The Wall of Winnipeg and Me (33 page)

Where was Aiden?

Had he forgotten about me or—

That familiar, big head suddenly appeared in a group of men just slightly smaller than him. Those brown eyes set deep into that broadly painted bone structure scanned the room quickly before they landed on me.

I waved.

His features weren’t molded into any kind of particular emotion as he tipped his chin down. Those fine, full lips mouthed, ‘Ready?’

I smiled and nodded. Making my way through the crowded room, I kept my gaze on Aiden’s face for the most part. I passed by two of the guys I’d done some work for in the past and stopped briefly when one of them shook my hand; the other player, the super sexy one every female Three Hundreds’ fan was in love with, gave me a hug.

I was going to have to tell Diana about it. She’d lost it when I’d told her I was doing some work for him.

Apparently, I must have had a look on my face that said exactly how attractive I found his teammate because Aiden was frowning when I reached him. I could feel the eerie sensation of multiple eyes on me, on us, looking and judging, and I knew what we needed to do. I made my eyes go wide and I flashed him a fake, toothy smile he would definitely realize was a sign to mentally prepare himself.

In hindsight, I should have kissed him.

Instead, I hugged him, my arms going around his waist for the first time ever.

The fact that we’d—literally—slept together but hadn’t even officially hugged was beyond me. This had been two and a half years in the making.

If I had ever taken the time to imagine what it would be like to hug Aiden, the reality of it wouldn’t have been disappointing in the least. Despite the fact that his broad shoulders tapered down to a trim waist, it wasn’t that small. It was an illusion based on how muscular and oversized his upper body was.

My hands found each other around the small of his back. My chest met with his abs, and they were just as hard and unyielding as they looked. I pressed the side of my face to the spot right between his pecs, cheek first. His body was warm from the shower he’d taken and he smelled like the clean, gentle scent of his soap.

In the middle of me taking in the soft fragrance coming off of him, he put his arms around me. Gently, gently, gently. One arm went around the top of my shoulders and the other one directly below it. He tightened his embrace and brought me in an inch closer into the cocoon of his massive body.

I tried not to freeze. He was hugging me.
He was hugging me.

Something settled at the top of my head and I knew, I just freaking knew, it was his chin.

It was probably the second best hug I’d ever gotten in my life; only beat by the one my foster dad had given me when he visited me in the hospital right after Susie had hit me with her car. He’d been the first person to show up, the first person to come into my room after I’d woken up, and I’d lost it. And he’d given me a hug and let me grieve for the death of the rocky relationship I’d had with her.

But this was a completely different kind of hug.

While Zac wasn’t a small man by any means and my little brother was six foot four, I’d never been hugged by someone as large as Aiden. I liked it. I liked it a whole lot. His bicep, pressed over my ear, seemed to muffle the noise of the people talking in the background. It was like being swallowed up by a tornado. A big, muscular, warm tornado with an amazing body that was going to watch out for you for the next few years of your life, even when you weren’t on the best terms.

A big, muscular, warm tornado with an amazing body that was finally my friend.

That thought had me smiling into the beloved hoodie he had on. “This is nice,” I admitted in a whisper.

The chest under my face tightened as much as those refined muscles could possibly get.

The hug only lasted possibly five seconds total before I drew back, but I was grinning like a total idiot, and I might have even been blushing because the moment was so monumentally epic, it felt like I’d won a gold medal. Then I remembered the team had lost their game and I dug into my front pocket for one of the slightly melted peppermint patties I’d snuck into the stadium. I had planned on eating it, but when I found the pass with my ticket, I ate one, saving the other for the big guy.

Holding the small plastic wrapped candy out, I raised my eyebrows.

He raised his eyebrows right back and plucked the chocolate from my palm, tearing it open and sticking it in his mouth, the wrapper disappearing into the pocket of his jacket.

I watched him as he chewed it slowly and asked, “Do you have to do anything else?”

The Wall of Winnipeg shook his head, his attention totally focused on me, instead of the people around us.

My face went a little warm, unsure of how I felt with him and being the center of that intense stare. “You want to go home?”

“Yes.”

“Will you drive me to get my car? I parked in the normal people’s lot—”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

“I don’t know if they’ll let you drive into the parking lot…” I trailed off when he gave me that ‘you’re an idiot, Van’ look. I really wanted to stick my finger in his nose. “Right. Of course they’ll let you in. Give me a ride then.”

Aiden silently agreed, steering me with a tilt of his head toward the exit.

We’d taken maybe two steps when I spotted a familiar face standing at the entrance to the family room. I rolled back my shoulders as we approached the Three Hundreds’ wide receiver. I saw the moment he spotted Aiden and then happened to glance to see me next to him. The smile that came over his face was downright unsettling, and it pissed me off.

“Good game, man,” Christian Delgado said to Aiden even as his gaze stayed locked on me. “Hi, Vanessa.”

“Hi, Christian,” I greeted him back, my voice flat, totally unenthusiastic.

“How you doing?”

“Fine, thank you, and you?” I seriously sounded like Lurch from “The Addams Family.”

The handsy fucker winked. He freaking winked at me even as Aiden played my oversized shadow. “Great, honey.”

Honey? Really?

A weight landed on my shoulder. Out of my peripheral vision, a wrist was draped there, long fingers hanging loosely. I kept the look on my face blank as we passed him and headed toward the tunnel.

I finally glanced up at Aiden once we were far enough away from the family room and Christian. “Sorry about springing that hug on you, but I knew people were watching and it would have looked strange if we didn’t.”

He kept his attention forward with a dismissive shake of his head. “How’d it go in there?”

“I had five women I’d never talked to in my life ask how many months along I was. Then three other people told me I’d better plan to have a baby during the offseason unless I wanted the powers that be upset with me.” I raised my eyebrows thinking about those conversations again. I didn’t like people telling me what to do, especially people I didn’t know who were butting into something that wasn’t their business.

“Ignore them.”

“I should,” I sighed, still torn between feeling bad for being a liar and annoyed with the other women for being so damn nosey.

He frowned down at me. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Aiden squeezed my shoulder. “What is it?”

I shot him a look that was the closest imitation of his possible. “I feel bad being super friendly with them when this isn’t what they think it is.” I caught the crease between his eyebrows as they deepened. “And who knows what’ll happen in a few months, right?” I lowered my voice, knowing how confidential this information was.

His nod was slow, not necessarily wary but something else completely; something I couldn’t identify. “You couldn’t live in different state than me,” he said out loud like this wasn’t something he should stay quiet about.

I glanced around the walkway we were going down, just to make sure no one had popped up out of nowhere with a recording device in hand. “You want to talk about this now?”

“Why not?” the man who lied only every blue moon asked with a hunch of his shoulders.

Seeing no one around, I shrugged under his wrist. “Because maybe you don’t want everyone to know?”

“I don’t care, Van. I’m always going to do what’s best for me. If anyone’s surprised by that, it’s their fault.”

The fact that I’d kept my plan to quit a secret for two months didn’t make me feel guilty. At all. I always knew Aiden of all people would understand what I’d done if he put some thought into it.

“You’re fine moving?” he asked.

“I knew what I was getting myself into with you, big guy. I’m not going to suddenly back out on you. You told me you weren’t totally happy here. This is your dream.” I knew his contract was almost over. I knew even after he signed with a team, there was always the chance he could be traded. I was prepared for that reality; I’d made sure of it. Sure there was Diana, but continents could separate my best friend and me, and we’d still find a way to talk every day. Distance wouldn’t do anything to our friendship. I’d survived not being her neighbor since I was fourteen. Plus, I was never moving back to El Paso. Ever.

On the other hand, my brother had his own life. We saw each other as much as we could, but with him in school and playing basketball, it wasn’t often enough. After his game in Denton, it would more than likely be another month or two until I saw him again.

I was okay with that because I knew he was fine. He was doing what he loved. It was with that thought, standing next to this man who clung onto his dream with every finger and toe, that I stopped walking. So did he.

Aiden’s expression was carefully muted, but I wanted to make sure he understood. “I can work anywhere, and anyway, I’m here for you, not the team. Do whatever you need to do.”

The expression on his face turned a little funny.

“We’ll figure it out, but don’t worry about me,” I tried my best to reassure him. I wasn’t sure why he thought I would change my mind or back out on him or do whatever it was that he thought I would. I’d thought about this long and hard before I’d agreed to marry him. An athletic career wasn’t a guaranteed thing even if he was in the best shape of his life.

Something so bright could be blown out in no time.

I smiled up at him and asked, “Are you hungry?” I blinked. “Stupid question. You’re always hungry. I’ll make something at the house.”

“You haven’t eaten?”

“I ate before I came to the game, but that was hours ago.”

“You need to make sure you’re eating enough with all the running,” he threw in, making me almost trip. “What did you do today?”

“Nothing. I stayed at home.”

“What about your friend you’re always talking to? She lives here, doesn’t she?”

“Diana? She went to her parents’ house yesterday.”

“In El Paso?”

“No. They moved to San Antonio a few years ago.”

“You didn’t want to go with her?”

“I’m not used to making a big stink about Thanksgiving. I’d rather get some work done and make some money.”

Was that a half smile that came over Aiden’s mouth? I’m pretty sure it was.

“I like Halloween and Christmas. That’s all,” I explained a little more in detail. Eyeing that fraction of a smile, I made myself ask the question I’d been thinking of the last few days since the nearby grocery store had begun carrying Christmas trees. “Hey, would it bother you if I put up a tree for the holidays?” And decorations, but I kept that to myself.

I had prepared myself for him to say no.

But he didn’t say no as he guided me through the parking lot toward his Range Rover, parked in the closest spot in the lot because he was one of the first people to get to the stadium. “If it makes you happy, it wouldn’t bother me.”

I snapped my head up to look at him. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He snuck me a glance. “Stop acting like you’re shocked. You really think I would tell you no?”

And suddenly, I felt like an asshole. “Maybe.”

Those brown eyes rolled. “I don’t care about Christmas, but if you want to do something, go for it. You don’t have to ask. It’s your house too.”

Looking up at him, I didn’t know where the knot in my throat came from, but it took a long time for it to go away.

I
didn’t know
who he was trying to fool, because he wasn’t fooling anyone.

The black knit beanie he had pulled down to nearly his eyebrows wasn’t hiding anything. Neither were the sunglasses he’d left on even after we got out of the car. Sure his hoodie mostly hid just how developed those big muscles underneath it were, but a nearly three-hundred-pound man wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

It was like dressing an elephant in camouflage.

In this case, it was a sports superstar going into a college-level basketball game trying to be as inconspicuous as possible with the most minimal effort. That was the thing about Aiden, he never really went out of his way to go incognito. He just preferred being a hermit at home to avoid being spotted. Hence why I’d been hired. I understood. I really did. He valued his privacy, and in my heart, I knew he would be the exact same way if he weren’t famous.

Yet here he was, walking into a basketball stadium with me in Denton, Texas, where there was going to be at least a few hundred people in attendance, all to watch my little brother play.

When I’d gotten up early that morning, the day after Thanksgiving, the last thing I expected was to find Aiden awake at the breakfast nook. Usually the day after a game, he slept like the dead and even went as crazy as to get an extra two or three hours more of snooze time. With the Three Hundreds’ game falling on Thanksgiving Thursday, the team gave the staff and players the rest of the weekend off.

But there he’d been at nine in the morning, in the kitchen, in his pajamas, eating an apple, looking just as surprised to see me awake as I was to see him. After dinner the night before, we’d watched two episodes of “Dragonball Z,” and then Aiden had tromped upstairs to hit the sack.

“Where are you going?” he had blatantly asked that morning.

“My little brother has a game,” I answered him as I made my way toward the fridge to make breakfast.

Holding the apple up to his face, his features went pensive. “What kind of a game?”

It was then that I realized I had never told him. “He plays college basketball for Louisiana.”

The Wall of Winnipeg blinked. “What position?”

“Point guard.” I wasn’t sure why, but I suddenly asked, “Do you want to come? It’s only an hour away.”

“I was planning on resting today…” He kind of trailed off and shrugged. “What time do you want to leave?”

Yeah, I’d been dumbstruck for a second.

It had only taken me the entire drive to decide that maybe I should have left him home. It wasn’t like I cared if fans came up to him or anything—he was what he was—but I hadn’t taken into consideration that he might not enjoy being gawked at for hours if anyone recognized him.

And why wouldn’t anyone recognize him? He was the face of a professional NFO team in Texas. Even people who didn’t watch football knew who he was with the big-name endorsements he had.

I then reminded myself that Aiden was always well aware of the pros and cons to the decisions he made. Always. He was a big boy and he made his own choices, so screw it. If he wanted to tag along, who was I to say no? I kept my mouth closed and my advice to myself.

And so, hours after my invitation, we were at the coliseum where the university held their games. Finally getting a chance to watch my little brother play for the first time this season, I was pretty excited both to see the team’s starting point guard and to have The Wall of Winnipeg tagging along when he was usually content to stay home.

After picking up the tickets I’d bought on the way from will-call—I had originally only purchased one—we made it through security without any issues. In no time at all, we found our section and Aiden gestured me to go ahead of him down the stairs.

The stadium wasn’t anywhere near being packed. Considering it was the day after Thanksgiving, most of the North Texas’s students were probably with their families, doing things other than going to a basketball game. There were only a couple handfuls of Louisiana colors in the stands. It suddenly explained why we’d gotten such good seats at the last minute.

By the time we sat down, the game hadn’t started yet, but it was almost time for the players to come out. I smiled over at Aiden when he was seated next to me, the side of his denim-clad knee touching mine. I reached over and patted his thigh. I mean, I’d sat on his lap. He’d slept in the same bed as me. I’d given him a hug. What was a little pat in comparison? “Thank you for coming.”

His careful expression slowly melted into a flat one. His words were clear cut. “Shut up.”

I stared at him for all of two seconds before grinning and touching his thigh again with a snort. “What? I can tell you thank you as much as I want.”

“Don’t.”

I ignored his comment. “I’m glad you came. Doing things with someone else is a lot more fun than being alone, even if you’re telling me to shut up. I appreciate it. So sue me.”

Aiden made an exasperated sound. “I’m going to find the bathroom. I’ll be back.”

I gave him a thumbs-up before he got to his feet, which earned me an annoyed look, and then he disappeared up the stairs. I sat there drumming my fingers on my kneecaps waiting for the players to come out of the locker rooms. Someone tapped on my shoulder from behind, and I glanced back to see three guys in their early twenties sitting forward, eager expressions splashed all over their faces.

“Hi,” I said a little uncertainly, wondering what was going on.

One guy elbowed the other one, and the third cleared his throat as he scratched behind his ear. If there was one thing I knew, it was people who felt awkward, and these guys were it.

“Is that Graves?” the one in the middle who had gotten the elbow asked.

Shit.

“Who?” I smiled sweetly, using my best dumb-girl eyes along with it.

“Aiden Graves,” the friend said, like that would help if I really had no idea who that was.

Was I supposed to admit it was him? Or continue playing like I’d never heard of Aiden? A part of me wanted to go with the latter, but if someone caught a really good look of him and confirmed that it
was
him…

Well, Aiden wasn’t the type to run away from anything.

So I dropped the doe eyes and nodded. “Yeah. Our secret.”

From the way they reeled back, they were either shocked or they didn’t believe me. All three of them blinked for a second before suddenly snapping out of it.

“It’s really him?” One of them whispered.

The one in the middle muttered, “Holy fuck,” before going a little pale.

“He’s even bigger in person,” the one on the right muttered, turning in his seat to look around like Aiden would have magically reappeared in just a couple of minutes.

The guy was right though. Pictures didn’t do him justice. Hell, I was used to seeing Aiden up close and personal all the time, and I still hadn’t become desensitized to him.

“
What is he doing here?”
the one on the left asked.

It was a fair question. Aiden had gone to college in Wisconsin. “My brother plays for Louisiana,” I explained, deciding to go with the truth again. I mean, I couldn’t really pull off a lie well anyway.

“Are you his girlfriend?”

The guy in the middle hit his friend on the right with his forearm. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. Obviously she’s his girlfriend, dumbass.”

“You’re both dumbasses,” Lefty stated. “He got married. I saw it online.” A hesitant look came over his face as he glanced at me. “Didn’t you?”

Shit. Well, I did this to myself. In for a penny, in for a pound. My face got all red and hot even though I was trying to will it not to. “Yep.”

“I’m not surprised. I love your hair.” Righty smiled.

Yeah, my face went a little hotter and I shifted in my seat, conscious that I was two weeks past when I needed to do something with the fading teal color in my hair or just color over it. “Oh, thanks.”

“Dude, would you shut the fuck up? Graves can eat you if he doesn’t kill you,” his friend, the guy in the middle, whisper-hissed.

I took that as my cue to turn around and face forward. They kept arguing behind me in whispers. Should I have played dumb?

Sometime later, in the middle of a little girl singing the National Anthem, Aiden’s big-ass butt plopped down into the seat next to mine. I tucked my elbows in to give him more room just as he handed over a souvenir cup filled with what I had a feeling was going to be Dr. Pepper. He had a bottle of water in his other hand.

I leaned over and patted the top of his hand. “Thank you, big guy.”

He made sure to meet my eyes before leaning into me in return; his tongue poking at the inside of his cheek. “You don’t have to thank me all the time.”

“Shut up.” I used his line on him, earning me a head shake and a flash of a tiny grin in return from the man whose face was about four inches away from mine. Just as he started to pull away, I tugged on his hoodie sleeve so he could come closer.

He did. Aiden was so close the side of his bristly jaw brushed the tip of my nose. I didn’t jerk back, but I stayed in place, letting that wonderful clean scent coming off his skin fill my nostrils. “Those guys sitting behind us recognized you,” I whispered.

Aiden shifted his face just enough so that his mouth brushed my earlobe. “Did they say anything to you?” That gritty, deep voice seemed to go straight to the center of my chest.

It took everything in me not to shiver as his breath hit the sensitive spot on my neck. “They asked if you were you and I said yes.” I had to swallow as another soft puff of breath hit my neck. “And they know we’re… you know…
together
.”

He didn’t react.

“I didn’t know what to say. Sorry,” I whispered.

That had him pulling back just enough to give me a dry look. “Vanessa—”

I beat him to it. “Shut up.”

“I was going to tell you to stop saying sorry, but that works too.”

Did he just smile at me? Did he just smile
smugly
at me? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure, but I was going to take it as a yes. Yes, he had just smiled at me playfully.

And that had me blinking once. My heart beating twice. “In that case…”

“Shut up,” he finished for me.

I burst out laughing as I reached into my purse and pulled out a red apple I had hidden under my scarf to get it through security, and handed it over. “What a good boy. If you behave, I might have a smashed up Vega bar in my pocket for you.”

I didn’t know what it said about me that I carried snacks around for him, but whatever. He was like my puppy I had to make sure ate enough. You know, a massive puppy that made my insides feel discombobulated from time to time. Yeah,
discombobulated.
It was that bad.

He took the apple from me and reclined into his seat just as the teams’ centers approached the middle of the court for tip-off. How the hell had I missed the players getting on the court? I took off my jacket, rolled back my shoulders, and prepared to cheer on my brother.

“Which one is he?”

I pointed at the six-foot-three, pale-skinned idiot who I used to put on dresses for fun when we were younger. “Number thirty.”

“He’s taller than I thought he’d be,” Aiden noted absently.

“I think his dad was tall.”

Aiden glanced at me briefly. “You don’t have the same one?”

“No. At least, I’m pretty sure we don’t. I’ve never met mine as far as I know.” And by that I meant, I’d never had any man pick me up and tell me I was his as a kid. My little brother’s dad hadn’t paid much attention to me when he’d been around. When I saw Aiden out of the corner of my eye, I noticed his face was tight. His jaw jutting. “What is it?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You’ve never met your father?”

My neck went a little hot and for some reason I got embarrassed. “No.”

“Do you look like your mom?”

I reached up to mess with the leg of my glasses. “No.” My mom was a blonde, somewhat pale and she was only five-five. I was more peach-skinned, my hair a natural brown with a little red, and taller than the rest of the women in my family. “My friend Diana’s mom used to tell me she thought my dad must have been Hispanic or maybe Mediterranean or something, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Have you always been tall?”

If I really strained and stood up straight, I was almost,
almost
five eight. “My sisters used to call me The Blind Giraffe.”
Where’s The Blind Giraffe at?
Bitches. “I was all legs and glasses—ooh look. They’re about to play.”

From the first time I jumped to my feet to cheer on my brother, I could tell Aiden wasn’t prepared for what kind of fan I was. At least, what kind of fan I was for my little brother. By the beginning of the second half, he had started leaning away from me, fussing and whispering, “You’re scaring me,” after I got to my feet and started yelling at the ref for a shitty call made against Oscar, my little brother.

But it was the way he made his eyes go wide during halftime and pretend to shrink even further away from me that made me laugh.

“Who are you?” he deadpanned, which made me snicker.

“What? I was the same way at your game yesterday.”

Those black eyelashes hung low over his eyes. “Zac’s seen you?”

I nodded.

Aiden blinked. “I think I want my jersey back.”

I blinked back. “Tough shit, sunshine. It’s mine now.”

The corners of his mouth had barely started to pull up when someone yelled, “
The Three Hundreds suck! You suck, Toronto!
”

What in the hell?

Just as I started to glance around to see what idiot was yelling, Aiden’s index finger touched my chin. I stopped. “Don’t bother.”

“Why?” I tried turning my head, but apparently his finger had Hulk-like strength because it didn’t go anywhere.

“Because I don’t care what he thinks,” he said in a tone so serious I quit trying to look elsewhere and focused in on that handsome, grave face.

“But it’s rude.” His hand moved from my chin around to the back of my head, that big palm cupping my neck. His thumb to the tip of his middle finger seemed to stretch nearly all the way around my throat.

“Do you think I suck?” he asked me, seriously, in a voice low enough for only me to hear.