Page 38 of Wrapped

“Oh.” The sound that left Shae’s lungs was fueled by pure awe. Shae had stuck to her guns to wait until after the wedding to contact him. She’d hoped she wouldn’t fumble explaining her feelings so badly that he realized it would be less of a headache to just avoid her forever—if he even agreed to see her. She definitely wasn’t expecting him to show up deep along the shores of Malibu, tonight of all nights. She’d deal with her nosey friends later. Or thankthem.

“Do you want to go somewhere and talk?” heasked.

“Sure. Yeah.” Shae put down her glass and headed into the shadows outside of the tent. She’d scoped out different paths to the beach earlier just in case she needed a break from her family. Now seemed like the perfect time to take advantage of them. She slipped off her heels and carefully picked her way down the path. She could feel Aidan’s hand on the small of her back the whole way and god, had she missed him. They passed by two of Daniel’s guests who had just left one of the still blazing fire pits available. Shae sat on the stone bench just out of reach of theflames.

“This is a really nice place,” Aidan said, looking out at the crashing waves bathed inmoonlight.

“Yeah. JD really camethrough.”

“Did you have a niceChristmas?”

“Yeah, I did. Thank you for asking. Um, I don’t hate this small talk, I really don’t, but did you come here to tell me something?” Shaeasked.

“I did. I wanted to say that I’m sorry for coming on too strong. Me being here right now might be a littlemuch—”

Shae’s whole body turned toward Aidan so fast she was shocked she didn’t pull something. “You think I dumped you because you came on toostrong?”

“Yeah…didn’tyou?”

“No, Aidan. Oh my god. That wasn’t it at all. I…” She hadn’t fully rehearsed her speech yet. She thought she there was still time to figure out exactly how to phrase what she wanted to say. “Oh man, I screwed thisup.”

“What? Tellme.”

“Okay. Here goes. I’ll just tell you. I like you. I like you so much. Like, so so so much. I didn’t think I would. Not that I didn’t think you were a good guy, but you run into some hot guy from your old job on a dating app, you don’t expect him to turn out to be real-thinggood.”

“I getit.”

“I felt myself falling for you so fast that I got scared. My divorce affected me in ways I didn’t realize until we started hanging out and I finally see that I am actually scared to fall for someone again. I am terrified, but it wasn’t about you. You didn’t do anything wrong. I just kept thinking about how I couldn’t stop thinking about you pretty much every second of every day and I knew I was doomed. Have you ever feltlike—”

“Shae,” Aidan said, sliding his hand over her knee. The perfect feeling of his familiar gentle touch shut her right up. “Can I tell yousomething?”

“Yeah. Sorry I’ve been rambling. Yougo.”

“You don’t have to apologize for telling me how you feel. Okay?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question. He paused and waited to see if Shae really understood him. He was right. She had nothing to be sorryfor.

“I—yes. I have feelings. Lots of them. Okay. Please goon.”

He smiled and closed the space between them. She almost melted as he gently swept her loose curls off her shoulder. “I like you, Shae. A lot. I have liked you for years. You’re dealing with a lot. I get it, but I like you. I know some guys are terrible at shit like this, but I’m telling you that I am here and I don’t want to go anywhere. When you’re ready you can tell me more about your ex and maybe I can help with some of the divorce related stuff you’re going through. I might not understand it all, but I can be a shoulder orsomething.”

“You want me to talk aboutHarvin?”

“If it helps you feel better, yes. Absolutely. And if it helps me be a better boyfriend to you, then fuckyes.”

She laughed through the tears that suddenly sprang up out of nowhere. “You want to be my boyfriend? Good lord, I soundfifteen.”

“Yeah. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. I got the feeling it might scare you off,” he teased. Then he kissed Shae’s forehead. “I would love to be your boyfriend and, as your boyfriend, I want you to be yourself. If that means getting shit about your ex off your chest from time to time, woman, I am game. I also hope it means we build our own memoriestogether.”

“I’d like that a lot. All of it. I got it pretty bad foryou.”

“Thank god. ’Cause if you weren’t willing to give this a chance, I was going to ask you for that brownie crunch recipe and force the next girl to make it and that would be real fuckingawkward.”

“Oh my god!” Shae laughed and lightly swatted at hisarm.

“I’m kidding! Come here.” The next thing Shae knew, they were kissing. All of Shae’s fears didn’t magically float away, but in those moments as their lips moved together, music from the dance floor at their backs, Shae felt like finally, her love life was moving in a good direction. PraiseSanta.

THEEND