wasn’t that he didn’t like her. That was one of the things that probably bugged him the most. Having spent all morning alone in her house, he’d done a bit of an investigation and found everything from photograph albums to family videos. He liked what he’d seen just fine. That wasn’t the problem.
‘I think I’m maybe a little envious of you…’ The words made their way out into the big wide world of their own accord. ‘Of all people like you.’
She went silent again for a brief moment, then, ‘Why?’
‘Because not everyone’s had this fairy tale of a life that you’ve had.’
‘Losing Liam was hardly the best thing that ever happened to me.’
‘I know.’ He softened his voice. ‘And I know that’s something you’ll probably never completely get over. But you were right in what you said. You were lucky to have found it in the first place. That doesn’t happen to many people these days.’
When silence followed his words again he let the words keep coming. ‘And you have a great family—a close family who are all there for you. It’s why the show chose you. To see if you could manage to make all the people that know you so well believe in a lie.’
‘And why did they choose you?’
They hadn’t. He’d chosen himself. Because the role he had to play was so complex and only someone who had produced the thing from the very beginning could know what to do when things got difficult. To get the dramatic result they wanted. To make things difficult for Caitlin.
But in volunteering he’d also managed to fulfil another major criteria. He was as opposite to Caitlin Rourke as it was possible to be. In practically every way.
‘Because I’m the flipside of you.’
‘In what way?’ There was barely a heartbeat of a pause before she figured it out. ‘You don’t have a family, do you?’
He frowned hard.
‘None at all?’
The pity in her voice made him sick.
‘Aiden?’
‘What are you going to do about it, Caitlin? Adopt me? I’m a little past the age for you to do that.’
The bed creaked again and her voice sounded a little closer to the door. ‘That’s why you have no experience of fairy stories and your face being scrubbed?’
‘Don’t go crying on me in there.’ He turned his head towards the door a little. ‘There are millions of us around the world who didn’t have a family of their own. I was one of the lucky ones. I had loads of families.’
‘That’s why you spend you life drifting around. No serious relationships, no long-term career. Because you have no grounding in those things.’
Actually, she was wrong on that one. He had a career. A damned good one, as it happened. He’d worked hard to get to the top of his game and he was hell on legs at it. But he couldn’t tell her that or he’d blow the whole thing.
‘I’ve been in serious relationships—’
‘Serious relationships last longer than six months.’
‘Not if they don’t work out, they don’t. Just because they’re short doesn’t mean they weren’t great. That’s life.’
‘And why didn’t they work out?’
He vaguely noticed that her voice sounded very close as he answered, ‘They just didn’t.’
There was a sliding noise against the door as Caitlin sat down on the opposite side of their protective barrier. ‘What were you like with them?’
‘Flirtatious, sullen, jealous, happy. More of everything. More alive. The usual share of things in any good relationship.’
They sat in a silent understanding after he spoke.
Aiden closed his eyes again for a few moments. Stunned by how much of himself he was giving to her in such a short space of time. He knew that reality shows often brought out an unusual level of intensity in people’s relationships. But he really hadn’t been prepared for it happening to him. It surprised him. But what surprised him more was that it didn’t feel as if he’d just had teeth pulled. It felt somehow right. As if by being honest he had lifted some kind of barricade that he hadn’t even known he’d been carrying around.
It was just weird that it was with someone like Caitlin.
Her voice was low, so quiet that he might not have heard it if he hadn’t been a mere door’s width away from her. ‘Then that’s how you need to be with me.’
‘And how you were with Liam is how you need to be with me.’
‘So that we can fool everyone into believing we’re in love?’
‘Yes.’
Her voice sounded different to his ears—uncertain, a little nervous. She was going out on a limb. Veering from her habit of a lifetime that had things all laid out and every eventuality prepared for. It was a big step for her, and Aiden knew that as soon as the words left her lips.
‘Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll look at each other and see the great things we saw in the people we cared about. And we’ll make believe as it comes along.’
Aiden felt a wave of something resembling fear cross his chest. ‘Yes.’
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