Deception - Hotchniss

Chapter 19

"We're going shopping?" Aaron said rather than asked, sitting back on the chair in the living room downstairs. It was just him and Lucas in the room, admiring the architecture of the room, let alone the whole house.

"Yes, are you ready?" She asked, tuning his eyes towards his blue jeans and green sweater.

"Yeah," he said, standing up and catching her gaze. "Do I have to wear something nicer?" he asked.

Emily scanned him up and down once more before responding. She could feel Lucas's eyes on the back of her head as they slowly left the room. "No, you look good."

Aaron raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh?" A small smirk came across his face.

"I mean, you look fine. You're dressed okay- for going out, you know," Emily stuttered, refuting to meet his eyes. When she looked back at him he was still staring at her. "Okay, so what? I said you look good, what's the big deal?"

He shook his head as they stopped by the stairs, his dimples still showing through his smile. "Well, for the record, you also look good."

"Oh yeah?" Emily smirked back at him. Prior to this trip, she would never imagine that he was so good at this kind of thing. Aaron Hotchner, Unit Chief, AKA Aaron Hotchner, hard ass boss.

He lowered his head slightly towards her. "Those jeans are working for you," he said in a lower voice, going as far as to add a small wink in her direction.

That was it for Emily, as she started to laugh uncontrollably now. She hit his shoulder playfully. "You're such a flirt," she teased, walking around to the front of the house where they met Anna and Ila. Aaron was smiling the whole time.

They mainly went into town to pick up a few more things they needed for the wedding, but also to show Emily and Aaron around the small harbor town before the wedding. It would have just been a girls thing, but the last thing Emily was going to do was leave Aaron at the house with her mother. Especially not after their last 'conversation'.

Aaron liked the town as soon as they began walking down the sidewalk. It reminded him of Alaska. He'd only been there a few times, and mostly on various cases, but he'd loved it each time. He told himself that if he could move anywhere else in the world, he'd move there.

The weather was a little chillier than usual, according to Anna, who was bundled up warmly in a puffy coat and boots. "Emily, I don't know how you're wearing such a thin jacket. Aren't you cold?" her aunt asked her, turning around to see the couple walking behind her and her daughter.

"I'm fine, really. I think you forget that I live on the east coast."

Ila shook her head. "Well, fine, but your mother wouldn't approve."

Emily laughed quietly just as Anna pointed across the road. "The harbor is over that way. This whole town is on the bay, but once you're over there, you really feel like you're on the ocean."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"I mean, fishing boats, lobster, shrimp, and lots of restaurants. Dive bars and white collar."

Ila smiled at her daughter, small wrinkles creasing around her eyes. "I like to think of it as the heart of Monte Cristo. Just smell that fresh sea breeze," she said, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly.

"You mean Monte Cristo Bay," Anna corrected her. Ila brushed her off, saying that it was all the same to her.

"Brad had a vacation house up here when we were first married. That's how I was introduced to Monte Cristo," Ila explained, then looked back at Aaron and Emily. "Brad was my first husband. We were married for eight years, before the accident."