Page 45 of His to Cherish
Chapter 10
Chelsea
Freshly showered after a four-mile run with Camden, I was feeling better since my visit with Beth.
The run had been just what I needed. She gave me perspective, set me straight, and helped me to see that whatever had been happening between Aidan and me was okay. We’d taken our usual path from my house, a half-mile warm-up until we reached the track around the high school, where we ran three more miles before heading home.
Camden had always been our wise friend. She held herself back from people, taking a while to warm up, and could often be seen as standoffish and a little rude. But once you had her loyalty and her friendship, she took it as seriously as her own life. She came from a single mom in a broken-down trailer on the outskirts of town, and everything she had, she’d had to fight and work for. The girl didn’t know the meaning of a free ride or an easy life. Because of that, she’d always been more serious, more mature than the rest of us. When we were hanging out at fraternity parties in college and sneaking into bars with fake IDs, she was studying, desperately trying to maintain her 4.0 average. It had served her well, and even though she tended to look at the negative side of situations first, hesitant to find hope in anything, she was the most rational of our original group of four.
Clothed in pajama pants, but this time with a bra and T-shirt—just in case I got a visitor—I was halfway through my dinner of teriyaki noodles when I heard the familiar rumble of Aidan’s truck, followed by the doorbell going off.
I had to fight the urge to skip to the door like a schoolgirl and instead forced my feet to walk normally. Slowly.
As soon as I opened the door and saw the man in the doorway, my heart jumped a beat or two. Maybe it took up long-jumping.
That was how long it took for me to say something.
I saw his tightened jaw first, two tendons sticking out at the sides of his neck. His black hair was a mess, like he’d just walked through a supersonic wind tunnel.
And in his hand was a black bag.
My eyes focused on the bag, and I watched as his grip tightened and relaxed around the handle before I looked back at Aidan’s face, frowning.
“You okay?”
Clearly he wasn’t. Either he was supremely pissed…or it was something I couldn’t recognize. Right now it looked like he wanted to beat the crap out of someone.
His nose twitched and he took a step forward into my home, even though I was still in the doorway.
The man practically knocked me over, pushing me back without touching me at all, and dropped his bag in my entryway.
“Aidan?”
He didn’t look at me. His intense glare seemed to be fixated on a spot on the far wall. “You said anything I needed.”
My head jerked back and I realized my hand was still gripping the doorknob, so I let it go, closed the door, and walked around to face him.
He was so large. His chest and shoulders were wide, his hands on his hips, still avoiding eye contact with me, and I watched him breathing rapidly.
Like he was the one who’d just run four miles.
“Are you okay?” My voice was soft, concerned.
His eyes snapped to mine with ferocious speed. “Anything I needed?”
“Um.” I swallowed, my eyes growing wide, because I had no idea what he needed, and a part of him was being really freaking scary. “Yes?”
“I need not to be alone in that damn house for another fucking second. That’s what I need.”
I glanced at the floor and realized the bag he’d dropped was an overnight bag.
“You’re moving in?”
Finally, I saw a crack in his massive presence. A quick breath burst through his lips. “No…” His eyebrows pulled together as his voice trailed off. One of his hands went to the back of his neck and he rubbed his shoulder before running his hand through his hair. “But I can’t be there. Not tonight.”
He seemed panicky, more agitated than normal. I opened my mouth to ask why and then snapped it closed.
He’d tell me when he wanted to. If he wanted to.
