Page 15 of Aiden & Lily

“It’s fine.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Anyway, I guess this means you’re off the hook.”

“Hmm?” He was looking at his menu again, only glancing at her when she didn’t speak right away. “Why am I off the hook?”

“Well, now that I’ve found someone new, you can’t set me up with one of your friends.”

Understanding dawned on his face, and he smirked. “Lils, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He leaned forward, his voice lowering. “I was never going to set you up with one of my friends. It’s against my personal code.”

Her eyes widened, and she laughed. “What? But you said.”

He shook his head. “First of all, it’s too messy. I don’t want any of my friends to know what I had and that I let it slip through my fingers.”

He reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear affectionately, the gesture familiar enough to ache but not enough to stir what it used to.

“Secondly,” he said, quieter now, “I had still hoped that…”

His sentence trailed off, but he didn’t have to finish it.

Before she’d met Christopher, she might have entertained the same kind of future. But there was a blatant difference between the way her heart reacted to Reese and the way she’d reacted to Christopher.

It was like night and day.

Electric. Heart-stopping. Thrilling.

Well, great.

What did it say about her that she’d moved on so quickly?

She’d had something good with Reese. It just… hadn’t been enough.

She offered him a small smile. “I know. And we both know that we probably make better friends than… more.”

He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Reese nodded toward her phone. “I hope he deserves you.”

Lily lifted a shoulder. “I guess we’ll see.”

They enjoyed their lunch, and she did her best to steer clear of checking her phone for the rest of the day.

She nearly gave in to sending Christopher a message just before bed when her phone buzzed. She fumbled with it, nearly dropping it on the floor before she managed to open the notification.

Then she squealed.

Christopher:Hey, angel.

Christopher:You don’t know how hard it was to wait this long.

Christopher:Can I call you? I need to hear your voice.

Lily bit down on her lower lip and sent him a text back. A few seconds later, her phone rang.

She lifted it to her ear and fell back onto her bed. “Hey, cowboy.”

“Hello, beautiful.”

5

AIDEN