Ayden's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

Those thoughts were getting him nowhere. He needed to find out what she was doing here, not find out if he could knock her up.
    Charlie shrugged. “Not much really. We talked about you briefly, then about Malcolm, then about sex.”
    Ayden choked on his next words. He cleared his throat and started again.
    “You were talking to them about sex?” Ayden kicked up a half smile. It was forced. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know about Charlie’s sex life. Surely, she could have any man she wanted. He just didn’t want to know she had chosen to be with any other man.
    “No. Can’t talk about something you don’t have. I listened.” Charlie was satisfied with his look of shock and started toward the backyard where everyone was.
    Ayden followed moments later and sat next to her on the bench. She still held Logan. Grace had offered to take him back now that everyone was eating, but Charlie wasn’t hungry. She had stopped to eat on her way. She played with the baby instead.
    The summer sun began to set, and the threeyearolds were getting cranky. The meal had been cleaned up and the tables removed. Stephanie and Malcolm lay in the hammock while Charlie sat in the rocking chair watching with a longing she couldn’t deny. Malcolm was so in love with the girl. His face lit up just looking at her. His blue eyes sparkled when he said her name.
    Malcolm had explained over dinner that he was a real mutt. His mother was a proud black woman and his father a brave Irish man. Malcolm said that approaching Stephanie’s dad was easy compared to what his dad had to go through with his grandfather. Especially since his grandfather was a minister, and his dad’s boss at the time. He had the whole table laughing and crying before it was all said and done.
    Oh to have a man so willing to walk through fire to be with a woman. Charlie sighed. Ayden always had a special look for her. A gentle expression she only saw when he talked to her. Of course, she rarely saw him around other people though. Maybe it wasn’t special; maybe she just wanted it to be. The six months she lived in his apartment in hiding, she only met Tom, another FBI agent.
    Ayden was never easy back then. Years later he was smoking, growing harder in his features each year. It made her worry even more. She hadn’t seen him light up once, and she wondered if he had finally quit. He started as a cover for a case, but the next year he was still smoking. So much had changed in this past year for him. She wanted to hear all about it.
    “You ready to get out of here?” Ayden stood in the doorway looking out the screen at her.
    “Yes.” Charlie stood. “Bye Stephanie.”
    “Will you be back tomorrow?” Stephanie started to rise against Malcolm’s protesting arms.
    “We’ll be back tomorrow.” Ayden opened the door.
    Charlie waved and shrugged. She guessed they would be returning since he said so. It made her feel good deep down that he said we, like she belonged with him.
    “I thought you said Tom and Noel would be here tonight?” Charlie asked as they walked back up the street to Ayden’s house.
    “Apparently the baby’s sick. They’re still trying to make it this weekend for the fourth. It was Noel’s idea.” Ayden snickered. “Evelyn has a house full of guests because of it. She likes her inlaws, don’t get me wrong, but that house is packed right now.”
    “Why doesn’t someone stay with you?”
    “Tom and Noel were staying with me.”
    “What about Stephanie and Malcolm?”
    “Oh no. Joshua would throw a fit. In his house, he can keep tabs on those two. Malcolm’s on the couch.” Ayden opened the screen door and unlocked the front door letting them inside.
    “They have been dating two years, and he hasn’t touched her. I think he would be safe to stay with her.” Charlie sounded annoyed by the whole thing, poor Stephanie.
    “You like her?”
    “She reminds me of Michael,” Charlie whispered that truth.
    Ayden took a deep breath and wrapped his