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out the window to
where my father was dunking the grill in a bucket of water. I
wasn't sure how Dad would take the news if there was ever going to
be anything to announce. He was pretty protective when it came to
his "little" girl.
    She shook her head.
    "Mom, Aiden would never hurt
me."
    "Oh, I know that." Her hand zeroed in
on her hip. "I'm worried about you hurting him."
    Color me shocked. My mouth gaped and
she rewarded me with a little laugh.
    "Honey, you're young. Aiden, on the
other hand, is at an age where he's looking to settle down." Her
mouth pursed thoughtfully. "Aiden won't want to stop at a
fling."
    My eyebrows crawled halfway up my
forehead. It felt surreal having this conversation with my mother
-- about Aiden of all people.
    "He has lots of flings," I reminded
her.
    "Not with his good friend's daughter.
Not with a woman like you."
    "Right, his flings are all at least
six sizes smaller." I snorted, my reply bursting thoughtlessly from
my mouth. "Aiden goes through women faster than the shop goes
through drafting paper, Mom. He doesn't even bother to bring them
around anymore, they're gone so fast."
    "Aiden thinks you're beautiful. I've
seen the way he watches you, has been watching you the last several
years." She retrieved the dish towel and ran it through her
fingers. "Why do you think I replaced the pullout with a regular
couch?"
    I stared at her, mouth agape. Was she
telling me, despite her warning, that she had actually been trying
to encourage the two of us?
    "You..." My gaze jumped to the porch
where my father was attacking the last of the grill with gusto.
Even if she was trying to encourage it, she was seeing things with
Aiden that just weren't there before that day. "But
dad..."
    Another laugh, this one loud enough to
draw the attention of the man in question. "Honey, your dad knows
engines. He can be kind of clueless about people. Where else do you
think you get that from?"
    My jaw dropped closer to the floor. "I
haven't been clueless about Aiden, he…"
    My protest petered out before I could
finish. Aiden had asked me in the kitchen if I had thought about us
before. Out in the woods, he had said he wanted to drive me so
crazy I wouldn't give any other man a second glance. Yet he had
never been possessive of his lovers before, never cared enough
about them to worry one way or another.
    Had I really been clueless about his
budding attraction to me?
    "He hasn't had a fling in over a year
-- the guys at the shop are all teasing him that he must be seeing
a married woman or something. But that's not it at all." Stepping
toward me, she put her hands on my shoulders. "I know you and I
know Aiden. If he's finally given into his feelings, you have to be
ready for forever, Cecelia."
    Forever? Forever was a fairytale --
almost. I knew less than a handful of people that had been married
more than a decade. One of them had her hands on my shoulders, the
other was watching us through the window with a happy doofus grin
on his well-loved face. I started to shake my head, but she cupped
the side of my face.
    "If you aren't ready, Cece, you need
to stop right now."
    ********************
    All of my mother's fretting was for
nothing. Aiden returned a few minutes later, the cart loaded with
wood. He didn't tease me the rest of the day. Hell, he hardly
looked at me.
    Utterly deflated, I begged off staying
up past ten.
    On my way to bed, my mom hooked my arm
and pulled me into the bathroom. She opened her mouth, ready to
issue what I presumed was another warning to tread lightly with
Aiden's heart.
    As if! He had changed his mind. That
fact was coming through loud and clear. I didn't need to spend
graduate school specializing in communications to catch that
message. I told her as much as an infuriating smile curved her
lips.
    "Glad at least someone's happy about
it, Mom."
    "You haven't seen him look at you
tonight when your back is turned, baby." Opening the little
cupboard under the sink, she pulled out a small