The Langfield Brothers: Box Set

8. Aiden

EIGHT

AIDEN

Beckett: Aiden, how are you feeling today?

Gavin: Did you just ask Aiden about his feelings?

Brooks: It’s a valid question.

Gavin: When he shows up at your house and asks you to have a slumber party so you can stay up all night and talk about your feelings, I don’t want to hear it.

Brooks: LOL

Beckett: Sounds like you have experience with this…

Brooks: I definitely do.

Beckett:

Gavin: Same. Come to think of it, you’re owed an Aiden serenade.

Beckett: What? Who said anything about singing?

With a chuckle, I tilt my head and study the ceiling, running through songs that would be fitting for Beckett. He feels like an Aerosmith guy. I make a mental note to rework “Pink” and type out a reply.

Me: No pillow talk tonight. Sorry, big bro. I’m heading over to War’s.

I slip my phone back into my pocket as I knock on his apartment door, an overnight bag in hand. I snuck into my apartment today and grabbed a few things. Fortunately, all my belongings were as I left them. As far as I could tell, Jill hadn’t been back. Maybe she went to New York to be with her loser boyfriend. Whatever. If I keep moving and don’t think about it, I’ll be fine. That’s my MO. Put on a smile, and it will all be all right.

I tap my knuckles against the door in a jaunty little rhythm, and a moment later, War appears, a little out of breath.

“Someone here? I can come back.” I thumb toward the hallway. Sara won’t turn me away if I show up at Brooks’s place to wait until whoever War is with leaves.

He shakes his head, his blue eyes widening. “Nope. Just me.”

I stalk in and throw my bag down on the black leather couch. The second it lands on the cushion, I pick it up again. Leather couches in hockey players’ apartments probably aren’t safe. Too easy to wipe down.

With a huff, War eyes the way I hold the bag a few inches over the couch. “I never bring women back here.”

I roll my eyes. Other than Daniel, War gets more action than anyone on the team. Hell, he probably gets more than Daniel too. He’s just quiet about it. He’ll disappear randomly and without a word. One minute, we’re playing pool, and the next, he’s texting from the bed of some stranger, telling us to have a good night.

“Fine. But you better give me a sheet to cover it with tonight.” I drop my bag on the floor and head to the fridge for a beer.

“You can stay in the bedroom.”

I freeze, one hand wrapped around an ice-cold bottle, the other twisting the cap. “Dude, I get that it’s probably been a few hours since you got laid, but I’m not that desperate.” Coughing out a laugh, I hold up the beer. “Seems like you need this more than me.”

War snatches the bottle from me with a grumble. “I’m not fucking sleeping with you.”

“Good, ’cause I’m not fucking or sleeping with you.”

He eyes me. “I got a place in Cambridge.”

Frowning, I take him in. The ripped jeans and the black T-shirt. The piercing blue eyes and the almost permanent scowl. “What? Why?”

He sips his beer and leans back against the counter. “Good schools. More grass. Easy access to the city.”

“Good schools?” I toss my head back and guffaw. “What are you, Beckett?”

War shrugs. “Everyone was settling down. Two of your brothers got married and had kids.”

I snag another beer from the fridge and pop the top. “Gavin isn’t married.”

Setting his beer on the quartz counter with a thunk , War glowers.

“Okay, fine, he’s practically married. Still, they’re a whole freaking decade older than us.”

He kicks one leg over the other, crossing them at the ankles. “Brooks will be next.”

Can’t really argue that. And he’s probably dreaming of the day he can knock Sara up.

“And you,” he adds.

“Are no longer getting married.” I hold up my ring finger to emphasize the point. Though I guess men don’t wear engagement rings. Why we don’t, though, I have no idea. If I had been with the right girl, I’d totally have wanted to wear a ring.

Lennox’s sparkling blue eyes haunt me. The softness in her expression when she looked at me this afternoon. The wistfulness of her voice as she described the perfect wedding. Our perfect wedding.

She could tell me the scenario is one she planned for Jill till she was blue in the face, but I knew without a doubt that when she was describing her vision, she saw me standing at the altar, but she was the one walking down the aisle.

It’s the same thing I saw.

My dreams have never included Jill. She was a reality I settled for because, for years, I’ve believed that there was no way Lennox ever would be.

War’s dark laughter brings me back to the present. “Yeah, you’ll be married by the end of the year.”

I shudder. “Fuck no. Did you not hear me last night? Jill sucks.” I take a long pull from my beer.

War’s normally icy-blue irises warm. “Not to her. To Lennox.”

I roll my neck, pushing away the hope that is probably lighting up my face. “Yeah, no. We’ve barely spoken in ten years. Definitely not getting married anytime soon.”

Pointing a finger and circling it in the air, War laughs. “See? You can’t even deny that you want it. Anytime soon, eh?”

I keep my face straight. Neutral. I can be cool. I am cool. Cool as a cucumber.

“You all right?” he asks, studying me. Apparently, I am not cool as a cucumber.

“I’m fine.” I take a sip of my beer. Of course I’m not fine. I didn’t want to wake up this morning. I lay on my back in bed for far too long, willing myself out of bed. Wondering whether anyone would truly miss me if I didn’t. Then I remembered I make them all smile, so yeah, they’d probably miss me. That’s what I’m good for.

I smile now to show just how very fine I am. “So Cambridge, eh?”

War drops his focus to the floor, and suddenly, I’m not the one hiding something. “Yeah, Cambridge.”

“There a girl?”

He scoffs, grabs his beer, fiddles with the label. “A girl?”

“Yeah, a woman who made you want to find a place in a good school district. Near a safe park, all that stuff.”

War pushes off the counter and stalks toward the bedroom. “Here, I’ll show you the bedroom.”

“Oh, there is so totally a girl,” I say, jogging after him.

The door to War’s apartment flies open, and Brooks walks in like a man on a mission. “Why did Lennox just walk into my apartment to tell me she spent the day planning your wedding?”

“No hi how are you ? No knock to signal your arrival before you barge in? What happened to your manners? I know you’ve got them.” I fold my arms across my chest, ignoring the way my heart is galloping at the knowledge that Lennox is in this building right now, talking about our afternoon.

Behind me, War laughs. “It’s your apartment now, Leprechaun.”

“Right. And like you’ve ever allowed doors to stop you from barging in where you’re not wanted,” my brother scoffs.

I hold up my hands and let those words—where you’re not wanted—roll off my back. Mostly. “Gentleman, please. Remember, I’m the broken one here. I’m sad.” I stick out my bottom lip the way Finn did last night.

War smacks the back of my head, sending me stumbling.

Brooks barks out a laugh. “I’m grabbing a beer, and then you’re going to start talking.”

“I guess the tour can wait until later,” I mumble, heading toward the couch. I might as well get comfortable if I’m going to get yelled at.

My brother settles beside me while War takes the leather chair.

Brooks lifts his chin. “Does that have one of those massage things in it?”

With a moan, War closes his eyes and reclines. “Yeah, it does.”

“Oh Jesus, don’t have a fucking orgasm in my chair,” I whine.

“Your chair? Glad you’re making yourself comfortable.” He keeps his eyes closed and laces his fingers over his abdomen, as if he doesn’t care one way or the other how the rest of the conversation goes.

“Start talking,” Brooks says, leaning back against the couch cushion.

“What is there to talk about? I told you I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the breakup yet. Why are you acting weird?” I try for defensive, hoping it will get him off my back.

“I agreed to keep your breakup to myself because it’s really no one’s business, but I won’t let you screw over Lennox?—”

“Watch yourself,” I say, straightening. “I would never do anything to hurt Lennox.”

“Wasting her time planning a wedding that isn’t going to happen isn’t exactly helping her,” War throws out, though his eyes remain closed.

“I don’t plan on wasting her time. I showed up to tell her that I would have to cancel the contract, and I intended to ask her to lunch since she’d done all that work setting up the appointments, but when I got there, she seemed so—” So not Lennox. The girl is fire and sure of herself. She never shows weakness. But today? Fuck, today she seemed broken. I hated every second of it, and I would have done anything to fix it. So I did. “She seemed lost.”

“Lennox seemed lost?” Brooks asks, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Yeah. Like she needed this job, and it really mattered to her.”

Leaning back again, Brooks runs a hand through his hair. It’s grown a bit wild since he cut it last season and started a challenge that led to half the league being practically bald. It was all for Sara. Of course it was. My brother would do anything to make that girl smile. “She does seem a bit different.”

This time I’m the one who leans in close. “It’s not just me? I’m worried about her. Something’s going on.”

Brooks nods. “Yeah, I’ll talk to Sar.”

War cracks one eye open. “You two sound ridiculous.”

“Sorry for interrupting your nap.” With a long pull of my beer, I turn back to Brooks. “Give me a few days to figure out why this gig means so much to her. Then maybe I can help her out of whatever she’s gotten herself into.”

“Aiden,” Brooks says, his tone full of disapproval. “You haven’t been in a relationship with the girl in ten years, and the last time you were?—”

I hold my hand up. I don’t need to go back to that time. “This isn’t about that.”

“You aren’t using this time with her to reacquaint yourself?” War asks, both eyes finally opened and locked on me.

“No, I?—”

“You aren’t thinking that if she spends a little time with you—planning your nonexistent wedding—that she’ll get jealous and remember all those feelings she had?”

Lips pressed together, I shrug. “I mean, when you put it that way…”

“It’s a bad idea,” Brooks grumps.

War sits up straight and leans forward. “I actually think it’s pretty brilliant. And I know just the wedding you can actually plan in the meantime.”