Pasting on a smile, I hand Charlotte the slip of paper. “Looking forward to seeing you again.”
“Right, we’d better get going. Thank you for inviting us today,” Charlotte tells me.
Lily smiles softly. “Yes, it was lovely seeing you again.”
“It was lovely meeting you two, too,” I tell them honestly. “Let me walk you out.”
After saying goodbye once again, I close the front door with a sigh. If only briefly, I got to experience what it’s like to have girlfriends. The tension I felt all morning was for nothing.
I relax back against the door and close my eyes. I have friends. Friends who could become people I’m close to.
A scream lodges in my throat when I open my eyes to find Aiden leaning against the wall. How the hell did I forget he was in my house?
“What’s taking you so long?” He raises his eyebrow.
I narrow my eyes at him. “I forgot you were here. You scared me half to death.”
He gives me a wounded look. “You forgot I was here?” He points to his chest, pouting at me.
I roll my eyes. “Yes,” I admit, stepping around him and heading into the kitchen. Sunday is sleeping soundly in her pushchair when I stop next to her.
She’s such a beautiful baby—and lucky to have so many people around her who love her. I notice four bags, filled to the brim, attached to different parts of the pushchair.
I turn around. “Are you going on holiday?”
“What?” he asks.
“The bags…”
“Oh, that’s Sunday’s stuff,” he tells me, before heading over to the fridge and pulling out food to make a sandwich.
“Oh, is she staying out somewhere?”
He looks up from the round work bench, shaking his head. “No. I was gonna come and see if you wanted company today—in case they came back.”
“You were?” I ask. I’m surprised by his kind gesture; we hardly know each other.
He grins, winking. “Yeah. That and I ran out of food this morning and I’m starving. When I saw the girls pull up I got her stuff together.”
“Is she moving in here?”
His shoulders shake. “No, she’s not.”
“Then why all the stuff? You could have just popped back home when you needed it.”
He shrugs. “I’ve only left the house with her once before, and, honestly, I still left stuff I might need at home. I never knew a baby needed so much stuff.”
“They do,” I murmur, running my finger down her soft cheek. “How old is she?”
“Four days old today.”
“You’re doing really good for only being a dad for four days.”
“I’ve got the nappy thing down. Any time she poos, I wear one of the mouth masks Maddox brought over. After the first few incidents of being sick, I knew I had to do something. The only other thing I find difficult is changing her vests. The things are a hazard.”
I laugh, remembering the time I first babysat my mum’s friend’s baby. I had to change her vest, and pulling it over her head, then putting her arms through was a challenge.
He finishes making the sandwiches and slides one over to me. “Do you eat in here or is there a fancy room in this house with a dining table?”
Shaking my head, I grab half the sandwich and take a bite out of it. He starts to laugh, sitting down on one of the stools and grabbing his own.
“This kitchen is the shit. It looks like it belongs in a restaurant.”
I glance around the fully-furnished kitchen. “Yeah, my gran loves to cook. She would always be baking something in here.”
He winces as he glances at the plate of muffins. “I still can’t believe you didn’t warn me about the muffins.”
Briefly, I look down at the one he left, smiling at the teeth marks. “I think I chipped a tooth,” I tell him, then run my tongue over my teeth.
I watch, mesmerised, as his shoulders start to shake, wishing for once that I could hear the sound of his laughter, wondering if it’s as contagious as it looks.
“She can’t cook worth a shit, but she tries hard every damn time. She gave us food poisoning once and made herself so ill from the guilt. She was literally throwing up and crying all the damn time. After that, none of us could bear to tell her anything bad about her cooking. She’s one of the kindest, most selfless people I know. She feels differently than all of us, though. She lets everyone’s feelings, and her own, overwhelm her. She cares about everything and anything. Even the people she’s never met but sees on the news, she’ll cry over them. She got depressed once when someone posted a video of people hunting sharks on the internet.”
“Sharks?”
He laughs again. “Yeah. One of the deadliest animals in the world and she got heartbroken over it for weeks.”
“She does seem like a special person.”
His expression softens. “She is—her and Lily both. We’re really protective of them.” I don’t like the look he gives me, but I know looking away would be rude. “What is it she wants you for?”
I suck my bottom lip into my mouth. I don’t like lying to him, but I can’t betray one of the only friends I’ve made since I was in nursery.
“Please don’t ask me to lie to you. I know you know she was lying in there. If she wants you to know, she will tell you.”
A bewildered expression spreads across his face, and I notice him shift, looking nervous. “Um, okay. Yeah. I’m sorry I asked you,” he says, not looking away from me. His deep, penetrating gaze sends shivers down my spine.
“It’s okay,” I whisper, unable to look away from him.
He licks his bottom lip and my eyes immediately are drawn to them, wondering what they would feel like pressed against mine.
“Just tell me one thing: will she get into trouble with what she’s up to, or get taken advantage of?”
Shaking the lustful thoughts from my mind, I answer him. “No—God no. It’s nothing like that, I promise. If it was, both she and Lily would have told you, and if they hadn’t, I would have.”
He nods, pleased with my answer. “Good. We’ve had a lot of people take advantage of or use those two. We try to protect them as much as we can.”
“You really are an enigma, Aiden,” I blurt out, completely amazed by him.
He grins, winking at me. “It comes naturally.”
I laugh at his comment. “Would you like some tea?”
“I’d love some coffee if you have it. Sunday doesn’t understand sleep yet, or that she’s supposed to sleep during the night and not all day.”
I laugh, looking over at Sunday, who is still sleeping soundly. “I’ll make it strong.”
Before I move, he taps my hand for me to look at him. “What do you do for fun in the day?”
My cheeks heat. He’s going to think I’m lame, because the truth is, I’m boring. I enjoy my own company and finding small things to amuse me. Even sitting and reading entertain me. But most days I catch up on work or promote my business to get some new work.
“Um, I kind of work most of the day.”
He looks at me incredulously. “Well, I’m not having that today. I’m here, so you can’t work. I’m taking you out.”
I bite my bottom lip, wondering how I’m going to get out of this. I don’t want to risk running into the girls who ruined my life.
“You okay?” he asks when I don’t answer.
“Um, I don’t really want to go out,” I tell him, looking away briefly, feeling my throat close.
An emotion passes across his face before he nods. “That’s okay. I can spend the day here. I’m sure there’s something we can do. I’m too tired to go out anyway.”
“You’re spending the day here?” I ask, eyes wide.
He gives me a smile I find charming. “Oh, Bailey, when I leave tonight you’re gonna miss me.”
I duck my head to hide my smile, because there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll miss him when he goes home.
I just hope I can make it thr
ough the day without mauling him.
CHAPTER TEN
BAILEY
Today has been one of the best days of my life. I’ve not enjoyed a day full of laughter and fun in a very long time. I never hoped or believed I’d get to feel like this again, ever.
Getting to know Aiden and helping him with Sunday has been an out of body experience. I’ve felt like I’ve been walking on cloud nine all day.
I learned so much about him; that he loves to cook, which he showed me at dinner time, and will be starting cooking school in the fall. His entire face lit up when he spoke about it, and he was so animated about it all, his hands gesturing to this and that. I could have watched him speak for hours and never tired.
It made me long to hear his voice all the more.
He spoke about his family, and from the sounds of it, he has a big one. I couldn’t remember all their names, as there were so many, but I could see the love and devotion he has for every single one of them. I like that he’s a family man.
I spoke about my parents and little brother, but it hurt too much thinking of them and tried to stay clear of any topics that would bring them up. I miss them every day, and with each day that passes, it doesn’t hurt any less. I want to phone my mum and tell her about Aiden. If she was alive, she would give me advice and gush over his good looks.
It makes me sad to know she’ll never meet my husband or future children. It pains me so deeply.
Aiden has just finished telling me about the time he got suspended from school for gluing all of his teacher’s stuff to her desk. He tilts his head to the side, smiling at me.
“What was school like for you? I’ve talked your ear off most of the day, but you hardly talk about yourself. Tell me something—anything.”
I can see in his eyes he’s surprised by his question. Aiden doesn’t seem like the type of lad who wants to get to know a girl on a deeper level. Knowing he wants to get to know me has my heart racing.
Today has been eye-opening for me, and for the first time I feel like opening up, no matter how hard it is for me to talk about. There are some things I’ll never be able to tell him, the humiliation too much to bear.
“It was horrible,” I tell him.
He sits up, his eyebrows drawing together. I look down at Sunday, glad she’ll never have to go through what I did. I could never see a member of his family letting it happen—or himself. As much as I loved my parents, they were blind to most of the bullying I went through. But it was only because I didn’t let them see. I faked my happiness so well in front of them.
His fingers wrap around my lower arm and chills run all over my skin from his rough, warm touch.
I glance up, our eyes meeting.
“Why was it horrible?”
I can feel the tears burning in the back of my eyes, but I don’t let them fall, too afraid he’ll run away if I started crying.
Instead, I look down at Sunday, pulling myself together. “My grandparents got me into a private school that had a great arts program. I was so excited. But the first day, I was cornered by a group of girls—four of them. They ran the school. Apparently, I had caught the eye of one of the school’s most popular boys. I had never even laid eyes on him, but they didn’t care. After that, they called me names in the corridors, behind me in class, or during break.” I pause, looking to Aiden for his reaction. His jaw is clenched but he nods at me to continue. I swallow, taking a deep breath.
“The bullying got worse after that. They’d hide my gym clothes, destroy my locker, or trip me over in the dinner hall,” I tell him, leaning my head back and sighing before looking at him again, feeling the tears build in the back of my eyes. “I was spat on, pushed and shoved, and the school did nothing. All four girls came from wealthy families who donated to the school. My grandparents didn’t have any history with the school. They may have paid my way in there, but unlike those girls, whose parents had previously attended the school, they didn’t have ties. I was a nobody there.
“My mum and dad tried everything to get it to stop when they finally found out. But I could see the stress and worry it was putting my mum through, so I told her it stopped. The bullying continued to get worse, and soon I was always covered in bruises from the beatings.”
His fingers lace with mine, grasping my hand in a tight grip, and I look up in surprise. “Did you not report them to the police?”
I swallow past my nerves and nod. “We did at first. The other times I lied to my parents about how bad it really was and how I got some of my injuries. But it cost me my family’s life,” I choke out.
He looks so confused, before shaking it off. “What do you mean?”
Knowing he needs to know so that what happened this afternoon doesn’t happen again, I tell him. Now he will understand why I don’t go out and declining his offers won’t be so awkward. “The last day of school they beat me so bad I lost my hearing. I was in hospital for three weeks because of the swelling on my brain.”
His hand tightens around mine, making me wince. I look up, seeing the pools of anger in his eyes. “Did they get arrested?”
I laugh dryly. “No. We couldn’t prove it was them—since their parents gave them all alibis. Before they beat me, I’d overheard them talking about fireworks as I was rounding a corner. Knowing who was there, I turned back. I tried to keep quiet but ended up knocking a bin over. They heard me. I think they beat me because they thought I heard the whole story.”
Aiden gulps, before asking: “What happened after?”
“I tried to adjust. I went to doctors’ appointments for months, trying to find the best way to hear again. I could hear better back then, but still needed the extra help. One day, I had just picked up a prescription for my brother, who was sick with the flu, and didn’t hear them. They pulled me into an alley and started in on me again. I managed to get bits of what they were saying. They didn’t like that I had gone to the police. It was that beating that made my hearing go.”
“And the police didn’t do anything?”
I pull my hand out of his to wipe my tears. “No. They came to the hospital to get my statement, but then told me there wasn’t any CCTV footage, and again, those girls had alibis as to where they were. I knew it was a lie, but the police didn’t.
“My parents went home that night, promising to see me in the morning. They never made it.”
“What?” he asks, the veins in his neck bulging.
I wipe at my cheeks again. I haven’t talked about this to anyone but the therapist I had at the time and my grandparents. Speaking of it now is hard.
“That night, after they left, those girls must have thought they’d be staying with me, because they lit fireworks in our letterbox and a fire at both the front door and backdoor. My parents and brother were found dead under the bed in my brother’s room. He was seven.”
“Fucking hell!” The look on his face is a mixture of anger and disbelief. “Please fucking tell me those bitches are sitting in a prison eating sloppy rice.”
I shake my head sadly. “No. They took everything from me and got away with it. I’ve not seen them since that day they attacked me in the alley, but then, I’ve never gone out and certainly never alone. I don’t want to give them another chance to hurt me. Everything I do riles them up and I only have my grandparents left in this world—all my other family were never really close. I can’t risk something happening to them. And going to the police for help has never helped me in the past. How can I protect them if I keep putting myself in those girls’ crosshairs? Being a recluse is easier.”
“That’s fucking bullshit. My sister’s fiancé is a copper, a damn good one—but don’t tell him I said that; he’ll think I like him. I’ll get him to do something.”
“There’s no point. It’s done now. Nothing can bring my parents back.”
He gives me an incredulous look. “No, but they can fucking rot for what they did. Fucking bitches.” He shakes his head, looking utterly disgusted, and I shrink into myself. “This i
s why we protect the girls in our family. For lads, when we have issues, we fight it out then it’s done. Girls… they’re evil. They gang up on you and tear you down. You did fuck all to deserve what they did to you.”
“Maybe so, but it doesn’t change it.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” he says, deep emotion written all over his face.
I wipe at the last of my tears and shrug. “I miss them every day, but nothing is going to bring them back to me.”
“You’re so fucking strong, Bailey. You really are. I’m in awe of you right now. I don’t think I’d be sane if I went through even a touch of what you have.”
I blush at the praise. “Thank you,” I tell him. “And thank you for listening. I’ve only ever spoken to my grandparents and the therapist I was assigned about it. I know it’s a heavy subject, and not something you thought I’d talk about when you asked me what school was like for me.”
He shuffles closer, taking my hand back. “No, it wasn’t. I was hoping for naked pillow flights,” he teases, winking at me. I laugh despite everything we just spoke about. He runs a finger through my hair, tucking it behind my ear, and I shiver. The way he’s looking at me has butterflies fluttering in my stomach and sweat forming. “I’m so fucking wonderstruck by you. You’re amazing and I’m glad you told me. I know it must have been hard for you, but I wanted to know everything about you.”
“Thank you,” I manage to choke out.
His dark hazel eyes study me carefully, like he’s looking at me for the first time, before his gaze travels down to my lips. I fight the urge to run my tongue over my dry lips, feeling nervous and on edge.
He sits forward, his finger tucking another loose strand of hair behind my ear, his gaze never leaving his study of my lips.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he tells me, and for some reason I imagine his voice low and seductive, matching his eyes; dilated and filled with lust. His runs his thumb over the pad of my bottom lip, and the urge to flick my tongue over the edge causes me to stop breathing.
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