He shakes his head. “He got the charge reduced to possession, so he’s only serving three years with the possibility of parole in two.”
“And how long has he been in jail?”
Aiden moves to stand in front of me again, placing his hands on either side of me. My hand is still on his neck, but now it’s kind of awkward since it’s only one hand. Either I drop it or I bring my other hand around his neck.
Seeing as he doesn’t seem to have any objections with me touching him, and how I really don’t want to stop, I decide to be daring and bring my other arm around his neck.
“You remember the first day we met?” he asks.
A little off topic, but I answer nonetheless. “How could I not?”
“You ran into me in the hallway—”
“Hey, I think we’ve established that you ran into me,” I interrupt.
“Never mind that. The point is that I was an extra big asshole to you, when normally I would’ve just been kind of an asshole.”
“Okay, but how does this—”
“That morning I found out that Greg met with the parole board, and that there’s a good possibility that he’s being let out on good behavior.”
Of course it doesn’t give Aiden a pass to be an intolerant jerk, but I totally understand now. He couldn’t express his anger directly at the source, so he jumped on the first tangible thing that pissed him off. Not that that’s the right thing to do, but I don’t blame him. It’s a perfectly normal thing to do—something I actually did to him the night Kaitlyn and Ryan vandalized my car.
“I’m sorry,” I say for lack of anything better to say.
“It’s just—”
“Hey, Aiden!”
My head snaps up to look at whoever interrupted my moment with Aiden, and my glare turns into an expression of panic. Walking toward us calmly, with an innocent smile on his face, is Luke. I drop my arms from around Aiden, and gauge his reaction, but he doesn’t look threatened or worried. Aiden turns to face him, bringing his back t
o me, and crosses his arms.
“Congratulations on the win, man,” Luke says. “You made me a killing tonight! I knew betting on you was the right move.”
“You know she won’t want to see you.” Aiden cuts through the bullshit with a calm but unfriendly demeanor.
Luke sighs, dropping the friendly preamble. “I need to talk to her. I swear I can explain everything.”
“That’s not a good idea. You should go before Julian sees you.”
“I don’t want any trouble with Julian.” Luke shakes his head. “Right, Amelia? You know that I don’t want any trouble.”
Luke looks at me expectantly, probably expecting me to jump to his aid like he did for me, and Aiden looks back at me with his eyebrows drawn together. I suddenly feel very exposed sitting up here on the tailgate, and right when I’m going to spout some bullshit, Julian notices who we’re talking to.
“You son of a bitch,” he growls at Luke when he’s near enough, Noah following behind him.
Luke raises his hands, as if showing he’s not a threat. “I only want to talk to her.”
“If she wanted to talk to you, she wouldn’t have blocked your number or stayed away from you,” Julian says.
“I want her to know how I’ve changed—”
“She doesn’t want to fucking hear it! You need to leave before she sees you’re here.”
“Julian, what’s wrong?” A curious voice cuts through the hostile atmosphere.
We all turn to see Annalisa, walking with Charlotte, Mason, and Chase. No one noticed Mason’s SUV pull in, returning from their drive to the nearest real bathroom.