by Eason, Mary
Mission accomplished. They’re called sassy brown, but the sales person assured me they were nutmeg. And they were delivered to her ten minutes ago.
Aiden smiled. He could almost see Cara’s embarrassment.
He messaged Lois back:
You’re a miracle worker.
Those are the kinds or miracles I like to work. Now, why don’t you do the same for Shelby?
Easier said than done. But Aiden was determined to try.
* * * *
Cara felt as if she’d just drifted off to sleep when the shrill ringing of the phone next to her bed brought her back to the world she needed to forget for a little while.
She lifted the receiver and said something. She wasn’t exactly sure what, never mind if it were civil. It was, according to her alarm clock, one in the morning. Whoever chose to call at one didn’t deserve civil.
“Caught ya.” Aiden. Aiden’s husky baritone voice filtered through her sleepiness, clearing away the cobwebs.
“Aiden?” She couldn’t think of a single thing to say other than his name. She heard him laugh softly, which did disturbing things to her body.
“Aiden, its one in the morning.”
“I know. I figured you couldn’t run from me at one in the morning.” While Cara tried to cover her embarrassment at being so obvious, she heard him ask, “Were you sleeping?”
“Yes.” The word almost didn’t sound at all. She was finding it hard to breathe.
“Are you alone?”
“I’m not answering that. That’s none of your business.”
"I don’t care if it is or if it isn’t. I want to know.” He sounded like the angry Aiden of earlier.
Cara considered lying, but knew he’d see right through it.
“I’m alone.”
“Good. I’d ask what you’re wearing but I don’t think my body can stand hearing the truth.”
“Aiden,” Cara breathed while color crept over her body.
He laughed again. “I can almost picture you right now, Cara. Want to hear how?”
“No!” No, she didn’t need to hear how Aiden was imagining her. But she wanted to. During the daylight hours, she’d tried hard to push aside pictures of Aiden like she’d never seen him before. Naked. Touching her. Making love to her. Vulnerable. Yes, Aiden had been vulnerable when he’d loved her. That wasn’t the Aiden she knew.
Another laugh. “Are you going to talk to me now?” he asked, rather than push the matter.
In spite of herself, she smiled. “Do I have a choice?” It was both easier and harder this way, with miles between them. Part of her was thrilled that she didn’t have to look into those blue eyes and try and explain her behavior last night. Aiden would know she was lying. How long before he guessed the truth?
She still was stinging from Miranda’s call earlier that afternoon. Miranda hadn’t been in the least bit upset over Aiden and Cara’s indiscretion.
“I’m happy for you, honey.” Happy? That she’d slept with her boyfriend? Cara couldn’t imagine. If their roles were reversed, she’d be murderous.
“Oh and I have lots of news. First, I saw your little shop mentioned in some little New York rag.”
It had taken Cara a moment to regroup. “My shop was mentioned in a New York paper? When?”
“Oh, I don’t quite remember. But let me tell you my news. Jean Claude has asked me to move in with him. I’m moving to Paris at the end of the month! Can you believe it?”
Cara’s spirits sank. She forgot all about the newspaper article. If Miranda was moving, Cara was without a roommate at the end of the month. Which meant Cara was moving as well. Miranda’s parting words had made her wonder how much of the truth Aiden might know already. Miranda had told her to ‘go for it.’
“After all, honey, I know you’ve had a crush on him forever. Good for you for acting on it. I would have done it to you a long time ago.”
“Cara?”
Cara almost dropped the phone. She hoped that Aiden hadn’t guessed the truth about her feelings for him. And she prayed that Miranda would keep her mouth shut.
“Yes, I’m here, Aiden. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I asked how your day went?” Something was different in Aiden’s voice. There was just enough of a strain to make her believe he was finding it as hard to make polite conversation.
She considered that. Aiden had never seemed like the type to feel uneasy. He certainly had enough experience with love ’em and leave ’em not to feel guilty over a one-night affair.
The thought of being just another one-night stand for Aiden made her stomach do any uneasy flip.
“It was good.” Cara paused for a second. She thought about ignoring the whole flower thing entirely, but she couldn’t. She’d actually been thrilled by the sassy brown Lily of the Valley arrangement. But the note had been enough to give her hope. She didn’t want to have hope with Aiden. Aiden was not the type of man for hope. Even in spite of Shelby’s belief that Aiden wanted something different with Cara.
“Thank you for the flowers. They were beautiful.”
The silence that followed her words was so long that it only confirmed how difficult it was going to be to become friends again. She prayed that they hadn’t destroyed their friendship by giving into temptation.
“Cara, look, I know that you don’t want to talk about this right now…”
“Aiden…”
“Just listen to me then. I won’t push you into anything, but I’m not going to pretend that I have regrets. I don’t. And I’m not going to pretend that I haven’t thought about us as more than friends for a long time. Since the beginning. Clearly, you need more time. I can understand that. Things got a little out of hand last night.”
Out of hand? Things had gotten way beyond out of hand.
“I never really meant for it to happen like that, but I don’t regret it.”
“Aiden, how can you say that? You and Miranda were practically…” Cara caught the words before they were out. What exactly would she be giving away by revealing the things she knew about Miranda and Aiden’s relationship. What did that make her?
“Practically what, Cara. You said that yesterday as well? Miranda and I were just…”
“I don’t want to hear it, Aiden.” She couldn’t stand to hear Aiden tell her about how he and Miranda were lovers. She’d heard enough of that from Miranda.
Aiden clearly didn’t like her reaction. But he was trying. Which should have been the biggest surprise of all. Aiden didn’t really have to try that hard with women. They mostly just fell into his bed.
‘Like you,’ her conscience reminded her.
“Okay, you don’t want to talk about Miranda right now either. Look, maybe it would be best if we didn’t really have this conversation until you’ve had time to figure out what you want to talk about,” Aiden told her in a clipped voice.
Cara didn’t say anything. She was pretty sure that time was not going to be the answer in this case. She never wanted to have this conversation with Aiden.
“Look, Cara,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll be back home in two weeks. We can talk about it then.”
Cara remembered that today was Aiden’s first day on the new job. She felt guilty about not remembering that sooner. She’d been so busy trying to avoid having this conversation with him that she hadn’t thought about what he had to face today on very little sleep.
“You’re right. We can talk about this some other time. I’m sorry. I completely forgot that today was your first day at the new job. How did that go?”
Aiden groaned and she felt even guiltier.
“That bad?”
“Oh yeah. The place is a mess. Its not going to be easy getting it back to profitability.”
For the next half hour, Cara listened while Aiden told her all about Shelby Advertising’s problems.
“So, how do you like living in Arkansas?” she asked, hoping to change Aiden’s bad mood.
Aiden had bee
n giving her such a hard time about coming to her senses finally and moving to Texas that when she’d first heard about the move to Arkansas and had gotten over the empty feeling at losing him, the irony of the situation was not lost on her.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Well, don’t get too comfortable with it. It’s temporary.”
“What do you mean? I thought you were taking over the controls there permanently?” From the little that Aiden had said about the move, Cara knew that he wasn’t pleased about it, but for Aiden, the job was the most important thing. Getting ahead meant everything.
“I mean, I don’t plan on taking up citizenship here. One year, Cara. That’s all you get to tease me about this so I suggest you enjoy it.”
“Have you tried the restaurants I told you about?” On his first trip to Little Rock, she’d given Aiden a list of places to eat. Among them were some very famous Arkansas Sooner hangouts.
“Oh yeah, and thanks for that. Thanks to you, I just about got beat up. You didn’t tell me that ‘Longhorn’ is a dirty word here?”
“Sorry, but you are in their territory now, Aiden. You should know better. They can pick a Longhorn fan a mile away.”
Aiden told her about his first hand encounters with his university rivals. While she listened, she closed her eyes and occasionally mumbled a response. She hadn’t exactly slept all that much after all.
“Cara? Hey there, sleepyhead. Hang up the phone.” For a second she’d forgotten that she’d left Aiden telling her about his run in at the restaurant. Cara lay on her side, the phone propped up against the pillow next to her ear. Somehow, she’d fallen asleep.
“What?”
“You’re snoring.”
“I don’t snore,” she told him with a yawn.
“Uh-huh. Did Jason tell you that? Because I remember it differently.” She was wide-awake at that comment. She made a strangled sound while trying to think of a good come back when Aiden stopped her.
“Never mind. Hang up the phone, baby. Get some sleep.”
Cara did as he suggested because she couldn’t get her voice to cooperate enough to tell him again that she wasn’t one of his women. But the truth was she liked the way it sounded. And that realization kept her awake for the rest of the night.
Chapter Five
Two weeks. He’d just survived two of the longest weeks in his life and through it all, the only thing that had kept him in Little Rock was the fact that he didn’t know how to move on from where he’d left things with Cara. He didn’t want to be her friend. He didn’t care how much she wanted that; Aiden knew that he couldn’t go back to that because he wanted more from her than just her friendship.
But Cara wasn’t acting true-to-form with him anymore. Every single time he talked to her, she sounded as nervous as a cat and he didn’t know what to make of it. That wasn’t Cara. So what did that mean?
He’d gotten just desperate enough to call Miranda and ask her what was up with Cara.
After a ten-minute discussion about herself, Miranda told him one little piece of information that could be something or it could mean nothing at all.
Miranda was moving to Paris to live with her current soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. Secretly, Aiden was thrilled. He’d gotten rid of her without the scene that he’d been expecting.
But Miranda had let it slip that Cara would be moving as well.
“Why would Cara be moving? Where’s she going?”
It surprised Aiden that Miranda hadn’t seemed all that upset about his having slept with her friend and roommate at first until he finally realized Miranda just assumed, as Cara had apparently, that it was his way of getting even. He wondered again, what all Miranda had told her roommate about their relationship. Clearly, she’d embellished a lot.
“She’s not going anywhere, silly. She just has to find an apartment she can afford. With my half of the rent gone, Cara can’t keep the place. God only knows where she’ll end up on the money she makes at the store.”
Aiden hadn’t listened much after that point. Mostly because Miranda was busy talking about her latest photo shoot and he had just had one brilliant idea. An idea that would need just the right amount of finesse on his part to get Cara to agree to it.
He’d called to leave a message on her cell phone because Cara was still dodging his calls when possible. He told her that he would be heading back the following morning and that he would call her so they could get together. Aiden had almost forgotten the silver locket he’d found in his bed the morning after she’d spent the night with him.
He had brought it with him, mostly because he liked remembering it on her—that night. Hell, he liked remembering everything about that night. The way she’d felt beneath him. The way her body responded to his touch.
He’d talked to her several times but never once mentioned the locket and Cara hadn’t either.
He knew it was a gift from a favorite aunt but apparently she either didn’t remember where she’d lost it or she was too embarrassed to say so. Either way it was important to her. Cara wasn’t much on talking about her family. He could remember on one hand the number of times she’d even mentioned them to him.
He suspected she was embarrassed by her humble upbringing. From Miranda he’d discovered that Cara’s family was dirt poor. She’d worked her way through the university and paid for her education all by herself. Cara hadn’t taken any government help. He admired her for that.
Her childhood was worlds apart from his. Aiden’s family was wealthy and one of the first families to settle in Dallas years ago. His great grandfather had made a fortune in real estate developments. A business that his grandfather and his father had also been successful at. As the only son amongst the three children born to Margaret and Edward Wilder, Aiden didn’t fit the tradition. And he had no interest in real estate. Eventually his father accepted Aiden’s decision, but only after he’d made his first billion, retired and moved to Florida after Aiden’s oldest sister had given birth to their first grandchild.
Now his father’s life consisted of golf and swanky parties as well as periodic trips to visit his growing number of grandchildren scattered everywhere from Florida to California. Thankfully, none of Aiden’s sisters had remained in Texas. It was bad enough having to tolerate their meddling from hundreds of miles away. Living close would have been sheer torture.
Aiden took the locket out of his pocket once the plane was airborne. The clasp had broken in God only knew what way. He’d sent it out to be repaired. He turned it over in his hand. Cara never wore any other necklace but this. Had she given up on ever finding it again? He couldn’t wait to see her expression when he put it on her. He’d planned on waiting to call her until later that day, but instead he liked the idea of stopping by before she went into the office. He could almost picture her now. Fresh out of bed and ready to return. Aiden glanced around at the few other passengers who slept mostly. The flight was an early one. He hoped no one noticed that he wasn’t anywhere close to sleepy. And the awakening evidence of his arousal at picturing Cara in bed was not the easiest to disguise at thirty thousand feet.
* * * *
“Cara, we’ve been dating almost six months now. We’re perfect for each other in every way. What are we waiting for?” Even though Jason had whispered those words in her ear, it was clear that Shelby’s radar hearing had picked them up. And it was equally as clear that she could have answered that question for Cara.
Aiden. Aiden was the problem. Had been from the start. Especially now.
Cara glanced at Shelby and tried to send a message to her to keep her mouth shut. She did, but she couldn’t keep from laughing at Cara’s dilemma.
“Jason, now is not the time to discuss this.” Cara rolled her eyes in Shelby’s direction. There wasn’t really a good time to discuss this but she knew she couldn’t keep putting Jason off forever.
“Cara,” Jason said softly. He was ready to try another approach. Good luck with that buddy, she thought. You don’t’ stand a
chance after…
“Jason, can you excuse me for a second.” Cara didn’t wait to hear his response. She stepped back into the kitchen and drug Shelby with her. “I’ll only be a minute. Just need to cover some things with Shelby before tomorrow morning’s brunch.”
Cara closed the door and resisted the urge to lock it.
“Would you stop it?” she said before Shelby could get a word out.
“Cara, you can’t sleep with him. Don’t even think about it. In fact, you need to break up with him. You know it as well as me. Jason’s not the one.”
In spite of all her attempts at appearing differently, Shelby was still at heart a woman who believed in happy ever afters.
She was convinced, especially after Cara told her about sleeping with Aiden, that they were meant to be one of those happy ever afters in spite of all Cara’s attempts to make her see another truth.
“Shelby, Jason is my boyfriend. Not Aiden. And Jason is a great guy. Wonderful…not perfect. And I’ve been a fool putting him off for so long. I don’t know why? I mean I knew that nothing would ever come of Aiden and…Jason’s perfect for me. And I’m not going to keep him waiting any longer.”
“Cara, you’re going to regret it if you do,” Shelby all but yelled as Cara turned and walked out of the kitchen.
“Everything okay with you two?” Jason asked at the obvious anger in Cara’s eyes.
“Fine. Everything’s fine. We just had a minor disagreement over dessert tomorrow. It’s all worked out now. Let’s go.”
Jason clearly wasn’t buying the lie but decided after another look at her expression not to press the matter.
Seated next to Jason in his bright red Corvette convertible, Cara decided dinner wasn’t an option if she was actually going through with this.
“You know what, Jason, I’m not hungry. Let’s go back to my place.”