See Megan Run (13 page)

Man, you’d think he’d tried to violate the
Virgin Mary, not a woman who went pliant and willing at his touch.
Really, he had the most to lose in this situation. And what was
wrong with wanting her to stay?

Whoa.

He slowed his step. Very bad train of
thought. She was going to leave. There wasn’t any question about
it. She had never felt this place was her home. He’d never be
enough to keep her from wanting to leave. Aiden stopped at the
corner of Main and Elm. He nodded at Ms. Elise, who honked her horn
as she passed by. Just because he was content to stay here didn’t
mean Megan ever would be.

He sipped his coffee, thinking maybe he
shouldn’t have apologized, and squelching the thought of her
staying at the same time. Maybe he shouldn’t be harping over twenty
minutes of ecstasy. The smile started again of its own will.

*****

What was the phrase? Ah, yes, Aiden was
grinning like a Cheshire cat. The bastard. Megan lifted her chin
and crossed the street. "Good morning to you."

His gaze lost its dreamy quality when it
zeroed in on her. To her surprise it was pleasure, not
satisfaction, filling his gaze. Her nonchalant façade faltered.

"How are you this morning?"

She shrugged, still unsure, because she had
been sure Aiden was playing some game with her. Late last night
when sleep eluded her, Megan had been forced to admit to herself
she didn’t know Aiden anymore. He’d changed. He might be the type
of man who’d see it fitting to have her yearning after him. She
licked her lips nervously. "Fine. You?"

He rubbed the side of his head. "Okay, now."
He glanced over his shoulder at the precinct. "How about a
walk?"

"I’ve already been. I didn’t know Larry had
closed down his shop on Third."

"About a year ago. He hasn’t found anyone to
buy, yet." He sipped his coffee, and Megan tried not to watch his
mouth too hard. "So would you consider taking another walk with
me?"

She wanted to, and how telling was that? "I
can’t take any more time this morning. Nicole and I have to go for
another fitting. I was kind of hoping to get my flowers."

If she hadn’t been watching him closely,
she’d have missed the grimace. "Come on. They’re in the
office."

He kept his pace slow, in sync with hers,
until they reached the door. "Ladies first."

"You’re acting strange."

He muttered, "You don’t know the half of
it."

Megan was about to ask about the half she
didn’t know when she spotted Shep. "Good morning."

"What brings you here?" It sounded like a
coded message.

Megan frowned and looked at Aiden. He stayed
by the door sipping his coffee. "I came to pick up my flowers."

"Oh, these are yours sitting on the desk? I
was wondering who they belonged to."

"I picked them, and Aiden was nice enough to
buy them for me yesterday."

"Really? How nice of him."

Megan raised her eyebrow at his cryptic tone.
"An amends, since we’re going to be working on the party
together."

Aiden sighed behind her, but Shep said, "What
party?"

"Nicole decided it might be a good idea to
have the bachelor party and the bachelorette party together. Aiden
and I are planning it. If it’s okay with you?"

"Yes, Shep. Is that okay with you?"

"As long as Aiden understands I don’t want
any funny business going on."

Megan laughed. "I don’t think the women in
our family would mind a little funny business, especially if it’s
half-naked men."

"No, I don’t think they would," Aiden said
behind her.

Megan ran her tongue over her teeth. She was
definitely missing something here. "I’ll just get my flowers."

Shep picked them up and handed them to her.
"If you need to pass anything by me, let me know."

"Let me help you with those." Now that was
the satisfied look she’d been expecting, except Aiden was giving it
to Shep.

"I think I can handle it from here to my car.
You guys have a good day."

She walked out of the precinct thinking how
strange that was, then stopped, closing her eyes. Shep knew. The
news had already gotten around about Aiden and her. "Small towns,"
Megan muttered. She couldn’t wait to leave.

She’d barely gotten into the car when her
phone rang. "Hello."

"Is Armageddon on its way and I don’t know
it?" Lynne asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"It’s three o’clock, and you haven’t called
me for the usual update."

"Oh." She hadn’t thought to call. "Um, how
are things?"

"You need to go on vacation more often.
Anyway, the place is still standing, the sweaters already made it,
everyone is still showing up for work, and the numbers are looking
good for the month."

"Do you ever take a breath?"

Lynne laughed. "I’d rather get it all out in
one. Saves time."

"That’s good to hear. Things seem to be
crawling at a snail’s pace. It’s starting to feel like the wedding
day is never going to get here."

"That sounds like the norm." Lynne paused.
"How’s Aiden?"

Megan made a noncommittal noise. The silence
stretched and was broken by Lynne’s gasp. "You’ve had sex with
him."

"What makes you say that?"

Lynne laughed. "You tell on yourself with the
little ‘hmm’ noise you make. Avoiding the question. The less you
say, the more I know. I cannot believe it. You had sex with him."
She paused to take breath. "How was it?"

"We were kind of interrupted."

Lynne hooted. "I’m definitely coming to the
wedding. I can’t believe you’re going wild out there. I have to see
the man who’s making you lose your sense of propriety. Let’s not
forget to add, a man who makes you forget to call me to
obsess."

"Aiden has nothing to do with me not calling.
I am not losing my sense of propriety."

"He is the reason why. Lie to yourself all
you want, but I know the truth." Lynne laughed again. "You were
interrupted? By your mother?"

"I should never have told you." Megan started
her car.

"You wanted to tell me, to brag." Another
laugh.

Lynne was enjoying this too much. "Megan got
some nookie," she sang.

Megan bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"Remind me again why I tell you stuff."

"Because you are not as uptight as you like
to believe you are. Under the professional façade you are a wild
woman. If you almost got caught, you must have been outside. Oh, my
God," Lynne mused to herself.

"I have to go."

"You’re never going to live this down, you
know."

Megan ended the call knowing Lynne spoke the
truth. She only hoped no one else would point it out.

Chapter 12

"Michelle, can you take it up in the
bustline?" Megan held her arms up higher at her mother’s request
and eyed the woman with the pincushions.

"I was thinking maybe Jane can throw
something together to eat at the party," Megan said to her
mother.

"You should have asked her when you came in
late last night."

Megan closed her eyes when the woman came at
her with a pin. "As you point out, it was late, and she was on her
way home."

"Word is getting around about you and
him."

Megan opened her eyes and looked at her
mother in the three-sided mirror. "If all we did was say Hi, things
would have gotten around."

"Is that all you did?"

Megan’s lips thinned into a fine
line. 
Now
 she wanted to be a mother? Years of
ignoring her, and now Nicole was concerned? Now Nicole wanted to
condemn Megan’s actions? Growing up, Megan might as well have been
a piece of furniture in the living room for all the attention her
mother gave her. "No, it’s not." Megan raised her brow. Nicole
broke eye contact first.

"It’s not right, Megan. You are still
planning to leave. You shouldn’t start anything up with him."

"It’s sex. Pure, unadulterated sex. It’s not
marriage. We haven’t exchanged vows. Let alone him having my cell
phone number. Ouch." Megan had forgotten the woman was there, and
it seemed Michelle was more interested in the conversation than
taking up her bustline.

Nicole sighed. "Could you excuse us,
Michelle?"

The woman’s shoulders deflated, but she
didn’t linger. Megan put her hands on her hips, trying to avoid the
stick pins.

"Where did this come from? Didn’t you push us
together to throw the party?"

"Call me selfish, but I didn’t want any
bloodshed. The past few dinners have been less than civil." Her
mother took a deep breath. "The problem now is, I don’t think you
understand. Aiden and you were always close. I knew you’d be all
right as long as he was there. When the relationship changed, when
you guys got older, I felt it was a natural progression." Her
mother hesitated. "Then you left."

"You can’t even admit it when it’s just us?
You kicked me out over a man. That’s why I left. Where was I going
to stay?"

"Were there not a thousand people you could
have lived with, in Riverbed? Shep." Her mother ticked off a
finger. "Jocelyn." Another finger. "Anyone who lived within a
five-mile radius would have let you stay with them. You left."

"They weren’t family."

Nicole shook her head. "They are as close as
family could be. The same blood doesn’t have to run through your
veins to make it so."

Nicole was right, and that made Megan want to
spurn the comment more, because for the first time it dawned on
her—she didn’t have to leave twelve years ago. If she accepted her
mother’s truth, then she’d have to ask herself why going outside
the city limits had seemed more appealing, an easier road to take
than staying in Riverbed.

"Now you’re listening. Leave Aiden alone.
He’s not built like you, and I don’t think he ever was. He’s going
to want something more, and you don’t want to give it to him."

"He hasn’t said that. You don’t know what
he’s said to me."

Nicole laughed mirthlessly. "He doesn’t have
to. You should know him better than that by now."

"I’m sure he understands why I can’t stay."
Megan said, without the bite in her tone that had been there
earlier.

"He’s always loved you and always will, if my
suspicions are correct."

"But..."

"All I’m saying is, don’t do anything, well,
don’t do anything else, because we’ll be the ones to pick up the
pieces."

"You make him sound like a girl."

"This may sound contrived, but a heart
doesn’t have a gender."

Megan blew out a breath, not wanting to take
what her mother was saying too seriously, because this woman wore
peasant skirts eight seasons after the trend.

"Maybe it’ll be best if you guys don’t plan
the party."

"We’ll be fine."

"No."

"Mom, we’ll be fine. Since the whole town
knows, I don’t think they’ll let us out of their sight without
proper supervision."

"You’re making Riverbed sound archaic." Her
mother stopped and frowned.

She turned to see what her mother was looking
at. Michelle stood at the door. Megan wondered how long she’d been
standing there. When Nicole’s frown deepened, she figured it had
been long enough for the gist of the conversation to be on a
bulletin board later that night.

Megan muttered, "If the shoe fits."

*****

Megan dialed the number with hesitation,
still hearing her mother’s words in her head. But then again, the
day Megan took advice from her mother would be the day she needed
her head checked. Aiden answered on the fifth ring. "I hope I’m not
interrupting anything."

"Very funny."

Megan’s face flushed at the reminder of their
lovemaking. "Sorry. I was calling to let you know Jane agreed to
making fried chicken, enchiladas, and spaghetti. I promised we’d
help, so expect to be wearing an apron two weeks from now." She
finished and held her breath.

"From the sound of things, they’ve gotten to
you, too. Want to sneak out and meet me by the tree?"

Megan bit her lip. "Yes."

"See you there in ten."

She hung up the phone, asking herself what
the hell she was doing. Finishing unfinished business for one. Two,
having fun. Three...did she really need a number three?

She left without saying anything to anyone
and hoped that was rude enough to make them think she was mad.
Apparently when she was in a good mood it was a free-for-all to
make sure it stopped right that moment.

Megan tamped down the questions and the
doubts that wanted to surface in her mind as she cut across the
grass to the lake. For once she wanted to do something that didn’t
fit into her schedule, something she hadn’t analyzed. Maybe do
something daring and not think it to death first. Her steps
slowed.

Sadly, the last thing she’d done without any
thoughts to the future, without weighing the pros and cons, was
toilet-papering someone’s house back in the eighth grade. Really,
how wild was hooking up with an ex? Tame by most people’s
standards. Now, if only Aiden was a cabana boy in the tropics, her
"wild" might be interesting. She smiled when the Green Demon pulled
up beside the tree. She met him at the car door.

"Got a surprise for you," he said.

Megan followed him to the back of the truck.
He’d transformed it into a mini picnic. A gray blanket was laid out
on the bumpy surface, all the way to the back of the cab, where an
icebox sat. "You know we are going to get caught," she warned.

"The reason for the picnic. Can’t get mad at
us if all we’re doing is eating."

She recognized the disappointment for what it
was and climbed in. Aiden situated himself beside her and started
to unload the icebox. "Root beer or lemon-lime?"

"Root beer." The soda chilled her hand. "So,
I’m guessing Shep gave you a lecture. I thought there was something
funny going on this morning."