Page 188 of Forget

Smirking, I nod as she drops to her knees and I follow suit. What’s a little dirt when I can learn more about Aiden?

“I told him he needed to figure his shit out by April, because I wanted to see you when I came to plant these,” she says, grabbing scissors to cut open a bag.

Working together, we get the front area ready for planting, and I simply follow her instructions for the bulbs. There’s apparently a ratio of peat and mulch that’s important, feeling complicated enough that my eye is beginning to twitch.

“Have you seen their knife collection yet?” Noreen asks idly, making me hide a smile as I work beside her.

“I haven’t, but Aiden has given me a couple,” I admit. “It’s here, actually.”

Twitching my skirt to the side, I point out the knife with my gardening glove.

“You’re my kind of girl,” Noreen says with a grin. “I liked you when I saw you at the Whalen Society, I just wasn’t so sure about what was going on between you and my son.”

“It’s still… going,” I admit. “He’s a tough nut to crack and really stubborn.”

“Amen to that,” she mutters. There’s a cooler next to her that she opens, handing me a hard lemonade as she opens one for herself. Taking a long sip, she shrugs. “I haven’t seen my son take an interest in a woman, ever. He’s been wrapped up in stories about how I met his fathers for years.”

“How did you meet?” I ask, my heart beginning to pound with anticipation.

“I went to a party with my parents when I was twenty,” she says with a happy smile. “My dads are mafia men, and still with us today. I wasn’t allowed to attend them before, so this was abig deal for me. My mom was walking me around, introducing me to people, when I smelled the most delicious scent of dark chocolate and honey. My head swiveled around, trying to find it.”

Wow. No wonder Aiden was so disappointed when I didn’t know he was mine.

“My mom kept trying to catch my attention, but I pulled away and started walking across the room. One of the alphas turned around all of a sudden, and elbows his two friends. Turns out they’re a pack, with a beta and two alphas. We were inseparable after that,” she explains. “I know that not everyone’s experience is like that. But he heard the story enough times to expect that.”

“It went a little differently for us,” I sigh and she shrugs.

“There’s no right or wrong way,” Noreen says. “I have a feeling you’ll find your way.”

The sound of a truck driving up behind us makes me look over my shoulder, and I see that the guys are back. I’m glad I got to talk with his mom. I feel like it was important.

“Mom?” Aiden asks, opening his door and walking over to us. “Spring feels like it came fast.”

Giggling, I shake my head because apparently this really was something they had loosely discussed.

“And yet, you managed not to keep her tied up to your bed,” Noreen says, turning and winking at him. Aiden turns bright red, and I burst out laughing.

“Ugh, and you’re drinking. Mom, what have you been telling her?” Aiden groans.

“Why don’t you hang around and find out?” she asks.

The guys all decide to help, and as the talk shifts to what everyone was doing, I feel included. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know who half the people they’re talking about are. This is family.

Aiden

“Ready to go?” I ask her as Aisling walks downstairs with an overnight bag. I’m taking her to my family’s cabin to see where things go.

While I’d like that to lead to having her naked in the living room on the bearskin rug, it really depends on her.

“All good,” she says with a nod as she lets me take her bag.

“Be safe,” Caelin says as he gazes at her as if we’re going to be gone forever.

“It’s one night,” I remind him with a laugh.

While Aisling will fall asleep with the guys for a nap, she refuses to spend the night with any of them. She insists that it isn’t fair. However, she didn’t say a word when I told her there was only one bed in the cabin. The minx just shrugged and told me it's one of her favorite book tropes.

Whatever that means.

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