That’s when she’d realized she was … lost. Lost and unsure where she belonged. Especially right now standing next to the hottest guy she knew in a light mist staring down a flat tire and another endless, sleepless night in front of her.

“I’m sorry it’s so hard for you to be here,” Aidan said quietly.

She closed her eyes. “It’s not that.” Although it’d be a lot easier if she had any job—or life—prospects. Or an umbrella. She swallowed past the football-size lump in her throat. “It’s that I miss her. I miss her so much.”

“Aw, Lily,” he breathed and when he held out his arms she was just wrecked enough to walk into them. He opened his jacket for her to get closer and she snuggled inside, finding him dry and warm and smelling like heaven.

A sigh escaped her as those strong arms closed around her. And she pressed her face into his chest, letting him hold her up for a moment. For just a moment … “I feel so alone,” she whispered, hating that the words escaped, though they were the utter truth and she was tired of holding on to them.

Because she did feel alone. Alone and sad and restless, like maybe she was missing the boat that was her life.

“But you’re not alone¸” Aidan said, stroking a big hand down her back. “There are people here in Cedar Ridge who care about you.”

She didn’t say anything to this. Mostly because she was remembering how she’d felt like such an outsider at The Slippery Slope. Maybe he was talking about himself caring about her. That would be nice. Yes, she was crazy. She blamed the fact that he smelled delicious and had to tell her hopeful body that she was not going to kiss him again. She couldn’t. Not and live with herself. “You want to hear something stupid?”

“Always,” Aidan said, voice low, a little rough and a whole lot sexy.

“I pictured Cedar Ridge as standing still the whole time I was gone.” She shook her head and leaned back to see his face. “I expected it to be the same, but it’s not. Everything’s different, everyone’s changed.”

As if adding an exclamation point to this sentence, Mother Nature chose that moment to turn the mist into rain. Lily let out another mirthless laugh.

Aidan tugged off his jacket and wrapped her up in it. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

“Is Shelly your ex-girlfriend?” Not the question she’d meant to ask, not even close, but she hugged his jacket close and bit her tongue, not willing to take it back.

If Aidan was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it. “We saw each other on and off, mostly off, but she was never a girlfriend,” he said.

“So there’s no … relationship?”