Missing (The Brannock Siblings Book 3), page 2
Lily covered her mouth with her hand, but Aiden didn't need to look to know that she was actually smiling. She could feel her sister shaking like a rickety rollercoaster with laughter.
After a moment, she gasped for air, "Oooh, oh my God. That is the perfect description of your cookies. You are a terrible cook, Aid."
"Shut up! I'm not that bad," she objected sarcastically and shoved Lily until she was hanging off the bed.
The truth was, she was that bad of a cook.
Her sister couldn't stop laughing and was starting to turn a shade of red Aiden had never seen before. "I totally have to talk to this guy more."
"No! No one needs to talk to him. He's made my life miserable enough. Plus, he's a cop. You know how I feel about that."
"Yeah, yeah. You're terrified of a man who lives life dangerously. No excitement for you, right?"
"Not just that. You and Aidy are my life. A guy who can't bring stability to our lives isn't worth it."
Lily sighed and shook her head, "We shouldn't be the deciding factor, Aid. It's for you, not us."
Her cell phone chimed in her pocket and she shoved Lily one more time for good measure before looking at the incoming text.
Dreamy: Can't wait to see you tomorrow night.
Okay, so she couldn't think of a good name to give him. The way he talked to her was dreamy, though.
"Is that him?"
"Yep."
Lily chuckled, "You wanna know how I can tell? You get this far away look in your eyes, like you're high or something and you're smile looks like something out of a Disney movie."
Aiden sat up and read the text again before going on the defense. "You're just jealous because I may get to have sex soon and your vagina is full of cobwebs."
She climbed off the bed before Lily could attack her and tried to text him back.
"Hey! I had sex five months ago, even though it did suck."
She shook her head and typed.
Me: Same here. You want to talk tonight or build up the anticipation?
She was barely out the bedroom door when a tiny little missile came crashing into her legs.
"Aunty Aiden! Come look, I made a castle!"
Her niece was like the Energizer Bunny. She never stopped except for when she was sleeping and she had an spitfire attitude like her aunt, courtesy of helping to raise the little sweetheart. She pulled Aiden to the living room and threw her arm out as if she was presenting something on stage, her bright red curls bouncing and her freckles making that sweet face even sweeter.
The living room had been completely rearranged. How the little girl got the couch to move four feet from the wall was a mystery, but she did. Every chair from the dining room was set up around it like towers and there were pillows, sheets, and blankets spread over it.
"Holy wow! That really does look like a castle," she gasped.
Lily was right behind her and started gushing over her daughter's accomplishment. "Oh, Aidy. It's beautiful! All you need is your gown and we can take a picture."
"Okay!" Her green eyes sparkled just before she disappeared down the hall to her bedroom to go change.
Aiden walked around the creation and saw the details up close. She even had a freaking drawbridge. "Incredible!"
"You think I should put her into some kind of special school? She builds stuff like this all the time. You should see the stuff she creates with those Legos you gave her for her birthday."
Her phone chimed and she read the text with a smile.
Dreamy: You kidding? We have to talk. I've had the whole day off today and I'm dying of boredom.
Me: OK. Jeez, don't get your panties in a twist.
Dreamy: J I'm not even going to go there.
She giggled and covered her mouth, still staring down at her phone and reading the message a couple more times like a lovesick fool.
"Dear Lord, it's starting to get disgusting," Lily grimaced. "I'm going to have to meet this guy. He's totally turned my little sister into a giggling bundle of… something girly. Shit, I wish I could think of witty things like you do." She crossed her arms and turned toward the kitchen.
"First of all, I'm not a giggling bundle of girly stuff, he's just so funny. Second, no. I don't think you should put Aidy into a special school. Not unless she wants it. Let her enjoy her childhood with all the other kids."
Aiden grabbed her purse and tossed her phone inside. "I've gotta go. Still have to find something to wear for tomorrow night. Shit, I'm so nervous."
Lily was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and licked her fingers as she stated, quite sarcastically, "Good luck. With hair like that, maybe you better just go naked. Win for both of you."
She slipped on her sandals and flipped her sister off with an innocent smile. "I don't have unicorn vomit in my closet, so I'm sure I'll find something. See you in the morning, Lil."
Her sister was giggling and now licking the knife clean. "Bye, Aid. Love you and thanks again."
"Love you, too. Bye, Aidy!" she shouted. "See you tomorrow!"
"Bye Aunty!" came a breathless shout from her bedroom. She could tell the little devil was going all out on the dress up. Shoes were flying out the bedroom door and the sound of bead necklaces was surprisingly clear.
She hurried out the door before she could get talked into helping clean up. When she got to the stairs, she took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. It had been forever since she'd gone out with a man. She didn't have time to meet people since she used all her extra time to watch little Aiden. She worked from home, if you could call it working. She mostly just painted like a mad woman and had a good eye for photography. It was good money as long as she could sell a few pieces at a time and she was trying to save some money to buy space for a studio so she could get out of her stuffy apartment once in a while and have a place for all the canvases that were stacked everywhere.
She loved art, always had. Since she was a little girl, she had used whatever she could to draw or color. The best gift ever given to her was still the acrylic paint set her parents got her for her sixth birthday.
Thinking about painting made her remember that she needed to stop and get some supplies. She couldn't wait to have space and stock up on everything so she didn't have to come into town all the time. She hailed a cab outside of Lily's apartment complex and climbed in. She could walk the few blocks if she wanted, but she was too keyed up and didn't want to think about her date anymore than she had to.
It had taken a long time for her to agree to meet the guy in person. Online dating was just too scary, but it was nice to have someone to talk to that she was compatible with. She'd had too many awful dates to keep count, but she knew this one would be successful as long as she didn't turn into a fumbling idiot and could find something to wear that wouldn't make her look like Annie.
Dreamy never asked for a description and she never asked for one either. That wasn't what this whole thing was about. He had told her that it was too hard for him to go out and meet people lately because of his job. He worked a lot of nights and didn't have the time or the inclination any longer to go to a bar or a club. He did admit to her that he had been a playboy most of his life and made her swear on her first born child that she wouldn't reveal that he wasn't anymore so it would never get back to his brother.
He could make her laugh more than anyone ever could. It was refreshing. Sure, she still had more to find out about him, but for the most part, he was exactly what she was looking for. Stable, funny, and responsible. She just hoped she was what he had been looking for. She conveniently left out the fact that she was a horrible cook, he didn't need to find that out unless things got a little more serious and 'serious' was her lack of cooking skills.
Gus wasn't wrong. Her cookies tasted awful and the only thing she managed to make that didn't perk up his nostrils was toast. Unless she got distracted and burned it. She lived off of cereal and microwave dinners with the occasional pizza. Aidy didn't mind and more often than not, she would take her little niece out to eat. Hell, Aidy could probably make anything better than her.
It had nothing to do with never being taught either. Her mother had spent countless hours trying to show her how to boil water without destroying the pan and Lily had made it a point to pick out recipes to teach her that were impossible to mess up.
Aiden was proof that there are some people out there that make the impossible, possible.
She didn't have the patience to wait for water to boil or for butter to melt. She was very easily distracted and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it right.
Dreamy was definitely in for a treat. Hopefully he was compassionate enough to accept that about her and hopefully she had enough things about her that were wonderful, it made up for her flaws.
The cab stopped in front of a little boutique that Lily told her about when she first moved to town. She hadn't ever really looked inside since she never had a reason to wear a dress. She paid the driver and climbed out of the car, steeling herself to go through with this whole nerve wracking ordeal. She was going to find something to wear that would compliment her features, namely her bright red hair. She was going to calm the hell down about meeting the man of her dreams. She was going to walk into that boutique and deal with whatever stuffy fake nosed person that was in there and she wasn't going to leave until she had the perfect dress. One that would make Dreamy fall to his knees and take her back to his place and rip it off of her.
It had been too long.
She really needed to get laid or she feared she would end up like Lily and settle for bad sex just to keep the cobwebs away.
Never.
This was the start of something amazing.
She could feel it in her bones.
***
"Stupid bag!" Aiden grumbled when another tube of paint fell to the floor. She hadn't noticed the giant hole in the bag holding her art supplies until she was in the cab on her way home and pretty much everything fell out of the flimsy plastic. She'd purchased a little more than originally planned and was now lugging a huge bag of supplies and her new perfect fit forest green sheath dress hanging in a garment bag over her arm. At this point, her arms were holding everything so awkwardly that she wouldn't be able to open her door without dropping something.
She climbed the last set of stairs to her floor and tried to catch her breath. She needed to get in better shape or she'd end up passing out before she could ever get home.
"Hope I get some exercise tomorrow night," she mumbled to herself with a smile.
Her feet shuffled across the floor as she shifted her arms to catch another tube of paint that was dangerously close to falling out of the bag. She heard Gus' door click open the second before she passed it and started walking a little faster, hoping to avoid him. It had never worked before, but she always gave it a shot. He never let her go without saying something to her, whether it was a short greeting that she knew was forced or some kind of joke about her cooking or a witty remark about whatever she was doing at the moment. The man was relentless.
She felt his gaze on her as she strode past him and couldn't miss the amused smirk on his handsome face. She rolled her eyes just right so he could see her annoyance. He chuckled and just kept watching her, making her more nervous than she already was. One of these days she was going to be walking by looking sexier than ever and not stumbling all over the place. Then he would grovel at her feet and apologize for all the stupid things he had said to her and she wouldn't give him the time of day.
She sighed at the sugary sweetness she felt whenever the daydream of getting revenge on him passed through her mind.
His eyes were still on her and somehow, she managed to get her keys in her hand, but her shaking fingers could barely hold onto them. He really needed to get a life if watching her walk to her door was a source of entertainment for him.
"Need a hand?"
Damn! Why did his voice have to be so sexy? It made her tingle in places she didn't realize were still in working order.
"I'm good," she said quickly and tried to push the key into the lock. Her paints kept slipping, making it harder, and her key kept scraping all over the doorknob, getting further and further from her target. God, I probably look like a penguin, she thought to herself and felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She could only move her wrist and hand and couldn't even see the doorknob anymore.
She heard a sexy chuckle before she felt him beside her, then his hand wrapped around the dangling keys and pulled them from her grasp. The paints started to slip again and she slapped her hand around them to keep them in place.
"Dammit!" she hissed.
Gus unlocked the door and pushed it open quickly before smiling at her and taking some of the items out of her arms.
This wasn't the usual play by play action that happened between them. She was pleasantly surprised at his chivalry, but she wouldn't smile back. She couldn't. No way. Not after the way he had treated her in the past.
Okay, so it wasn't really that bad and he was only being honest and had never been truly cruel to her. In fact, the things he said were quite clever and she had filed them away to use on others she would meet in the future. She should technically be thanking him for the witty remarks she now had stored away in her brain.
No! I will not be thanking him for anything.
She hurried past him and threw the items on the kitchen counter with a loud clatter. The apartment always looked like a mess. It was clean, just cluttered. She always found herself too absorbed in whatever piece she was working on to take a break and organize herself. She just needed to find a damn studio, then she wouldn't have to worry about situations like this.
Turning around was not an option. She didn't want to see the disgusted look on his face as he glanced around and saw her mess of a life. She had caught a few glimpses at the inside of his apartment and it was basically spotless, tasteless. A place for everything and everything in its place. So different from the personality she had discovered over the last few months.
She pulled the dress off of her sweating arm and hung it on her bedroom door down the hall. When she returned to her kitchen, Gus was watching her with his arms crossed over his chest, his chiseled jaw ticking. Her mouth went dry. Those arms looked strong and she could only imagine what his workout routine consisted of. He was usually in a dress shirt and tie, but today he was wearing well fitted jeans and a tight black T-shirt that showed off the cut of his shoulders and chest. It was too mouthwatering and she wanted him to get out of there. Now. He probably had bad guys to chase and criminals to shoot at. He didn't need to be in her apartment.
He made no move to leave and she started to fidget with the supplies on her counter. As long as she didn't engage him in any conversation, she figured he would be gone in the next few seconds.
"I didn't know you paint," he said softly.
She shrugged and kept her eyes on the counter.
"What do you paint?"
A smirk crossed her face and she finally looked up at him. "Pictures."
"Of course you do," he said with a shake of his head and a wide smile.
Damn that smile. His teeth were too straight, his lips looked too soft, and that face was too smooth. He towered over her and where other women might find that intimidating, she found it disturbingly comforting. His hair was a deep dark brown, like chocolate with a lighter caramel at the tips. His golden tan was a perfect shade for his dark hair, but the one thing that stunned her every time, the one feature that made her chest tingle, was his eyes. A light blue surrounded by grey, making them look like thunderclouds with a beautiful piece of blue sky peeking through. Those eyes never missed a single detail either. He was a cop, so that was a good skill to have, but she often felt like he knew all of her secrets, all her fears, and all of her flaws just by looking at her.
She watched his lips widen further and quickly looked away. She'd been caught checking him out about a million times too many, but he never called her out on it. He was just too pretty and it pissed her off.
"You can leave now."
His smile faltered and he blinked a few times before shrugging and saying, "Not until you thank me for helping you. It was a nice thing to do and I went out of my way to do it."
She rolled her eyes and her chest burned, but not with the oh so familiar tingle of attraction. No, he had just reminded her why she had only ever acted on that attraction once and ended up getting insulted. This burning was now anger. "Ugh, you are such an ass."
"Thanks. See? It's easy."
She walked over to the door and held it open, gesturing for him to walk out of her apartment. When he didn't move she felt her jaw clench and her back teeth grind together. The man was infuriating.
"Fine. Thank you, Fergus."
He smiled once more and started walking towards the door. "No need to thank me, Red. It was the right thing to do."
She wanted to punch him. Punch him right in his beautiful face and possibly break that too perfect nose, maybe give those grey blue eyes of his a bruise or two in the process. Knowing her luck, she would go to jail for assaulting an officer of the law.
Damn her luck.
She glared at him as he stepped over the threshold and turned around to face her. When he opened his mouth to say something, she slammed the door shut.
Take that, jackass.
She heard a muffled laugh coming from the other side of the door and knew he was still just standing there ready to get the last word in. She didn't want to hear it but was curious as to what he would say. Probably something she would normally find hilarious if it wasn't directed at her. So, tough as she was, she gave in and stayed by the door, pressing her ear to the worn wood.
"Red?"
"It's Aiden!" she couldn't help but shout.
Then she heard it. The telltale sign that she was about to look like a complete fool.
The jingle of keys and the sound of one being pulled out of the lock.
Son of a bitch!
"You want me to hang onto these, maybe make a copy so I don't have to break in again to leave you important gifts?" Even muffled his voice was still sexy and when he was amused, it was a hell of a lot more effective.
