“I don’t know, Aidan.”
“I’m not ready to let you go.” He rubbed his nose against my throat as he inhaled. “You don’t have to decide this right now. You still have time. Just think about it. Okay?”
“Okay. I’ll think about it.” I knew my answer pleased him because his lips were on mine instantly. He kissed me like he would never see me again, and it made my chest hurt. I was finally able to pry myself away from him in order to get into my car. As I drove away, I watched him in my rearview mirror and honestly wondered if this would be the last time I ever saw him.
Aidan didn’t make me wonder because he called me as soon as I got to the main road and talked to me the entire forty-minute drive to my house. He was so easy to talk to and I loved the sound of his voice. I looked to see that he was driving behind me because he had to go to work, too. I tried to keep my focus on the road, but every now and then I would allow my eyes to travel to the rearview mirror. I could see him clearly, wearing his blue Secure Point Systems button-down and a pair of sunglasses. We parted ways once we reached Louisville, and I’d gotten to my house first. We were just about to end our call as Aidan was making me promise to see him tonight. I readily agreed because I wanted to.
That was the moment I decided to stop resisting and go with my heart.
“Yes, but I’ll come back to your house so that Ziggy can be let out.”
“Okay, I can pick up something for dinner. What about—” Aidan’s words were cut off as I stepped closer to the house, where I heard my security alarm sounding, and noticed that the front door was slightly open.
“Aidan, something’s wrong.”
“Shit. Don’t go in. The cops should be on their way to you.”
I had no idea why, but I walked into the house even after Aidan told me not to. As soon as I stepped inside someone grabbed my arm, and I was yanked inside which caused me to scream and drop my phone ending my connection to Aidan.
“Shut it off,” Derek growled.
“Wha . . . what?” I stared up at him, clearly shocked.
“Shut the damn thing off. The code isn’t working.” He waved a hand at the control panel. I walked over and punched in my code silencing the alarm.
“What the fuck, Derek!” I yelled as I whirled around. “You scared the shit out of me! How the hell did you get in here?”
“I didn’t know that you’d changed the damn locks, but I knew you well enough that I eventually found your new hiding spot for your spare key, but I couldn’t figure out the alarm code.”
“Well, it’s not creepy at all for you to break into my house,” I called over my shoulder sarcastically as I stormed away from him. I saw grocery bags on the counter in the kitchen. When I looked up at him, his face reddened with embarrassment.
“I came over to cook you breakfast . . . and talk.”
“Cook me breakfast and talk?” I repeated as I stared at him incredulously. “Are you serious right now?”
“I came by every day since Saturday, but you weren’t home. Where have you been?”
“Living my life.”
“JoJo.” He took a step forward, and I took a step back. I heard my name being called from the front door and two police officers were rushing into the kitchen. Just as I began to explain everything and to assure them that I was fine, more yelling came from the door.
“Josie! Baby?” Aidan sounded frantic as he rounded the corner and entered the kitchen. His face and shoulders visibly relaxed as his eyes landed on me. He hurried forward and pulled me into his arms.
“I’m fine, Aidan.”
“What the hell happened?” he asked as he looked around the room, and that’s when he finally noticed Derek standing there. Both men glared at each other as the officers took my statement and confirmed that Derek’s entry wasn’t a criminal act. Yes, he was unwelcome, but I didn’t want him to get in trouble so I let them believe that he was allowed to enter, and I gave him the wrong code by mistake.
When the police left it was just the three of us standing in the kitchen in awkward silence. Aidan tightened his hold on me, and Derek’s eyes narrowed at his arm around my waist.
“Derek, you should probably go.”
“You want me to leave?” Derek asked through clenched teeth. I’d never seen him angry before and it was quite a shock.
“You heard her.” Aidan spoke before I could answer. I looked up to see his jaw clenching and unclenching as he stared coldly at Derek.
“Hang on a minute. Who the hell are you supposed to be?” He glared over at Aidan.
“Derek. Stop it,” I said with more confidence than I felt. Here I was in the arms of a man who was completely perfect for me, but my heart was still undecided about Derek. “Just go. Please.”
Derek snorted and then stormed out of the kitchen. I followed him with Aidan close behind. Instead of leaving the house, I found Derek sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. I looked over at Aidan who was already taking a step forward, looking ready to kick his ass. I put a hand to his chest and pleaded with my eyes for him to stop. He obeyed reluctantly.
“Derek?” I stepped forward cautiously.
“Where did we go wrong, JoJo?” He looked up at me with sadness in his eyes. “Do you know that I have thought about you every day since the moment I met you the night of that party?” My heart stopped at his admission. “I lost your phone number and I was too much of an idiot to ask you for it again, so I avoided you on campus.” We never talked about the night we met. In fact, I was convinced that he didn’t even remember it. “Shit, are you going to make me do this in front of him?” He nodded in Aidan’s direction.
“No,” Aidan said as he walked past me and to the door. “I’m not going to stick around for this. I already know where this conversation is headed.”
“Aidan?” I called after him, but he turned and put a hand up to stop me.
“Josette, this guy is about to start a death roll in hopes that you’ll give in and stop him.” He turned to Derek. “You know, I’m glad that you kept your head stuck up your ass all this time, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the chance to have her in my life. Just appreciate how damn lucky you are, asshole.”
“Aidan!” I called again, but this time he didn’t stop. My feet were frozen as I watched him get into his truck and drive away.
Chapter Twelve
I slowly closed the door, unable to process what was happening and why my heart felt like it was disintegrating. I turned around angrily to Derek.
“What are you doing?” I hissed and walked forward. “We are over, Derek. You were the one who chose to leave. To end it. I wanted to marry you.” My voice trailed off as I lost steam and slumped down on the couch.
“I know. I know,” Derek said as he rubbed his face repeatedly with his hands. “I can’t figure out why I keep screwing things up with us. The night at the bar when we danced together I thought you were beautiful and funny. I wanted to get to know you. Then over time you just seemed . . . different.”
“Different? What do you mean?” I sat up, returning my gaze to him.
“We had a lot of fun together, exactly the way twenty-year-old’s should. Things were easy, maybe too easy. For me, it was hard to take what we had seriously. You didn’t seem to expect anything from me, and I had no clue how to be in a relationship.”
“That’s complete bullshit, Derek. You knew how I felt about you and you didn’t exactly put forth much effort to return those feelings.”
“I didn’t? You’re the one who didn’t seem to have time for me. You never bothered to call. I realized that if I didn’t contact you I wouldn’t see you. Then you broke up with me when I moved to Louisville.”
My mind was reeling at hearing his perspective of our relationship.
“Y-you didn’t put up a fight, though,” I sputtered.
“I’d convinced myself that it was the right thing to do. I mean I was in Kentucky and you were in California. How could it work?”
“Okay, if you felt that way about me, how come you never told me?”
“Have you met me? I’m not that great at sharing my feelings.” He snorted.
“Oh my God. I just don’t even know what to say right now.” It was clear to me that we’d both made a lot of mistakes. Here I was thinking that I was being who he wanted when what he really wanted was for me to be myself. It would have made a world of difference in our relationship.
“Derek, I think I’m partially to blame. I thought I was being the cool girl you seemed to like. I spent the last six years trying to be the person I thought you wanted.”
“Josette.” He shook his head as he crossed the room to kneel in front of me. “I never asked you to change who you were. All I ever wanted was you.”
“Except, you never had me. Not the real me.” Derek shook his head slowly with sadness in his eyes. I felt like the biggest idiot. How could I expect him to love me when I wasn’t being myself with him?
“Maybe that’s why things never seemed to work for us. Everything just felt . . . off. I was either too dumb to notice or too lazy to figure out what was missing.”
“Derek.”
“I loved you right from the beginning.” He held my eyes for a long time, and I believed him.
Finally, he was admitting to everything that I’d wanted to hear from him, but it wasn’t causing the reaction I thought it would.
“Except, it didn’t feel like even after six years that there was enough between us to make the forever commitment that you wanted. But when I saw you at Fish Tank Freddie’s with that other guy, I’d never experienced that kind of jealousy.”
“You saw me that night?”
“Yeah, I saw the way he had his hands all over you, and under your skirt.” He looked away quickly and no longer met my gaze. “Hell, I didn’t even know you liked beer. How do I not know that about you?” He laughed humorlessly and the pain on his face mirrored my own. There was an ocean of regret between us. Our relationship had become a failure the minute I gave up on being myself in order to become someone I thought he wanted. It only took me until now to realize that. I couldn’t resist wrapping my arms around him and he responded by pulling me tightly against him.
“Derek, I love you,” I said against his shoulder. “But our time is over.” I felt him stiffen before he let out a long breath.
“I don’t want it to be, JoJo,” he whispered against my ear. “But I think you’re right.” I felt a tear slip down my cheek as I mourned the loss of my dream life with Derek Vaughan.
What do you want, Josette?
Aidan’s words filled my mind. I thought about how he would ask— no insist, that I tell him what I wanted. The entire time I’d been nothing but myself with him, and I didn’t even have to try. I knew exactly what I wanted this time and all I needed to do was go after it.
****
After Derek left I looked up the address for Secure Point Systems and drove the ten minutes to the office. When I walked inside a girl sitting at the front desk greeted me with a polite smile.
“May I help you?” she asked.
I had no idea what I was doing there other than the fact that I needed to see Aidan. I wanted to tell him that I was free of Derek, and even though I had no idea where my life was headed, I wanted him to be a part of it. I only hope that he wanted the same thing. Except it felt crazy to just show up at his work with this revelation, but I was already here so I needed to follow through.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat as I stepped forward. “I am looking for one of your technicians, Aidan Ross. Is he here?” I asked as I looked around wearily. The girl’s eyebrows pulled together briefly.
“Um, I’m sorry are you looking for a technician or Aidan?” I considered her question for a moment as I tried my best not to look confused.
“Aidan Ross is the name of the technician that installed my security system,” I replied, and the girl’s eyes suddenly lit up with recognition as she nodded.
“Oh, right. That install a few weeks ago. That was an unusual circumstance. We were short a technician so he had to make the call himself. Aidan is not one of our technicians, but I am happy to get one scheduled for you if you are experiencing problems with your system.”
“Wait, if he is not a technician then what is he?” I felt panic rise as I did my best to control my voice as hysteria threatened. What if I’d been catfished this whole time?
“Aidan is the owner of the company,” she answered as she pointed to the hierarchy board above her head. Sure enough at the top of the list: Aidan Ross. Owner and CEO was listed next to his name. I immediately thought back to our conversations and whether he mentioned that he owned his own company, and I couldn’t think of a single time he’d said anything other than he’d worked here for five years. Why would he keep that from me? Was he keeping it from me?
“Josette?” I heard Aidan’s voice from behind, and I turned. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s over between Derek and me,” I blurted out. Aidan shot a quick look at the receptionist and charged forward.
“I can’t do this here.”
“But . . .” I started to speak, but he was already gently guiding me toward the door.
“Not here. Not at my place of business,” he stated firmly.
“I had to see you.”
“You could have called me,” he said once we were outside.
He was right. I could have called him.
“I guess I haven’t been thinking clearly the past couple of weeks.”
“Oh, and now you are?”
“Yes.”
“And what conclusion did you come to?”
“That I’m not going to move to California,” I said as I watched his reaction, but his face remained impassive.
“Oh?” he replied. “So what are you going to do then?”
“Well, that depends.” I stepped forward until I was only a foot away from him. “I’ve got all of these feelings for a guy from Kentucky who installed my security system, asked me to go on five romantic rendezvous with him, and made me feel sparks.”
“Sparks?” he repeated as his mouth turned up slightly.
“I know. I couldn’t believe it either.” I took another step closer to him. “This morning you asked me to stay. So I’m staying. For you.”
“Don’t stay because I want you to. Stay because you want to.”
“I want to stay because I want to be wherever you are.”
“Josie.” He pulled me into his arms and cupped my jaw as he stared at me.
“I’m falling in love with you, Aidan,” I whispered, and I watched his green eyes darken with emotion.
“I’m falling in love with you, too.” His lips lightly brushed mine.
“This is scary for me,” I confessed. “But I want to try. I don’t want to let my stupidity over my past relationship ruin the chances of having something good with you.”
“I knew what I was getting into.” He tilted his head as he studied me. “On the day of your consultation, I had a technician call out, and since Hannah has given my company a lot of business I didn’t want to cancel your appointment. I drove out to your house with the full intention of giving you a quote and assigning a new technician later, but after I met you I didn’t want to send anyone else. I wanted to be the one to make you safe.” He brushed a lock of hair away from my face. “You offered me lunch, Josie. It was unexpected and you seemed genuine. I knew that your ex-boyfriend must have done a number on you and it felt wrong for you to be so jaded about love. That’s when I set out to win your heart, and I hoped that five dates would be enough time.”
I smiled up at him with my heart feeling so ready to explode. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. As soon as our lips met, we ignited. We were all teeth and tongues as we poured every ounce of ourselves into the kiss. I never thought there would be anyone else in the world for me. Six years of my life I’d dreamed of feeling exactly the way I felt right now
. Giving my heart to someone who would give me his in return. The best part was that I didn’t have to try very hard. I’d wasted too much time not going after what I wanted, and not being me. Aidan got the real me from the beginning. There was no pretense, no games, just honesty.
Well . . .
“Aidan.” I pulled my mouth away from his. “How come you didn’t tell me you owned the company?”
“Would it have made a difference?” I thought about his question and honestly it wouldn’t have so I shook my head. “I’m not one of those guys who goes around pointing out things like that. We’re all a team here.” I watched his brows furrow as he stared at something behind us. I turned to see about three people including the receptionist staring out of the storefront window and quickly scatter once they saw that they’d been discovered. I’d completely forgotten that we were standing here on the street, out in the open for everyone to see and probably hear. I took a step away from Aidan.
“Well, I guess I’d better let you get back to work.”
“Nah.” He grabbed my hand and walked me into the Secure Point Systems office. “Renee, I’m going to take off for the rest of the day. Call me if you need me.” The receptionist’s eyebrows shot up as a wide grin stretched across her face.
“Sure thing, boss,” she said and her gaze went to me. “So you’re Josette.” She smiled and I waved.
“Hi.”
It seemed that Aidan did a lot more talking about me than I realized, not just to his family, but people at work too. Before I could spend any more time thinking about that, he pulled me out of the front door and to his truck. Even though it took us thirty minutes to get to his house, it took us less than thirty seconds to shed our clothes. Aidan wasted no time giving me exactly what I wanted.
Epilogue
I looked out at the view of the city. The darkened sky was illuminated by lights, and just like he promised, I had a view of the Eiffel Tower. So this was Paris. The romantic City of Lights.
The article was a huge hit. I managed to get Natalie a completed date for every week, and I followed it up with a longer piece entitled.
Kentucky on the Rocks Page 7
