Run, Girl (If You Can)

Aaron hated Thanksgiving. It was catered by a Michelin starred chef but it consisted of some of the most prominent families New York at the banquet hall of a hotel, which seemed against the point of the holiday to him.

Keeley had never liked these farces. She used to argue that Thanksgiving was about family and that she wanted to be with her dad in the early years of her marriage.

He should have listened to her. Anything would be better than this. Especially since Lacy Knighton was directly across the table from him and kept trying to initiate conversation he repeatedly had to kill. So annoying.

Aiden hadn't found anything indicating that Lacy was blackmailing Dr. Rothman yet but Aaron still didn't trust the woman as far as he could throw her. He knew better than anyone what she was capable of.

This dinner was entirely pointless. He didn't care about any of these people. The only business contact he had in this entire room was his dummy shareholder Alice and she was busy entertaining her husband's family.

Keeley used to do that for him at these sorts of events and she hated every minute of it. He never should have subjected her to these piranhas at all.

What was she up to right now? Probably enjoying a normal holiday experience with her dad.

Aaron opened his phone, about to text her, when he saw that there was a new notification from Instagram. The only people he followed were Keeley and his two idiot subordinates because they (mostly Aiden) begged him when they found out he had an account.

He wouldn't post anything until he was back with Keeley again. Then he would only post pictures of her and their family. This account wasn't affiliated with his name or even his regular email address; it was safe.

She had posted a picture where she was sandwiched in between two of her equally beaming friends in front of a bookshelf in her father's living room.

He liked and commented on it like usual before frowning. The girl in the photo must be the Peruvian roommate she mentioned but who was the guy? He looked vaguely familiar…

Aaron searched through her old posts. Most of them were selfies, pictures of her cat, or group shots with friends.

Her roommates were sprinkled throughout her photos but there were also people he didn't recognize, especially the further back he went. But that guy…he was in nearly as many as the roommates!

He scrolled down quite far and discovered pictures with that man in them all the way back in 2006. So Keeley met him her freshman year of college, huh?

Aaron felt a bit sick knowing he was there right now while he was stuck in this stuffy banquet hall. He sent a text to the contact known as 'Wife' in his phone so she wouldn't forget his existence.

'Are you having a nice Thanksgiving?'

He didn't get a response. She must have gotten busy right after posting the photo and set her phone down somewhere.

Going back to Instagram, he decided to investigate pictures posted by valenovela, rythescienceguy, and jenny_benny since they seemed to show up on Keeley's page the most.

So his name was Ryan Bradley…Aaron would have to talk to Aiden to look into this guy. Something caught his eye on Jennica's page: a group picture from a Halloween party last month.

Ryan was in it but so was Cameron. He'd met this guy? Why didn't he say anything!

Aaron composed a very angry text message and sent it to his subordinate. He better have an explanation for this.

===

Cameron was thoroughly enjoying deceiving Jennica's mother. In the 24 hours they had been at the Stevens' house, he had many opportunities to sit with his arm around her and even kiss her cheek or the top of her head.

He was a hit with little Benny due to his years of experience being an uncle. Anna fawned over him because of his job (how she had raised an amazing woman like Jennica he'd never know).

Brian was a harder sell. He was playing the role of the protective big brother but his wife seemed to like Cameron so that was something.

This was a family he could see himself tolerating visiting a couple of times a year. There could be worse in-laws for sure. Alistair and Roslyn Hale were the first example to come to mind—Keeley didn't stand a chance if Aaron ever won her over.

Aaron was omniscient as always. As if he knew Cameron had thought about him, he sent a text while they were in the middle of eating pie.

'Why didn't you tell me about Ryan Bradley?' He could practically feel the chill coming through the phone. Aaron was pissed.

Jennica noticed something was off first. "What's wrong?" she whispered before taking another bite of pumpkin pie that was more whipped cream than pie at this point.

"Hurricane Aaron."

She snorted so hard that whipped cream came out of her nose. It shouldn't have been cute but it kind of was. "What does he want? You're on vacation!"

He couldn't exactly tell her that it was because his boss was hopelessly obsessed with her roommate. Not only would that be weird, she might think that he approached her just to get close to Keeley.

That wasn't true at all. His being there at that Halloween party was completely a coincidence and he liked her right off the bat.

"It's kind of hard to explain…"

"Give me the short version."

"He's jealous of somebody and is taking it out on me." That was the simplest way of putting it.

"Jealous…this wouldn't be about the average girl he's obsessed with, is it?"

Now it was Cameron's turn to spew pie. "He told you about that?!"

"Well he didn't name names but yeah. One conversation and I got the feeling he's really in love with her. It's kind of sweet," she admitted.

He wondered how sweet she would think it was if she knew the girl in question was one of her best friends. "Nothing about that guy is sweet, trust me."

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Brian barked.

"Nothing!" they said in unison.

"Nothing important," Jennica amended. "We were talking about a friend of ours—nobody you'd know."

"You have the same friends?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Of course we do! We've been together for a while," Cameron said casually.

He was kind of having fun getting a rise out of this guy. He'd never had to deal with an overprotective brother before. Melody had been an only child and he never got far enough with his other girlfriends to meet their families.

"Then why isn't it Facebook official?"

"I'm not on Facebook terribly much. We should change that, shouldn't we?" he said with a wink towards his soon-to-be-not-fake girlfriend.

Jennica gaped at him since this hadn't been a part of the plan. He knew what she was thinking. How would they explain this to people when they had to change it back to them both being single in a few days?

He gave her a subtle nod that said 'trust me' and she complied. Their relationship status had officially been updated and the comments began pouring in.

Cameron put his phone back into his pocket and hummed to himself. Everything was going according to plan.

Once the pie was completely consumed, he suggested that he and Jennica go for a walk to help things digest even though it was only about 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside. They needed to talk.