Randall chuckled from the other side of the deck. His curly black hair was trimmed short with shoots of gray through it. “Caleb doesn’t believe you.” He gave me a sidelong look. “You should prove him wrong. Dust off those moves.”
How long had it been since I’d messed around in the backyard with my brothers? I had been older than Caleb’s twelve, but by the time I’d left for college, I had left all the roughhousing behind. During holidays, my nephews usually defaulted to wrestling until their mom or mine got after them. I’d always sat out. Then I’d married and missed more holidays than I cared to think about.
I stood and toed out of my canvas slip-ons. “Those moves were more impressive when I wasn’t an adult facing off with a twelve-year-old.”
“Aunt Katie?” Caleb straightened, forgetting his dad. He didn’t think I’d follow through.
I shed my silver hoodie and tucked my Under Armour T-shirt into my black yoga pants. “If you can wrestle a grown woman, then you won’t bat an eye when you face off with someone who dehydrated themselves into your weight class.”
“Told ya,” Jason repeated as he backed away, his hands held in surrender.
I windmilled my arms as I crossed to Caleb. Cool, dry grass crunched underfoot. Randall kept a healthy lawn. It’d be perfect to practice on in the summer if it weren’t for the grass stains. All I’d be after this was gritty.
I adopted the same stance as Caleb, knees and arms bent, and circled him.
The screen door from the house slammed shut. “Holy crap,” my other nephew, Corbin, cried. He was ten years old and just as stunned.
“Door.” Randall’s reprimand was absentminded. After all, he’d been saying it for over twenty years with three different doors. “The glass is going to shatter one of these days.”
“Sorry, Grandpa.” Corbin strode onto the lawn and waited by his dad. “Aunt Katie wrestles? I thought it was just Uncle Aiden.”
“Aunt Katie wrestles.” Jason’s mouth quirked.
The screen door squeaked again. I didn’t look over my shoulder, but Matt said, “Maybe if Katie wrestled Uncle Aiden more, she wouldn’t be here.”
I shot him a glare, and nearly flipped him off like we were kids again, but his grin was unrepentant. When Caleb lunged for me, I knew that had been Matt’s intention: throw me off. I had Matt’s support with my divorce—but he was still my jackass brother.
I shuffled away from Caleb’s scrawny arms, keeping just out of reach while looking for an opening like Randall had taught me.
Both of my brothers had rallied around me. Jason’s wife, Sophie, had brought me a few pints of ice cream and given advice that was similar to Mom’s. Fuck him. Matt’s girlfriend had sent memes every day to make me laugh.
“Neither boy has seen you wrestle, Katie,” Randall said as Caleb and I returned to facing off. Was the kid seriously advancing on me? “That means it’s been over twelve years. Don’t hurt yourself.” His deep chuckle only told me he was doing the same thing as Matt: trying to psych me out.
Caleb was half my size and probably didn’t wrestle nearly as dirty as his dad had. I could take him.
Billings hadn’t had much for girls wrestling when I was growing up. Mom would’ve gone head-to-head with the wrestling club if I’d wanted to officially hit the mats, but I had been an odd duck already. I couldn’t be the girl who wrestled with the boys. It wasn’t unusual now, my seven-year-old niece wrestled too, but I hadn’t been a trailblazer.
Caleb reached for one of my legs halfheartedly. I’d have to make him take this seriously. Take me seriously.
I snaked my arms out, catching him behind one leg. Muscle memory kicked in and I executed a flawless single-leg takedown. His back hit the ground and he didn’t have time for a sprawling defense before I was on him.
His training kicked in. He bridged and twisted, his slight weight straining against my hold. I’d have plenty of time to take it easy on him. First, he needed a lesson.
I rolled over him, using my size as an unfair advantage. After all, my only experience had been with my brothers and fairness didn’t count when it came to siblings.
Jason hit the ground on his knees and slammed his hand on the ground. “That’s a pin for Katie.” He laughed.
I let Caleb up. He shot to his feet and dusted himself off. “That wasn’t fair. She’s bigger than me.”
“But you’re not going to underestimate me again, are you?”
Caleb puffed his long bangs out of his face. “I didn’t.”
I stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “You did too. You were thinking ‘there’s no way this old lady can take me down. I might hurt her.’ ”
Pink brushed across his cheeks. “Did not.”
“Did too.” I ran my hand around my waist to make sure my shirt hadn’t gotten tugged out. “Again?”
His little-kid grin warmed my heart. “I ain’t going soft on ya.”
I loved spending time with my nephews. I hadn’t done enough of it beyond spectating at their matches and games, going to plays and music performances. The last two years, I’d slacked off. Facing the inevitable “Where’s Aiden?” had caused more anxiety than it was worth. I’d avoided the family that had always had my back no matter how much I’d tried to be different from them.
Never again.
I grappled with Caleb. He was a strong kid, but he hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet. My body remembered all the moves. How to breathe so I didn’t get tired out. How to roll and twist in a way that wouldn’t hurt him, but would give him enough experience to make it worthwhile.
“I’m next. I’m next.” Corbin danced around us.
I took turns between the boys. I wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow after pulling half the muscles in my body. My workouts until now had been as pointless and lonely as my marriage. The gym in our house—Aiden’s house—had all the amenities, everything but other people. It had seemed wasteful to join a gym when I had all the same equipment under my roof and twenty-four-seven access to any group fitness class I could stream. I had thought of taking up swimming just so I could justify the cost that I had no problem covering in order to be around other people.
I’d have to factor going to the gym into my budget and my time. Same with being with my family.
My distraction cost me. Corbin took after his dad and the little bugger tickled me during one round.
“You little shrimp,” I gasped between giggles. Jason used to do the same thing when he got tired of practicing. “I’m going to make you pay.”
“I’ll save you, Corb!” Caleb jumped in and I had to summon all my rusty knowledge to keep from being pinned and tickled by both of them.
The screen door squeaked. Had Mom come out to watch? My niece Violet?
“Kids,” Jason said. “That’s enough.” Why wasn’t he egging them on? That was more like him.
They didn’t listen. I barked out a laugh as Corbin tried to roll on top of me, as if his slight weight could pin me.
“Boys,” Jason barked.
Caleb heaved off me first, hearing the warning tone in his dad’s voice. Corbin tried to get in a last armpit tickle, but I hooked my arm around his neck and put him into an illegal headlock with his arm cocked and immobile in the air.
I was raking my knuckles over his scalp for an auntie noogie when the way Jason said, “Um, Katie?” made me stop.
I puffed my hair out of my face and twisted around. My heart hammered once. Twice. The guy standing next to Jason was the hottest, sexiest, most mouthwatering man I’d ever seen. Tall. Built. His long-sleeved Henley hugged his torso like it had been sculpted onto his biceps and abs. Powerful legs filled out worn blue jeans. What rocked me wasn’t the unruly cowlick that hadn’t been ruthlessly shellacked into place with hair gel, but the rugged scruff covering his strong, square jaw.
He was all things masculine. He oozed sex appeal. And he looked at me like he’d never seen a rumpled mess of an aunt wearing dried grass clippings and a shirt twisted around her stomach.
/>
Air whooshed out of my lungs. “Aiden.”
Chapter 5
Aiden
* * *
My mind struggled to register what I was seeing. Three red-faced and sweaty people, two kids and one adult, laughing in a carefree way I hadn’t heard since before Mama died. My nephews peeled away, leaving Kate in the middle of the brown lawn. Her hair was a tangled flurry and her shirt had ridden up to reveal a patch of creamy skin above her yoga pants.
Her wide smile died and took the mischievous glint with it. I was tempted to back up, retrace my steps like I could rewind life, just to put that gleam back in her eyes. Sexy. Alive. Unreserved.
Kate was a mess. I’d never seen her in such a state. When we went to King’s Creek to work cattle, she kept to the fringes and made coffee runs. She came out the cleanest out of all of us. But in a trailer park in Billings, in the middle of a lawn, after she’d been wrestling—and I’d been here long enough to see that she knew what she was doing—she was the dirtiest of us all. And I fucking loved it.
She stood and dusted herself off. Randall rose, towering over me like usual. He was older than Dad by several years, but age hadn’t stooped his back.
“Jason,” Randall said. “Why don’t we go help your mom set the table.” He clapped a big hand on my shoulder but I couldn’t take my gaze off a stunning Kate. “You staying for a bite?”
I couldn’t tell from his tone if he wanted me to. Randall would offer to be polite, but he’d boot me the hell out if Kate asked him to. “I just want to talk to Kate.”
Kate glanced from me to her stepdad and gave a little nod. In less than a minute, I was alone with my wife. I stood on the porch and she didn’t move from her spot on the grass.
“Hi,” I said.
She pushed her hair off her face, but half of it fell over her eye again. “What’s going on?”
“We should talk.”
She crossed her arms. In typical Kate fashion, there wasn’t an ounce of cleavage showing, but my gaze was drawn to her breasts anyway. It’d always been drawn to her breasts since the first time I’d seen her. I’d always been drawn to her tits, and when she was naked and underneath me it was hard to keep my brain powered up enough to keep from doing anything but staring at them.
“You had a chance to look at the papers?”
Fuck the papers. “Not yet.”
She blinked and shoved her hair behind her ears. She didn’t wear much makeup normally, but today she didn’t have an ounce on. The natural beauty that made her stand out in a crowd kept me riveted.
“Then what’s wrong?” she asked.
I took the steps down to the cement landing and kept going until I reached her, my athletic shoes crunching through the grass. “I know the timing looked bad, and no, I wasn’t going to let that money go to the neighbors when Mama left it for us, but us—you and me—it wasn’t about that.”
If I’d expected her to fall into my arms, it wasn’t working. Her gaze grew guarded. “You’re going to have a hard time convincing me of that when fifty million’s riding on the divorce. I told you I don’t want it.”
“I don’t either. I’d rather have you.”
She took a step back, creating more distance between us. “You had four years to show me that you wanted to be with me. You did everything but be with me.”
“I can change.”
She worked her lower lip between her teeth and stared at the ground between us. What was she thinking?
“Please believe me, Kate.” I didn’t know what else to ask. I didn’t know how else to ask. Please look at me like you have been since I first saw you. The way only you ever do.
I was so far out of my element. There was a reason I’d left my messy emotions in my childhood.
“And then what?” The question overflowed with challenge.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re going to have the same job. Grams won’t trust anyone else in the inner office. If we take the trust out of the equation, you’re still married to your job, not me.”
“I’ll work on it.” I’ll work on me.
She tipped her head and gave me a dubious look. This was a side of Kate I hadn’t seen before. Just like the side that put her nephews in a headlock. How many other parts of her didn’t I know? How many times had she been hiding her real feelings around me?
I thought I’d been the only one to do that.
“I’ll work on it,” I said with more authority.
She squinted into the neighbor’s yard, where overgrown weeds encroached on an old warped metal swing set. She wouldn’t look at me. “For fifty million?”
“Kate, it’s not about the money.” I stepped closer to her. I wanted to cup her face, capture her plump lips, and kiss her until she melted under me. But I kept my hands at my sides. “Can I have a chance to prove it?”
“We’re going to keep circling back. Your job, the money. I…don’t trust you anymore. I don’t know if I ever should have.”
“What do you mean?”
She gave me another look that I’d never seen before. One filled with disappointment aimed at me—and staggering insecurity.
Why the insecurity? Dad’s hard words in my office trailed through my brain. The one time he’d gone full parent on me and he’d been right. If he hadn’t talked to me, would I even get what she was asking now?
My brows drew together. “Do you think I’ve been with someone else?”
Before Kate, my dating life had been dismal. I’d gotten hit on enough, and if I’d wanted to get laid, it hadn’t been hard. But by the time I was done with college, I’d gotten tired of the small talk. The shallow get-to-know-you phase that didn’t dive too deep because neither of us wanted to waste time on someone who would prove temporary. I had been old enough when Mama died to know what it’d been like between her and Dad. They’d been best friends and I’d wanted the same.
I thought that was what I’d had with Kate, but after today, I was coming to the awful realization that I didn’t know her very well. And it was my fault she didn’t know me.
“I don’t know what to think anymore.” Bare vulnerability shone in her eyes. “Short of lipstick on your collar, you displayed all the signs.”
My brain churned in confusion, but hadn’t Dad asked the same question? “There’s never been anyone else. Never.” I was faithful. I didn’t want anyone else. It shouldn’t need to be said.
She nodded, but disbelief lingered across her expression. I shouldn’t have had to tell her I was faithful, but I clearly hadn’t done enough to keep her from thinking it was a possibility. “Remember when Beck first brought Eva home and they had that engagement party?”
“Yeah?” My skin rippled with dread.
“You were on your phone the whole time until some girl you went to school with sat down to talk to you. You ignored me the entire night.”
“I never ignore you.”
She barked out a laugh. “You do. All the time. It’s rude. It’s disrespectful, and you know what? I don’t have to put up with it anymore. I don’t care if your excuse was work or a piece of ass, I’m done.”
“My excuse was never a piece of ass. I don’t just work at some company. It’s my family’s company. I’m the company. In a small city, surrounded by rural towns, I can’t disconnect from it. I don’t have that luxury. I can’t ignore anyone, because they might be a contact I have to deal with in the future.”
“But it’s okay to ignore your wife?”
I snapped my mouth shut. That was what I’d done. I hadn’t wanted to ignore her, but there was the trust between us. My work. As each brother married, I’d waited. Waited for Kate to learn what I had done. I hadn’t cheated on her, but I wasn’t much better than her father.
“Listen to yourself, Aiden. You came here to, what? Ask for me to come back? Only you’re arguing about everything I’m saying. You’re not even trying to understand.” She edged around me. “Do you realize this is our first argument? We’ve been together f
or over four years and we’re only now arguing. Our relationship wasn’t healthy.”
“We’re talking now. We can work on us.”
“I don’t like how I am with you.” She put her fingers to her lips like she wanted to stuff the words back in.
Silence fell between us as we both processed what she’d said.
The Kate I saw today wasn’t the Kate I was married to. What she didn’t know was that this Kate was the one I wanted. The one I thought I’d married. Yet I’d been too ignorant to notice she’d changed.
“I didn’t realize you were so unhappy,” I finally said. I should’ve. I should’ve gotten to know my wife well enough to know that her smile was a cover.
“I didn’t either,” she replied softly. “I think you are too.”
Unhappy was better than fucking miserable. There wasn’t a mental box big enough to shove that emotion into. “Where are you staying?”
“Here.”
She could buy her own house and be moved in a day. We had the money. But then she’d be alone, and wasn’t that what she’d just told me was part of the problem between us?
“For how long?”
“As long as it takes.”
Shadows darted past the window. The kids were watching us. The adults were probably getting updates from them. The screen door banged open and Matt’s daughter, Violet, ran out. She sprinted past Kate and jumped into my arms. I didn’t see her often, but whenever I was around, she was my shadow, firing off a million questions.
“Uncle Aiden, guess what?” she asked like she hadn’t intruded on the most important conversation of my life.
“What?”
“Chicken butt.” She chortled, her seven-year-old little face lighting up.
A chuckle I hadn’t thought was in me escaped. I set her down. How had she grown twice as much as the last time I’d seen her? “I used to get my brothers with that all the time.”
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