Page 35 of Small-Town Secrets
"How?" I asked. "How do you suddenly—"
"It's not suddenly." He met my gaze and held. "I liked you when we were younger too."
What? How could he say that? "But you always—"
"I shot you down, I know. You were too young. I couldn't..." He shook his head. "I couldn't admit that I had a crush on my baby brother's best friend. Not even to myself. But if I hadn't liked you, I might have been able to control myself better when you went into heat. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you. I—"
"You weren't taking advantage of me," I burst out, guilt weighing heavy on my mind. Aaron obviously still felt bad about what had happened and I couldn't stand the thought. How could I let him regret the best night of my life? "I manipulated you."
"You what?"
"I took heat inducers once I realized we were alone in the house, and then I sat down next to you and waited." I searched Aaron's face for any hint of how he felt about my actions—how he felt about me—now that he knew the truth. I wasn't the innocent omega he thought I was.
But I couldn't read Aaron right now. His expression had gone closed-off, his emotions tightly guarded.
I probably deserved that.
"I'm sorry," I apologized, even though I didn't regret a damn thing. "All I can say to defend myself is that I was a teenager with an impossible crush and I got kind of desperate. You have no idea how happy you made me when my plan worked. I don't want you to feel bad about that night. I don't." It had fueled a lot of happy memories for me that I’d been able to escape to whenever I’d needed to endure the touch of an alpha I’d come to despise.
It had also given me Chris and Tyler, though I couldn't tell Aaron about that. Not yet.
"I don't know how I feel," Aaron admitted finally. "I think I need to sleep on it."
“I get that.” It wasn’t what I’d hoped to hear, but I had to give him space.
With a low whistle, Aaron called his dog to him and Sarge appeared in the door to the living room after only a second. "Ready to go to sleep?" he asked his little buddy and the dog pawed at his leg until Aaron picked him up and carried him off.
I looked after the two, my chest tight. I wanted to stop Aaron from going, make sure we were alright. But I knew that I needed to give him time to process this. I also knew that there was no chance for us if he couldn't. I'd only told himoneof my secrets, after all.
And it wasn't even the biggest one.
16
Laurence
Icouldn't figureAaron out.
When he walked off on me the night before, I thought for sure that he was mad at me. But when I woke in the morning, I found myself wrapped in a blanket. I hadn't had a blanket when I went to sleep. I'd forgotten to ask for one. At some point in the night, Aaron must have spread it over me.
I bit my thumb, eyeing him over the breakfast table.
He wasn't paying attention to me, though. He was too busy cooking breakfast for me and the boys, who were running up and down the stairs exploring their new home and probably trying to find ways to cause trouble. I asked Aaron if the ruckus bothered him, but he claimed it didn't. I warned him that the twins were going to be messy, but he said it was no worse than having a couple of puppies tear through your house.
I wasn't sure if I believed him. He seemed way too blasé about suddenly having two very energetic seven-year-olds in his house and all over his business.
Just as I was thinking that, Tyler barged into the kitchen and joined Aaron by the stove, casting a greedy look at the plate with the already finished pancakes. "Do you like pancakes?" he asked. "I love pancakes! Daddy says I can't have too many, but they're so good!" He stole one of the pancakes off the plate with his bare hands and bit into it.
I grimaced. The kid didn't evenlikepancakes without syrup on them. He was testing Aaron, and I let him do it because I was curious. How was the big burly alpha at the stove going to react to my troublemaker?
"Can I feed the pancakes to the dog?" Tyler asked, grabbing another one. "Does he like pancakes? Does he like syrup? I love syrup!" Tyler reached for the bottle of syrup, but Aaron stopped him, closing his hand around my son's wrist. I saw the tension in Aaron's shoulders as he did that, but at the same time, his grip on Tyler seemed relaxed.
"Sarge eats his own food," he said in a calm but firm tone of voice. "You can help me prepare it later if you want to."
"I have school," Tyler said.
"After school, then. Now get your brother and sit at the table. Breakfast is ready."
To my surprise, Tyler wandered off and did as he was told, two pancakes still in hand. "I'm sorry," I said when he left the kitchen. "He can get a bit erratic around new people. He kind of knows you but he kind of doesn't and this is a weird situation."
