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“You’re probably going to need a shirt if you want to go out in public,” I said, hoping to wipe the pleased look from his face. My comment only seemed to feed it though.

He walked over to me and leaned against the counter, standing far too close for comfort. “Don’t pretend you don’t like what you see,” he said.

I kept my eyes on his face. It was tempting to dip them lower, because as much as I hated to admit it, Aiden was hot. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that. “You know, your inventory of sleazy pickup lines is growing old real fast.”

“You think I’m trying to pick you up?”

“I really hope not,” I muttered.

He struggled to withhold a smile. “You say that now, but I’m fairly certain I can win you over.”

“And I’m fairly certain you’re wrong.”

“I guess we’ll see.” He continued smiling at me like he knew I had no chance of resisting him. He was in for a rude shock when he realized he was wrong.

“Anyway, I’ll go print out some cards,” he continued.

“What?”

“For our card drop…” he said slowly.

“Oh, right, the card drop.” He’d annoyed me to the point where I’d completely forgotten about it. I kind of wished I could forget about it again, because the idea no longer held as much appeal.

“I think I saw some templates online that will make it easier,” he continued.

“You saw some templates?” I repeated back to him in surprise.

“Well, yeah. You didn’t think I was pretending I wanted to do this thing just to annoy you, did you?”

That was exactly what I thought.

He chuckled when he saw the confused expression on my face and then turned to leave the room. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, and we can get started,” he called back over his shoulder.

I stared after Aiden, slightly speechless and feeling like a bit of a fool. It was only when he’d left the kitchen that I found my voice again. “Don’t forget a shirt. You don’t want to scare the neighbors!”

I could hear his laugh from deeper in the house. It was probably funny because the only person his naked chest really scared was me.

7

Aiden

“Isn’t this fun?” I beamed at Clary as we walked down the street together.

She’d been muttering under her breath ever since we’d left home, and I got the feeling my exuberance was bothering her. As much as I loved seeing the cute line that knitted her brow together, I would have preferred a smile. And while her dark grumblings were about as adorable as you could get, it would have been much better if she actually enjoyed my company.

She was probably still mad about me working out in her room this morning. I started every morning doing weights, and since she said it was fine to keep them in her room, I’d thought she’d be cool with it. How was I supposed to know she’d freak out?

I wanted to fix things, and Seth’s idea of doing something nice for her had been at the forefront of my mind. I’d been trying my hardest to think of something appropriate all morning, but nothing seemed good enough. My frozen pizza last night had been an epic fail, and I was stumped for another idea. Seth had made it sound so easy, but it was much harder than I’d imagined.

Even my offer to help her mail the cards today wasn’t really helping things. I’d been planning on doing it anyway, but when she mentioned it this morning, it had seemed like fate and the perfect opportunity to spend some time together. Clary couldn’t have felt more differently though. It was a prime example of how she wasn’t interested in anything to do with me—even if it was a nice gesture. I was beginning to wonder if Seth’s advice wasn’t all that great.

Clary glanced at me. The cool morning air made her cheeks slightly flushed, and she was wearing barely any makeup. You could hardly tell because her skin was flawless. The other girls at school must have hated her.

“Sure, this is fun.” Her answer was so unconvincing I almost wished she’d just continued her muttering. She turned, allowing her long dark hair to form a curtain between us. My hands itched to reach out and tuck the closest strands behind her ear so I could see her blue eyes again.

“Do you think anyone will actually use these?” I asked her, waving my cards in the air. We’d started by putting cards in the mailboxes on my street. I knew most of my neighbors pretty well, and there were quite a few elderly people who lived nearby. I hoped that at least some of them would take us up on our offer to help. I really didn’t want them to have to risk getting sick.

Clary looked at the cards in my hand and shrugged. “I hope so,” she said before focusing on the sidewalk ahead of us.