“Love you,” he said, and hit end. This time he tossed his phone into the backseat, so he wouldn’t be tempted to access any more texts, and drove home. Except his body must have disconnected from his brain because he didn’t go home at all.

He went to Lily’s. He needed to talk to her. And/or grovel.

He knocked on her door and then leaned on it because damn, his side hurt and he was suddenly so bone tired he could barely stand. She wasn’t going to answer, and why should she? He was a complete dumbass.

When the door opened, he nearly fell inside.

Lily gasped and wrapped her arms around him. “Aidan?”

Chapter 26

Lily was as surprised and shocked to see Aidan as she was to find herself wrapped up in him. She hadn’t heard from him. Not that she’d expected to after their last conversation, but she’d been having more than a few regrets on how she’d left things. In fact, she’d been about to go hunt him down and tell him so.

“I know you said you didn’t want to see me anymore,” he muttered. “But my truck drove me here.” He buried his face in her hair. “God, Lily, you always smell so good. So fuckin’ good …”

Something was off, and she tried to pull back to get a good look at him, but he tightened his grip. And more than that, he was really leaning over her.

“Sorry,” he said when they almost toppled to their asses together in her doorway. “I’m really tired.”

“You’ve been fighting fires,” she said, smelling it on him. “How long have you been without sleep?”

“Two days,” he said, and straightened. “I’ve never resented the job before, but all I wanted was to get here. To you.”

Not wanting to read anything into that, she refused to react. “Why?”

“Because I was a dick, Lily. I overreacted. I was pissed off at Lenny because he’s been in my life a damn long time and I thought—” He shook his head and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Shit. I was wrong about him and I didn’t take that very well. I thought I could trust him.”

She knew a little something about that. “Not your fault,” she whispered.

“Maybe not, but that I accused you of talking out of turn most definitely is my fault. Christ, Lily, I’m an idiot. A damned sorry idiot. My mom came clean and told me what happened, that it was her doing the talking—which I think you know.”

She bit her lower lip, not about to throw Char under the bus.

Aidan gently stroked his thumb over her lip. “But even when I threw it in your face,” he said softly, “you never said anything. You protected her.”