Run, Girl (If You Can)

Aaron looked distinctly uncomfortable. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I didn't want you to see how stupid I look," he admitted. "I thought you would laugh at me."

Geez, what kind of person did he think she was? Keeley was slightly offended. "Forget that, what happened to you?"

His discomfort increased. He was actually shifting in place. The almighty business icon Aaron Hale never acted like this. Her curiosity was eating her alive—it had to be a pretty good story for him to be so embarrassed. He didn't GET embarrassed.

"…a paintball broke my goggles."

That was absolutely the last thing she would have expected to come out of his mouth. She was completely thrown off.

"What?"

"Cameron wanted to go paintballing for his bachelor party and my stupid goggles were faulty, okay? I got shot directly in the face," he said icily before crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Normally it would make him look scary but right now it gave him the aura of a petulant child. No wonder he thought she would laugh. She was tempted to right now.

Reining it in, she bit her lip and asked if it hurt. He nodded. "It was more swollen yesterday but somehow it hurts more today."

"Do you want me to get you some ice or something?"

"I already put some on before I came. I'm supposed to do it every hour but I think I can wait until the rehearsal is over."

She stood on tiptoe to get a closer look. It really did look terrible. And he would forever be immortalized in the wedding pictures like that. What luck!

Aaron sighed. "Do you have to gawk at me when I look the least attractive I ever have in my entire existence?"

What was he so self-conscious for? There wasn't anything of his she hadn't seen before, albeit in another life. Unless…he didn't want her to see him at his worst because he actually liked her? Keeley had done the same thing in her first life; she made sure to look cute in front of him at all times because she wanted him to think she was pretty.

She tilted her head. "Are you being shy?"

"No," he denied but it wasn't convincing.

"You are! You're totally acting like a girl that refuses to take her makeup off in front of her boyfriend."

Aaron actually looked pained. "Please don't make me the girl in this scenario."

She grinned and decided to tease him. It was too easy when he was already flustered. "Aww, you're so cute! Don't worry, it makes you look tough."

"Really?" he asked doubtfully.

"Totally! Like you fought off a bunch of thugs and won but at a price. Girls love things like that."

"Do you?"

Keeley blinked in surprise. Tough guys weren't exactly her type. Having only ever loved one person, she couldn't even say she had one. She originally fell for him because he seemed like a mystery to be solved. If she did have a type, mysterious would probably be it.

"Not really my thing." Seeing his face fall she frantically tried to placate him. Why did she care if his feelings were hurt?! "You're fine though! A black eye can't detract from true beauty."

His brow furrowed in disgust. "Beauty?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. You're a beautiful man. Hasn't anyone told you that before?"

"No."

The slightest bit of pink tinged his cheeks as he said it even though he had resumed his poker face. Was he…blushing? She had never, ever seen him blush. Not once.

"You're blushing," she said stupidly.

"Am not."

The pink grew more prominent. Liar! Keeley clapped and pointed at him accusingly.

"Yes you are! You actually have the ability to blush?! What the heck! Twelve years with you and I get nothing but now you blush over a tiny, obvious statement of fact?"

It wasn't like she never complimented him when they were dating. She used to call him handsome all the time and he never so much as twitched. So why was he doing it now? She felt oddly cheated somehow.

He scratched the back of his neck and wouldn't meet her eyes. "…it was unexpected."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "That's really what you're going with here?"

"You wouldn't expect someone who hates you to call you beautiful out of nowhere either."

All of the amusement was sucked right out of her. His words were matter-of-fact but she still detected a slight tinge of sadness. She didn't hate him anymore, but she could see how he would think that.

She hadn't exactly been the nicest since discovering the truth; she hadn't known how to handle it. Truthfully, she had been quite rude.

"I don't hate you."

"Sure," he said sarcastically.

She didn't realize he was capable of sarcasm either. If she had to guess, it was probably Aiden's influence on him.

"I don't! You've done a lot of stupid stuff but I've already forgiven you for it." Keeley really wasn't angry anymore. It was all water under the bridge now.

"Then why—"

She knew what he was going to ask. Why won't you be with me? Because there was too much history between them. She wasn't stupid enough to set herself up for failure a second time. It was better to cut him off before he got ahead of himself.

"We have literally nothing in common. We were always doomed for failure even if you didn't do all of that stupid stuff."

Keeley couldn't believe she was actually talking about this with her ex-husband like rational adults. Communication had always been one of their biggest issues.

He did hide a ridiculous amount of things from her after all in the name of "protection." She wasn't much better—she never let on how much she hated the people in his social circle and wanted out.

Aaron opened his mouth to retort but the wedding planner called them over. It was time to take their places up front to run through the program. Like at Lydia's rehearsal, the recessional and processional would happen at the end.

His eyes said the conversation wasn't over but Keeley couldn't think of anything else that needed to be said. It was true that they were too different.

Unfortunately, Aaron's black eye answered the second question from earlier for her. She did still care. Great.