Siren Beloved

Chapter Eleven

Aidan was pretty sure that if looks could kill, he would be dead six ways from Sunday. Aidan had faced down some rough motherfuckers in his life, but he would rather be back in Iraq than standing in front of Abigail Barnes. Unfortunately, she was currently pacing in his living room.

Aidan scrubbed his hair with his hand as he looked into the living room from the kitchen. He knew what Lexi’s mom was seeing, a weathered house in need of money and attention, neither of which he had a great deal to spare. His father had damn near run the ranch into the ground with his stubborn refusal to try anything new. Jack Barnes had offered Aidan a way to keep the ranch that had been in his family for four generations, but it wouldn’t start to pay for a while. Abby wasn’t his biggest fan, and seeing the home he could offer her daughter hadn’t helped.

While Abby Barnes paced, Sam Fleetwood sat on Aidan’s easy chair with a sleeping toddler on his chest. Jack Barnes stared a hole through his wife from the worn-out couch. It was obvious there was some dissension amongst the Barnes-Fleetwood clan.

At least Aidan was clean now. And dressed. Somehow he figured Abby seeing the other thing he could offer her daughter hadn’t helped her opinion of him, either.

“Mrs. Barnes,” Aidan began, wishing like hell that Lucas and Lexi had finished cleaning up first. But nope, they had retreated into the master bedroom and hadn’t shown up again. He’d been forced to shower in the tiny guest bathroom, shut out once again. “Can I offer you a drink?”

Hazel eyes turned to him, narrowed in irritation. “You can explain to me what sort of game you’re playing with my daughter, and don’t you even try to give me the ‘we’re just playing at D/s’ explanation. You were engaged to her. You can’t just waltz back into her life and experiment on her.”

“It’s not a game, Mrs. Barnes,” Aidan replied. “It’s serious.”

“It can’t be too serious since you have a fiancée.”

Aidan had to stop himself from putting his fist through a wall. He was going to have to deal with Karen. “I do not have a fiancée. I haven’t touched that woman in years, since long before I met Lexi.”

Sam perked up. “I told you she had that crazy-stalker-thing going on. I know all about it, brother. One day I’ll tell you all about Melissa Paul.”

“This is different, Sam,” Abby insisted.

“Really? How?” Jack asked, his mouth a flat line.

“It’s different because this is my daughter. You stay out of it, too. You’ve done enough damage, Jack.”

A single eyebrow arched up. “Sam, that’s another five.”

Sam closed his eyes and patted the toddler’s back, rocking in the easy chair. “I gave up writing down her punishments back in Waco. Let’s just understand it’s going to be a weekend project.”

Jack stood. “I’m sorry, Aidan. I sat her down and explained what was going on, but she’s being entirely unreasonable. I couldn’t stop her from coming out here.”

Aidan had always known he would have to jump this hurdle in the end. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so damn soon. And certainly not when he was five minutes from heaven. Lexi had agreed to let him make love to her. Oh, she had called it sex, but he would be making love. If Karen hadn’t noticed the Barnes-Fleetwood family asking for directions and decided it was a perfect way to see him again, he would be balls deep inside Lexi and one step closer to getting her back.

At least Karen had run off in tears. It had been suitably dramatic. She’d cursed Lexi’s name and completely ignored the fact that Lucas was there. Maybe she would finally get the picture.

Jack stared out the window, his eyes widening. “Um, I think I better go save your brother. He offered to show our daughter around. She’s trying to ride your dog. I don’t see your brother. I hope she hasn’t killed him. Or tied him up. We all know you have a lot of rope around here.”

Jack took off running, the front door slamming behind him. Sam kept up his rocking, and Abby closed in on Aidan. Apparently Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood wreaking havoc wasn’t anything new.

“My husband might think you have good intentions, but I don’t care. I was there after you dumped my daughter. I remember how hurt she was. She wouldn’t even come home for nearly six months. She was devastated. Did you dump her for that blonde bimbo?”

“No, Momma,” Lexi said, walking somberly into the room. Aidan wanted to scream his frustration. While they had been in the barn, she’d been alive again. Now she was shut down. “He didn’t leave me for Karen. Karen was his high school girlfriend. He didn’t exactly dump me.”

“What?” Abby asked.

Now Sam’s eyes were open, and he watched the scene in front of him.

Lucas walked into the room looking like he’d never gotten caught with his pants off. Lucas was smooth as silk. It intimidated Aidan sometimes. Lucas always seemed to know what to say, to do, in order to make things run like clockwork. Aidan fumbled so often.

“I’m afraid this is mostly my fault, Abby.” Lucas slid an arm around Lexi, giving her his support. “You see, Aidan asked Lexi to choose between him and me.”

Sam snorted. “Didn’t look like she was choosing a while ago. And Aidan’s obviously bi. I believe I mentioned that back when I met him a few years ago. He was looking at Lucas back then, too. What’s up with all these guys not realizing they’re bisexual? Here’s the clue, buddy, when you’re around another dude and you get a hard-on, you might be bi.”

“Sam!” Abby turned on her husband.

But Aidan actually didn’t mind. He laughed a little. So much of dealing with his sexuality had been wrapped in endless drama. It felt good to laugh about it. He did owe Abby an explanation. “I had never, um, loved a man before Lucas. I fought it for a long time. I thought that wanting Lucas made me gay. And I didn’t understand how I could want Lucas when I loved Lexi so much.”

“And being around her family made you believe that wasn’t a workable relationship?” There was no mistaking the offended air pouring off of Abby. Aidan knew her story. She’d been surrounded by small town judgment all her life. “I will admit that I wondered if you left Lexi because you disapproved of her mother’s lifestyle.”

“No.” He said it, but it rang untrue. He had worried about it. Damn it, he had to be honest. “Yes, Mrs. Barnes. It’s why I never invited you to meet my father or even told him more than the fact that you were married to Jack Barnes. I never mentioned Sam.”

Sam shook his head. “The best looking one is always the dirty little secret. Although I’m not little. I’m a big secret, if you know what I mean.”

“Sam,” Abby scolded him again, but her lips had curled up, and she shook her head with affection. She leaned over and brushed her lips against his. “I would never keep you a secret. I want the whole world to know about us. Jack feels the same way. It’s you and me and Jack forever.”

“I hope you still feel that way next weekend, baby.”

“I’m not afraid of Jack.” She stood back up and crossed her arms over her chest, going from adoring lover to pissed off momma in an instant. “So you’re telling me that now you’re fine with your sexuality—or are you trying to make Lexi choose again? I warn you, she will choose Lucas. Lucas is good for her.”

“No, he’s not. Not entirely,” Aidan said.

Lexi opened her mouth to speak, but Lucas’s hand came around, closing neatly over her lips.

“Agreed,” Lucas said. He was the only one who seemed completely at ease. “Lexi needs a firmer hand than I like to give. I greatly prefer to be the indulgent one. And I also like a nice little discipline session from time to time. I’m a switch, but Lexi has never enjoyed playing the Domme. Though she does like to play the brat. You can lick my hand all you like. It’s not going to make me stop.”

“Don’t you dare bite him,” Aidan barked, anticipating her next move.

Lucas pulled his hand back. Lexi was shaking her head. “You wouldn’t take it from me, babe. I get that we need a Dom.”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be him.” Abby reached out and took her daughter’s hand. “Come on, we’re going home. Lucas, you can come with us, but I’m not terribly happy with you, either. You let this happen.”

Lucas stepped out from behind Lexi, his face going hard. “Be as unhappy with me as you like, Abby, but we made this decision together. We decided to come out here, and we’re staying out here. And I might be a switch, but I top your daughter, and I expect you to respect that.”

“Mom, I’m not going anywhere,” Lexi said, holding on to her mother’s hand.

Abby didn’t give up easily. “We can protect you better at home. Julian said he has a couple of detectives looking into whoever shot at you. Jack can hire security.”

“And so can Aidan and I,” Lucas replied. He looked over at Aidan, his green eyes clearly expecting something more from him.

“We can,” Aidan said, stepping up. He squared his shoulders. Abby Barnes might be his future mother-in-law, but on this he wasn’t going to indulge her. He didn’t have the money, but he could borrow it. He had things he could sell if he had to. He would go bankrupt if it meant Lexi was safe. “Lucas can look into it this afternoon. Look, we chose to come out here because it’s isolated, and everyone notices a stranger. I have a security system, but more importantly, I will die before I allow anything to happen to Lexi, and I know Lucas feels the same.”

“Damn straight.” Lucas relaxed back a bit, seemingly happy to let Aidan take the lead. “Besides, we don’t have to worry about Olivia and Josh out here. At least we didn’t until you brought them with you. Out here we only have to worry about Bo and some ranch hands.”

“And Karen,” Lexi sniped. “She seems to love it out here.”

The brat was back. Aidan replied with a sharp edge. This was a conversation for private. “Alexis, I did not invite her.”

Lexi shrugged. “Just so you know, if someone takes another shot at me, I’m ducking behind her.”

Aidan felt himself smile. “You do that, baby.”

Lucas’s phone rang. He answered it as Jack opened the door. A small red-haired girl ran in. Olivia was wearing overalls and bright pink cowboy boots. Ike followed behind her, his tongue lolling out.

“Daddy, Momma! I made a friend. His name is Ike, and he ain’t got not tail because they chopped it off, but Aidan didn’t chop it off. Tourists chopped it off. But then Aidan went and fought the tourists. I hope we don’t get no tourists here. We would have to hide all the dogs.”

Abby laughed for a moment, but then got on one knee so she was talking on her daughter’s level. “First off, young lady, the dog doesn’t have a tail, and you hope we don’t get any tourists here.”

Jack put a hand on his daughter’s head. “She spends a lot of time with ranch hands.”

Abby glowed as she looked at her daughter, the dissension of before vanishing. “And I believe it’s ‘terrorists,’ though I doubt they chopped off that poor dog’s tail. I believe it’s the culture in some parts of the world. Even here in the States, for some breeds, it’s considered very common.”

“It would terrify me if someone tried to chop off my tail,” Sam replied.

Bo was standing in the doorway. His face was red, and he was out of breath. “I’m never having kids. My heart can’t take it. She never stops. Never.”

Aidan took a long look at his brother. Was Lucas right? Was Bo just putting on an act? Why would he tell a little girl that terrorists cut off a dog’s tail, but his brother had fought them? Since the day Aidan came back and announced that he was going after Lucas and Lexi, Bo had acted like he had a disease. Maybe he just needed time—or a little kindness.

Lucas hung up his phone. “I hate to break up this intriguing political discussion, but the Dawson brothers are waiting for us in town. They want to talk to all three of us about the case. They’re at some place called Patty Cake’s.”

Aidan knew it well. “It’s a diner. Is there a reason they won’t come out here?”

Lucas shook his head. “Apparently they don’t believe in places without Wi-Fi.”

Patty Cake’s was the only place in town for wireless internet. It looked like they were headed into Deer Run. Aidan just wasn’t sure Deer Run was ready for them.

Lexi perked up as Aidan pulled into the parking lot of Patty Cake’s Diner and Pie House. The afternoon was not going the way she’d expected. What had she been thinking? If her mother hadn’t interrupted them, she would have let Aidan climb up on that table and fuck her senseless.

But it was only sex, that mocking inner voice said. You only want the sex.

She didn’t want anything else. She didn’t love the way it felt to be squeezed into the cab of Aidan’s truck. She didn’t adore how small she felt surrounded by Aidan and Lucas. She wasn’t even vaguely enamored of the idea of being their girl. Aidan had lost his chance when she’d lost their…

“Lexi?” Aidan looked down at her, concern in his brown eyes. “Are you all right? You don’t have to be here. I can handle this, and Lucas can take you home.”

Oh, she really didn’t like the way he said “home.” The thought of a home with Aidan and Lucas did nothing for her. The idea of taking Aidan’s ramshackle house and turning it into something they could be happy in—it did nothing for her. Who are you fooling? “No, I don’t want to go back to the ranch. I want to talk to them.”

Lucas opened his door and hopped out, turning to help her out. That was Lucas’s way. She had never, ever been allowed to let herself out of a car when Lucas was around. He treated her like she was precious. Lucas held his hand out, but his eyes fell. Lexi turned to see what had him upset. Aidan stood there, his hand out to help her down. Aidan’s hand came down as he obviously believed she would prefer Lucas. Lexi looked back at Lucas, her heart a little torn. Sure Aidan had been an asshole, but she still felt his pain.

Lucas winked at her and walked away. The bastard left her with no choice but to take Aidan’s hand or get out on her own and look like a bitch. She could hurt Aidan. She could choose to scoot out and stand on her own two feet, proving she wanted nothing from him. Lexi turned and let her hand find his. In the end, she couldn’t hurt him that way. He helped her from the truck and set her on her feet.

“Just say the word and I’ll take you home, Lexi.”

“I’ll be fine.” She tried not to think about how nice it was to stand close to him. Lucas, that manipulative weasel, had moved in behind her, reminding her of how amazing it was to be surrounded by them. Lucas’s hands were on her hips while Aidan’s cupped her shoulders.

“Of course you will be. We’ll make sure of it, baby,” Lucas murmured in her ear.

“I want waffles, Momma!” Olivia ran by, her booted feet tearing up the sidewalk.

Her mom chased after, and Lexi couldn’t help but laugh. Her sister was an adorable ball of chaos. Jack walked by, cradling her baby brother, and she had to look away. Lucas’s hands tightened around her.

Aidan forced her face up. She feared he’d seen too much. “Are you all right?”

She could hide behind the whole “someone tried to shoot me” thing. “I’m just nervous. Let’s go and get this over with.”

Aidan took her hand in his while Lucas took her other hand, winding their fingers together. She couldn’t take it for anything but a promise. Those hands promised to stay with her, to protect and stand beside her. The only trouble was Aidan had promised that before.

She was so rattled by what had happened in that barn. She’d thought she could hold herself apart and just enjoy the sex, but now she knew she’d never been that girl. She’d slept with one man in her whole life before today and that was Aidan. Making love with Lucas in front of him had felt so right. Having him there when Lucas finally took her had made it more emotional than she could have imagined. What the hell was she doing?

Aidan opened the door, and she was assaulted with the amazing smell of fried food. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t had lunch. She’d been far too busy being right and properly fucked by her men. Damn it. She couldn’t think of them that way.

“I want waffles and chicken strips and French fries and chocolate cake and gummy bears.” Olivia was shouting out her order in her usual style. And the waitress was smiling down at her, because no one could resist her smile.

“Not happening, baby girl,” Sam said with a hand on his daughter’s head. “She’ll have a kid’s waffle and a nice big bowl of fruit.”

Jack, Sam, Abby, and the kids had taken a table next to the Dawson brothers, who had made a little station of their table. A pretty brunette waitress was kneeling down next to Josh’s highchair, obviously absorbed with the kids.

One of the Dawson brothers stood and held out a hand. She thought it was Ben. He seemed the friendlier of the two. “Lexi, it’s so good to meet you. We weren’t allowed to be formally introduced before, but believe me, I noticed how lovely you are.”

“Who pays your check?” Aidan asked the question on a low growl.

Ben Dawson’s lips turned up, showing off his movie star quality smile. Dark, thick hair and crystal blue eyes made him one hot Dom. And yet he had nothing on her men. “That would be Mr. Lodge, though I have to admit, we’re unbelievably wealthy all on our own. We do the Scooby Doo thing because it’s fun, and it gets us into The Club. We love spanking pretty little subs. I watched your spanking the other day, Lexi. You took it with such grace.”

“Shut that shit down now, Aidan,” Jack advised. “Otherwise, you’ll deal with it forever. I still have to warn Leo that I intend to kill his ass every time I go into The Club.”

Aidan reached out and grabbed Ben’s shirt, pulling him close. “She belongs to me and Lucas. If you have a problem with that, we can solve it right now, out in the back. Many an ass has been kicked in the back of this diner.”

Lucas leaned over to talk to Chase, who had an amused look on his handsome face. “I won’t do anything so forward. My partner is the aggressive one. I’ll wait. I’ll ruin you financially, and then when you think I’ve forgotten you, I’ll be that dark figure in an alley you see just before you get your throat slit.”

“Lucas!” Lexi was shocked at how dark his voice had gone.

Chase rolled his eyes. “God, I hate switches. They know all the tricks.”

Jack looked up, a paternally proud look in his eyes. “I taught him well.”

Ben sat back down and took on a distinctly professional air. “Fine. The girl is off-limits. You can’t blame us. She doesn’t have a collar.”

“Pretend it’s there.” Aidan held out a chair for Lexi.

“You are both Neanderthals,” Lexi groused as she sat down and picked up the menu.

“Get used to it, baby,” her mother said, grinning at her from her seat. “You’ll find that’s the way men get when they’re damn serious. It doesn’t matter. Dom, switch, sub.”

“Well, I’m not a sub when it comes to my woman getting hit on,” Sam said, a primness to his tone. “My fists work just as well as Jack’s.”

“Hi.” The waitress who had just taken her mom’s order turned to Lexi. Her eyes widened as she took in Lucas. The pretty, slender brunette flushed. “Hi. Can I get you anything? Anything at all?”

“He’s taken, Mandy,” Aidan said with a laugh. “I can see I have to deal with a lot of this. Men, women, even my damn dog has taken to my subs.”

Lucas winked, and Mandy looked back and forth, her lips going up in a giggle. She took the orders and bounced off.

“She’ll gossip, you know,” Lucas said with a little frown. “This is a small town. It could cause trouble for you.”

“It will cause trouble,” Lexi corrected. Her mother had grown up in a small town, lived there now. Only her husbands’ money granted her any acceptance, and Lexi had heard they still called her “That Woman” behind her back. Maybe Aidan didn’t know what he was in for.

“I don’t think Aidan cares,” a new voice said. Lexi looked up and saw a cowboy with a pleasant smile standing by Aidan. Aidan stood and shook hands with the man.

“Lexi, Lucas, this is Dwight Creely,” Aidan introduced the man who stood a few inches shorter than him, but was thickly muscled. He had a quiet air about him. He shook Lucas’s hand and tipped his hat at her. After all the introductions were made, he sat down.

“I’m Aidan’s foreman. He asked me to come to this meeting. I take care of the security for the ranch,” Dwight explained.

Ben Dawson sat forward. “You were also in the Army with Aidan, right?”

Dwight stilled, and then the smile was back. “Yes, I was.”

“Interesting,” Chase added, his hands flying across the keyboard of his computer.

“Not really. That was a long time ago,” Aidan said, shifting uncomfortably, his hand going to the small of his back.

Without even thinking about it, Lexi reached out and massaged the spot.

Aidan’s whole face softened. “Thank you, angel.”

Lexi stroked, telling herself she’d do it for anyone.

Ben and Chase started in on their report. They had found out all of the usual stuff. Her job was boring, and no one would want to kill her over it. Most of her close friends were at The Club. They were almost all submissives, and even their Doms liked Lexi. They couldn’t find a single person who she hadn’t done something nice for. She was known for having a sarcastic mouth and a ridiculously warm heart. Her neighbor had been so upset about the shooting that she’d cried. Lexi took Mrs. Darren, an elderly widower, to her frequent doctor appointments.

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill my daughter,” Abby said, leaning across to pat Lexi’s shoulder.

She gave Aidan’s back one last squeeze. The muscles had stopped seizing. “I don’t know, Momma, that jackass last year seemed very determined.”

Lucas’s face went stark white. “Could this be about me?”

Ben stared for a moment, and Lexi could practically see his brain working. “I considered it. I haven’t discarded the idea yet, but I don’t think so. Your legal work revolves around your brother’s business and Mr. Lodge’s investments. You acquired several companies for Mr. Lodge recently. I’m exploring the possibility that one of the former owners could be upset.”

“I also checked into your brother, Aidan,” Chase stated bluntly.

Lexi watched as Aidan tensed again. “He was here last night. He called me from the house phone.”

“At what time?” Chase asked.

“Before the scene at The Club.”

Ben and his brother looked at each other. They seemed to have a whole conversation through a series of small facial movements. Finally Ben, who seemed to take the lead most of the time, turned back. “It would be tight, but he could have made it. The two of you fought over the terms of your father’s will?”

Lexi couldn’t imagine it was Bo. He’d been a sweet kid when she’d known him. Even today, he’d treated her little sister with kindness.

Aidan’s hands folded together, and he seemed to be squeezing them tight. “He was unhappy when he realized Dad had left the ranch to me. Bo felt like he deserved it. I never really wanted to ranch when I was younger. I wanted to be a musician. Then I went into the Army and lost a couple of fingers in a fire fight. My hands don’t work the way they used to.”

Ben leaned forward. “So why did your father leave you the ranch?”

Dwight snorted. “Because he had a brain in his head. Bo couldn’t find his ass with a GPS locator.”

“Don’t. He’s just a kid,” Aidan protested.

“He’s twenty-two, Aidan,” Dwight shot back. “He needs to grow up. He needs to get a job.”

“He has a job,” Aidan insisted.

“I’d like to talk about what happened to your squad.” Chase Dawson said the words smoothly, but they dropped with a thud as both Aidan and Dwight paled.

“I don’t see how it has anything to do with this,” Dwight said, sitting back in his chair. “It happened years ago. No need to bring up bad memories.”

Chase shrugged as though it didn’t matter. “I just have a nose for these things.”

“I thought you were investigating the shooting?” Aidan asked. He put a hand to his head. Lexi could see how his eyes tightened as though he was in pain.

“I was,” Chase replied. “I go where the information leads me, and sometimes I simply follow my own instincts.”

“Chase is a brilliant investigator,” Ben explained. “He’s the brains. I’m the beauty.”

Well, that said a lot since they were identical twins. But Lexi could already tell the difference. Ben was charming, while Chase was dark and broody. If she was going to write them, she’d give Chase a single scar on his face to utterly differentiate them. Chase was the one who would get into trouble. He was the one who could hurt someone. She could write them into a romantic suspense novel. They were perfect for it.

“Lexi?” Lucas leaned in. “Are you with us, or on another planet?”

Her mom was looking at her, too. “That’s her working expression. She’s had it since she was a kid. When she was thinking up a story, she would get that far-off look in her face, and I would know to let her alone for a while.”

“She wrote a bit today,” Lucas offered. “She’s probably thinking about that.”

Her mother looked misty, and she suddenly seemed to see Aidan differently. “Are you getting a headache?”

Aidan turned to Abby. “A little one, yes. I get migraines from time to time.”

“Well, given the extent of your injuries in the line of duty, I would say migraines are the least of your problems. Jack mentioned how badly you were hurt. How long did it take for you to walk again?” Abby asked.

Aidan flushed. “The better part of a year.”

“Spinal cord injury?” Her mother’s tone had taken on that nurse practicality. She’d worked in some of the busiest trauma centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “How many surgeries?”

“Eight,” Aidan replied.

Lexi felt her stomach turn. He’d had eight surgeries? She’d seen the scars, but he seemed so healthy. With the exception of the weak knee, she hadn’t seen him have a single problem. How much was he compensating to look strong?

“Do you remember the incident that led to your injury?” Chase asked. Those blue eyes were laser-focused on Aidan. Ben sat back, obviously ceding the floor to his brother. “I’ve read the Army’s official report, and I have some questions. Mr. Creely was the only one who survived? He got out of the incident relatively unscathed.”

“He took a knife to the gut. I hardly call that unscathed.” Aidan massaged a place right between his eyes. “I wouldn’t have survived without Dwight.”

Chase looked at his computer screen. “Really? According to the leader of the team that found you, it was the dog barking that led them to you.”

“I stayed,” Dwight said. “I stayed with him. I kept the Iraqi soldiers off us until the G Squad could get to us. And how did you get that report? It’s supposed to be classified.”

Chase leaned forward with a silky smile. He cracked his fingers the way a virtuoso piano player might. “There’s not a lot of security that these fingers can’t get through. I told you. I follow my nose, and I don’t like that report. Maybe it has nothing to do with this. Maybe it does. But all of that is superfluous. The report states clearly that Sergeant Aidan O’Malley remembered nothing of the attack that decimated his squad.”

“I dream about it at night.” Aidan’s voice was low and gravelly. Lexi reached out and placed her hand on his back again. Lucas sat forward.

“Those dreams don’t mean anything. He’s talked to me about them, and they don’t make a lick of sense.” Dwight’s hands were threaded together, red from tightness. “He didn’t dream when he was taking the sleeping pills the doctors prescribed.”

“I told you why I stopped. They make me drowsy even during the day. I can’t live my life like that.” Aidan’s eyes closed.

Dwight pushed back from the table. “Yeah, well, you should have told me when you decided to stop taking them. I would have helped you. Damn it, Aidan. You know I’ve told you everything that happened. Why do you have to push this? You’re going to kill yourself over this, you know it.”

Dwight stalked out of the room.

Aidan watched him go. “Forgive him. He remembers. Sometimes I think he wishes he was in my shoes. Does anyone have an aspirin?”

“Could we get a glass of water, here?” her mother asked. She stood and gestured for Lucas to stand as well. “Lucas, rub his scalp. Aidan, close your eyes and don’t think about it. I think the migraines come when you try to think too hard about that day. I’ve seen this in PTSD patients with memory loss. Let the memory go, and you might be able to avoid the migraine.”

Aidan closed his eyes, but laughed a bit. “That whole ‘don’t think about it’ thing never works. Now I can’t help but think about it.”

Lucas massaged his scalp, eliciting a groan from Aidan. Lucas leaned forward, his voice low, but Lexi could hear. “Think of something nicer. Remember how hot our sub looked tied to the rack? She was so tight, Sir. She practically cut off the circulation in my dick, but I wasn’t about to stop fucking her.”

Lexi felt her eyes go wide, but her mother just shook her head.

“I did not need to hear that, Lucas.” Abby moved back to her table, where Jack was laughing, and Sam was trying to figure out what Lucas had said.

“Hey,” Jack said. “He’s not thinking about what happened to him in Iraq anymore.”

“No,” Aidan said sullenly. “I’m thinking about what didn’t happen to me in the barn.”

“Who had the waffles?” Mandy asked, returning with a tray of food.

“I did!” Olivia screamed. “I had waffles.” She sank back down. “But Aidan can have them if he needs them. He’s not supposed to remember stuff, so he might not have remembered that he wants waffles. I think he’s doing a good job at not remembering, cuz I heard that he forgot to marry my sister.”

Everyone stopped and stared at Olivia who seemed mighty comfortable with all the attention on her.

Aidan laughed, his head falling forward. He looked up, and just for a second, Lexi saw the old Aidan in his eyes, the Aidan who laughed and sang and played the guitar, the Aidan who had loved her so long and so well that she’d never been able to forget him.

“I won’t forget this time, Olivia,” Aidan said with a broad smile. “I promise.”

“You better not,” her mother said with a tight nod.

Lexi’s chest felt tight. She wasn’t sure what was going to win, heartache at what had happened between them, or hope that it might be different this time. She just wished they weren’t having this discussion in front of her mother.

“Are you going to marry my Uncle Lucas, too?” Olivia asked.

“Absolutely,” Aidan replied without hesitation.

Mandy’s tray clattered to the floor, food spilling everywhere.

Lucas merely chuckled and went back to his massage.

Ben and Chase exchanged a glance.

“Gotta love a small town,” Ben said with a grin.