Aaron was lying on the couch with a cat on his stomach, trapped. He had learned long ago that if a cat chooses to sit on you that you aren"t allowed to move until it is ready to leave. It was one of the unspoken rules of cat owners.h.i.+p.
So that was how he had been lying on the couch for ten minutes after waking up from his nap unable to move. He wasn"t sure where Keeley had gone because she had been cuddling him when he originally fell asleep. Calling out to her had yielded nothing so she was most likely upstairs.
She came back down wearing her swimsuit with a towel wrapped around her waist and her hair in a high bun, clearly on her way down to the fitness center. "Oh. You"re awake. I"d ask if you"d like to join me but Rosie obviously has you pinned."
He sighed. "Yes she does. If you"re still down there when she gets off of me I"d be happy to join you."
As if hearing him, the cat suddenly yawned, stretched, and jumped off of him before sauntering away. Sweet freedom!
Keeley laughed. "Hurry up! I won"t wait for you forever."
With that encouragement, Aaron headed upstairs to get changed and grab a towel. They took the elevator down to the fitness center and put their things in their a.s.signed locker. Keeley tended to prefer water aerobics these days and did that while he swam laps.
After a while they stopped their respective workouts to relax in the hot tub together. Aaron chuckled slightly to himself when he saw how his wife naturally sunk into the water with a pleased sigh. She had always loved anything warm.
She leaned her head back against his arm, which rested on the edge of the hot tub behind her, with her eyes closed for a while seeming perfectly at peace. Her eyes shot open without warning and she sat up straight.
"Before I forget, Mandy asked me to go wedding dress shopping with her and her daughter a few Sat.u.r.days from now. She thinks you and Gray should go to lunch while we"re out and entertain each other."
"Joy," he said dryly.
Why would this woman ask someone she had only met once to do this sort of thing with her? Aaron would never understand the female mind. Why did they need people to go with them to pick out clothes? Keeley had picked out her wedding dress alone with no problems.
She sighed. "I know, I"m a little wary myself. I don"t know anything about her other than that she enjoys messing with people. At least you know how to deal with Gray. Doesn"t that old saying go "better the devil you know than the devil you don"t"?"
Once she got past the initial amus.e.m.e.nt of the prank Gray and his fiancée had pulled, Keeley worried what sort of other tricks Mandy Applegate might try to pull. She said she didn"t mind what those two did as long as that woman didn"t try to spur Gray into taking revenge on them.
Aaron was of the same opinion. His first impression of her was that she was too much like Gray and would be trouble if provoked. So now they had to worry about appeasing two sleeping beasts.
He tried to put the issue out of his mind. He would find out more about what Gray"s fiancée was really like over time. His half-brother wasn"t an idiot, even if he was desperate. This woman wouldn"t be able to pull the wool over his eyes…right?
===
Aaron and Gray met up for sus.h.i.+ as the women went to a bridal salon. He seemed less composed than usual somehow. Almost as if he was nervous. Gray didn"t get nervous. At least not in front of anyone. He was always suave and confident.
"What"s with you?" Aaron asked, figuring it was better to get whatever he wanted to say out of the way so they could enjoy the food.
Gray sighed and looked up, more serious than Aaron had ever seen him. When he spoke, it wasn"t with his usual silky smooth tone. His voice was lower and rougher but much more natural. Was this his real voice?
"I"m afraid I"ve shot myself in the foot. You see, I got so used to pretending that I thought it was real. I"ve acted like an idiot in front of you and it is past time I rectified that. Is it too late to be sincere with you, Aaron?"
It took a moment to process what this normally oily man was saying. The look on his face was more sincere than ever and he was using what appeared to be his real voice in front of him for the first time. The one Violet said she heard when she ran into him and his fiancée together.
This essentially proved that he actually was sincere with her and that the act they put on the other day was entirely at Aaron"s expense. He had already suspected as much but having it confirmed was annoying.
That was beside the point. Gray sounded like he was trying to apologize. For what? Acting like the fakest person alive? That wasn"t exactly something worth apologizing for.
"I"m not sure I follow," Aaron admitted. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Gray looked down at his hands and s.h.i.+fted in his seat. He was definitely nervous. Whatever he was trying to get across, it meant something to him. That alone made Aaron more inclined to take him seriously.
"I expected you to be sincere with me when I wasn"t sincere with you. Since I realized you were working against our father, I have held no ill intentions toward you at all. I wanted us to be friends but went about it the wrong way. All of my relationsh.i.p.s with people were shallow at best back then…I didn"t know how to do anything else.
"I know you don"t particularly like me, and I"d say that"s fair considering the circ.u.mstances we met through. You"ve more than fulfilled your duty as my half-brother all of these years as I was in prison and I"m grateful for that. But now that I have my priorities straight…can we start over?
"Not as allies with a common enemy. Not as someone you tolerate out of a sense of guilt or obligation. I would like to be your brother for real. You don"t have to tell your boys who I am but I want us to actually be friends. I don"t want to be Gray anymore. I want to be your brother Michael."
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