Sadie stood on her tiptoes to measure a shelf overhead, the movement inching her shirt up and revealing a slice of pale, flat stomach. Maybe he could talk Axle into making her wear a uniform. Picturing her in a black Axle’s polo and jeans didn’t quell the lust bubbling in his stomach.
He crammed another peg into the display. Somehow, he’d have to find a way to get things done with the petite object of his infatuation hanging around.
Which begged the question, why was he infatuated? Sadie should be the last woman on earth stirring him up. On a good day, Sadie all but hated him. And he couldn’t blame her. He knew how it felt when Harmony had chosen another man over him. He’d done a version of the same thing to Sadie. Granted, he didn’t go back to Harmony, but he’d invited her back into his life. And despite his noble reasoning—to protect his mother from what she didn’t know—it was the wrong call.
Though they’d only shared a few dates, he’d shared something real and precious with Sadie. He may have met her in a club, may have followed her home that night, but that was where the forgone conclusion ended. Nothing after the moment he’d entered her tiny apartment kitchen had been expected.
Sadie had stood behind her refrigerator door, blocking her body from his, and offered him a drink. He took one look into her dark, troubled eyes and saw his own pain reflected there.
“Who’d he leave you for?” he asked.
She blinked, not expecting the question. “What?”
“The guy who caused you to make a one-date-only rule for the rest of us. Who’d he leave you for?”
That pointed question set the tone for the rest of the night. They spent the evening sitting on the floor of her apartment, backs against the sofa and adjacent chair, and shared every ugly thing from their pasts like they were one-upping each other.
He’d seen her again after that, had brought her to his place and slept next to her without sleeping with her. To this day, Sadie marked the deepest, most emotional relationship of his life.
Leaving her behind was one of the hardest—and dumbest—things he’d ever done.
After Aiden went to Oregon, he thought of Sadie several times. How she would have handled his mother’s illness with grace. How she would’ve stuck by him, been a strong support while he bobbed in a sea of uncertainty.
Again he lamented keeping the truth from his mother. If only he’d told her sooner that Harmony had left him—that he’d been divorced and unemployed for months, that he’d met the woman of his dreams.
Aiden was been trying to put his mother first, protect her from the stress of knowing how badly he’d screwed up his life. Worrying would cause stress. Stress would make her battle more difficult. And Aiden had been trying to give her the best chance possible to beat the disease determined to rob her of her life.
In the end it hadn’t mattered. Harmony vanished into the ether. Mom lost the battle. And Aiden burned the bridge he and Sadie used to stand upon and view their future.
He’d begun to see his self-sacrifices weren’t actually helping the people he cared about, but were, without a doubt, crippling him. There was a lesson in there. About doing what was best for him for a change. Maybe the right thing for him was the right path all along. Who the hell knew?
He crammed a peg into the hole. It snapped in half. “Shit.” He looked up and noticed Sadie standing on the other side of the counter. “Sorry.”
She waved him off. “Don’t waste your manners on me.”
He stood, tossing the broken plastic into the trash can. “I’ve been trying not to swear,” he said, not sure why he was admitting part of his journey toward self-improvement.
“I’ve been dieting,” Sadie said, picking up on the angle of his thoughts. She got him. She always had.
Aiden took in her lush curves, unable to see a single area in need of improvement. Every dip and bend was just as it should be. He started to say something to that effect but decided against it. “Why are you dieting?”
Sadie frowned back at him. “Because.”
“How well do you know Axle?” Aiden asked, shifting to the other subject loitering in his brain.
Sadie shrugged, folding her arms on the countertop between them. “I don’t know. Why?”
Because the deal he and Axle had discussed—the one that included a hefty down payment and the sale of all five stores to Aiden—wasn’t going to come to pass exactly the way Aiden had planned. Axle told him originally he was planning to retire in three years. Yesterday, he’d casually mentioned he was going to be out of there “by Christmas” and suggested Aiden get his ducks in a row.