Hard to Handle by Jessica Lemmon Page A

rough.
    She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t take the dark intensity in his eyes. But she did anyway. “Thank you.”
    His infallible smile returned, the intensity in his eyes replaced with impishness. “What do I get if I punch him?”
    An hour later they found a pair of empty lawn chairs. Sadie collapsed into one while Aiden went to grab her another beer. Jade flopped down into the chair next to her and leaned over the arm, nearly tipping it over.
    Sadie held out a hand to help but Jade righted the chair with an awkward splay of one leg. “Hottie with a body is your fiancé?” Sadie guessed she was attempting a whisper. She didn’t quite make it. Sadie sent an apologetic smile to a few people hovering nearby.
    “Wow, word travels fast,” Sadie said.
    “Yeah.” She glanced at the fire. The flames were no longer two stories high, making it safer to sit close. “Perry is trying to take Rick’s account out from under you,” Jade said with a sloppy wave. “But I heard Rick say he wasn’t going to sign with that bag of dicks.”
    Sadie chuckled. “Did he, now?”
    Jade let out a sharp laugh. “He may not have used that exact terminology.”
    Sadie felt Aiden before she heard him. A tingling on the back of her neck like static electricity. “Hi, Jade.”
    “Hi, hottie,” Jade said with an exaggerated wink. “Have you two set a date yet?”
    Aiden didn’t hesitate. “Well, I would get married tomorrow, but Sadie wants a huge wedding. Massive. One that trumps the royals.”
    ”No way, you should go to Jamaica.” Jade shoved Sadie, bringing her back from blankly staring into the flames. She gave her an impatient smile. Thankfully, Jade said nothing more on the subject after that, excusing herself and clambering out of the chair. She nearly spilled out of her top in the process.
    Aiden sat, eyes wide, looking shell-shocked. “Could have gone my whole life without seeing that,” he joked. He handed over Sadie’s beer and took a drink from his own.
    Sadie didn’t laugh.
    “What’s wrong?”
    Nothing. Everything. “I don’t want a huge wedding,” she said.
    “No?” Aiden shrugged with his mouth. “What’ll it be, then? Courthouse? Vegas? Jamaica?”
    She didn’t feel like playing any longer. “I don’t want a wedding at all.”
    “Well, don’t I feel the fool.”
    “Stop joking about this, okay?” Sadie wasn’t sure where that came from, but suddenly her patience was very thin. She guzzled down a few swallows of beer.
    Aiden leaned in and forced her to acknowledge him. “I’m sorry if I took things too far. I didn’t know.”
    And she was overreacting. “It’s fine.” She raked a hand through her hair.
    After a moment, Aiden asked, “You really don’t see yourself ever getting married?”
    She thought of the wedding she’d planned. The caterer she’d booked. Invitations she’d ordered, then subsequently shredded into tiny pieces. The flowers she’d debated over. The chicken-or-steak option she’d been sure to include on the RSVP cards. It’d all been for naught. Wasted time, wasted hopes.
    “Never,” she said.
    “That’s too bad.”
    Sadie turned to see Aiden tip his beer to his lips. A wave of melancholy washed over her, almost like she regretted giving such a final answer on the subject. So change the subject. “What do you think about putting a second motorcycle in the display window?”
    Aiden turned to her, a puzzled look on his face. “You really don’t think I could talk you into marrying me?”
    Sadie nearly choked on her beer. All the blood rushed from her face to her toes, making her brain temporarily seize. No, of course not. Just say it. No way, Jose. But she didn’t. She just sat there, staring at him, eyes as round as a pair of Harley Daymaker headlamps.
    “Yeah,” Aiden sighed. “Rick probably didn’t buy it, either.” He spared her a glance. “Think I jumped the shark? Want me to tell him I lied? That I’m a client who has no friends, so you