“Yes,” she said with a laugh. “No woman wants to be known as efficient.”

He nodded. “Right. I liked how put-together she was. But after a while, I could see that our differences were getting harder to ignore. I like teaching, but I want to start a family one day. I want to come home from the university and share something with someone. Lisa wasn’t interested in that.”

“Her career is important,” Antonia reminded him.

“Yes, it is. There are a lot of minefields for a woman in this industry, so I can’t blame her for choosing her career over me. I just wish...”

“What?”

It was difficult for him to articulate his past, but with Antonia, he found himself easing into her warm embrace. Aiden had not even described his conflicting feelings regarding Lisa with Robert, who knew them both quite well. “I just wish I had convinced her that we could have worked on both together. Instead, I just pulled away from her.”

The look in Antonia’s eyes wasn’t one of pity, but sadness. “I think I can understand that.”

“While she’s in the past, I still needed to learn that lesson,” Aiden said, searching her gaze. He wanted her to look at him, but she was staring into the fire. “I needed to recognize my mistakes before the next relationship.”

With her eyes fixed on the flames, Antonia nodded. “You’re right,” she murmured. “We have to fix the mistakes now...for the next relationship.”

Aiden wanted to know what she was thinking about as she worried her thumbnail between her teeth. “Antonia,” he said in a soft voice.

She finally turned to look at him. “Hm?”

“Thank you for talking.”

Antonia nodded and flashed him a beautiful smile. In that moment, Aiden wanted nothing more than to kiss the smart arch of her brow, the bridge of her nose, and the corners of her mouth. She pulled him with an invisible lure that made his body alive with electricity. Does she feel it too? “Are you hungry?” she asked. The question ended with her eyes dropping to his naked torso.

“I am,” he said with a thick voice. Her tone was innocent, but Aiden was brought back to the SuperValu where they first met. Her smile had the ability to make him lose his words as his blood rushed downward. He sat up and discreetly adjusted his damp jeans.

“Me too,” she breathed, met his gaze, and blushed. “The drink is going to my head.” She drew herself from the floor, stood, and stretched.

“Do you need any help in the kitchen?”

Antonia shook her head. “No, you stay there. While you’re in my cottage, I’d like to try feeding you.”

He watched her walk away, the gentle slope of her hips swayed as she went. Quiet intimacy like this was what Aiden missed most. He and Lisa had stopped talking honestly to one another long before she announced she was leaving him. In the evenings, they’d come home, tired from teaching and settled into watching television. On the weekends, she’d worked on things in her office, while he went out on the boat he kept tethered by the river. Instead of talking to his girlfriend, he’d taken to the water. The irony didn’t escape his notice. Aiden had to remember that all of his answers didn’t lie at the bottom of the ocean.