“Wow, so does everyone have a thing with Amelia except me?” Noah huffs, but everyone ignores him.
“I can do that for you,” Mason says to Aiden, not ready to back down. “We won’t even realize you’re not there.”
Aiden doesn’t seem to like that, and I interject just before he’s about to reply.
“Aiden, it’s fine. If I’m going to be forced to have a stupid X-ray, and clearly no one is letting me go alone, Mason can just take me. You go spend time with your brothers, especially after everything that happened. It’s my own stupid fault I threw the punch wrong,” I say.
Aiden looks taken aback that I just chose Mason over him, if that’s how you want to look at it. But he recovers quickly, throwing up a wall of stoic impassiveness and clearing any hurt emotions from his face.
“I guess you’re right,” he says, but now I feel like I betrayed him in some way. I just want him to spend time with his brothers instead of wasting it all with me in a stuffy doctor’s office.
“Perfect. Then I’ll take her,” Mason says, his eyes dancing in victory, while Aiden’s calculating eyes narrow at him. “And you guys can all come over tomorrow. My mom’s making empanadas.”
“Hell, yeah! Natalia’s the best!” Noah exclaims as we all stand. “Hey, Amelia, do you like empanadas? That could be our thing.”
“That can’t be your thing if we’re all there,” Chase says, standing up from the floor and helping Charlotte up as well.
“Fine. We’ll find something else, Amelia, don’t worry.” Noah says, then addresses the group as a whole as he puts on his jacket. “We’ll confer in the group chat about the plans for tomorrow.”
We all pause and tilt our heads at him.
“Confer? Really, Noah?” Chase asks while he puts his shoes on.
“What? It’s my word of the day! I’m trying to broaden my horizons, you know?” Noah smiles, before letting it drop. “Wait, I used it correctly, right?”
“Yes, you used it right,” Mason answers. “Now broaden your horizons all the way to the truck. Amelia’s hand looks like it’s getting worse.”
I frown and look at my hand. Yup, the swelling definitely went up. Fucking Ryan.
Everyone steps out onto the porch and I lock the door. I turn around to say that I’m ready to go, when suddenly Aiden pulls me into him. Before I can think, his hands are on the back of my head, and he lowers his mouth to mine, surprising me with a kiss. What?!
I recover quickly and kiss him back, the fire from his lips igniting my veins, spreading through my body all the way to my toes. I will never get tired of kissing Aiden. He pulls away and smiles a beautiful, genuinely happy smile at me, and all I can do is blush back at him. I can just imagine the shocked looks on our friends’ faces—I’m almost too scared to look.
Aiden isn’t ready to release me yet, so I just risk a sideways glance at everyone. Yup, we might have just broken our friends from the sudden shock. Charlotte looks like she practically dislocated her jaw from how far it dropped. Well, I guess we just officially came out as a couple to our friends.
“I’ll call you later,” he breathes.
He gives Mason a pointed look before kissing the top of my head and leaving to get in his car. I stand there staring after him, feeling just as shocked as everyone else, but infinitely more embarrassed. What was that about? And why did he look at Mason like that? Was that him engaging in some kind of jealous, primal man-staking-a-claim thing?
Mason is suddenly very interested in the ground, and a lot less happy than before. Yeah, it totally was. Geez, Aiden, be a little more discreet next time. Maybe bang your chest and carry me up a building?
“It’s about damn time!” Noah calls after him, recovering the fastest. “I swear, the sexual tension was so strong it could probably bench press more than me, Mason, Julian, and Chase combined.”
I laugh with everyone else, even though my face is probably as red as a tomato. Aiden looks back at us and smiles before getting into his car and revving the engine.
Before anyone can grill me, I run down the steps and to the passenger side of Mason’s Range Rover. “Shotgun!”
After everyone piles in, we barely close all the doors before Charlotte shares her delight.
“Sooo …. Is no one going to talk about what just happened out there!” she exclaims, her whole face lighting up like a kid who was just told they could eat an entire chocolate cake for dinner.
“Aiden and Amelia, sittin’ in a tree,” Noah starts, and Charlotte joins in to sing, “K-i-s-s-i-n-g!”
“Oh God,” I mumble, wishing the seat would swallow me whole.
“Was that the first time he kissed you?” Charlotte presses. “Because it so didn’t look like it was your first kiss. Damn it, Amelia, if you guys kissed before and you didn’t tell me I’ll be so pissed!”
Mason’