BREAKTHROUGH (Love's Not Easy Series Book 2) (15 page)

“I love that about you, how you want to protect me, Aiden; but, you can’t always protect me.”

He took her hand and led her to a grassy area of land, just off the beach.  “It is almost time for the sun to rise and we don’t need to walk any farther.  We have to walk back and we are both exhausted.”

Aiden walked behind Aimee and put his arms around her.  “I will always try to protect you, Aimee.”

They watched as the sun rose up in the sky.  Just as it had rose enough to paint the sky with an array of yellow and orange colors in the background, Aiden turned Aimee to face him; he brushed her hair from her face and looked into the hazel eyes that kept him mesmerized.

Aimee could feel her heart rate racing.  When she looked into his blue eyes, she was lost in the part of the world that only consisted of the two of them.  No one else was around; and, the only other thing that mattered to her was God.  She liked that world.  She wanted to stay there forever.

In a matter of seconds, they went from gazing into one another’s eyes to Aiden’s lip magically touching hers.  She had never been kissed like this, not by LJ; and, it was way better than her junior high kiss. It was a kiss from someone who loved her.  Aiden loved her. Now her heart was smiling and she was in a lot of trouble.

Aiden hated to stop the kiss.  He was afraid she would pull away, but she kissed back.  He knew this was, by far, the most passionate kiss he had ever experienced.  Kissing was a lot different when you are truly in love with the one you kiss.

Aimee looked at him, her brain had taken over her thoughts.  “I… I…”

“It is ok.  We are exhausted.  We can talk later.  Let’s get you back to the flat.  You can take your medicine and a nap.”

Aiden noticed the confusion in her eyes.  The look was not one of not liking or wanting the kiss.  It was more of a she was scared to cross that line.  He could deal with that.

“Aiden, I am sorry, I shouldn’t.”

“Aimee, I promise, it is ok.”

“I am not leaving this spot, until we talk about what just happened.”

Aiden knew she would not let this go.  “Aimee, I think we…”

She crossed her arms.  “We can’t keep fooling ourselves.  This may be the first time we kissed, but we have had other close calls.”

“Aimee, I don’t want to talk about this while we are tired and you are hurting.  I promise, if we can just go back to the flat to rest and get your pain under control, we can talk later.”

“After I break up with LJ.  Because that is only one of the reasons, what I just did was wrong.”

Aiden let her comment slide.  She didn’t think kissing him was wrong and he knew it. Just like, he knows that she is scared and going to try to come up with a million reasons why they cannot date. That is why he needed time to come up with his responses to her reasons.

Aimee was so exhausted, when her head hit her pillow, she was out like a light.  Her dreams were all about kissing Aiden and the life she wished she could have with him.  She liked life in her dream world, life was so much easier there.

Chapter Sixteen

Her head was pounding and Piper was speaking to her, in what seemed as, a very loud voice.  “Aimee, we have to take you for the CAT SCAN, get up.”

“Give me a minute.”  Aimee barely opened her eyes.

“We don’t have much time, it is already ten thirty and we need to have you there before noon.”  Piper was using a gentle voice now.

Lexi was going through Aimee’s closet. “Here, I have a comfortable outfit for you.  We will wait for you on the balcony.”

Aimee surrendered and got up, her head hurt to touch.  She stood in front of the mirror and looked at her face.  The knot and cut were on the left side of her forehead, just above her eye.  She stared and then decided to take a photo.  She was going to send it to LJ later.

Lexi and Piper knocked on the door.  “You ok?”

“Yeah, come in.”

Lexi covered her mouth.  Not only was Aimee’s face bruised, her arms looked horrible too.

“I have to find a different shirt.  But first, do me a favor and take photos of my arms.”

“Why?  Did you decide to press charges?”  Piper took her phone, while Lexi looked for a shirt with sleeves.

“No.  I plan to send them to him later, when he gives me a hard time about not wanting to be alone with him.”

There was no use to try to cover up her eye today.  She just wore a fedora hat and shades.  She was a little dizzy after walking down the stairs, so she took a seat in the chair.

Piper went to get her some coffee and something to eat.  “You guys don’t have to wait on me, I can get it myself.  I just need a minute.”

“We don’t care.”  Piper came and sat beside her. “Are you really going to see LJ?”

“I can’t break up with him over a text.”

“Yes you can, send him the pictures we took of your face and arms with a caption that says I HOPE YOU GET THE PICTURE WE ARE SOOOOOOOO OVER!”  Lexi grinned.

“Yes, because that sounds so like me.  I am going to meet him in public and break up with him.  I will be fine.”

Aiden entered the room.  “Then I will be two tables away, ready to beat some sense into him if he touches you again.”

Aimee stood and grabbed her purse. “The last thing he needs to see is you there.”  She had a frown on her face, which told Aiden she wishes he could go.

“Well we will be close, at another restaurant. Keep your phone in reach at all times.”  Colin opened the door.  “We need to go.  I am driving Aiden to pick up his car at the dealership when we are done at the clinic.”

Aimee completed the scan and then seen Dr. Adkins, who told her the scan was fine.  She had a concussion. He gave her orders to take it easy for the next two days and she will be good to go to class when they start on Wednesday.

She took a long nap when she got home, then she sent a text to LJ that said. 
Hey I am sitting at home with a major headache and two very sore arms.  I have to take things easy for a few days.  Doctor’s orders.  I can’t meet you until the weekend.  By the way, here are some pics of the gifts you left me last night.

Her text was approved by Piper and Lexi. LJ sent her a text back telling her he was busy until Saturday.  Unless she wanted to join him for the first year student dinner. Not the exact ideal date to dump someone, so she text him back, no, her bruises and steri-strips would clash with her dress and told him she would meet him at Dolli’s Delegacy in Birch Park at 4:00pm on Saturday.  He wanted to know why she wanted to meet there.  She told him she liked their food and the park was calming to her. She wasn’t lying, she needed to be somewhere calming and she loved their food.

When Aiden and Colin returned, Aiden went to his room and stayed for two hours.  He came out in time to help Colin and the other guys with dinner.  The girls, including Kelli, watched some of Aimee’s old eighties movies.

Things were not the same between Aimee and Aiden.  It was going to be a weird week.  After dinner, everyone went to the living area.  Aimee looked at all the couples sitting around the room.  “You guys don’t need to stay here. Go out and have a good time.”

It took some convincing, but they left.  Aiden started to go back to his room.  “Where are you going?”

“My room. So, I can give you your space.”

“Aiden, please, we need to fix this.”

“When do you meet LJ?”

“Saturday at Dolli’s Delegacy.  Why?”

“That is a good place to go.”

He sat down on the chair and Aimee came and sat on the table in front of him.  Her hazel eyes had tears in them.  He wanted to hold her right now, but he knew she would resist him.

“Aiden, this morning, when we kissed.  It was great.  I don’t want you to think I feel otherwise.”

“But…”

“But, there are so many buts, one is that we live together here.”

“We have no access to each other’s rooms.”

“Last night, when I showered in your and Colin’s bathroom, I realized how easy we really did have access to each other’s rooms.”

“I can move out.”

“Seriously.  I can’t let you do that.”

“I’ll still be here, except to sleep and shower.”

Aimee shook her head.  “If we get together now, then everything Ava said about me is true.”

Aiden leaned forward and lifted her head up, so she was looking him in the eyes.  “Not one word Ava spoke about you was true.  You did not come here with the intention to steal me from her.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Aimee, you can’t worry about what others will think.  Especially Ava or LJ.”

“I didn’t say anything about him.”

“I know how Aimee Pittman thinks, remember?”  He took her hand and lifted her in his lap.

“Aiden, we live in different countries that has an ocean between them.  How do we make that work?”

“We have two years to figure it out.”

“I have a company to run that is based in Savannah, Georgia.”

“Don’t forget, you also have a company here, in Neahovia, to run as well.”

Aimee laid her head on his shoulder.  “Why does everything in my life always end up being so complicated?”

“Because you love a challenge and, without one, you would be bored.”

Aimee slid off his lap and stood by the chair.  “Aiden, I don’t know what to do here.  I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

“Aimee, relax.  I am not asking you out or to be my girlfriend.  Not yet.  I know we have things to work through first.  Like, for instance, you need to break up with LJ, for what he did last night and the dates before that, not because we kissed and have feelings for each other.”

“Thanks for reminding me of that.  It helps with the guilt.”

“I know, that is why I reminded you.”  He stood and took her hands.  “Aimee, the kiss we shared this morning, is now my favorite memory of my life.  With that being said, it is causing us to have this conversation sooner than either of us wanted to.  I have been in love with you since the day I saw you singing with your hair in a towel.  The past year I have come to realize how much I love you.”

Aimee grinned at him.  “Yeah, you stole a piece of my heart that day and every day since.”

“When I ask you to be my girlfriend, everything will be right.”

“How do we get back to how we were up till the moment we kissed?”

“Like this.”  He put on a comedy movie popped popcorn and fixed tea.  They watched the movie like nothing happened.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ 

Saturday afternoon arrived quickly.  The first few days of school were behind them.  Aimee and Aiden had most of their classes with the friends they had in a study group last year, Julia, Leo, Milton, and Ruby.

She had gotten pretty good at covering her bruises and steri-strips, but today, she wanted them to show.  It had nearly been a week since the incident and she was still bruised pretty badly.  She fixed her hair and put on a pair of cut off distressed khaki shorts and a pink and tan striped tank.  She slipped on her sandals and slid her hair back with her sunglasses.

She sat at a table outside in a very crowded part of the restaurant.  She could see the kids playing on the playground and a group of men playing soccer.  She ordered her food and sat drinking a tropical smoothie.

LJ was about five minutes late.  He looked around the crowded area.  “Why in the world did you pick here to sit?”

“Because I like the view of the park.”

“I am going to have to stop letting you pick out what to do on our dates.  Where is a waiter?”

“They will be here in a second.”  He was making it so easy to break up with him.  He had no idea he was destroying any guilt she may have about breaking up with him.

“I can’t believe you didn’t try to cover those bruises.  And a tank, seriously have you seen your arms?”

Aimee nearly choked on her smoothie.  “I can’t believe you have the nerve to ask me that.”

He leaned back on his chair and slid his sunglasses on his head.  “You can’t seriously blame me for your fall.”

“Yes, I can. I have lots of bruises and cuts to prove it.”

“Aimee, I don’t know what that group of friends of yours convinced you, but…”

“First of all, my friends are like family to me.  They care about me.  Secondly, I have your hand prints bruised on my arms as evidence you pulled me down.”

“I was trying to catch you when you started falling.”

Aimee was getting furious.  She could not believe he had the gall to try to convince her she fell and he was trying to catch her.  The waitress brought her food before she could comment.

“I need to place an order.”  LJ was very rude to the poor girl.  When she took his order, he turned to Aimee with a look of disgust and evil in his eyes.

“You ordered before I even got here and didn’t think to order for me?”

“I was hungry.”

He grabbed her wrist.  “Well, you will wait until my food gets here before you eat.”

She pulled her wrist from his hand.  “Ok, that is it, I have had it.  I wanted to be nice and talk rational to you, but you just threw that out the window.”

The waitress came and brought his drink.  Aimee had no clue what he was drinking, but she could smell the liquor from her chair.  “Can I please get a takeout container?”

The girl looked at her and then LJ.  “Sure.  Would you like a fresh smoothie to go as well?”

“Yes, thank you.”

LJ didn’t wait for the waitress to walk away before he started yelling at her.  People were looking at them, Aimee just wanted to get her food and go.

“What are you up to, Aimee?  Why did you get your food to go before I even had mine served?  What is out the window?”  He hit the table with his fist, causing her to jump.

The waitress came over quickly with the container and fresh smoothie.  Aimee slid her a fifty dollar tip because of how LJ was acting.  The girl looked more scared than Aimee felt.  As she put her food in her container, she wished she had taken Aiden up on being here.

“Stop packing your food and talk to me, Aimee!  Now!”