Page 101 of One Time in Paris
Isla gave him a smile that spoke of relief and brought the mobile back to Aiden. Aiden took it, his stomach clenched in a tight knot, and turned the speaker off. “Yes?”
“Sorry, mate. I didn’t mean to get testy. I know I asked you to watch over Isla. I just want everything to be settled by the party, you know? No lingering stress.”
“It’s fine,” Aiden said, the words settling in his gut like rocks. “I’ll see you in a few days.” He hung up, staring at the mobile. “We have to tell him.”
“I know,” Isla said in a quiet voice.
“He’s not going to forgive me. Not after that.” A simple truth. He wasn’t trying to hurt Isla—she’d made the decision to deepen the deception, and the fact was that he’d already decided before this that his loyalty lie with her. He’d made that decision when he’d agreed to be with her.
Isla released a slow exhale, then met his gaze. “I couldn’t tell him, Aiden. Not like this. He won’t understand or realize how much I care about you. He won’t think of this as anything but the two of us fooling around behind his back.”
“Then what is this, Isla? Because we talked about not having a plan, taking this day by day, which is the definition of fooling around, really. But I’m falling in love with you in ways I didn’t think were possible.”
Isla held his gaze for a few beats longer, her gaze unreadable, then stood abruptly. “I can’t talk about this right now, I have to get ready for call.”
She dressed quickly, and Aiden watched her in silence, unable to form the right words.
He didn’t want to demand anything from her because she’d said she didn’t want commitment.
Maybe that was what had even drawn her to him.But we’re married. Legally.And maybe, in his heart, that was what he wanted.
But this situation was spinning wildly out of control, threatening every important aspect of his life. He felt like a man standing on a frozen lake, cracks spidering beneath his feet—and no clue when the ice would give way.
It would. The ice would give way.
He couldn’t stop it.
But when it did—would he lose her, too?
31
ISLA
Liddy:Are you and Aiden hooking up?
The text message had come in while she’d been filming, which gave Isla an excuse not to answer for a while. But now that they had wrapped for the day, she had to figure out what to do about this.
If Liddy was this suspicious, then Callum probably was—even if he hadn’t said anything. He couldn’t believe her brother would be so obtuse that his mind wouldn’t go there.
Unless he just entirely trusts that Aiden would never cross that line.
She sank onto a park bench at Eiffel Tower Park beside Davy, watching the sun setting. Boyd had decided they had enough scheduled filming for the day and let them wrap early. The entire production crew would be heading to the country dance—this time, for some fun—though Boyd had hinted the camera operator might get some candid footage.
And that all would have sounded exciting—if Aiden was still in town. But he’d left the hotel shortly after she had and gone to the airport.
“What’s wrong?” Davy asked, studying her face. “You seemed pretty happy this morning.”
Isla rested her head against Davy’s shoulder, taking a few moments to think about what to say. Everyone knew, somehow, that Aiden had arrived last night—even though most of them hadn’t seen him.
They also all understood that Isla and Aiden were dating. Of course, Kyle had already known about it—since Nashville—and he’d simply winked and said,“I kinda figured that one out.”
So really, outside of their parents, Callum, and Liddy—and Aiden’s brother Logan, who wouldn’t care—this wasn’t a secret anymore.
They were just intentionally lying to Callum.
Or really, I’m lying to him.Because Isla was 99 percent sure Aiden would have told Callum the truth this morning if not for her.
“Do you remember in high school when Megan started dating Blair’s brother?” Isla asked, instead of answering the question.
