Dear Aaron(74)

Those eyes of his, which were a warm mahogany color, were on me. “Drink some. Take a deep breath,” he repeated, as his palm came off my thigh and he reached forward with two big palms. I didn’t need to look down to know one set of his fingers was on the lid, the other set suddenly covering mine as he turned and twisted the lid off before nudging it at me again.

All I could do was watch him as I lifted the bottle to my mouth.

It was the most self-conscious drink of my life having Aaron balancing on the tips of his toes in front of me almost eye level. He watched me so closely, with all that golden skin and that amazing bone structure I had rarely seen anywhere other than a high fashion magazine, that I expected to choke on the water and spit it all over him or something stupid like that. I watched him, and he watched me. And I wondered what he was thinking.

Mostly, I thought he’s here.

I smiled at him, anxious and nervous, as I took him in, and he took me in too. He smiled in return, not at all anxious or awkward, just… worried. I knew that look well enough from my own brothers. I could see it for what it was.

This was Aaron. My friend. And something told me I had nothing to worry about. I didn’t need to freak out any longer. I’d known what I was getting into coming here, and I couldn’t let that ruin my weekend. I could make the best out of this. I could be the best female friend he’d ever had. I could be the little sister figure he already looked at me as.

I could, I thought as he put a hand on my shoulder and slid it down the length of my upper arm.

But it would be unbelievably hard.

“You all right?” he whispered. He still had that smile on his face that honestly made my heart start beating a little weird again, but in a way that had nothing to do with a panic attack or palpitations.

I nodded at him, sensing my unease slowly going away as I took him in, this guy who knew more about me than a lot of other people I’d known for years. This guy who brought me water and squeezed my leg when I told him I was on the verge of losing it. This was the man I’d become friends with. The man I’d tried talking myself out of having a crush on and failing, all because of e-mails and messages.

This was Aaron. My friend. The person who had invited me to Florida because he wanted to meet me, and he was smiling at me, looking more worried than he should have.

“You sure? Your heart is okay?” he asked so earnestly I had to stop breathing for a second.

I plucked the bottle cap from his fingers and looked down as I screwed it on. “It’s okay. I was nervous.”

“You’re not anymore?” he asked, and it took everything in me to not glance up as he spoke.

I lifted up a shoulder and let out another breath from my mouth to calm down even more. “No.” My mouth twisted, and that time I couldn’t stop myself from glancing up at him. He was still watching me so closely, I had to glance down for a second before looking up again. “I lied. I am. Just a little.”

That pretty mouth twisted, his eyes going nowhere. “I thought I could watch the doors better if I was on the side of the lot, but this van was blocking right where you were standing,” he explained. His mouth formed a soft smile that my entire body wasn’t sure how to handle. At the same time, he put his hand back on my knee like it had always been there. His voice was slow and still so low only I could hear. “I wasn’t going to leave you.”

There went my heart once more.

He blinked, and it was like he could read my mind. “You really thought I wasn’t coming?”

I shrugged all over again.

“I—” He shook his head, and I finally noticed his hair wasn’t just neat, he’d combed it a little. There might have even been gel in it. It was short but just long enough to be able to be parted. “I don’t know what to say, Rubes.” It was the reluctant smile that crept over his face that was so unexpected, so much like the sun coming out over a cloudy day, I forgot about his hair. If that smile wasn’t enough, he squeezed my knee one more time. “Maybe we should text for a minute first. Break the ice.”

It was me who laughed, all awkward and choppy and still sounding like there were tears hanging around the back of my throat. “Maybe.” I laughed again, and that time it was watery and a bit broken, and luckily I hadn’t tried to act like I was tough because he’d know right then that I’d been on the verge of crying because I thought he wasn’t coming.

That handsome, model-like, slightly sun-weathered face flashed me a grin before tipping toward the bottle of water I was holding between my hands. “Take another drink.”

I undid the cap and took another drink. He was still watching me. Why was he watching me so much?

That pink mouth went tight as his eyes scanned over my face with a slowness that made me want to fidget and ask him to stop. “Why didn’t you saying anything?” he asked, still being so quiet.

Dragging the rim of the bottle from my mouth down to my chin and leaving it there, suspended in the air, I blinked, taking him in one more time and eating up the lines of his bones and the clear skin of his face and thinking he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. Of course he was. “I’ve told you everything.” Did he have a dimple too or was I imagining it? “I promise,” I assured him, trying to think of what I could have deliberately missed.

Aaron’s golden eyebrows rose just a little, just a little, that smirk-ish smile still playing at the corners of his mouth. “Almost everything.”