Page 93 of Aiden & Lily

Lily stiffened. How had she not noticed Reese making his way toward her? This just kept getting better and better.

At this point, she might as well get it all out so she didn’t have to keep holding onto the hurt festering in her chest. She closed her eyes and groaned.

“Fine, you know what?” Her eyes flew open, and she stared hard at her sister. “Aiden used to be best friends with Reese, okay? Not only that, but he found out early on and kept it from me.”

Jasmine’s lips puckered in thought. “Okay…”

Right. Jasmine didn’t really have the same views when it came to dating someone’s friend or their ex. She lived in the gray area.

“What’s the problem?” Jasmine asked. “He knew. Now you know. Does it make you feel any differently about him?”

“What? Of course not.” Lily shot Reese a pleading look. “Help me out here. Dating a friend’s ex isn’t a good move. Things get complicated?—”

“Normally, I’d agree,” Reese murmured, scratching at his chin. His fingers raking through his stubble made that sound that gave her goose bumps, but she kept her eyes trained on him.

Normally? What did he mean, normally? Had his opinion changed?

Reese blew out a heavy breath. “Look, Aiden and I had a falling-out years ago. That’s why you never met him when we were dating. We’re not as close as we used to be. That doesn’t mean we’re not trying to get back to that place, but things are different now. It wasn’t like I introduced the two of you. And he wasn’t trying to steal you away from me. Heck, I’m out of town so much lately that there won’t be many opportunities to make things awkward between us.”

All of that sounded so reasonable that Lily was left speechless.

“But he still should have told both of us,” Reese added.

Relief loosened something in her chest. At least he understood that.

“If anything,” Reese continued, glancing at Lily and then Jasmine, “Aiden would have grounds for asking you to put some space between us. Or at least change the way we normally are.” He made a face and reached behind his neck to grip it before he sighed. “Our friendship isn’t exactly normal, you know.”

Jasmine snickered. “You can say that again.”

Lily cut her a warning look. She wasn’t going to push Reese out of her life just because she had dated him once before. Still, Aiden hadn’t said a single word about her friendship with Reese. He hadn’t asked her to put distance between them. He hadn’t shown a degree of jealousy.

Her stomach twisted uncomfortably.

Even with all of Aiden’s insecurities, he had trusted her where Reese was concerned. Lily couldn’t deny that. But trust in one area didn’t erase dishonesty in another.

“Yeah…” Jasmine made a face. “The friendship you two have going is… weird.”

This time, Lily swatted her sister’s upper arm with the back of her fingertips. “Hey!”

“What?” Jasmine yelped with a laugh. “It is.”

“No one asked you,” Lily muttered.

Jasmine’s smile faded when she caught the look on Lily’s face. “But that doesn’t mean Aiden gets a free pass for keeping things from you.”

Jasmine shrugged. “I can think your friendship with Reese is strange and still think Aiden should’ve been honest.”

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Reese spoke again. “For what it’s worth, I think the two of you make a good couple.”

Lily shot him a look of surprise. “What?”

Reese shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’re good together. You make him want to be a better person. I’ve never seen him this invested in a relationship.” His expression tightened. “That doesn’t make what he did right. He put himself in a difficult position, but then he kept making it worse by waiting.”

Lily swallowed.

“He hadn’t known when he met you that we were involved,” Reese continued. He blew out a breath, and his cheeks filled with a little color. “Frankly, you’re hard not to fall for, Lily. I knew you were special from the moment we met. I just wish things could have lined up differently for us.” Then he grimaced. “I probably shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, probably not,” Jasmine said dryly. She draped an arm around his back. “But you know what? I think I can introduce you to some girls so you don’t have to keep holding a candle for this one.”