eyes were blue—sort of a medium color. Nice, he thought absently. “You’re the one who’s helping me,” he told her.
They touched glasses again. He took a sip.
“Not bad,” he said. The liquid was more tart than sweet, with a hint of salt. Not his favorite but he could get used to it.
“Wait until you try the nachos. They’re amazing. So what else happened this week?”
“I’m thinking of getting a dog.”
“Interesting. A big one, right?”
He nodded. “One I could take camping and fishing.”
“You could teach it to snowboard. It could wear one of those cute coats and eye goggles.”
“That is not happening. This is a manly dog.”
“It’s a dog that doesn’t yet exist, at least not in your life. Maybe you’ll fall for a poodle.”
“Never.”
“A Yorkie?” She giggled. “You could coordinate your shirt with her hair ribbon. You’d be so sweet together.”
“Why are you emasculating me?”
“It’s fun.” She rested her elbows on the table. “But I can be serious, too. Why a dog? Are you lonely?”
He was about to say no, of course not, when it occurred to him he might be. Work kept him busy and he enjoyed his coworkers, but his relationships with them were mostly casual. Until a couple of years ago, he’d had three of his four brothers in town, but Mathias and Ronan had moved to Happily Inc. and Nick was always off doing something.
He had friends. Guy friends. But everyone was busy with their lives. As for women, as the whole world knew, he’d done his damnedest to make sure those encounters never meant anything.
“I think a dog would be good for me,” he answered, aware he was avoiding the question. “I’d have to be responsible for it. Take care of it. I’d bring it to the office. Fay would like that.”
“Fay is...”
“My office manager. She handles the scheduling and gets the tours ready.” He hesitated. “Her daughter is Kalinda. She was—”
Shelby nodded. “I know Kalinda. She loves peanut butter cookies.” She sighed. “I’m glad she’s healing, but what a difficult road for her and her family.”
“Fay does her best to stay strong,” he said, grateful he didn’t have to explain about Kalinda’s burns. The teen would face more surgeries over the years. He knew for Fay there were good days and bad days, but whatever happened, she loved her daughter unconditionally.
Jo came by with a huge platter of nachos. There were plates for each of them, along with bowls of extra salsa and guacamole. Aidan inhaled the scent of the marinated pork and realized he hadn’t eaten much that day. His stomach growled.
“Me, too,” Shelby said with a laugh as she grabbed a chip. “I was playing around with custom cookie ideas and the day got away from me. Then I didn’t have time to eat or I would be late.”
“Next time, eat,” he told her. “I don’t expect you to be exactly on time.”
“It was our first gender encounter. I wanted to make a good impression.”
He liked her teasing. The fact that she could be so charming and open meant that her father hadn’t broken her as much as she feared. Intense determination filled him. He was going to help Shelby get whatever she wanted, he promised himself. Not only because it would help him, but because it was the right thing to do.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Shelby said, “You’re one of five brothers, right?”
“I’m the second oldest. There’s Del, me, Nick, Mathias and Ronan. The last two are...” Twins. He always said twins. Only they weren’t. They never had been. It had all been a giant lie.
“Aidan?” Shelby’s voice was soft. “Are you okay?”
“You’re right,” he said bitterly. “Some men do cheat. My father did. I don’t know how many women there were. He claims just one, but I have my doubts. There had to have been others.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That’s so hard. Does your mom know?”
“She covered for him. For years.”
Shelby frowned. “I don’t understand. Why would it be an ongoing issue?”
He picked up his margarita and took a drink. “Because my youngest brother, Ronan, is his mistress’s son.”
Shelby’s blue eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect O. She looked shocked and strangely appealing. Sexy, maybe. He pushed that thought away and focused on what had happened with his family.
“Del, Nick and I were practically babies when my mom had Mathias. We didn’t know what was going on. All I remember is that I had twin brothers. Four years ago, my dad had a heart attack. It turned out to be pretty minor, but at the time, we didn’t know how bad it was. I guess he was afraid he was going to die or something and he told the twins the truth. That Ronan was the result of an affair. When Ronan’s mom was going to give him up for adoption, Dad told my mom, who agreed to raise him as her own.”
Shelby’s eyes stayed wide. “Seriously? I can’t imagine.”
“It happened. Some days I think she’s a saint and other days I’m convinced she’s a fool. That Dad played her. He gets everything and she’s stuck with some other woman’s kid.”
“That’s harsh, but I understand your point.” She reached for a chip. “What I don’t get is how she did it. I mean every time she looked at him, wouldn’t she see that other woman? Imagine her with her husband? It must have been incredibly painful.”
Aidan hadn’t planned to talk about this. He never did. He and his brothers had spoken about the situation a couple of times, but with as few words as possible. And without talking about the lingering effects on the family. But he found himself comfortable discussing it all with Shelby.
“You’d think.” He took another drink of his margarita. “But it wasn’t like that at all. Maybe at first—I wouldn’t remember that. But by the time I was eight or nine, I knew that Ronan was her favorite.”
“That’s not possible,” Shelby breathed.
“It wasn’t anything awful. She didn’t tell us that or make it obvious, but we could tell. We used to tease Ronan about being a mama’s boy. She was always fussing over him. They were the closest. Even in high school, they talked all the time.”
He remembered ragging on his brother. How Ronan had said it was because he was the superior brother. All good fun. Elaine had been there for all of them, so knowing Ronan was the one she loved just a little bit more hadn’t meant much. He’d figured it was something every group of siblings went through.
“After Dad told the twins, they left. Packed
