Page 43 of Waggs

Play began and she stood on the sideline, excitement in her blood, feeling not so alone as Aiden cheered as loud as she did when it was AJ’s turn to bat. He swung and hit the ball as hard as he could, and she and Aiden were jumping and screaming encouragement like any other parents.

The thought brought her up short and she stopped to look at the man she loved and had kept the truth from. He deserved better than this. He needed the truth and then decide if he could forgive her for keeping secrets.

The rest of the game was a little more sombre for her but Aiden more than made up for it with his effusive excitement and AJ talked nine to the dozen about every single swing or run. They were just leaving the field when a woman she barely knew walked over to them. Willow didn’t know her well, but she knew her well enough to cringe.

With blonde hair, massive boobs, and fish lips, she was obviously hunting for husband number two in the skin-tight mini dress and ridiculously high sandals.

“Willow, yoo-hoo.”

Willow stopped and pasted a fake smile on her face as she turned. “Hi, Marlene.”

Her little shit of a son was picking his nose and wiping it on his shorts and Willow cringed.

“Little Bobby and I haven’t seen you around for a while. Is everything okay?”

That was code for spill your secrets and where did you find this hunk. Marlene had barely even looked at her as she spoke. Her eyes were stripping Aiden naked and rifling through his wallet for his bank balance, she wouldn’t mind betting.

“Yes, everything is fine, just took a little vacation. This is Aiden, my…”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Aiden said as he shook Marlene’s hand and slid an arm around Willow’s hip. Marlene preened and batted her eyelashes at him, and Willow felt warm at the feel of his hands on her through the flimsy fabric of the dress she wore. “Nice to meet you Ma’am.”

“Oh, please call me Marlene.” Marlene angled closer so her enormous breast was brushing against Aiden’s arm and turned to Willow. “Wherever did you find this hunk?”

Willow mentally rolled her eyes. “Oh, I bought him off hunks dot com. Do you know it?”

Willow heard Aiden smother his chuckle with a cough beside her.

Marlene eyed her before shaking her head as if she couldn’t figure out if Willow was making fun of her or not. “No, I haven’t.”

“It’s great. You should take a look, and you should see the British ones they had too.”

“Yes, I will. Will we see you next week?”

“Hopefully, yes.”

Marlene rushed off and Aiden raised a brow. “Hunks dot com?”

“What? You could totally be on that site.” Aiden chuckled and slung an arm around her shoulders as he led them back to the car. “Want ice cream, kiddo?”

“Yes!”

“That okay with you, Mom?”

“As if I’m going to say no to ice cream?”

They spent the afternoon eating ice cream and hanging out. Aiden made a couple of calls and then offered to drop AJ at his grandparents’ house while she got ready. Saying goodbye to her son for the night was hard but the thought of what she had to tell Aiden was worse.

After her shower, she blow-dried her hair, used a curling iron to give her some waves and then slicked on some make up, heavy on the eyes but light on the lip gloss. He was taking her to the new French place that had opened after she’d told him about it last week.

Sliding the coral-coloured V-neck sleeveless dress over her head, she surveyed herself in the mirror as she slipped her feet into heeled sandals with tiny fake diamantes on them. She looked good and the nerves in her belly this time were for how she knew Aiden would look at her when he saw her.

He had gotten ready before dropping off AJ and looked devastatingly handsome in dark charcoal trousers, and a black shirt with no tie. It took all her control not to throw herself at him when he walked back into her small house and looked at her like she was the air he needed to breathe. His eyes went heavy lidded, the blue a stormy colour that made her shiver with need. He moved toward her and took her hand, spinning her so he could take it all in.

Willow gave a nervous laugh. “You like?”

Suddenly she was in his arms and his lips were against her ear. It was hard to think or breathe when she felt like this. Aiden consumed all of her senses, so she was just mindless mush. “I fucking love. You look good enough to eat.”

Willow felt heat pool in her belly, and her heart hitch a beat at the gravelly words.