Felicity stared at her hands, the light from her phone casting odd shadows around them. She felt exposed with the brightness of it, so she dimmed the light. It softened the space between them. Made her feel more comfortable.

“What do you mean?” Aiden asked, his voice low.

What did she mean? She bit her lip, trying to find the right words. “Grams wants me to tell you. Everything.”

“About the day you left? What more is there to tell? I was late, and you got mad and left. I called. You didn’t answer. That’s pretty much it, right?”

His words felt like a slap to her, but she shoved aside the annoyance, knowing if she didn’t talk to him, Grams would never let them be. “It was more than that,” she said quietly.

In the soft glow from her phone, she could see Aiden lean closer. “Okay. Then tell me. What else was it?”

Felicity suddenly got cold feet and started picking at a loose thread on her sleeping bag. The whole thing was embarrassing enough. Did she really have to tell Aiden about it?

He reached over and placed his hand on hers. The warmth of his skin penetrated through her and she made the mistake of looking into his eyes. “Tell me,” he urged.

She took in a deep breath and sighed. “You probably already know I asked Grams to be there at the courthouse.”

“Yes. She told me she was there.”

Felicity resisted the urge to pull her hand back from him. “I asked her not to tell you anything else. I didn’t want you to feel bad because of what happened.”

“Why? What happened?” His voice seemed strained. Anxious.

She swallowed back the emotion threatening to fill her eyes with tears. She had to go through with this. Grams wouldn’t let her back out. If she didn’t spill, Grams would just find another way to force them together, and she didn’t want to think of what she might do next.

“That day...you had planned a surprise for me. Well, I had planned a surprise for you as well.”

Aiden got a worried look on his face. “You did?”

“Yes. I know we’d decided to elope, but I didn’t want us to regret that decision years down the line. I didn’t want us to think back on that day and wish we’d had some family there. Or some pictures of the event.”

His brows furrowed. “You hired a photographer?”

She couldn’t stand the tingles from the physical contact any longer and withdrew her hand. “Yes. And Dad was there. And my Aunt Lia.”

Aiden sucked in a breath. “What? You flew Lia in?”

She blinked, the memories from that day coming back and choking her. Shaming her. But she had to push through and tell him. “And I bought a dress.”

Aiden stared at her, his mouth hanging open. “A dress?” he said, his voice sounding a little strangled.

Thinking about the mermaid cut dress with the lacy overlay made it hard for her to breathe. It was perfect. And it had cost her almost a thousand dollars. She didn’t want to admit it, but she still had it hanging in her closet. She stuffed it in the back so she wouldn’t get emotional every time she opened the door. “Yes,” she said, the word barely audible.

Guilt flashed across Aiden’s features and his shoulders slumped. “Oh, no.”

Felicity tried to get herself under control, but seeing Aiden look so pained made her get choked up even more, and her vision blurred. She blinked and a tear ran down her cheek.

Aiden reached out and wiped it with the pad of his thumb, his warm fingers wrapping around to the back of her neck. “I’m so sorry, Felicity.”

She involuntarily snuggled into the palm of his hand, the familiar touch sending cascades of energy through her. He moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her. She melted into him.

“Don’t cry. Please. You’re ripping my heart out.” He pressed his lips to her forehead and her heart began beating an erratic rhythm.

She breathed in the smell of his freshly laundered shirt mixed with the scent that only belonged to Aiden, and all the old feelings surged in her. This was what had made her feel complete. And this is what she’d lost all those years ago.

“I thought it was no big deal,” he whispered, his breath hot on her forehead. “Meet at the courthouse and fill out paperwork. We’d been engaged for a year and were no closer to planning a wedding. It just seemed like the best idea. I’m so sorry I...”

His voice cracked and Felicity closed her eyes. Aiden pressed his cheek to hers and she felt his tears mix with her own. “I didn’t mean to leave you like that. Waiting for me. In a wedding dress.”

She pulled away and placed her hands on his cheeks. “I know.”

He stared at her, an expression on his face she couldn’t quite identify. “If I had known—”

She put a finger to his lips to silence him. “It happened. We can’t change it. But we can learn from it.”

He swallowed and she let her hands fall, his gaze intense. “You’re right.”

She squirmed under his scrutiny and finally pulled away from him. She stretched out on her back and laid down on top of the sleeping bag. She set her phone on the floor beside her. “I’ll tell Grams tomorrow that we talked. Really talked. I think she’ll finally be appeased.”

Aiden followed her lead and laid back as well. He turned to her and rested his head on his hand, his elbow on the floor. “Why did it take you so long to tell me about that?”

She looked up at the rafters above them. “I was hurt. And I didn’t want you to explain it all away. I finally saw our relationship for what it was.”

He paused before saying, “And what’s that?”

She swallowed, unsure if she wanted to say it out loud. She didn’t want to hurt Aiden, but she had to be honest. “Poisonous,” she whispered.

Aiden flinched and retreated from her. “That’s what you think of me?” Hurt laced his words.

She quickly corrected him. “No. Not you. Just the you and me together part.” Ouch. Like that sounded any better. What was wrong with her words today? How could she tell him in a way that he would understand? Maybe blaming herself was best. “I think I’m too needy.”

The air between them became heavy and she could feel him pulling emotionally away from her. He laid backward and joined her in looking up at the rafters. “Was everything so terrible?”

“No,” she hurried to say. “We had some amazing times together. It’s just...” She turned to look at him. “I need someone who can give himself to me completely.”

Aiden didn’t say anything, and Felicity listened to her heart beating while she watched him stare up, not moving. She began to wonder if she had upset him, which hadn’t been her goal. “I guess what I mean to say is I’ve always felt this invisible wall between us. I ignored it at first. Tried to convince myself it wasn’t there, but that day at the courthouse I finally saw it.”

The words were hard to say and she closed her eyes, gathering up the courage to finish. “You were never going to fully let me in.”

Silence pressed down on them as the seconds ticked by, Aiden laying perfectly still. She waited to see what he would say, but when seconds turned into minutes, she thought maybe he was too upset to speak. She turned and flicked off the flashlight, feeling terrible for what she’d said to him, but not wanting to apologize either.

“My mother isn’t dead.”

Felicity wasn’t sure she heard him right. “What?”

When he spoke again, his voice was gravelly. “I didn’t mean to lie. It’s just hard to talk about when you’re a kid, and all the other kids just assumed she was dead when Grams was the one that showed up to the school functions. I didn’t correct them. Then, as I grew older, the lie was already established. It was easier just to go with it than explain.”

Felicity turned on her side and peered into the darkness, the pitch black not revealing any of his features. “She’s alive?”

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah.”

The information made her head spin, and she wanted to pelt him with questions. Why had Grams raised him? Where was his mother now? Had she ever had contact with him? But Felicity didn’t want to pry the information from him. She laid back and waited for him to continue.

“My mother was a drug addict. She’d gotten into the wrong crowd in high school. Grams tried everything to get her the help she needed, but rehab never worked for long.”

Felicity tried to imagine what it must have been like for Grams. It was too terrible to think about.

Aiden shifted on the sleeping bag. “When she got pregnant, Grams talked her into another try at rehab. She stayed there until she had me, but she couldn’t stay straight. The drugs were too alluring. She gave me up to Grams and took off.” Aiden sighed. “No one knows who my father is. My mother was too strung out to know.”

Felicity’s heart hurt for him. What an awful way to grow up, not even knowing who your father is. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I’ve come to terms with it.” The emotion in his voice betrayed him and she scooted over, joining him on top of his sleeping bag. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, and she laid her head on his chest.

“Where is she?”

“Last I heard, she was living somewhere up in Michigan.”

“What does Grams think about it?”

He tensed. “Grams said she lost her daughter a long time ago. Of course, if she straightened out, Grams would take her back into her arms, but my mother hasn’t been healthy in a long time. Grandmother didn’t want me around that, and I understand. Grams is my mother. She was the one that cared for me and was always there for me.”

“You were lucky to have Phoebe.”

“I don’t believe in luck. Grams did what she did because of love.”

His voice broke and she placed a hand on his cheek. Felicity’s throat tightened and she blinked back her emotions. “Yes. She loves you greatly. She’s an amazing woman.”

He flexed his jaw then cleared his throat. “I suppose I’m the only one in the room who lied about his mother being dead.”

Felicity smiled. “Yeah. My mom really did die when I was a kid.”

Aiden hooked a finger under her chin. “I’m sorry I lied.”

In the dim light, she could see the way he was looking at her. The way he’d let down the wall between them. He was vulnerable, and she wanted to reassure him that she wasn’t going to use that against him.

Before she could process what she was doing, her lips were pressed to his and he responded immediately. He pulled her closer, his hands traveling up into her hair, his kiss warm and passionate. She pushed aside all the hurt, all the pain that had happened between them, and she let herself get lost in the tingles that zinged over her skin at his touch.

He broke the kiss and whispered her name. It was a plea. A caress. Her hand traveled up his chest to the nape of his neck as his lips pressed kisses along her jaw.

Having Aiden’s arms around her again felt good. Right. Like they belonged together.

She loved him.

The thought made her jerk away, and she scrambled back to her own sleeping bag. No. She couldn’t be in love with Aiden again. This is what she’d been telling herself couldn’t happen.

“Felicity?” he asked, his breath shallow. “What’s wrong?”

Her heart raced as her mind tried to form words. “We can’t keep doing this to ourselves.”

He sat up and put his hand on her shoulder. “Doing what? Kissing? Because it seems to me it’s not a bad thing.”

She turned from him, pulling her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “We can’t get back together.”