The Butterfly Effect (Boggy Creek Valley 1)

As I followed Aiden to his house, I replayed the events of the morning at the orchard. So much had happened in such a short amount of time.

The kiss. Which had been amazing.

Aiden’s apparent flashback, which had thrown up warning signs about just how much he’d been keeping inside.

And there was seeing him with Lilly. Lord, something about Aiden with Ben and Lilly sent my libido into overdrive.

Then there was the moment at my car, when I had almost begged him to kiss me, to hell with Grace standing there.

Oh, how I wanted him to kiss me again. I wanted to feel the same way I felt when I was eighteen and he’d held me in his arms. I wanted him to look at me like he looked at me that night.

I wanted him, more than I had ever wanted anything in my life.

With a long sigh, I glanced in the rearview mirror. Ben’s car seat was facing backward, but I could see his reflection in the mirror I had suctioned to the back window. His baby-blue eyes met mine. “Do you like Aiden, buddy?”

He kicked his little legs and let out a squeal of delight.

With a nod, I replied, “Yeah. Me too.”

Ben gurgled something, and I was positive he was making his case for Aiden, just as my father had done.

“I know, little guy. I know. I think we’re both in trouble.”

Aiden

My mother and grandfather both stood there with bright eyes as they each hugged Willa and then leaned in to say goodbye to Ben. I could already see it written all over my mother’s face. She had always liked Willa, and I had even confessed to Mom at one point about how I felt about her. At the time, Mom had agreed with me that not pursuing Willa was for the best. My mother knew her as well as I did, and she knew taking Willa away from Boggy Creek would have eventually destroyed her. But now, it looked like Mom was back on Team Willa.

After all the goodbyes were done, I slid into Willa’s car and we headed into town. First stop, O’Hara Construction.

We drove in silence for a bit before Willa finally spoke. “Are you excited about going into the family business?”

“Not really,” I answered truthfully.

I could feel her eyes on me. “What would you like to do?”

“Maybe something I’m more familiar with. I’ve got an old SEAL buddy of mine who has a security firm in Boston. He asked if I might be able to do some work for him from time to time. I told him yes, if I could make it happen.”

“Oh, what type of work would you be doing?” Willa asked.

“I’m not entirely sure yet. I know he has some pretty important clients. I’m guessing it would be personal security, things like that.”

“Why don’t you start your own business, or one that coexists with the construction company?”

Turning to look at her, I laughed. “I don’t think anyone needs security in Boggy Creek, Willa.”

She laughed. “You’d be surprised, and I’m thinking more along the lines of security systems. With more and more folks moving out to the valley to get away from the big city, they’re still going to want to have that personal safety they had when they were living in a bigger place. I bet if you started a company that did security systems for homes and such, you’d do well. It could be something you offered up with new builds and remodels.”

I turned and looked at her; she had clearly missed what I meant.

Willa grinned. “Okay, hear this out for a moment.”

“Okay,” I said.

Willa pulled into the parking lot of my grandfather’s office before she started speaking again. He kept an office on Main Street, but the actual construction company was located right outside of town. It was where we kept all of the heavy equipment, where the trailers were set up, and where most of the employees worked. The small office on Main was where Granddad met with future clients and did all of the back-office, administrative stuff.

Willa turned off her car, unbuckled her seat belt, and turned to face me. “From what I’ve heard from Rose, O’Hara Construction has done a lot of new-home builds, not only in the valley but even farther out. The company has a good reputation. If you started a security side of O’Hara Construction, you could offer people systems to install in their homes.”

I smiled. “That’s not the type of security I’m talking about, Willa.”

She returned my smile with one of her own. “I know that, Aiden. But if you started off with residential, you could move up to commercial. We’re not that far from Boston, you could even branch out and help larger corporations with their security. Not only systems, but personal.”

I felt my brows pull in some as I let her idea settle into my brain for a bit.