Chapter Twenty-Two
That night, Aidan stopped by. “I can’t stay tonight. I have to go back to L.A. for a very quick trip, one more interview, and a discussion with a director on the next film. I think the tide is finally turning on that whole drug thing.” He sat on her bar stool, peering at her as she leaned against the counter. She seemed different tonight—sadder, and breakable. He didn’t like it.
“Where will you be filming your next movie?”
“Ah…” Aidan hesitated. “Malta, why?”
“No reason, I was just curious.”
Aidan started to massage his neck. “Did you get my chocolates?”
“I did, yes. It was a lovely thing to do.”
“Sweetheart, do you want to go with me to L.A.? I can change the tickets. I would have asked, but we just got back, and you have your job.”
“No, that’s not it.” Walking over to him, she squeezed his shoulder. “Sorry. I’m still a bit moody, you know.”
“Oh!” Aidan said, hugging her close. “What are you going to do tonight?”
“How long are you here for?”
Aidan glanced at his watch. “Another hour or so, then I have to leave to make my plane.”
Bethany pulled away and looked at him. “Will you hold me for a while?”
Aidan kissed her tenderly, a sweet kiss filled with affection and something he was not ready to express yet, even to himself. “You bet. Go get in bed, luv, I’ll be right there.”
Bethany nodded and padded toward her room.
Aidan called Serena. “Hey, everything okay? I need you to change my flight… I know but do it anyway. Just give me until morning. Sure, early is fine. Have the car pick me up at Beth’s.”
This was not moodiness that had Beth so sad. He had a sinking feeling it was him, and he didn’t know what to do about it.
That night, he made love to her sweetly and afterward wrapped her snugly in his arms. He attempted to ignore his mental countdown of the times she would be in his arms, just like this. But it was difficult, they both knew their time was coming to an end.
Aidan left early the next morning. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and slipped out to his waiting car.
With Serena next to him on his flight, they spoke animatedly about his next film. He would be taking on the role of a darkly tormented spy, which Aidan was thrilled to do. He even had appointments with various government agencies, both American and British, to help him in his character study. While his character was tormented by incidents in his past, it was Aidan’s present that was causing him to suffer. For some reason, his simple liaison with Bethany was far from simple. He couldn’t get her out of his mind.
“Bethany sure is sweet,” Serena said.
“Mm,” he said, his eyes warning her that this subject was a no-no.
“Are you going to keep in touch with her when you leave Virginia?”
Aidan looked at her. “You’re not going to leave this alone, are you, Serena?”
“No,” she said smiling.
“You’re fired.”
“Oh, shush, Aidan and spill it. I’m getting tired of your moods.”
Aidan sighed. “Look, I don’t know, all right? Is that a good answer? I don’t have a freaking clue what to do. I care a lot about her, too much really. She needs things I can’t provide.”
Serena snorted.
Aidan ignored her and continued, “She needs, like, a small house with kids and that sort of thing.”
“Are you impotent? Also, the small house is so not a problem for you.” Serena eyed him with thinly veiled amusement.
“Serena.” He glared at her and ran his fingers through his hair. “I really should fire you.”
He looked out the window and saw a quick glimpse of Los Angeles through the clouds.
“Yeah, you probably should. I can be such a pain. But then you would have to hire someone else, and you know how you hate that process.”
Aidan groaned and leaned over and kissed her cheek. “That and I love you too much to fire you.”
Serena kissed him back. “I know you do. I just wonder when you’re going to figure out you love Bethany too much to let her go, too.”
Aidan scowled at her and ordered a drink. After some moody silence, he changed the subject.
“By the way,” Aidan said, using his fatherly voice. “I hear you are dating Evan Marcel. He is a major rogue, young lady.”
She sniffed. “Well, look who’s calling the kettle black. He is a very talented actor, he’s sweet to me, and he makes my tummy tingle,” she said, listing his qualities on her fingers.
Aidan grinned at her affectionately. “He is very talented. He should win an award for his performance as the serial killer in Time Stalker.” He lightly touched her face with a finger. “I’m happy he makes your tummy tingle. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t be worth it.”
Once they landed, Serena looked at him with her big brown eyes and said, “Does Bethany make your tummy tingle, Aidan?”
Aidan lifted her suitcase out of the overhead compartment and smiled somewhat sadly. “She makes everything tingle, darling.”
****
Later that evening, dressed in her finest cow pajamas, Bethany watched the red carpet arrivals for the movie premiere of So Deep in my Heart; A new romantic comedy, in which Aidan made a cameo as a favor to the director. Aidan had been annoyed that he had to go to the premiere. “I’m not really in the bloody thing,” he had grumbled to her, “but since this whole drug thing, I need to be out and about and healthy looking.” He had sighed, holding her close. “It’s hard on my character in this movie to constantly be back and forth to California.”
“Poor Earnest,” Bethany said, referring to his character in the Civil War drama.
Aidan affected a pout. “Yes, poor Earnest. Do you know how long it’s been since Earnest has had sex?”
Bethany had laughed at that. Maeve and Aidan had spent five days “making love” in the green grass. So ol’ Earnest had had some mighty good lovin’ in the not-so-distant past. But she had kissed his sulky lips and pretended to feel sorry for Earnest, and her performance was rewarded with some fairly raunchy sex on the living room carpet.
Bethany sighed, as she brought the popcorn bowl closer to her. Earnest may have not had sex in a couple of days, but Aidan seemed to be doing just fine. She wasn’t doing too bad, either.
The TV gods must have decided to grace her with a gift because the next star to make his way toward the interviewer was none other than Aidan Shannon. Bethany watched as Aidan walked up to the newscaster and gave her a polite kiss on the cheek. “How are you?” he murmured, using his full matinee-idol charm on the woman.
“Just fine, Aidan,” the woman purred. Bethany put the bowl on the table and frowned. Slut. That dress was so low-cut she could almost see her nipples.
“I hear you are making a movie out in ol’ Virginny.”
“Yes, I am, and it has been really great. We are trying to recreate the Civil War as close to reality as we can. We have historians on the set—”
“Do you have any nude scenes?”
Aidan’s eyes glittered for a minute, and then he smiled. “Yes, but I spend more time in clothes than out of them. I have to point out that the outfits were made to the exact specifications of the time period. I’m so impressed with our costume designer she—”
“Your ex-wife says that you are struggling with a drug problem and seeing some girl there in Virginia who may be enabling you.”
Bethany covered her eyes. She could not watch. Aidan was not happy; it was clear in the clench of his jaw and the brightness in his eyes. Didn’t the silly twit see that he was about to bust a gasket?
“Look, I would like to keep my personal life out of this if you don’t mind. Although I will go on record, again, to say that my ex-wife is mistaken. I have made good friends in Virginia, and no one there is enabling me. Again, I do not have a drug problem.”
With that, Aidan walked away and greeted other celebrities as they made their way into the theater. She watched him pick up his cell phone and start punching numbers. Good, she thought, give that nasty Paula a talking to. When her phone rang, it gave her such a jolt she nearly dropped her diet soda.
“Are you watching?” Aidan asked.
“Oh my God, Aidan, I can still see you on the television!”
“You can?”
To Bethany’s shock, he turned to the camera and waved at her. “Aidan!”
“Hello, luv.” His voice was smooth and silky with only a hint of the anger he had felt moments before.
“That awful woman! How can she just ask questions like that?”
Aidan gave what appeared to be a sad smile. “It’s her job.”
“To be a nasty wench?”
Aidan grinned. “Yes. Now, what are you doing?”
“Well, clearly I was watching the red-carpet thingy for that movie.”
“Are you on the couch?”
“Yep! I’m eating popcorn and having a diet soda.”
“Cow nightie?”
“No, cow pajamas.”
“Ah.” She watched him smile at her with affection on the TV, standing to the side of Matt Damon, who was currently being interviewed. So surreal.
“I wish I were there with you.”
“Me, too.”
Aidan sighed heavily. “I’ve got to go, luv, talk to you later, all right?” He turned to the camera and blew her a kiss, and disconnected the phone.
“Crap,” Bethany muttered as she got up to wash the popcorn bowl. The man was going to leave her town and take her heart with him. And there was nothing she could do about it.
****
That night she hugged her old teddy bear close and dreamed that she was wrapped in Aidan’s arms. Before Aidan, she never minded sleeping alone, but since he had spent more time with her than not, she had grown accustomed to his warmth. Tears dampened her pillow as it occurred to her that she would have to become reacquainted with an old and depressing tradition—sleeping alone.
The next morning, Bethany worked hard at the library. Keeping occupied seemed to be the only cure for her almost constant thoughts of Aidan.
Michelle eyed her friend with concern. “What shall we do tonight?”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah, come on, you need a night out on the town.”
Bethany groaned. She needed a night on the town like she needed a root canal.
“Thanks for thinking of me, but—”
“Hear me out, all right? If you don’t want to go dancing, how about dinner and a movie, just us girls?”
Bethany’s eyes sharply assessed her friend. “What’s going on?”
Michelle sighed. “I can see you’re sad, I just want to help.”
“Okay, Michelle, fine. Thank you for your concern. How about pizza at my place and a movie rental?”
“I’ll pick up the movie.”
Bethany smiled. “Sounds good.”
“Do you suppose I could get enough wine in you so you’ll tell me how good he is in bed?”
Bethany flushed a bright pink and walked away.
“Guess not,” Michelle said to no one in particular and busied herself with reshelving books.