Page 20 of Waggs

Reid nodded quietly, thinking things over in that way of his.

“We need to be mindful that this guy might still be in the UK and could even have followed Willow here. If Ralph goes looking, it won’t take much to find her on CCTV at the station getting on the train.”

“Let them come. They won’t be expecting us, and your apartment is one of the most secure with Mitch above you and Bebe opposite,” Reid reminded him.

Bebe was one of the Zenobi girls, an assassin who was both beautiful and deadly. She and Waggs got on well and there was nothing between them but friendship. In the beginning, he’d wished for some sort of physical attraction, but neither felt it, so they’d become fast friends instead. “I thought she was on a job for Roz.”

Mitch cocked his head as he regarded him. “She got back last night.”

“Ah. Then yes, Willow and AJ are as safe as we can make them right now.” He stood and looked at his friends who were perhaps seeing the real him for the first time, warts and all. “Thank you, guys! I know this is a lot, and some of you may see me differently now, but I promise you can trust me.”

Liam threw an empty drink bottle at his head. “Shut up, Waggs. Nobody feels any differently about you. So, you fell in love with the wrong woman. You didn’t cheat or betray your brother and honestly, if it were the other way around, who would you want looking after your girl and kid?” Liam walked over and clapped him on the shoulder. “Because I know for sure if it was me, there’d be nobody I trusted more than my brother.”

Waggs had never considered that, and as his friends all agreed with Liam and began to shoot the shit and suggested a night out, he knew he had food for thought.

Waggs was concerned, but as a plan came together, he felt better. He’d spend some time with Willow and AJ over the next few weeks and then they’d head back to the US and sort out the problems there. Then he didn’t know what would happen, and he didn’t want to think about it. His life was here now, and hers was there.

Chapter 8

Aiden was smiling and laughing with his friends when he came out of the conference room, and Willow took that as a positive sign. He hadn’t explained anything or told her what the plan was or even if there was one as they made their way home, but she suspected that was because he didn’t want to talk in front of AJ.

AJ. God, she had no idea how she’d even broach that subject. How could she tell him that the child he thought of as his nephew could be his son? It wasn’t like she could just blurt that out over dinner after so long.

When she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d known instantly that it could be either of the brothers’ baby. The timing of her messed up cycles meant it could be Aiden or Aaron who was the father, but everyone had assumed it was Aaron’s, and why wouldn’t they? They were engaged, after all.

She was meant to be the grieving fiancée not some slut who got naked with his twin the night he was buried. She’d loved Aaron down to her soul, there was no doubt about that in her mind, but she’d long since given up trying to deny how she felt about Aiden. She was in love with him too, and it had possibly resulted in her son, who she adored. Whoever said you couldn’t love two people had never met the Wagner twins.

That Aiden didn’t know how she felt about him, or about the possibility that AJ was his son, was her fault and something she’d need to be honest about. She just needed time to figure it all out. Decide how best to approach it for AJ and Aiden both. Everyone believed him to be Aaron’s, and a part of her hoped he was, then they’d always have a piece of Aaron with them. But she knew that was selfish. Surely it was better for AJ to have his father alive.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Willow jumped as she was chopping peppers for fajitas and turned to Aiden. “Shit, you scared me.”

He was leaning against the counter, drinking a beer from the can as she prepared dinner and watching her through his long lashes with a sexy intensity that made her blood zing. He pushed off the counter and placed his can on the side as he prowled toward her. Stopping so he pressed his front to her side. It wasn’t overtly sexual, but her body thought it was.

She noticed the way his shirt sleeves, rolled up his forearms, showcased the muscles, and that damn watch was sexy too, making his hands look big and capable. The heat from his body enveloped her, surrounding her with warmth and his scent, which it was well known she loved enough to try and steal, soothed a place in her she thought would never heal.

“I was just thinking about things.” She tried to evade not wanting to get into that hornets’ nest right now with her son a few feet away.

“What kind of things?”

Willow threw her hand up, waving the knife around. “Just things. What I’m going to do for a job when I get home. How I need to call your parents and tell them where I am. Things.”

Aiden frowned as he gently took the knife from her hand and placed it on the counter before hooking a lock of her hair and curling it around his finger. “OK, I’ll let you have that for now.”

He knew she was lying, he always had. Aiden wasn’t some guy she’d just met, he was her Aiden, one of her best friends until Aaron’s death had blown their lives to smithereens with the loss of somebody they’d both loved so much. Grief and regret had taken so much from them, and it was crushing her. She ached to be happy, to laugh and smile and feel again, and not just once a year when Aiden visited her and she lost herself in his body.

Willow looked down at the array of chopped peppers and closed her eyes, taking a second to compose herself. Looking up, she found Aiden watching her with pursed lips. Concern etched around the lines of his eyes and she hated that she’d been the one to put that look there. “I do have things on my mind, but I’m not ready to share just yet.”

He cupped her cheek, his thumb sweeping over her jaw as concern mottled his handsome brow. “Is it about us?”

“No, how I feel about you, and us, is the only thing I do know right now.” She covered his hand with her own and turned her face into his palm, kissing the work-roughened skin.

“Good, anything else we can deal with when you’re ready.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her against him as she listened to his heart beat steadily against her ear. She prayed to a God she no longer believed in that they could deal with it.

“Why are you hugging Mommy?”