6 Months Later
I find it fascinating to see the different perspectives of a person. I’ve known Aiden as my dad’s best friend my whole life, my crush for years, and my lover for not very long at all. But now I get to see him as someone’s little brother, and I can’t stop grinning with delight.
Linda is hilarious. She arrived like a hurricane — there was a little bit of warning, but neither of us was truly prepared. She’s a shorter, rounder version of Aiden and she doesn’t listen to him at all. She swept into the living room, gathered me up in a full-body hug and dropped me down in another room entirely saying, “Oh! I’m so excited to meet Darla! Are you sure I can’t tell people I know you? I have to confess I told Aiden to sue you, but that’s when I thought you were some scorned lover taking advantage of him. I’m going to make it up to you by spilling all his secrets. He’s so annoying, isn’t he?”
She pauses for breath and I blink. I’m not going to take sides against him, even if I will admit that he can be a bit bossy.
Her eyes glint with evil delight, “Did you know that when he was little I used to make him wear dresses and pretend he was my little sister?”
I look through the archway at Aiden, the epitome of elegant masculinity, where he leans against the kitchen counter talking with Linda’s husband, Todd. My expression must have telegraphed my astonishment because he calls to me, “Whatever she’s telling you is completely unfounded.”
“Oh, it is not!” Linda exclaims. “He’s just lucky he predates social media. Somebody destroyed all the photographic evidence.”
“There were pictures?” I’m breathless, trying not to laugh.
“Oh yes, our mother thought it was hilarious. I might be able to put my hands on one or two still if I ask the cousins. There was a particularly good one where I made him wear a sunbonnet in addition to the dress.”
“Oh, my.” The giggles burst the dam and I’m having to wrap my arms around my stomach to keep my ribs from hurting. Linda sits back, looking pleased with herself. There’s a twinkle in her eye that tells me she adores her brother but will never, ever admit it.
Aiden saunters in. Without warning, he scoops me up and sits down with me on his lap. I push at him ineffectively. I don’t think we need to make out in front of his sister. Apparently, he has other ideas. He pinches my waist lightly in warning and then proceeds to tease me until I’m fidgeting and probably turning red in the face. He keeps everything out of sight, tracing naughty words on the center of my back and otherwise trying to distract me. When I feel my pussy flood after he spelled out swallow my cum, I finally say with exasperation, “Aiden!” He gives me a wide-eyed innocent look that’s entirely overkill while Linda laughs, “Told you he’s annoying. Anytime you need to escape come visit me and we’ll commiserate.”
I blush, and Aiden turns my chin towards him with a firm hand. He kisses me, his eyes locked on mine, pulling back just enough to grumble, “Go away, Linda.”
She doesn’t of course. We’re getting married this weekend. It would have happened sooner but getting Dad and Ingrid here took some planning and then there was the whole debate about whether Dad should walk me down the aisle or be Aiden’s best man. I didn’t care and told him to choose whichever would give him the best memories, which didn’t help at all. He finally decided to do both. He’s going to walk me down the aisle and then stand next to Aiden. Plus, it took about three months for Dad to even get comfortable with the sudden change in Aiden’s status to son-in-law, although we all agreed never to use that term. And Ingrid is arriving later today to be my maid of honor.
The house we settled on is my dream house, so I’m excited to show it off to everyone. And I’ve finally got things painted and furnished, mostly the way I want them. I didn’t tell Aiden how much I spent on that, and he didn’t ask. The house is older but with recent renovations, which means the kitchen meets Aiden’s exacting standards and I have a non-drafty house to write in. It gets blustery up here on the bluff! We have a gorgeous view of the inlet and occasionally I get to see killer whales and even once a gray whale. I have to force myself to write in the back room sometimes if I find myself getting too distracted by all the wildlife.
It took a lot of looking to find just the right thing that was still a reasonable commute to the hospital for Aiden. He told me not to let that be an influence, but one item on my list was to have him home for dinner every night, so it didn’t seem fair to make that difficult.
We’re going back to Vancouver for our first honeymoon. It’s just a long weekend this time, and then in the summer, we’re going to take two weeks to go somewhere exotic. I keep bouncing between New Zealand (since I never did get there) and France (because I’m still trying to win Aiden over to the worship of all things cheese).
Oh, and the book I wrote in the cabin? It’s still selling like hotcakes. But readers keep sending me emails that they like the other heroes I write better. All the ones based on Aiden. I read those aloud to him when I get them. To which he always smiles and replies something along the lines of ‘don’t mess with perfection.’ I couldn’t agree more!