Page 57 of Aiden & Lily

With that, Aiden dug his elbow into Parker’s gut. He grunted, then laughed out a wheeze.

Lily’s eyes met Aiden’s, full of curiosity and amusement.

“He’s just trying to get a rise out of me,” Aiden murmured. “Not gonna let him.”

But beneath the teasing, guilt tugged at him. Parker’s fake crush had become one more layer of cover.

One more person helping Aiden avoid a conversation he already knew he needed to have.

Twenty minutes later,they were tucked out of sight behind the barn.

Lily slipped into his arms, and the kiss they shared carried all the urgency of two people who had spent the afternoon pretending they were nothing more than acquaintances.

Aiden kept one hand at her waist and the other against her cheek, letting the kiss soften before it could become more desperate than tender.

When Lily pulled back, breathless, he rested his forehead against hers.

Their heartbeats seemed to be in sync.

But then she eased farther away and looked up at him with beseeching eyes. “Have you figured out how you’re going to tell Mathew?”

Aiden grimaced. “Not yet. It just… doesn’t seem like a good time.”

She huffed and withdrew enough that he could no longer hold her. “When will it be the right time? Aiden, I hate keeping this kind of thing from my family. I love you. I want to be able to introduce you to my father as my boyfri…”

Shouts.

Screams.

Startled laughter.

And more yelling startled them both.

They inched toward the edge of the barn to look out at the party.

“What in heaven’s…” Lily whispered.

Aiden peered over her head. “You have got to be kidding me.” He dragged a hand down his face. “Please tell me that isn’t a member of the Meyers family shoving a cupcake into your sister’s face.”

Lily sighed. “That’s Lincoln. But it looks like he already got hit. Isn’t that mustard in his hair and down the side of his cheek?”

Squinting, Aiden confirmed it. “You don’t think your sister threw a sub sandwich at him, do you?”

“That or squished one onto his head.”

“Why?” Aiden muttered.

She sighed again and turned to face him. “Because those two can’t stand each other. Rose loves to get a rise out of him, and he’s too hotheaded not to fall for the bait.”

By this point, several people were involved in the food fight.

Mathew, Jason, Royce, and Parker were trying to break it up.

“I guess you’re right,” Lily said, resigned.

“About what?”

She turned to face him, sadness in her pretty blue eyes. “This probably isn’t the right moment to tell Mathew. He’s still trying to play peacekeeper with my cousins.”