Page 66 of Falling With You

“I do, too,” I whispered, saying it for the first time. “I think so, too.”

“Good. Because Allison was amazing, and she would have understood. You and Aiden need to get through that. He’s going to mess up. He’s going to mix up silly things like that because it was always the group of us. And, honestly, I thought you liked curry.”

I snorted, shaking my head. “Not really. It wasn’t my favorite. It was always Allison’s favorite.”

“But you liked it. Sort of. At least you ate it with us. Maybe that just got confused in Aiden’s head because you know…it has been a few years. And he’s a chef. He likes cooking, things happen. So, what you’re going to do is you’re going to go to him, and if he gets all grumpy, you’re going to explain to him that when you’re at your place of work, there needs to be boundaries and rules. And then you’re going to talk about food. Because he loves food, and I know you do too, and you’re going to find something that can be yours together and not something that’s also mixed up with Allison. But you need to talk with him. Don’t do what I did and not talk and then miss out on so much.”

“I love you.”

She smiled at me. “I know.”

“You’re not Han Solo,” I mumbled.

“Well, he did shoot first, after all,” Violet said, rolling her eyes.

And so I laughed and held my sister close. Because I was being silly, and I just needed to talk it out. But that meant I needed to confront Aiden. Which was sometimes my favorite thing, and sometimes made me want to bash my head against the wall.

But hiding from my feelings hadn’t helped before, and it wasn’t going to help now. So, I just had to do it.

Even if it hurt.

Chapter Fifteen

Aiden

I hated people.There, I said it. For a man who owned one-third of a bar and restaurant, that probably wasn’t the best thing for me to be thinking.

But my head hurt, and I was just pissed off at the world. So, yeah, I was going to hate people. A lot of people.

I stalked around the kitchen, banging pots and pans and ignoring the worried looks of my staff. They should have been used to my attitude by now. Apparently, I had an anger management issue.

So, fuck everybody. Fuck everybody and their dog.

I paused, wondering why the hell I’d thought that.

I just needed to focus, needed to work, and I needed to get all thoughts of Sienna and whatever the fuck had happened earlier out of my mind.

I was such a fucking idiot.

I shouldn’t have gone to her. Shouldn’t have thought I could just take part of an afternoon to see what she was up to.

And I probably should have brought her the right fucking meal instead of what I’d thought I remembered was her favorite. No, I’d just made a colossal mistake and brought Allison’s favorite meal instead of Sienna’s. Could I be any more of an idiot?

I honestly hadn’t meant to make that mistake. I’d thought I was on the right track. I’d truly thought that curry was what she liked to eat. But instead, I had mixed her favorite up with Allison’s, just cementing the fact that I wasn’t good at relationships. I wasn’t good at anything. Except for cooking. I could do that. I was a goddamn chef, and I was going to act like it.

And that meant being quirky was fine. Because Sienna expected that of me.

“Hey, there’re people out here looking for you,” Beckham said, leaning against the doorway.

“I’m not in the mood to deal with people,” I growled.

“Don’t really care. They’re out here, and they asked if you were here, and I said yes. So, be a good little boy and go talk with them.”

I glared. “Shut up.”

“Oh, yes, that’s a great comeback. But, come on, you can take five minutes before the big rush starts and talk to these people. They said they met you at a hockey game or something.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. Oh, good. People I had to talk to. I couldn’t wait.

“We’ve got it, Aiden. You’ve been in such a mood that you’ve been faster than usual getting everything done. Just let us take over for a minute.”