Page 9 of His to Cherish

So he surprised me when he met my eyes and tilted his head, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Mind if I man the grill?”

I grinned and lifted my hand in the direction of the front door. “By all means, it’s all yours.”

—

“There’s a bathroom, first door on the left, if you want to get cleaned up.”

I gestured in that direction, trying hard not to think about how completely odd it was that Aidan was in my house.

He looked down at his dirty hands. “Thanks. I’ll be just a minute.”

“No hurry.”

Once he disappeared down the hall and I heard the door close behind him, my feet quickly moved to my own master bath.

As soon as I stepped inside, I gasped in horror.

My long blond hair was matted and ratty where it had escaped my ponytail. I had a thick smudge of dirt across my forehead and down my left cheek.

Sweat had made my old baby-blue crewneck shirt cling to my skin and I had sweat stains under my armpits.

“Crap,” I muttered. “I look like shit.”

I shouldn’t have cared. We were doing yard work and now we were grilling dinner. I definitely shouldn’t have been thinking about looking good for Aidan. I had no idea why he had shown up at my house, but it definitely wasn’t to hook up with the school librarian.

Yet I couldn’t resist making an effort.

Quickly, I scrubbed my face, figuring makeup free was better than the caked-on-dirt look. With wet hands, I redid my ponytail and used a couple of pins to pull my bangs off my face.

Once I’d gotten as much dirt off my hands and from under my nails as I was going to without scrubbing them for hours, I called it good enough.

On my way out of the bathroom, I made a quick detour to my closet, whipped off my stinky bra and top, and threw on something equally boring, but at least it was clean.

When I hit the kitchen, my breath coming in oddly quick pants, Aidan was already there.

He was standing by the kitchen island, his hips resting against the granite countertop, and he had a glass of water in his hand.

“Sorry,” I said, still slightly breathless. I couldn’t help it. The sight of him in my kitchen had my lower stomach warming and feeling tingly. It was an insane, but not uncommon, reaction to him. “I needed to get cleaned up, too.”

His eyes dragged down my body. I felt that look hit everywhere and tried to ignore the way my stomach flipped. It quickly diminished when I caught a quick smirk on his lips before he turned away from me.

“No problem.”

I looked down and realized I had put on my sexiest, hot-pink lace bra under a thin white T-shirt. You could see everything—including my nipples, which were pushing through the lace.

Oh my gosh.Embarrassment reddened my cheeks. There was nothing I could do besides make an utter fool out of myself by running back to my room and hiding in my closet until he left.

“Sorry,” I started to babble, wanting to explain myself, but stopped. Explaining would make me seem more foolish, so I rolled my shoulders and pretended everything was fine. “Steaks are in the fridge.”

I shuffled past him to get them.

After Cory left, my kitchen had always felt too large for a single woman to have to herself. With Aidan nearby, not moving as I slid past him, it suddenly felt stifling and small.

My chest brushed against his, and for just a moment, I froze, liking the feel of his skin against mine.

Stupid.I inwardly rolled my eyes and opened the fridge.

Once I had the steak in my hands, I slid the plate onto the counter, ignoring that I swore I could feel Aidan’s eyes on my butt as I bent over.

“Here you go. The grill’s out back.”

He nodded. “Thanks.” He took the plate from me and started walking toward the back door.

As soon as the door clicked shut, I ran back to my closet, exchanged my white shirt for a black one, and was back in the kitchen, preparing a salad and shucking corn to throw onto the grill before Aidan could come back inside.

I piled everything onto a serving platter with a couple of beers, more water in case he didn’t feel like alcohol, and place settings for two, and made my way to the backyard.

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