Page 17 of Blame It On The Carols

Did I just tell Makayla I still loved her?

Her head whipped up and cocked to the side, studying me as if she expected me to tell her it was some sort of joke. But it was anything but that.

“You love me?”

“Always have. Always will.” I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching out to touch her.

“Aiden,” she whispered, shaking her head. “You’re not supposed to be in love with me.”

“Yeah, well, try telling that to my heart.”

She looked up at me with a mix of emotions on her face that made my heart flutter.

“Why don’t I show you the rest of the house?” I offered, hoping to change the subject before things got even more awkward between us.

She nodded and climbed off the bed, seeming even more unsure about staying with me. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable by telling her I loved her. Hell, I didn’t even mean to tell her. But I needed her to know that she meant the world to me, and I wasn’t lying when I told Curtis that I would die protecting her.

I gave her a quick tour of the house and then got lunch started while she waited for her mom to come by to drop off her stuff. Jackie had taken care of alerting those in town who would be essential in keeping Makayla safe—which meant she told those who could actually do something and not those who would just sit around and gossip about it.

My mind had been a jumbled mess from the moment I saw her the other night, but now it was like everything had been cleared, and there was only one goal I needed to focus on—keeping the woman I loved safe from harm.

Twelve

Makayla

“Idon’t think it’sa good idea for me to go tonight,” I said, saying goodbye to my mom at the door.

I didn’t want to tell her what was going on with my stalker—especially since I knew she would be disappointed that I’d kept it from her for this long. But deciding in the spur of the moment to stay with Aiden meant I had to come clean and tell her what was really going on. It wasn’t that I was excited about staying with him, but it made the most sense. The last thing I needed was for her to get her hopes up that something was going on between us when there wasn’t.

If anything, it made me even more tense and stressed because he had confessed he was still in love with me. There was a time when I would have given the world to hear him say those words again, but now that he’d said them, I almost wished he hadn’t. Now wasn’t the right time for anything to try to happen between us, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he would have still said them had he not found out someone was stalking me. If there wasn’t the element of my life being in danger, would he still have admitted it—better yet, would he still feel the same?

“Okay, dear. I understand. I can’t say that I’m happy about not knowing you’ve had a stalker this whole time, but it does make me feel better that you’re going to stay with Aiden. I know he’ll take good care of you.”

Not in the way I would like him to take care of me because that would involve feelings, and no one needed to catch those at a time like this.

I smiled tightly and nodded my head, unable to get words out that wouldn’t be sarcastic. At this point, it was better not to say anything at all.

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