Page 86 of Hunt for the Roses
“What?” I ask as I look down at her.
Aria inhales and explains herself. “I’m not going to lie to you. I had a lot on my mind this morning.”
I pause as I register the crushing weight of her words that feel like they’re flattening my heart. She’s admitting what I hoped wasn’t true when I saw her look out my living room window, and I try my best to suppress the rising frustration building up within me. I think Aria senses the tension in my body, and so she brings one hand from the back of my neck to cup the side of my face, and the other to lightly brush a few slick strands of hair off my forehead.
“But I thought about that night on the Ferris wheel. When you held my hand and made me feel safe with you, even though I was a ball of nerves that night,” Aria whispers. I swallow a lump in my throat as I hold Aria’s gaze and wait for her to continue. “That’s exactly how you made me feel last night. Safe and protected. And when you held my hand last night during such an intimate moment between us, I thought about how we held hands that night on the ride. It was the start ofeverything.” The walls around my heart start to recede downward. “Maybe our story was written in darkness, but it’s being told through rays of light. No matter how complicated things are, those rays of light are the scenes of our story that won’t ever leave my heart.”
I swallow as I look at Aria in awe, struck speechless. When I hold her brown eyes, I see streaks of hope, adoration, and desire. The feelings I have for Aria are reflected in her own eyes, and it’s like our souls are sewing together to become one. Whatever tiny reservations I had before are erased with Aria’s words, and unable to resist any longer, I cup the side of her cheek to sear my lips to hers.
Damn, what a morning this was.
* * *
Later that night, Kate and Trent are meeting Aria and I for drinks at Shippers. Aria and I already discussed that we need to be conscious of what we say and how we say it so there are no suspicious flags raised. We know that eventually we will have to start telling people, but we aren’t quite ready to do that just yet.
“So can we all keep the claws away tonight?” Trent jokes before taking a sip of his beer at the table we’re all sitting at. Aria and I are sitting across from Kate and Trent, and we’re making an effort to keep our distance in our chairs, so we don’t inadvertently touch each other in an affectionate way.
“Sounds great,” Aria says as she throws a thumbs up and takes a sip of her drink.
Kate shrugs as she directs her gaze at me. “I will if Dane apologizes for being a complete asshole last week.”
I slightly roll my eyes. “Kate, I’m sorry for being an asshole. Are we done with that now?”
Kate throws me a face.
Aria shakes her head as she cuts in. “Okay, let’s just change the subject.”
Kate jumps in. “Great! Ari, I see twohotguys at the bar that we ought to be mingling with right now.” Kate points in the direction she wants Aria to look.
Aria’s smile drops as she looks over to where Kate is pointing and starts to scrunch her face. “I don’t know, I’m not really in the mood to pick up a guy tonight.”
Kate’s eyebrows furrow. “Were you not looking at the guys I was looking at?”
Aria shrugs nonchalantly. “I was, I just don’t feel like talking with random guys right now.”
I’m inwardly smiling in victory as I put the rim of my beer glass up to my lips. “Kate, if you’re so interested, why don’t you just go talk to them? We’ll provide you with all the moral support from a distance.”
Kate narrows her eyes at me. “Because it’s more fun when I’m hitting on guys with Ari.”
Trent chimes in now. “I gotta say, Kate does have a point. It’s nice to have the wingman or wingwoman around.”
“Oh, god,” I say.
“Speaking of hot people, Shippers is looking filled with some options tonight,” Trent says as he nods over to a group of women at another table and takes a sip of his beer.
I take a sip of my beer to hold off on responding because I have to think of a way to answer Trent without acting weird about it. I decide to just go with short and sweet as I shrug one shoulder. “Nothing I haven’t seen before,” I say.
Kate finishes her drink off, then stands up from her chair. “Okay, well, I’m going to hit on some hot guys at the bar while all of you continue to talk in circles.”
Aria lets out a small laugh as she rests her chin in her hand over the table. “Well, now I have some great entertainment for the night.”
I smile, and then Trent is the next to speak. “So you two left Kate and I high and dry last weekend.”
Trent’s voice is weaved with a hint of accusation, and it catches me off guard. I peek over at Aria, and she’s just staring at Trent at a loss for words. I think she’s taken aback that he’s even mentioning anything, and so am I to be honest. Between our heated argument and the rising tension last week, I guess Aria and I were sloppier than we even considered. But maybe I’m overanalyzing this. Maybe Trent’s just being a concerned friend right now.
The last thing I want is more weight to be placed on Aria’s shoulders, so I decide to respond for both of us. “Yeah, Ari wasn’t feeling well, so I drove her home, and Ari already explained this to Kate.”
Trent takes a sip of his beer before continuing. “Well it would have been nice if you two said something beforehand.”
