Aiden grabbed the edge of his shirt and pulled it up as he turned around. The small spot on his lower back that had been devoid of ink was now covered with an elaborate tattoo of a conch shell with “Chloe” scripted over the center of the image.
I blinked a couple of times as I focused on the design. The skin around the tattoo was still red and looked sensitive.
“You…you got a new tattoo?”
“Yeah.” Aiden chuckled.
“For…for me?”
“Yeah, for you. How many Chloes do you think I know?”
I was shocked and honestly didn’t know how to respond.
“The kayak trip was our first real date,” Aiden explained. “You liked that conch so much, and now whenever I see one, I think of you. I thought it fit.”
I swallowed hard, but words wouldn’t form.
“Do you like it?” he asked nervously.
I tore my eyes away from the design and looked up at his face.
“I love it,” I whispered. “It’s beautiful.”
Aiden turned back around, letting his shirt drop before he brought his hand up and cupped the back of my neck. He leaned down close to me and whispered in my ear.
“You are beautiful.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.
“I love you, Aiden Hunter.”
“I love you, too, Chloe Ellison.”
And with that, everything began to fall into place.
EPILOGUE
“Where do you keep the cheese grater?” I called to Aiden.
“In the top drawer, right side of the stove.”
“Found it!”
Living with Aiden was fantastic. Trying to get around in his kitchen was not.
I had no idea how he originally organized the place, if it could be called organized at all, but I couldn’t seem to find anything without asking Aiden where it was hidden. He had pans where I would have put dishes, towels where the silverware ought to be, and spices were apparently supposed to be kept in the garage on a rack near the door.
Moving into someone else’s house was a bit of a challenge. As if there hadn’t been enough boxes around before, now all of mine were added to the mix. At least the room Aiden had cleared for me was finally taking shape as a guest room. There was plenty of room for my bookshelf, and my superheroines now had a great view of the Atlantic. Mom was due for her visit in a couple of hours. Mo and Lo still came over when we needed to move furniture or heavy boxes around. Aiden still wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous, and the weight room had gone unused.
He claimed he was losing his gains, whatever the hell that meant.
“Okay, now where’s the cheese?” I crammed my head further into the refrigerator, but no cheese was magically appearing. When Aiden didn’t respond, I clambered out and walked into the living room.
He was on the floor, leaning against the couch, with a large box to one side of him. It was full of toys Cayden had played with. Justin had set a goal for Aiden to go through one box a week, but he hadn’t been doing very well with the task. The process didn’t seem to upset him, but he had a memory for every item he came across. He usually decided he needed to keep it all and ended up just putting everything back in the box.
Still, it was a start.
“Aiden?” I said again. “Where’s the cheese?”