One Hundred Excuses (An Aspen Cove Romance Book 5)

by Kelly Collins

  She raced for her front door. He waited to make sure she was safely locked inside before he entered his home. Making sure she was secure comforted him.

  Aiden rushed around the kitchen to get things ready. He only had hotdogs and beer, but after the kisses they shared, he was certain the food didn’t matter. It was the company that counted and for some reason, she liked his.

  Smoke rose from the grill as the hotdogs split and hissed, dripping oil and juice onto the flames. He turned them and looked at the beautiful woman approaching. She’d changed into shorts, and damn those legs were amazing.

  She pointed to the gate on the side of the house. He never used it because he preferred to simply hop over. It got him to where he wanted to be faster.

  She exited her side gate and entered his yard, moving toward him with such grace.

  “Feel better?”

  “Much. Thanks for being so flexible.” Her eyes left him and looked at the deck.

  “Hey, while I didn’t want to waste a single second of us time, you don’t need my okay to do what you want.”

  Her chin lifted along with her smile. “Old habits.” She shrugged.

  He took the perfectly charred dogs off the grill just as a crack of thunder shook the house. A few drops of rain fell from the sky.

  Summer storms in Colorado could be brutal with torrential rains and hail the size of baseballs. “Looks like we’re eating inside.” He picked up the plate of hotdogs and his beer and led her into his house.

  She stopped as she entered the door. “Wow. Your place is great.”

  He tried to see it from her perspective. He’d spent the first year renovating everything. So while hers was still stuck in the eighties, his had most of the bells and whistles people would expect in a modern home.

  “It’s the same as yours only refurbished, and I think I have an extra room.”

  She walked into the kitchen and ran her fingers across the granite counters. “It’s magnificent. I love how you take care of what you have. Your pride in ownership shows in everything you do.”

  He put the plate on the table next to the bag of buns. “Anything worth keeping is worth putting in the time and effort it takes to care for it, be it a house or a relationship or something else.” He hoped she got the message loud and clear that she was worth keeping.

  A bolt of lightning arced across the sky, followed by the boom of thunder.

  “That’s close.” She walked to the window as the few drops of water turned into a downpour.

  He thought about Kellyn. “Is Kellyn afraid of storms?” Maybe they should get her from Katie’s.

  “No, she likes to watch them, but if you don’t mind I’ll give Katie a call just in case.”

  He plated up a few hotdogs and grabbed a bag of chips, then pointed to the living room while she made her call.

  She came in a moment later.

  “Everything okay? I’m happy to get her if she wants to come home.”

  Marina plopped down on the leather sofa beside him and took a plate from his hands. “Nope. She’s fine. They’re finger painting.”

  “It’s just us then.”

  She turned to face him. “Yep, just us. Tell me, how does a man like you stay single?”

  He ate a bite of his hotdog and considered his answer. If he expected her to share her story, then he had to share his. “I’m picky. Turns out I prefer single moms who cut hair.”

  She giggled. “You should set your standards higher.”

  “My standards are just fine. How’s the hotdog?”

  She readied the second one on her plate. “So good. I was starving.”

  “Are you excited about the shop?”

  She swallowed her bite and nodded, picking up her beer to wash it all down. “Oh my God, I never imagined my life could be like this.”

  “It’s just the beginning. What made you choose Aspen Cove?” It was only forty minutes from her ex. While he knew the Caswells had put restrictions on her, she could get lost more easily in a larger town.

  “It’s really for Kellyn. I didn’t want to change too much too soon. Besides, Aspen Cove is special to me. It’s the first place I ran to after…”

  She didn’t need to say the words. “You don’t have to tell me,” Aiden said.

  “I want you to know everything.”

  She told him how on her wedding night, Craig had abused her. She’d left and the first place she came upon was Aspen Cove. She’d stayed at the bed and breakfast.

  “Where was Kellyn? Was she in the house?”

  She shook her head. “Kellyn was at her grandparents’ house. It was our wedding night. That was their gift. That was my first clue. If I came home from anywhere and Kellyn was gone, or if I were home and someone came for her, I knew what the rest of the day would look like.”

  It gutted him to hear her story. “You wouldn’t leave her.”

  “How could I? Her own mother left her. I couldn’t be the next person to abandon her.”

  “He could have killed you.”

  She looked off into space like she remembered a moment in time. “He almost did. That’s when I knew I needed a plan B.”

  “The blackmail?”

  She sat up. “No. That came later. I learned to fight back. He monitored everything but Kellyn’s appointments. He hated that she needed help. He didn’t want to know about her doctor’s appointments. Somehow not acknowledging them made the problem go away.”

  “She’s using silence as a coping mechanism,” Aiden said.

  “He hurt her. Her psychologist says she suffers from PTSD. Trauma caused her to not speak because she used to speak, and I know it has to do with her mother. She had to see him do something to her mom. It’s why Kari left and why he sent Kellyn away before he got violent.”

  “How generous of him,” he said sarcastically. “If I was a crooked cop, I’d take him out into the woods and shoot him.”

  She set her empty plate on the coffee table. “You’re not, and that’s part of the reason why I like you. You have a solid moral compass. What man would ask if Kellyn was afraid of storms? None that I know of, only you.”

  His mind raced back to one statement she’d made. “You said you learned to fight back?”

  “Yes. There was a woman’s empowerment class next to the doctor’s office. While Kellyn was in her appointment, the owner taught me some self-defense moves. Hell, for a while I was more bruised from class than I was from Craig.”

  “Did you get to use it?”

  “I got a hit or two in.”

  “Should I be afraid?” he teased.

  “Only if you don’t give me some of those kisses pretty soon.” She looked at her watch. “I’ve got about an hour before I need to get Kellyn home and ready for bed.”

  “Come here, you.” He lifted her from the cushion and placed her in his lap. His hands trailed over every appropriate-to-touch inch of her body before he laid down and pulled her on top of him. Damn if that didn’t feel perfect, but when her lips touched his it got better.

  Inching his hand lower, he cupped her bottom and waited for her to respond. What he got was a low throaty moan that said full speed ahead.

  When she reached under his shirt, he relaxed. She pulled and tugged until she had it off him and tossed on the floor. She sat up, straddling his hips, and looked at his body.

  “You are so…” Her fingertips traced over the muscles of his chest. His skin tightened and tingled under her touch.

  “So what?” He wanted her to complete her thought.

  “Amazing.” She ran the soft pads of her fingers over his scar. “Was it terrible?”

  He moved up her waist to her breasts, where his thumbs brushed the sides. “Wanting you and not having you hurts worse.”

  Her body went still. “Aiden…”

  “It’s okay. It’s not time yet. Too soon.”

  “No. I don’t have a set time. It feels right, but…”

  “It’s not time. We’ll know when it’s time. For n
ow, this is enough.” He pulled her down and kissed her again. “When I make love to you, I want it to be perfect.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marina opened the door to the shop the next morning at nine. She’d brought a box of toys for Kellyn to play with while she tended to whoever arrived for a cut.

  As promised, Doc Parker was her first customer. She trimmed his hair and gave him a hug. When he tried to pay her, she refused, so he left a twenty on the counter and said it was a tip.

  It was as if he’d called the next person on some imaginary list. In came Tilden Cool, who indeed looked like a mountain man who hadn’t seen a set of clippers in years. Marina trimmed his beard and cropped his hair close to his head. When she finished, he looked half human.

  She decided she’d work on a donation basis. Those who could afford more would pay more, and those who couldn’t would get a good cut for what they could spare.

  The shop stayed steady all morning, giving her little time to think about Aiden and his words. But when she got a lull, the only thing she thought about was him telling her when he made love to her it would be perfect. Perfect was a nebulous concept but her entire body tingled thinking about what that looked like to him.

  So far, everything about him was mind-blowing. He was attentive and sweet and kind. Kellyn was half in love with him, and if Marina was honest with herself, she was too.

  The bell above the door chimed, and a stranger entered. It wasn’t odd to see an unfamiliar face because in the summer Aspen Cove had a thriving tourist trade with water sports and fishing. This man, dressed in a suit and expensive Italian loafers, didn’t look like a tourist. Marina knew what expensive looked like. The Caswells didn’t skimp on anything when it came to their image and neither did this man.

  Kellyn took him in with caution. She’d been leaving her colored blocks at home but brought them today as if she somehow she knew something was coming her way.

  She pulled a yellow block out and set it on the floor beside her. Warning.

  “Can I help you?”

  The man looked around the shop. “Just passing through. Thought I’d stop in for a trim.”

  Marina would have loved to tell him she was booked, but the empty shop told the truth. She didn’t have the liberty of turning a paying customer away. “Sure. You want it washed or just a trim?”

  “Just a trim.” He pulled off his suit jacket and folded it neatly, draping it over the spare chair.

  “Not from here, are you?”

  He sat in her chair. She pumped the foot lever to raise him up.

  “No, just checking things out for a client.”

  Maybe he was in real estate. “What do you do, Mr…?” she asked.

  He smiled while she pulled her scissors from the drawer. “I’m the owner of an asset management team.”

  She pulled his hair up and cut. “Oh, what type of assets?”

  “More of a personal nature.”

  She thought that odd but shrugged and quickly finished the cut. The man creeped her out, and she wanted him gone.

  “What do I owe you?” he asked.

  She pointed to the jar by the register that said donations. “It’s a pay what you can afford place.”

  “Interesting. I’d think a woman like you—” he looked at Kellyn, who hadn’t taken her eyes off him, “—would need the money.”

  She was taken aback. “A woman like me? What does that mean?”

  He leaned forward. “How hard was the fall from riches to rags?”

  She stepped back. Kellyn saw her abrupt movement and fumbled for her red block.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you need to leave.” She pointed to the door.

  The man picked up his jacket. “I’m Jack and I work for Craig. He wanted to make sure his assets were okay.” The man glanced over his shoulder to where Kellyn cowered in the corner. “Ready to go home yet? This isn’t really a life, Marina. It’s an existence.”

  “Out. Get out before I force you out myself,” she hissed.

  He lifted his hands in surrender. “I heard you have a powerful left hook.”

  She pushed him toward the door. “It’s nothing like my right. You want to test it out?” She fisted up and stood in the doorway waiting for him to make a move. If he even flinched, she’d let loose on him like a raging storm. “Tell the asshole intimidation won’t work.”

  “See ya later,” he said as he strolled out of the shop.

  She watched until he was out of sight before she rushed over to Kellyn. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’re okay. I told you there are good people and bad people in the world.” She looked down at the red block gripped in her daughter’s hand. “You are such a good judge of character. Aiden told me to trust my gut, but I think yours is smarter.”

  Marina sat on the floor and cradled Kellyn in her arms until all the tenseness left her body. She pulled the red block from Kellyn’s hand. “How about we close up and visit Aiden?”

  It broke Marina’s heart to see her baby swipe up the colored blocks before she’d leave. She cradled them in her arms on the way to the sheriff’s office.

  When they entered, Aiden was sitting behind his desk. In front of him was a pretty young woman and a handsome young man. Marina had seen them around town, but she didn’t know them by name.

  As soon as Aiden saw her, he stood. “Poppy, this is Marina. She runs the beauty shop and she’s my neighbor.”

  They said hello and looked down at Kellyn.

  Marina knew what Aiden saw first. He saw the blocks in her hands and his eyes went straight to hers, asking without using words. She shook her head. Craig hadn’t come—in person, anyway.

  Aiden strode toward Kellyn and swooped her into his arms. “And this little peanut is Kellyn.”

  Marina stepped forward to offer a shake to the girl first. “Nice to meet you.”

  Aiden interrupted. “My bad manners. This is Lloyd Dawson’s daughter. She helps at the office, filing and answering phones and stuff. She came to get her first paycheck.” Without letting Kellyn down, he walked her to the door. “See you next week.”

  He returned to his chair. Once he was seated with Kellyn in his lap, he opened his drawer to show her his candy stash. “Pick anything you want.” He turned to his deputy. “Can you keep an eye on this little sprout for a second? I want to show her mom something. Kellyn gets to be the sheriff while I’m gone.” Aiden took his hat from the filing cabinet and put it on her head. He squatted down in front of her. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere. Only one candy, otherwise your mom might not be happy with me.”

  He led Marina back to where the cells stood empty and waiting. He set his hand gently on her shoulders. “What happened?”

  She didn’t want to cause alarm. She also didn’t want to be a problem for Aiden. If he saw her as a chore, he might not be so inclined to spend time with Kellyn and her, and she’d miss him. She hated to admit that she needed a man in her life, but she desperately needed Aiden. He brought a calm to her existence she hadn’t felt in years. “Nothing. Everything is all right.”

  He dropped his hands and leaned his shoulder against the bars of a cell. “It’s not all right. She has those damn blocks in her hands. She hasn’t had them for days.”

  “You’re right. She hasn’t, but I brought them.” It wasn’t really a lie. She’d carried her bag to the car even though Kellyn had packed it. “She’s in a new environment, and I want her to feel safe and have a way to tell me when she doesn’t.”

  The tension left his body. “Are you sure?”

  She moved toward him. “Yes, Aiden. She’ll be fine.”

  “So nothing happened?”

  She didn’t want to lie to him. “All that happened was a man we didn’t recognize came in for a trim. She’s apprehensive about strange men.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Did he do anything to you?”

  “No, he got a haircut and left.” That was the truth. The asshole hadn’t even paid.

  “Okay, but you
know you can tell me if someone bothers you.”

  She looked around to make sure no one was looking and gave him a quick kiss. “Yes, I know, but you can’t fight my battles for me.”

  He turned them around and pressed her to the bars. “The hell I can’t. Isn’t it time someone fought for you instead of fought you?” His brows rose high enough to touch the sweep of his hair.

  “Just kiss me and then I have to go back to the shop.”

  All thoughts of threats and Craig melted away when his lips touched hers. His hand sat on her hips, then fell to caress her bottom. She never liked feeling trapped but pinned between Aiden and the cell was divine. The kiss ended too soon.

  “You know I care about you. I’m here if you need me.”

  “I know. That’s why I came across the street. I needed you.” She gave him a devilish smile. “Or at least your kisses.”

  He pushed his body close to her. “You said kisses as in plural.” He tilted his head and kissed her again. “That should last you for a few.”

  He walked her into the front office where Kellyn sat at his desk, hat still on top of her head, and a handful of melted chocolates in her palm.

  “See what you did.” Marina shook her head.

  Aiden took a Kleenex from the box on his desk and wiped the chocolate from her face. “I didn’t think it was possible, but I made her sweeter.” Once he had her cleaned up, he lifted her into his arms. He turned to Mark. “I’m going to take my girls across the street. Hold down the fort.”

  “No problem, boss.” The young deputy smiled. “I’ll be seeing you later, Marina. I’m told I need a haircut.” He looked at Kellyn. “Bye, squirt. It was nice working with you.”

  Kellyn turned so she was looking over Aiden’s shoulder. As they walked out the door, she waved to Mark.

  Marina breathed a sigh of relief. There was no telling how far that visit could have taken Kellyn back, but going over to see Aiden was the magic elixir. When they got back to the shop, Kellyn pulled out her crayons and colored. The picture was rudimentary at best, but Marina could recognize the garden, Kellyn’s flowers and Aiden standing as a tall stick figure watching over her like a protector.