by Unknown
“Actually she specifically asked that you stay. She wants to thank you.”
“For what? Upsetting her?”
“Probably not that,” Shanna said, smiling. “I’ll leave it to her to tell you what’s on her mind. She was taking a shower and getting dressed when Bree and I left. She should be here soon.”
Aidan couldn’t seem to stop himself from asking, “How did it go over there? Did you get to the bottom of whatever’s going on?”
“Even if we had, I wouldn’t share her private business with you, any more than you told me what she said that got you to send me over there. I think she’s feeling better now. That’s all that matters.”
It wasn’t all that mattered, Aidan thought, but it was obviously all Shanna was prepared to say. She waved goodbye and headed on to her own business. Bree popped in two seconds later.
“You have good instincts, Aidan. Don’t give up on Liz.”
He frowned at her. “She doesn’t want me in her life, at least not as anything more than a friend. She’s been pretty clear about that.”
“And I’m telling you to stay the course,” Bree said, then winked at him. “I’m very wise about these things. Trust me.”
Aidan wasn’t sure he could do that, but he might as well see how things played out. He’d already been drawn in, and, like it or not, that kiss had pretty well sealed the deal.
He paced nervously behind the counter, regretting that it had been a slow morning so there were no customers to provide a distraction as he awaited Liz’s arrival.
When she finally came in the door, he studied her intently. He could still detect traces of her tears, but otherwise she looked far more composed than she had the last time he’d seen her.
She walked over to the counter, set down her purse and met his gaze. “I’m sorry.”
He frowned. “Why are you apologizing to me? I’m the one who inadvertently reminded you of a bad time in your life. I should be apologizing.”
A faint smile crossed her lips. “That’s the point. It was inadvertent. You couldn’t possibly know you were going to trigger an outburst like that just by suggesting that you thought we might have something special.”
“Well, it’s true that your reaction was pretty unexpected,” he said, venturing a smile of his own. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Less hostile, anyway,” she assured him. “In fact, I owe you big-time for sending Shanna to the house. She dragged Bree along. Their support was just what I needed.”
“Did you talk to them?”
“If you’re asking if I bared my soul, no. I really do want to leave my past where it belongs. I don’t see the point of dragging it out and dissecting it.”
Aidan regarded her with regret. “I’m hardly an expert in this area, but it seems the past is right here, right now, standing between us. It’s not allowing you to move forward.”
For an instant, she looked startled, but then she slowly nodded. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re probably right. I am allowing it to affect the choices I’m making. That’s probably not fair to you.”
Aidan shook his head. “No, the person it’s most unfair to is you,” he corrected. “I know a thing or two about letting the past haunt you, Liz.”
She frowned at that. “So, what are you suggesting? Should I spend years with a shrink trying to get to the bottom of it? Spill my guts to every person I meet until it no longer has the power to hurt me?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said candidly. “I just know that keeping it bottled up doesn’t really seem to be working all that well for you, not if it’s cutting you off from having the full life you deserve.”
“Meaning a relationship with you?” she said, an edge back in her voice.
“Meaning a relationship with anyone. How can you honestly have a real friendship with someone, much less anything deeper, if you’re holding some huge part of yourself back?”
Even as he said the words, he realized they applied to him, as well. Shaken, he stepped out from behind the counter.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better now,” he told her. “There were a few sales earlier, but it’s been pretty quiet. If you have any questions, you know how to find me.”
She gave him a puzzled look as he headed for the door. “Aidan, are we okay?”
He turned back. “You mean do we understand each other?”
She nodded.
“Probably even more than you realize,” he said quietly. “Take care, Liz.”
This time he was the one who walked away with a whole slew of conflicting emotions plaguing him, leaving Liz to stare after him with confusion written all over her face.
12
Aidan had very mixed feelings about the end of school. Even though he’d scheduled a few team meetings over the summer and arranged for the players to follow training and nutrition guidelines, he couldn’t help feeling as if way too much was being left until summer’s end. He suspected every high school coach, faced with the challenge of getting his kids ready for the new season, felt the same way.
It helped a little that Porter Hobbs was finally on board with the change Aidan had recommended for Taylor. He’d stood on the sidelines at three straight practices and seen the way his son and Hector connected to make the kind of plays that could win a regional championship if the rest of the team played at their level. Of course, at this point that was a very big if.
On the last day of practice, Hobbs had actually congratulated Aidan for spotting Taylor’s potential. Aidan knew it helped that Taylor was genuinely excited about the change and had become friends with both Hector and Henry. Aidan wasn’t sure how Hobbs felt about the friendship, but the trio were proving to be real team leaders.
Aidan was in his office on Tuesday afternoon making his final notes for the year when the door opened and the three boys stuck their heads in.
“Coach, do you have a minute?” Taylor asked.
“Of course,” he said, leaning back and noting that they seemed to be surprisingly hesitant. “What’s on your mind?”
“The team’s been talking,” Henry said, glancing at the others for affirmation. Hector and Taylor nodded.
“We’d like to keep practicing this summer,” Henry continued. “I know it’s your vacation, but we know we have a lot of work to do. Team meetings won’t be nearly enough. Would you mind setting up a real training schedule and working with us?”
“Just a couple of days a week,” Taylor suggested, then grinned. “It is summer vacation, after all, and we want to do fun stuff, too.”
Hector followed up, his expression worried. “Only if it’s no trouble,” he added.
Prepared for some sort of bad news, Aidan was stunned by the request and the initiative they’d shown. He regarded the three of them with astonishment. “Whose idea was this?”
“Mine,” Taylor said, looking embarrassed. “I should have thought of it last year.”
“You’d just made the varsity team,” Aidan reminded him. “You’d probably barely found your way to the locker room.”
Taylor laughed. “Are you kidding me? My dad’s been taking me through the locker room and the stadium since it was built. I think it was a hint.”
“More than likely,” Aidan agreed, imagining all the ways Hobbs had gone about putting added pressure on his son. “Is the entire team on board with this?”
Henry nodded, his whole demeanor suggesting their eagerness for him to agree. “We want to win next season and we’re starting to believe we can.”
“Good,” Aidan told him. “Because I believe it. Let me speak to Rob about the policy. I don’t know if official team practices are allowed or any of the other implications about holding a school activity during summer break. I’ll do my best to figure out something that won’t break any rules.”
The boys immediately exchanged excited high fives.
“No matter what I find out,” he told them, “I’m very impressed by your enthusiasm. That’s the kind of
commitment it takes to be winners. I want you to tell your teammates that. I’ll be in touch in a day or two, as soon as I see what can be worked out.”
“Thanks, Coach,” Taylor said, leading the others from Aidan’s office.
He leaned back in his chair, a smile spreading across his face. If enthusiasm and commitment were the only keys, this team was going places. Best of all, he’d seen glimpses of the raw talent it would take to get them there.
*
Liz thought a lot about what Aidan had said about the inability to truly move forward if the past maintained a stranglehold on her emotions. She found herself wanting to talk to him more about that, and about why he seemed to know so much about it. Was it because of whatever she’d sensed he was holding back about some prior relationship with the O’Briens? He claimed not to have one, but more than once his body language and odd reticence when the name was mentioned suggested otherwise. Still, it was hard for her to imagine bad blood that no one on the O’Brien side seemed aware of.
On Wednesday morning, Archie was freshly bathed, his toys assembled in a big basket. All of the dogs seemed to understand that today was a momentous day. They sat watchfully by on the warm June morning as she waited for Aidan’s arrival to pick up Archie.
At eight-thirty, just when she was beginning to think he’d either forgotten or was intentionally avoiding her deadline, she spotted him coming up the street. Archie, of course, made a dash for him. For once she saw no point in reprimanding him. From here on out, Archie was Aidan’s responsibility.
Tail wagging, the dog happily followed him back to the porch, then dutifully sat down as Aidan settled into a chair next to Liz.
“You ready to become a pet owner?” she asked, smiling.
He glanced at her. “Do I have a choice?”
She frowned at the glib response. “Of course. If you really, really hate the idea, Archie can stay here,” she said, then turned to the dog. “But look at him.”
Archie was regarding Aidan with that familiar look of pure adoration. “Can you really turn your back on that?” she asked.
Aidan instinctively reached out to pet the dog’s head. “No, of course not, although I think you’re underestimating his attachment to you.”
“Of course he loves me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve been feeding him and taking care of him. You’re the one he’s truly bonded with, though. I think he knows you’ll take him on runs and give him treats from the table that he shouldn’t have.”
Aidan laughed. “Exactly what I intended.”
His expression sobered as he studied her. “You seem better today. It’s not just because you’re losing a houseguest, is it?”
Liz wasn’t sure she was ready to get into this, but she did shake her head. “I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the things you said the other day. I’m not sure what I intend to do about it yet, but I can admit you made a couple of valid points. I have been stuck in the past.”
She deliberately held his gaze and opted to be pushy for once. “Have you considered taking your own advice?”
He seemed genuinely startled by the question, but then his expression shut down. “No idea what you mean,” he claimed.
“Of course you do,” she said, calling him on the deliberate evasion. “I don’t know what your secrets might be and you certainly don’t have to share them with me, but I do know they have as firm a grip on you as mine do on me.”
“And how did you reach that conclusion?” he asked, his tone disparaging. “I thought Will Lincoln was the only professional shrink in town.”
“True. He has a degree and actual office hours,” she replied, refusing to take offense. “But I have a woman’s intuition and sometimes that’s just as good in certain circumstances. I caught your expression during that pretty little speech you made to me on Sunday. It suddenly dawned on you that you’re carrying some burden you’re keeping secret, too. When you realized you were being hypocritical, you couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
She managed to catch his gaze and hold it. “Can you honestly tell me I’m wrong?”
For a minute it seemed he might not answer at all, but then he sighed heavily. “Not really,” he confessed.
“Care to share?”
“Not really,” he said.
A twinkle came and went in his eyes so quickly she might have missed it if she hadn’t been watching him so closely. She couldn’t help feeling pleased with herself for pegging his likely reaction.
“Then I guess we both have some thinking to do and some decisions to make,” she said quietly. “It’s actually kind of nice to know I’m not the only one who’s not an open book.”
He gave her a long, serious look, then chuckled. “I wonder if we both wouldn’t be much better off hanging out with people who can’t see right through us.”
Liz laughed with him. “What would be the fun in that? I like people who keep me on my toes.”
“Only up to a point,” he suggested.
This time she was the one whose expression sobered as she sighed. “Yes, but only up to a point.”
It suddenly seemed as if this habit she had of trying to solve riddles was about to drag her even more deeply into a sea of complications. Lately, though, since she’d met Aidan, it seemed it might be worth going there.
*
After thinking about that disconcerting conversation with Liz for most of the day, Aidan really needed to work off some steam. Since vigorous sex was definitely off the table, he decided to see if the guys were playing basketball anytime soon.
“Come on, Archie, let’s go for a walk,” he said, grinning when the dog immediately found his leash and brought it to him, tail wagging.
As he hit Main Street with Archie already tugging on his leash and eager to run, Aidan caught the gloating expressions on Shanna’s face and on Bree’s when they caught sight of the two of them. Obviously they shared Liz’s sense of triumph over getting him to adopt the dog. Susie was the next to step outside when she saw them. She stood in the doorway of the management office, a grin on her face.
“New addition to the family?” she inquired with a cat-that-swallowed-the-canary look.
Aidan nodded.
“You do know that there’s a No Pet clause in your lease, don’t you?” she said solemnly.
Aidan came to a complete stop and stared at her. “You can’t be serious?”
She nodded. “Oh, but I am.”
“And you never thought to say a word about it before now? I know you were well aware that Liz has been trying to pawn Archie off on me.”
“I assumed you’d read the lease,” Susie said innocently. “Seems to me that’s the first thing a man who really didn’t want a pet might have done.”
“Well, I obviously never read the fine print,” he grumbled. “Are you going to be the one to tell Liz I can’t keep Archie?” He looked at the dog, whose attention was going back and forth as if he knew he was the topic of conversation. “For that matter, are you going to tell Archie he doesn’t have a new home, after all?”
For just an instant, Susie looked vaguely guilty. Then she chuckled. “Got you!”
Aidan frowned. “Got me? What does that mean?”
“There’s no pet clause in the lease, and even if there were, Uncle Mick and my dad would never enforce it. I just wanted to see for myself if Liz was right and you really are attached to that dog.”
The level of relief that washed over him startled him. Apparently it was true. He liked the dog. And, as much as he’d grumbled about taking him in, he wanted Archie to stay.
“You are a sneaky, sneaky woman,” he told Susie.
She looked surprisingly pleased by the comment. “I’d almost forgotten how much fun that could be,” she told him. “I’ll have to work on honing that skill again.”
Somehow Aidan doubted that Mack or anyone else in the family would encourage it.
“So, are you through getting me all worked up over nothing?” he inquired lightly.
> She tilted her head thoughtfully, then said, “Yeah. I think that will do it for now. Stay alert, though. You make such an easy mark, I might be tempted to try something else.”
Given what Aidan knew about her health history, he couldn’t get truly angry over her prank. It was nice to see this playful side of her. He suspected even though they might not want it directed their way, most of the family would agree.
He gave a gentle tug on Archie’s leash. “Come on, boy. We’ve got places to go.” He waved in Susie’s direction as they walked away.
At Connor’s office, he was forced to endure yet more teasing the instant Connor spotted Archie tied up to a post on the porch of the house that had been converted into a law office.
“So, the rumors are true? Liz won, and you now have a dog?”
“Seems that way.”
“You don’t seem as distraught by that as you did when she first backed you into a corner,” Connor observed.
“Archie and I have an agreement,” Aidan explained. “We’re not going to do anything to make each other’s lives miserable. I think it’ll work out. In fact, it may be a whole lot less complicated than most relationships with humans.”
Though he’d made the remark lightly, Connor’s expression turned serious. “Does that mean you’re giving up on Liz? I know a whole bunch of people who are going to be unhappy about that.”
“I’m not giving up. It’s just on hold,” Aidan told him, then quickly amended, “By mutual agreement, so tell all those women in your family not to get their drawers in a knot.”
Connor didn’t seem pacified. “Mutual agreement? You sure about that?”
“A hundred percent,” Aidan insisted. “That’s the way we both want it. Liz even more than me, if I’m being honest.”
Connor regarded him doubtfully. “Okay, if you say so. And since you apparently didn’t come by here for my expert commentary on women not always meaning what they say, what did bring you by?”
“Basketball,” Aidan told him. “Are you all getting together to play again anytime soon?”
