Chapter 987

“Uncle Aaron,” she called him softly. Aaron heard her, but he didn’t respond. Lena frowned. Since when did his ears stop working? She reached up, her fingers landing on his earlobe, giving it a playful squeeze. “Aaron, do you even have ears? I’m talking to you.”

Aaron froze. Damn it. His earlobes were his weakness. “Let go,” he commanded coldly.

“Then why are you ignoring me? Do you have a hearing problem?” she grumbled, squeezing his earlobe again. It was round, thick, and felt like a little piece of soft meat—strangely fun to play with.

Aaron clenched his jaw. He tried tilting his head away to escape her grasp, but that only made her more mischievous. The more he tried to shake her off, the more stubbornly she held on. In the end, he gave up.

“Uncle Aaron, your earlobes are so thick. People say that means you have good fortune,” Lena mused, the alcohol in her system dulling her filter. She was calling him Uncle Aaron, but she wasn’t treating him like the older figure he was supposed to be—more like an old childhood friend.

Aaron sighed and simply kept walking, carrying her in his arms. Though she was testing his patience, he didn’t speed up. Maybe, deep down, he was actually enjoying this moment.

“But they’re useless,” Lena continued when he stayed silent. “They look nice, but they don’t work properly.”

As she spoke, a young couple walked past them. The girl took one glance at Aaron carrying Lena and turned to her boyfriend. “I need to lose weight.”

The boy laughed. “You don’t need to. I’ll just start working out.”

Lena watched their figures disappear down the street—the boy was lean, the girl a bit chubby. If they wanted that fairytale princess carry, one of them had to adjust.

“Uncle Aaron, what if one day I get as fat as that girl?” she asked suddenly. “Like… if I get pregnant and my belly gets really big, would you still be able to carry me like this?”

Of course, he could. But he didn’t answer.

Lena sighed. “Even if you could, you wouldn’t. Your girlfriend wouldn’t allow it.”

That thought suddenly dampened her mood. Her fingers finally let go of his earlobe, going limp as they rested against his chest.

“Uncle Aaron,” she murmured, “are you really going to marry Xandra?”

“What does that have to do with you?” The ‘silent man’ finally spoke.

Lena closed her eyes, focusing on his warmth, his scent, the steady rhythm of his breathing. “Honestly… I… really… don’t want you… to marry her…”

She spoke each word deliberately, as if afraid she wouldn’t have the courage to say them otherwise.

A flicker of light sparked in Aaron’s dark eyes. “Why?”

Just as he asked, Lena’s fingers, which rested against his chest, felt it—thump. Thump. A steady but forceful pounding. She knew exactly what it was. Even drunk, she understood.

“Uncle Aaron,” she whispered, her gaze lifting to his throat, locking onto his Adam’s apple. “If I wanted to steal you back from Xandra, do you think I’d succeed?”