Page 44 of Aiden & Lily

He flinched at the sound of his brother’s name. “I told you once we didn’t get along. The whole story is that I thought he stole my girlfriend. Turns out she wasn’t a very good person, and she was trying to manipulate us both. But until recently, I always believed he had.” He set his pained eyes on her. “There’s always been a small part of me that worried he’d do it again.”

“That wasn’t fair to him,” Lily said gently.

“No,” Aiden admitted. “Or to you.”

Her heart ached for him. Sounds like Aiden had been dealing with a lot since they’d started seeing each other. His fear made more sense now, even if it didn’t erase what he had done.

Lily sighed, her instinct to break things off because of the deception warring with the empathetic side of her. Her feelings ran far too deep for an easy decision.

She didn’t want to lose him. But she didn’t want to ignore the fact that he had chosen fear over honesty, either.

Could she understand why he’d been afraid to tell her?

Yes.

Did that mean he should have hidden it?

No.

She’d told Jasmine she needed to find a farmer or rancher to date. Maybe she wouldn’t have given Aiden a fair chance if she’d known everything at the start.

Now, she didn’t care what he did for a living.

Because the only person she wanted was standing in front of her.

Fixing him with a hard stare, she demanded, “Is there anything else?”

“Anything else?” he hedged, his anxiety returning.

“Anything else you think I need to know so we can get past this hurdle.”

He cleared his throat and stared at his feet.

The pause stretched long enough to make her uneasy.

“Aiden?”

His gaze lifted to hers. “There are things about my past you don’t know yet. But nothing else like this.”

It wasn’t quite the reassurance she’d been hoping for.

Still, she was too emotionally wrung out to pull apart every word on the sidewalk.

“Does this mean you’re willing to give me another chance?” he asked.

Lily sighed, drawing his attention to her again. “I’ve said my issue with holding grudges is a weakness, right? Well, maybe this is my opportunity to grow a little.”

Hope flickered to life in his eyes. It was the first time she’d seen that shine since she found out who he was. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” She took both of his hands again. “But that doesn’t mean what happened didn’t hurt.”

His expression sobered. “I know.”

“And it doesn’t mean everything goes back to normal right away.”

“Okay…I understand.”

She searched his face for a moment before continuing. “I guess this means we don’t have to hide our relationship anymore? I know you like your privacy, but if it was based on your friendship with Mathew?—”