She hadn’t liked it.

Aiden had to be better than that. He had to be. According to the rumors, the girls in Appleby generally thought he was very good. At that and more. Of course, these were the same girls who, apparently, didn’t care that he picked his nose so maybe their opinions shouldn’t have mattered quite so much.

But after his muscles had gotten bigger and he’d grown another two inches and he’d started walking around her mother’s house without a shirt on when he was back visiting, she’d thought maybe the girls had taken one look at that cocky smirk of his, and those green eyes, and those abs and thought what’s a booger or two when I can have that?

Or maybe that was just her.

It was so stupid. She’d been looking at that smirk and those eyes all her life. Was she really so superficial that a few sit-ups and some time apart was all it took to slide him from the friend-zone into the fornication-zone?

Ugh, fornication. Really? The terms for losing her virginity were bad, but there were plenty of bad ones for sex too.

But yes, apparently, that was all it took because she couldn’t even imagine doing the deed—seriously, ugh—with anyone else.

The first time.

Right, that’s what she meant. She couldn’t imagine having sex with anyone else her first time.

It wasn’t like she thought Aiden was The One or Prince Charming or anything like that. That was not why she was picking him. She’d heard the guy belch, fart, and tell really stupid jokes far too many times to even think about him romantically.

She just needed someone who knew what he was doing in bed and who would never tell anyone that she didn’t.

She’d been thinking about this for a while. Probably since that day he’d made her tingle just by looking at her. But for sure for the past four months. Ever since she’d run into him in the upstairs hallway with only a towel around his waist. They’d literally run into one another and one of his hands had shot up to keep her from falling on her ass and the towel had slipped and…

She hadn’t gotten a look at anything.

But she’d wanted to. She’d been disappointed that she hadn’t. And that’s when she realized that, yeah, Aiden was the perfect choice to get laid with.

Zoe frowned. Get laid with sounded weird. Should it be “he was the perfect choice to lay”? Ugh, that sounded awkward too. Plus she wanted him to lay her. She didn’t know how to do that. Well, technically she did, of course, but not in the make-the-first-move-be-seductive way. Maybe she should say “he was the perfect choice to be laid by”? Nope, that sounded stupid too.

“Are you okay?”

Zoe blinked and looked up at Aiden. He was standing right in front of her, watching her like he was afraid she was about to puke or something.

“I’m…fine.” My hymen is still intact and that’s bugging me, but otherwise fine.

Geez, even ‘hymen’ was such a weird, not-at-all sexy word.

“You look…”

She lifted a brow. She’d worn this top because it was a little clingy and it slipped off one shoulder. She’d hoped that was sexy. She didn’t have a lot of curve up top for it to cling to, but the pale pink color was soft and feminine and the jeans she’d paired it with were fitted and she hoped that it all made Aiden think that…well, that she was a woman and not just his best friend’s little sister.

“I look…?”

“Weird.”

2

Zoe sighed. So much for the clingy-top factor.

“You look like you’re worried about something,” Aiden said. “Everything okay?”

Well, worried was better than weird.

And she was worried. She was worried that Aiden would think sleeping together—okay, that was one she could kind of get on board with though sleeping wasn’t the key focus really, so that made it misleading… Zoe forced herself to concentrate. On Aiden. And convincing him that them having sex was not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

Zoe braced her hands on the counter behind her and leaned back casually. Maybe that would make her breasts seem more obvious too.

His gaze didn’t leave her face.

“I actually could use your help with something,” she told him.

“Okay.”

Just “okay”. Some of the nerves that had tightened her shoulders unknotted and she took a deep breath. This was Aiden. Sure, he’d teased her and been disgusting around her over the years, but he’d also always been there for her.

After his mom had died when he was fourteen, he’d practically moved in with the McCafferys. Her mother had been his mom’s best friend and Maggie stepped in to mother him as if he was her own. His dad had still been around, but had taken his wife’s death really hard and had spent a lot of time at work or a little drunk. They’d helped him as much as they could, but her dad had also stepped up as a father figure to Aiden.

So, yeah, he’d always been there, but he’d also been there. He’d never said no to her if she asked to borrow his car, borrow twenty bucks, if she’d needed a ride home from a party, if she’d needed help with her math homework.

He’d be here for her now. Surely.

But instead of saying “can you take me to bed and ravish me?”—because seriously, who would say that anyway?—she asked, “Can I have that last piece?”

While she’d been wrapped up in her thoughts about sex and him, he’d taken the last piece of chocolate pie from the tin on the counter. It was his favorite. The thing he most looked forward to when he came home—or so he said. She knew it wasn’t true. Strawberry cupcakes were his favorite. But they reminded him of his mom, so he never ate them.

Besides, Zoe was pretty sure that what he most looked forward to was being mothered by her mom and sleeping in his old bedroom and eating anything Maggie and Zoe made, not just that pie. But Maggie always made sure Zoe made it for him. Just like she always came over to Zoe’s house and cleaned from top to bottom, put out the “special” towels that only came out when Cam and Aiden visited, and made sure that their favorite coffee was stocked by the Keurig.

Now that she had moved out, when Cam and Aiden came home to visit, they stayed at Zoe’s with her. There were four big bedrooms and they were only a block away from Maggie’s so it worked out better than having two grown men sleeping on couches or blow-up mattresses on the floor.

Of course, it also led to things like half-naked interactions in the upstairs hallway. But Zoe wasn’t complaining.

She only complained about how her brother seemed absolutely incapable of wiping up toast crumbs and how neither of them ever remembered to bring toothpaste and that she ended up with half her tube gone by the time they left.

How did two men use so much toothpaste? Were they brushing their teeth five times a day? That, of course, led to her thinking about how minty fresh Aiden would taste if she kissed him though, so…that wasn’t exactly a complaint either.

Aiden looked at the pie on the plate he held, then back to her, then sighed. But he held it out. “Okay.”

She didn’t grin. That would have been rude. Yes, she’d been testing him. And he’d passed.

He would give her his pie.