Hudson opened his mouth to argue the point to death, because that’s what annoying-as-shit little brothers did, so Aidan cut him off and shook his head. “No,” he said again.
“And what,” Hudson said, pissed. “You’re the end of the line?”
“On this, yeah.”
“That’s bullshit, A.”
“It’s the way it is,” Aidan said.
“Bullshit,” Hudson said again, and stormed out.
“Don’t say it,” Aidan said into the deafening silence.
“That went well,” Gray said anyway.
“You’re an ass,” Aidan said.
“No doubt,” Gray said. “And he’s not going to stop. You going to tell me what the real problem is?”
Hell no. But Gray was right. Hud wasn’t going to stop pushing, because Kincaids never stopped. Looking for trouble. Finding it. Fucking things up. All of the above, they were masters at all of it.
Five minutes later Aidan opened the front door of the salon just as his cell buzzed. Another Facetime call.
“What the hell are you doing at the salon?” Gray asked.
Aidan vowed to delete the Find Your Friends app off his phone if for no other reason than to have a private life. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m off the clock.”
“You getting a perm? Your cuticles done? A manscape?”
Aidan flipped him off, ended the call, and entered the salon.
Jonathan came from the left at the exact moment Lily came from the right.
Aidan took in Lily’s warm smile and without warning his brain went to war with his dick.
Why is she smiling like that? his brain asked, a little stunned and also immediately skeptical. She never smiles at us like that.
Who gives a fuck? his dick said. She’s gorgeous.
“I’m on this one,” Lily told Jonathan.
Jonathan grinned.
“Not like that!” she said quickly, her cheeks flaming. “Go away!”
Jonathan laughed and vanished into the back, leaving them alone.
“So,” Aidan said, mentally cracking his knuckles. “You said something about returning my favor.” He looked around the salon warily. The place wasn’t overly girlie or anything, but Aidan saw lots of things he had absolutely no use for.
Lily smiled. “You look nervous.”
He met her gaze and found a light of mischief there that he hadn’t expected. “And you look like you’re up to something.”
She laughed. Laughed.
And damn, he enjoyed that too. He’d missed seeing her happy, but now his brain and dick went on high alert for two different reasons. Danger, abort mission, his brain warned. No, she totally wants us, his dick said. “Listen, this returning the favor thing isn’t necessary—”
“I promise it won’t hurt a bit.” But she looked very amused, which put him on guard.
“Uh-huh,” he said, looking around, fully expecting one of his brothers to jump out at him. “So what are we talking about here?”
“I just wanted to give you a”—
He went brows up. He had no idea where she was going with the rest of that statement, but once again his brain and dick took it straight to the gutter. Blow job, both said in his head.
—“haircut,” Lily said at the same moment, and then narrowed her eyes at him. “What did you think I was going to say?”
“No idea.” He flashed a rueful smile. “But it was definitely going to be X-rated.”
“I should reiterate, that kiss was a mistake. So let’s stick with a haircut.”
“Which one?”
“Which one what?” she asked.
“Which kiss was a mistake?” he wanted to know, knowing damn well she was full of it. “The one after the snake incident or the one against the wall?”
“Both.” Turning away from him she strode to the wash station. She was wearing another sundress, this one with thin straps crisscrossing over her slender, tanned back. She had a tiny infinity sign tattooed on the back of her right shoulder with the initials AD scripted inside.
Her sister’s initials.
Lily’s high-heeled sandals were strapped around her ankles and sexy as hell, and the thin, flimsy material of her dress flirted around her thighs as she moved. The entire outer package said fun sophistication.
A complete contradiction to her demeanor.
Once she’d been an open book. What you saw was what you got with her, nothing was a mystery. He’d loved that.
She’d changed.
But so had he.
“I don’t get it,” he said.
“What?”
“You.”
“You don’t have to get me,” she said, gesturing him to the chair. “Just lie back and accept that this is happening.”
In the same way he was supposed to accept that she was back in town for however long she planned to be here, no expectations, no ties?
Maybe she could pull that off, but he sure as hell couldn’t. Though he had to give her credit, she knew exactly how to make him sweat.
He sprawled out in the chair. When he was settled in, she said, “After this I’ve got you booked for a full-body mud wrap.”
He sat straight up, not even the hand she set on his chest deterring him. “Hell no,” he said, even though he had no idea what a full-body mud wrap was.
“You really need it, Aidan,” she said a little too earnestly.
He met her gaze in the mirror. Her eyes were filled with mischief. Yeah, she was most definitely messing with him. “Letting myself go, am I?” he asked.