I clear my throat. “I’m not fucking Polly.” I enunciate each word.
Magnolia holds her palms up, shaking her head. “I need you to tell me everything about Leo. Right this second.”
“Why? What happened?” I ask, taking a step toward her. She’s so fucking beautiful I can’t help myself. I’m drawn to her. My skin prickles with awareness. Polly huffs out a string of curse words and leaves us. Magnolia locks the door and my dick jerks. It’s still on love autopilot—doesn’t know that’s not what a locked door means anymore.
“Is he with Kendall?” Magnolia asks, biting her lip to control the quivering. “He is so young. I should have known.”
I put my hands in my pockets and look at the floor. Her pain isn’t something I’m prepared to deal with tonight. Not again. Not ever again. Not at my expense at the very least. “I’ve been keeping tabs, and everyone says he’s not with her. Like that. But I don’t know for sure. I’m sorry. Other than him focusing on ways to ruin my life, I don’t know anything else.”
Her breathing turns ragged and she cries out. My feet react before my brain determines the right course of action and she’s folded in my arms sobbing into my chest in the next second. “He said he likes them young. Says you all like them young. Kendall was looking at him,” she says, hiccupping, “Like she knows him. Really knows him, Aidan. I don’t know what to do.”
“I already did all that needs to be done, Magnolia. He’s being sent to the Cape Cod base in less than a month. Until then I’ll be on him like white on rice. He won’t get near her. I promise you, okay? I’m handling this.”
“Why are you being so kind to me?” she whispers. Pressing a kiss against her head, I inhale her scent like a dying man’s last breath. I don’t care if she realizes I’m taking her in like oxygen. It’s a desire so strong I don’t have control over it. I need a fix.
She pulls away and her glassy blue eyes are so stunning I have to close my own to compose myself. Being this close to her without having permission to have all of her is a brand of torture even I wouldn’t condone. “Magnolia. It was the truth. Everything I said before. It wasn’t some twisted lie to get you back. I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t change anything because Kendall has to come first. I understand. Maybe someday in the future when Kendall is ready to reveal the whole story, we can make something again. I’ll wait for you, but I can’t be the bad guy stuck between you two. Not when the only person I want to be for you and her is the good guy. The hero. The one who saves you. I’d never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. Leo is a bad kid who has infiltrated a battlefield he had no right to fight in.”
She wipes underneath her eyes to clear the watery black tears. “I need to talk to her. We need to talk to her, Aidan. I’m not promising anything because as much as I love you, I have to love her more.” The reason I love her is part of the reason I may never have her again.
“But you love me,” I say, smirking a bit at the words dancing in my head. She still loves me. “I’ve gotta grasp onto something.”
She shakes her head sadly. “I’m going to talk to Kendall and bring her to the shop to show her the window display tonight. Meet me at Magnolia’s Steals in a few hours. With you there, she might open up. Maybe she’ll be forced to tell the truth.” I can hear the heartbreak in her voice and I don’t want to know what that battle feels like. The love for a man versus the love for her child.
“And yes,” she says, interrupting my thoughts. “Of course I love you. Even if you bang bimbos in a men’s restroom. Obviously I am beyond helping. I’m a desperate breed of a doormat.”
I grab her chin. “You are not a doormat. I was not having sex with Polly. I was apologizing to her for being an asshole in my former life. I haven’t been with any women since you and I don’t want to be with any other woman except you. You are the end all, be all, to women for me. You’re it. The only one.” The urge to press my mouth against hers rises. Leaning in, I get close, she even closes her eyes in wait, but I pull away. “You’re not mine so I’m not going to kiss you.” She’s so near I can taste her breaths and scent her skin. My head swims. My cock stiffens. I imprint this as a moment of pure torture and bliss wrapped into one.
She pulls away, wipes her eyes once more and unlocks the door. The magic moment broken. I didn’t think I’d have this chance again, to share this close space. “Three hours? Please?” she asks. “No promises.”
I nod once, stoic. “I’ll be there.”
The sky-blue dress floats behind her as she leaves. Her perfume lingers in the air and facing the mirror, I see my jacket and dress shirt has smears of her makeup along the collar. Fuck, what am I doing? I tear out of the restroom and head for the bar for a stiff drink and then to my table. I try to make small talk with my brothers, but I always let my gaze find Magnolia and Kendall. In three hours I have to convince a teenager to tell the truth. The rest of my life depends on it.
Talk about mission impossible.
