Chapter 23

(Aaron) 

After helping with cleaning up after dinner, I kissed Rylan goodnight and headed home a few hours later. I felt a little hollow after being with her for a few days. Logically, I know that I can’t be with her constantly, even if I want to.

She has a job that she has to go back to on Monday, and she has a sister that she needs to help get settled into a new life here in California. I took time away from my work to get started on my healing, but I am not sure that was a good idea. I need to find something other than spending time with Rylan to fill my days. 

I have a schedule for my sessions with Dr. West, group meetings with fellow soldiers, and one-on-one sessions with my parents and West. That will not take up all my time, but I am sure those meetings will leave me mentally exhausted. I will have to talk to Quinn again about this time off from work and the idea that he had. 

I’m not sure taking a complete step away is what I need. Maybe I can go into the office on the days I don’t have therapy sessions or group meetings. It would keep me busy instead of just sitting around.

By the time I reach my house, I am tired, even though we slept for a lot of the day. I head inside after grabbing my bag from the trunk. My first order of business is to unpack, so I can put my gun back in the safe. Once that is done, I call Quinn to ask if he is free for a few hours tomorrow, so we can discuss a few things.

He tells me that he can be at my place at noon but only has an hour, so I agree and tell him that I will see him then.

With nothing left to do, I change into a pair of basketball shorts and head down to my home gym in the basement. I haven’t done my workout routine in a few days, so it will be a good way to make myself thoroughly exhausted enough to sleep without having nightmares. 

At least I hope so. 

Two hours later, I am dripping with sweat with a towel draped over the back of my neck as I head up to my room to shower. I am tired and sore, but it was worth it. My phone rings as I am walking into my room thirty minutes later. I have a towel around my hips as I walk to my nightstand, where I dropped my phone before hopping in the shower. 

I smile when I see Rylan’s name on the display. “Miss me?” 

“It is very lonely in my bed without you.” Her voice is husky as she says this. 

Desire for her makes my cock twitch with need. “I bet it is. What are you wearing?” 

My phone pings with a text message, so I open it. It is a picture message showing Rylan in the middle of her bed wearing nothing but a pair of red lace panties and a smile. Holy shit, she is fucking sexy.

“Now that is just mean,” I tell her with a groan. 

“Your turn,” she whispers. 

“Are we really exchanging nudes?” 

“Fuck yes!” 

I smirked, then laid on my back on the bed. I open the towel but leave it closed enough that my dick is still covered. There are still water droplets on me since they haven’t dried off yet. I hold the phone up above me, high enough that she can get the entire view, snap the picture, and then send it to her.

The moan from the other end of the line makes me smile. That was the reaction I wanted her to have. For the next thirty minutes, we have our first and, if I have my way, our only session of phone sex. Something I have never done in my life, but for her, I was willing to give it a shot. 

I would rather be balls deep in her over what we just did any day of the week. 

“Why was that so much hotter than it should have been?” She asks me in a breathy voice. 

“I think it is because we now know what the real thing feels like. So imagining it like we just did makes it better.” I am just guessing here. 

“You are probably right. The only problem I am having now is that I want the real thing even more right now than I did before we started this tonight.” 

“Why is that a problem?” I ask as I get up off my bed to grab a pair of sleep pants, then head back into the bathroom for another shower.

“Because I am dripping wet, and you are not here to lick it off me.” 

Well, shit, she has a point.

“Save those naughty thoughts you have, and I will see what I can do about them soon. For now, close those beautiful blue eyes of yours and try to get some sleep, baby.” 

“Promises, promises,” she laughs. “Okay, see you when I see you, sexy.” 

With that said, she hangs up the phone, leaving me with a shit-eating grin on my face as I take a quick shower. I fall asleep to images of her flashing through my head and a raging hard-on that I ignore. 

Morning comes all too soon, but I get out of bed and start my day off with a strong cup of coffee and a breakfast burrito from the bag of homemade ones my mother had stashed in my freezer. She made them while she was still here and left a note on the bag, too. 

It made me smile, and that was what I knew she wanted.

After breakfast, I head up to my home office to make a few calls. The first was to my interior designer, the same one that Quinn and I both used for our houses. He is free today around two, so I told her to meet me at the house I bought for my parents. We will get the ball rolling on furnishing it according to how I know my mother will like it. 

The second call I made was to confirm my session with Dr. West for the next day. I don’t want to miss any of those because getting to a better mental state of mind is so much more important to me now than it ever was. I don’t want to backslide now that Rylan and I are moving forward with each other. 

I want to get to the point where I no longer hate myself. I want to be the man she deserves and the man I want to be. For Rylan. For me.

The last phone call I make takes the longest to deal with. I called the District Attorney for Charlotte, South Carolina. My goal in doing this is to make sure that no matter what Grant does, he won’t be able to escape the charges levied against him. With the evidence presented and the records that the police already have from his past incidents of abusing his wife, it shows a sordid history of violent behavior.

By the time I end that call, I have a smile on my face and am satisfied that Grant Donovan will not see the light of day for a long time. I glanced at the clock and realized that Quinn would be here in about ten minutes. He is very rarely late.

I head into the kitchen to put on another pot of coffee so that he will have some much-needed caffeine for us both to have when he gets here. The thought of making us both a quick sandwich passes through my head, but I dismiss it since we can just do that as we talk. I do get all the things we will need out of the refrigerator, then set them all on the counter.

It’s easier to be prepared, which saves time too. I know he is short on time with me not helping at the office, his family life, and building a new house for said family. My friend is achieving his dreams at a rapid pace, and I am happy for him. 

As expected, Quinn arrives right on time. I hear the front door open and close, then Quinn calling out my name. I yell back to tell him that I am in the kitchen.

“Well, hello there, dear. How was your day?” I ask with a grin on my face. 

He laughs, rolls his shoulders, then lets out a sigh. It isn’t a stressed-sounding sigh, but more of a tired one. “So far, the day is going pretty much as I expected it. However, two of my meetings after this were canceled, so I can probably work from home for the rest of the day.” 

“That sounds like a good idea. Well, make yourself a sandwich, and I’ll tell you why I asked you over here once we are done.” 

We spend the next five minutes in companionable silence as we each make our own lunch. I tell him about my idea for monthly dinners while we clean up. He follows me outside to the terrace after we are done, so we can eat in the fresh air. Once we are settled, I glance over at him. 

“So what is on your mind?” He asks after he finishes chewing his first bite. 

“A little of everything, but I will start with work.” 

“Taking the time away is a good plan, Aaron,” he says before taking another bite of his sandwich. 

He knows me too well. “It was, but with you having a lot on your plate at home, now is a bad time for me to be stepping away. I can do a lot of work from home, and on days you can’t make it in because of your family obligations, I can step in.” 

“What about your therapy and group meetings? I don’t want work to come in the way of that or hinder your progress in any way.” 

I smile at him. “I already sent my therapy schedule with Dr. West to your email, along with when I have my group meetings. Tuesdays and Thursdays with West, both in the morning. All my group sessions are in the evenings, so that won’t interfere with work at all.” 

“Why the change in plans?” He asks as he sits his plate on the small table beside his chair. 

“Too much free time is going to drive me insane, Q. I just need my life to be as normal as I can make it, you know? What we do for our fellow soldiers is too important to me; taking time away makes me feel like I am letting them down in a way.” 

“Aaron, taking the time away to heal is not letting anyone down. Not doing that is. The work isn’t going anywhere; there will always be more to do. Take the downtime. I need you to heal, not just for you, but for everyone who loves you.” 

I let out a heavy sigh. I had a feeling he wouldn’t agree to me coming back to work. It has only been a few days since we made this plan in the first place. Idle time is not my friend.

“I will concede on a few things, though.” 

I perk up at this, and he smirks. 

“Mondays and Fridays, in the office, whether it is needed or not. Then, if anything comes up during the rest of the week that I can’t handle alone or if I need to help Annie with anything, I will call you.” 

“What the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of my time?” 

“Work on your cars, go hiking, and do all those things you did to fill the time like you normally would. Spend time with your parents when they come back. They will be living here, right?” 

“Heck no! I bought a house down the street for them, and I am having it decorated to mom’s liking while they are back home. I can’t have her hovering while I am doing all this. Besides, having them here twenty-four-seven will make my relationship with Rylan feel weird. I would feel like I was sneaking a girl into my room like a teenager.” 

He holds up his index finger to stop my tangent. “Back that up a step. What is your relationship with Rylan?” 

Oh, yeah, I haven’t really told him that I crossed out of the friendship zone with her.

I give him a huge smile, and then I tell him about all that has happened since that fucker Heath did what he did. By the time I was done, he was just shaking his head with a grin on his face. He gave me that knowing look, but all I could do was nod my head. 

“What made you change your mind to stop pushing her away? What happened on your little vacation to make you decide it was time?” 

“I met a woman while I was in London.” 

The look on Quinn’s face made me pause. He is looking at me with disgust for the first time in a very long time. This makes me feel bad, but I know where his thought process took him. He isn’t entirely wrong.

“I know what you are thinking, and you are partially right. Hear me out. This was before I had the epiphany that I did.” 

“How did you come to this epiphany with this woman?” 

I explain where I was and how I met Charlie. “I mean, I wanted to fuck her more than I thought I should. I know why I did; it wasn’t just for the sex; it was because she looked like Rylan. Long black hair, blue eyes, pouty lips, and all those curves.” 

“She was a replacement for the woman you refused to let yourself have.” 

“Yes, however, when she showed up in my hotel room with tears in her eyes, I just couldn’t do it. For the first time in a long time, I spent an entire night with a woman, and we didn’t have sex; all we did was talk. It was Charlie that gave me the slap in the face that I needed.” 

“How so?” Quinn picked up his half-eaten sandwich and took a bite, then glanced at his watch. 

“She asked me how I would feel if, by the time I was ready for Rylan, I came face to face with the reality of her in another man’s arms. I felt like I got punched in the throat. That wasn’t something I had ever thought of before. How long would Rylan wait for me to get my shit together before she moved on with her life?” 

“Charlie sounds like a wise woman.”