My mouth twitched. The fact that I hadn’t heard from him since my ankle-breaking accident had perturbed me. I was mildly curious as to what he wanted. “Continue.”
He exhaled heavily. “Thank you. Here’s the thing, Tess. I can tell you a million times how sorry I am, and I know it doesn’t change a thing. So I’m using a new strategy.”
“Strategy? This isn’t a chess game, Aiden.”
“Ooh …” I heard Kira say from behind me. “It’s Mr. Not So Wonderful.” I looked over my shoulder at her and nodded.
“That didn’t come out right,” Aiden said as if he were mad at himself.
“No, it certainly didn’t.” If Aiden was calling to play some sort of a game with me, I wasn’t in the mood. I shouldn’t even be talking with him. I was trying to make a clean break—and I wasn’t talking about my ankle.
“It’s just that after I saw you in the hospital—”
“And why were you there?” If he were oh, so concerned, then why hadn’t he called me after? Why did he just disappear?
“Because I was worried. Blaze Harmon called and told me he put you in the hospital. I wanted to f**king kill him, but first I had to make sure you were okay. I called Leona, and she told me what had gone down in the field house. Which, by the way, was really stupid, Tessa. You should have known better.”
“You talked to Leona?” I couldn’t believe she hadn’t told me! Why would she keep that from me?
“Yeah, baby. And then I got to the hospital, and you were so hurt and helpless in that bed. I would have stayed, but when your parents got there, I went to find Blaze.”
I gasped. “Did you hit him?”
“Naw. He was already gone. But I’ve made some calls.”
Well, I guess that’d explain some of Blaze’s anger. I looked over to see Kira staring at me intently, her blue eyes curious. I wondered what she was thinking.
“And then I decided, Tess. I can’t just give up on you. Yes, I f**ked up. But don’t you think it kills me? Don’t you think I’m hurting, too? God, baby. All I care about is you. Protecting you, making you happy. All I want is to make you happy again.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“I’ll prove I’m worth it, Tess. I’ll—”
I closed my eyes, a tingling spreading from my face down the front of my chest, my nose burning with the start of tears. “Stop,” I whispered. “I have to go.”
“But our anniversary—”
I hung up, dropping my phone to my side. Our anniversary. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten. Next Saturday would have been our three-year anniversary. Oh, my heavens. I might melt into tears right now.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and opened my eyes to see Kira. She seemed uncomfortable being this close, but she tried to smile anyway. “Letting go is the hardest part,” she said. “But it’s the most important.”
I nodded as if I agreed, but I didn’t. For a long time, Aiden had made me happy. If I hadn’t screwed up by believing Christian’s lies about him, maybe Aiden wouldn’t have slept with Mary Rudick. Mary Rudick. I wasn’t sure I could ever get over them being together. Him (sort of) cheating on me. I was a SOS operative, and my (sort of) boyfriend had been sneaking around behind my back. It was irony at its worst. And I knew Kira was right. But still …
I had no idea how to let go of Aiden.
TO DO LIST
1. Yoga
2. Nail appointment
3. Buy a black Lycra kitten-suit and cut out room for cast
4. Place order for a new GPS-tracking device
5. Help Leona pick out an awesomely covert disguise
6. Practice routine—with crutches
7. Call Joel to set up a dinner date ♥ ♥
8. Shower and get dressed in new kitten-suit for mission
9. Make cookies before the squad gets here—oatmeal chocolate chip
10. Get to the party at ten
11. Totally kick traitor tush!!!
Chapter 11
Leona turned to one side and then the other as she looked in my bedroom mirror. “Is it on straight?” she asked.
I smiled. “Yep. And you look spectacular.”
“You think?”
“Definitely.” But something was bothering me. “Leona?” I asked as she tucked her hair under a wig. “Why didn’t you tell me that Aiden called you the night I went to the hospitial?”
She paused and then flicked her eyes up to meet mine in her reflection. “I guess I figured you’d want him there but would never admit to it. So when he called … I made the suggestion that he stop by to check on you.”
I furrowed my brow, unsure how I felt about that. I mean, he was my ex so I was free to ignore him if I wanted. Still—
Before I could think about it any further, my doorbell rang. The girls were here! A surge of pre-investigation excitement surged through me. “Be right back,” I said and crutched out of my pink room toward the front door. I’d gotten a supercute black one-piece jersey suit, but I had to cut off the right pant leg so it’d fit over my cast. It sort of ruined the look, but I went for it anyway. Black was such a tough color to pull off with white plaster.
When I answered, Kira and Izzie were there. Kira looked fabulous as usual, her blond curls pulled back in a tight ponytail, her black spandex skirt tight.
Izzie, on the other hand, looked awful. Her red hair was tucked up under a black trucker cap, pieces hanging down haphazardly. “Hi,” I said cautiously and then shot a glance at Kira. She seemed to realize that something was off, too. She raised an eyebrow questioningly.
I was just about to invite them in when Kira gasped, pointing behind me. “No way!” she called. “You’re joking, right?” I glanced over my shoulder into the living room.
Leona was standing next to the maroon sofa in what appeared to be a very masculine stance. Her legs were spread wide and her arms were crossed. She had a black mustache adhered to her upper lip, and the self tanner we’d applied tinted her skin just olive enough to change her look. Her hair was pulled under a dark shaggy wig, and her normally perky B cups were hidden under an oversized flannel.
“A guy?” Kira asked. “The brilliant disguise you two came up with was for Leona to be a guy? You really think that’ll fool anyone?”
“I’m wearing Axe body spray,” Leona said. “A lot of it. I plan for them to be so overwhelmed by my smell, they’ll look past my petite hands. And this better work! I had to take off all of my polish and cut my nails short for this.”