Aiden simply forked some food into his mouth, chewing slowly.
I scratched at my ear. “If you want.” Then I added, “It’s just for the weekend.”
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Why had I even bothered saying anything?
Aiden scratched at his jaw with the end of the fork in his hand. He twisted his lower body in his seat, his knee hitting the side of my leg again before he said, “I’d need to be back Sunday night.”
I almost had to do a double take. “Really?”
He shrugged down at his food, super casual, or at least as casual as someone his size could be. Honestly, I was surprised he could fit that butt onto one stool. I was even more surprised the stool’s legs hadn’t given out yet under his weight. “Yeah,” was his reply.
“Oh… okay. I was planning on leaving Friday. It’s an eight hour drive.”
That had his face swinging to me, his expression going from blank to disturbed in a second flat. “You want to drive there?”
I nodded.
He stared at me for a second longer before reaching into his pocket, pulling out his black leather wallet, and then holding a silver credit card out in my direction. “Buy two tickets and rent a car. I don’t do long road trips.”
Did I know he didn’t like riding in a car for longer than absolutely necessary? Yes, but I wanted to cross my eyes anyway. If I didn’t have to do an eight-hour road trip, I wasn’t going to, especially not if I wasn’t paying for it.
He couldn’t be considered my sugar daddy if we were legally married, right?
Shoving the thought aside, I took the card from him hesitantly. “Are you sure?”
He didn’t hold back his eye roll. “Get an afternoon flight, they usually let us out around three.” He eyeballed me from the side. “Don’t rent one of those tiny economy cars either just to save money.”
Yeah, his bossiness was bringing back not the best of memories. I nodded anyway and held his card between my fingers, hesitating. “Is this supposed to be a test?” I asked hesitantly.
Back to being busy eating, it took him a second to answer before he turned to me with a furrow between those thick eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”
“Is this a test?” I wiggled his credit card. “To see if I’ll spend your money or offer to pay for my own ticket.”
That full bottom lip of his dropped just a little, his eyelids hanging low. Then he shook his head slowly, so slowly I knew he was exasperated… or he thought I was a complete idiot. One or the other. Maybe both. “Don’t be dumb. I wouldn’t offer to pay for the tickets if I didn’t want to. You know me better than that.”
He had me there. I shrugged. “Okay. All right.” Sheesh. “I just wanted to be sure because if you want to pay for them, I’m not going to tell you no.”
“Just buy the tickets and rent the car.” He got up with his plate in hand and walked around to the sink before adding, “Where are we staying?”
“I was planning on staying at a hotel.”
“Good. What are you going to tell your family?”
I scratched at the back of my neck before picking at my food. “Just my mom. I don’t—my sisters don’t need to know. Either way, no one’s finding out the truth. They don’t know I’m living with you. I figured—” Shit. What? Was I expecting my mom to not remember who I worked for? Of course she remembered. Now. Ten years ago, she didn’t remember half the time that she’d given birth to me and I relied on her. That was an easier truth to consider than the idea that she loved drinking more than she loved her kids.
I needed to stop. I needed to stop five seconds ago. Everything in my life had worked out for the better. I had no reason to complain. My life was better than fine. Way better.
With that reminder, I cleared my throat and pasted a playful tone to my words. “If she asks, I’ll just tell her I quit and you came after me. You realized how madly in love with me you were—”
Honest to God, he snorted.
I put my hand on top of the table and extended my middle finger at him even though I smiled. “—and you can’t live without me, so we eloped. I figured I should stick with at least a partial truth so it doesn’t get too complicated. You got a problem with that?”
Aiden shook his head, the corners of his mouth pulled tight in a smirk that eased my soul a little more. Everything in my life had worked out. “No.”
Jackass. I couldn’t help but snicker. “You’ll take one for the team then, so that can be the story we tell everyone who finds out?”
“What team?” he asked.
“You and me. Team Graves-Mazur. We signed a contract together. Sort of.” I smiled.
That bearded chin dipped to his neck, and I could see his mouth twitching. “All right. I’ll take one for the team.”
* * *
It was five minutes before we were supposed to be leaving for the airport, and Aiden wasn’t home yet.
He hadn’t answered the three times I’d called, and there was no way for him to know about the ten other times I’d picked up the phone but talked myself out of dialing. Where the hell was he?
I’d been ready all morning. I’d even made him lunch so he could eat it on the way to the airport since I’d known he’d be hungry after watching game footage for a few hours before the players were dismissed for the week.
But he wasn’t home. He wasn’t home. And we needed to leave.
I was pacing. My bag was already by the front door, and if I didn’t leave in five minutes, I would more than likely not make the flight.
The abrupt ringing of my phone from its spot in my back pocket immediately snapped me out of my freak out. Sure enough, Miranda P. appeared on the screen and a bad premonition pinched my gut.
“Hello?”
“Vanessa.” There was a noise in the background that sounded like someone laughing. “I’m not going to make it.”
Disappointment like I hadn’t known in forever—if I let myself think about it, I would realize the last time had been back when he’d let Trevor talk about me—squeezed the base of my skull. I wanted to ask him why. I wanted to ask him why he’d waited so long to call or why he hadn’t at least texted me if he’d known he wasn’t going to make it, but I couldn’t make myself do it. Chest tight, head suddenly hurting, I asked, “Are you okay?” even as anger fisted my fingers.
“Yes” was his curt, distracted response.
“Okay.” I swallowed hard and clenched my eyes closed. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Yeah, that didn’t help as much as it should have. “I’m leaving the house then. I’ll be back on Sunday.”
“Leslie is coming into town.”
That’s fine swam along my tongue, but I bit it back. It wasn’t fine. I was pissed off at him for wasting my time and making plans for him to go along with me. I was mad at myself for expecting—for getting a little, tiny bit excited—about him coming with me. I’d never taken anyone with me to El Paso before.
That only made me angrier. “I understand. I need to get my stuff in the car. I’ll see you in a few days.”