and his body definitely knew which woman he was into more.

“I came back to feel the way I had with Lissa,” he said, turning back to Chelsea and running a hand over Charlie’s head. “Those feelings faded when I moved, so when I look at her, it’s not the same. It’s…a reminder, I suppose. That I’m an even worse person than I thought because I destroyed a friendship over something that wasn’t even real.”

“Then shouldn’t you want to feel something better?”

He shook his head and held back an amused grin. Damn, she always had to get philosophical on his ass. “Yeah, I guess.”

Chelsea let out another sigh, a cocky smile toying with the edges of her mouth. Aaron felt his pulse spike as her gaze drifted back to the boat he knew Kennedy was sitting in, and he pushed his eyes shut.You don’t have to look,he told himself. Just like he didn’t have to fall for another woman whose heart belonged to someone else.

“I don’t know that much about her,” Chelsea said, breaking into his guilt-ridden thoughts. When he opened his eyes, she jerked her head over to the other canoe. “Kennedy. Only that Jared spoke the world of her.”

And damn it if his gaze didn’t travel in that direction as if on autopilot. In a completely different way than it had with Lissa, his breath stopped in his chest, an iron fist wrapping around his heart as he watched Kennedy’s mouth turn into a frown. Her eyes shone in the soft twilight, and she gave Austin a short nod at whatever he’d asked her. Aaron ached to know what she was thinking, what they were saying….His spine stiffened as the urge to swim over there ran through him. He pushed away at it, focusing on petting the dog at his feet.

“I can see why,” he said quietly, turning his eyes to the bottom of the boat. It was a cruel form of punishment—falling for the woman he couldn’t fall for—but he deserved it.

“It’s okay,” Chelsea said, breaking the silence between them. He met her eyes, and she tilted her head. “Is that what you need? Someone to tell you it’s okay? Because it is.”

His hair brushed over his forehead as he shook it. “She lost the love of her life. How could I even—”

“I don’t think it’s her feelings that are stopping you.”

His hackles rose, prickling up his spine as he straightened it. “I’m not insensitive to them.”

“I’m not saying you are, or that you ever would be,” Chelsea said quickly in defense. “I’m saying that you’re not followingthis”—she thrust her finger into his chest, his pulse pounding with the tension of the conversation—“because you’re worried about betraying Jared all over again. He’s gone, Aaron.” Her voice broke, and his skin ran warm as he pushed closer to her, the boat rocking under them as he attempted to offer her any sort of comfort. She pressed her lips together in a hard, straight line for a moment before they relaxed, and she glanced at Kennedy across the lake. “Even if he’s somehow still around, I don’t think it’s an accident that you two are in the same place at the same time. There are bigger things at play here. Bigger than you and what you’ve done.”

Her shoulders slumped, as if she’d been holding that in ever since she’d noticed whatever was happening between him and Kennedy, and it was an exhausting relief to finally let it loose. “Forgive yourself, please. I beg of you. Tell yourself the same thing I just told you….It. Is. Okay.”

Aaron held his breath, letting her words soak into him, seep under his skin, and touch the deepest parts of his dark, shamed soul. She couldn’t possibly be right, could she? Kennedy was there for Jared, no one else. She’d go back as soon as she spread those ashes, and Aaron would…well, he wasn’t sure what he’d do when she left, but his stomach caved in at the thought.

He ruffled Charlie’s fur and noticed Chelsea’s eyes drop to the act. She reached out, and her soft, slightly cold hand covered his. She squeezed it once, twice, and then held on. A jolt ran through Aaron’s chest as he felt not a weight lifted, butshared.

“They’re here!” a voice shouted out among the many people over the lake. The quiet picked up to a twitter, floating over the water as eyes turned upward. Chelsea grinned and let go of his hand, relaxing back to watch the stars come through the wispy clouds.

The lakeside constellations were always a fantastic view; Aaron wasn’t immune to the tranquility it seemed to provide the entire town. But it wasn’t the view he wanted right then, and instead of chastising himself for it, he turned to look at Kennedy, and locked with her beautiful chocolate eyes. She rested her head atop her propped knees, her lips tilting up in a shy smile that he returned while a rush of warmth ran under his skin. Could it be possible that she was there for more than just Jared? Did fate really have something to do with him moving back home, with her visiting at the same time? In that moment, he’d like to think that it did, because even with the draw of the night sky above, she, too, was choosing to look right back at him.

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