Page 20 of Heating Up (Nugget)
When Aidan got home on Tuesday he went straight from the firehouse to his new home. He hadn’t had a chance to call Dana to make sure everything had gone well with the movers. In fact, he’d barely had time to breathe. North of Susanville, two morons—brothers—had set their farmhouse on fire, hoping to collect the insurance money.
The old place had gone up like a bonfire. The flames spread, burning four hundred acres of forest and ranchland, destroying six structures, and injuring three firefighters. After an extensive investigation, the police hauled the brothers in and locked them up on arson charges. Dingbats, the both of them. They were just lucky no one had died.
The driveway was empty, so Aidan pulled his Expedition in and got out into the blazing heat. It had to be at least one hundred degrees today. The first thing he planned to do on his days off was get a portable air conditioner for the house. Unpacking could wait.
He unlocked the door, stepped into the living room, and staggered back. The whole room had been arranged, including his pictures. The walls had been painted a pale gray that matched the dark gray sectional and the blue zebra rug. She’d hung some kind of fabric shades that scrunched up over the windows. Sue had picked out the furniture, but he had to say Dana seemed to have a better knack for putting it all together. Before leaving for Chicago, he’d suggested that Sue take everything. She’d declined, saying she wanted to start from scratch with her new man—the one she was marrying this weekend.
He popped his head in the kitchen, which had been freshly painted, and someone had stenciled a rooster and the word “Bistro,” on the wall next to the table, which had been set with colorful placemats—not his. The house had gone from plain Jane to stylish in four days. He’d give it to Dana; she got shit done. It looked like all his kitchen stuff had been unpacked.
His bedroom was also arranged, the bed made, and some of his clothes hung in the closet. Boxes filled with his winter clothes, underwear, and sports equipment had been stacked along the wall. He’d have them unpacked in no time.
In the bathroom, she’d hung a new shower curtain. Something neutral, not too girlie, which he appreciated. She’d made two stacks of towels. He knew which stack was his because she’d fastened little chalkboard signs to the shelf with their names. Just like grammar school.
He went back in the kitchen and stuck his head in the refrigerator. The bottom shelves were packed with food. His shelves were bare. Well, he couldn’t expect her to shop for him too. Out of curiosity, he checked the pantry. Again, the bottom shelves were well stocked, and she’d filled the top shelves with Calloway candy. There had to be at least a dozen different kinds. He stuck the chocolates in the fridge and opened a tin of caramels, popping three in his mouth. Damn, they were good—and unexpectedly salty. He looked at the package. “Made with the finest sea salt,” it said.
Hmm, good idea, he thought. It cut the sweetness. But he needed real food and decided to hit the Nugget Market as soon as he found an air conditioner. First, he needed a shower. On his way to the bathroom, he couldn’t help himself from peeking inside Dana’s room. Everything matched. The walls, the bedding, the window coverings. She must’ve worked around the clock.
Aidan shut her door, stripped down in the bathroom, and jumped in the shower. He’d left his toiletries at Sloane and Brady’s, so he’d have to forgo shaving. After four days away, he’d gotten pretty scruffy. He used Dana’s soap and shampoo and hoped she wouldn’t mind. There’d be no way to hide it because he smelled like her. Peaches and vanilla.
He dried off, wrapped a towel around his waist, and headed to his bedroom when who should he meet coming down the hallway but Dana. She got one look at him and covered her eyes with her hands.
“Sorry, sorry. Oh God, I just knew this would happen.”
“What?” he said. “It’s not like I’m naked.”
“Well, you may as well be.”
“You’ve never seen a guy’s chest before?”
“Of course I have.”
He had a good mind to flash the rest of himself. Instead, he took his sweet-ass time walking to his room. “I know you’re looking.”
“No, I’m not.”
He heard her door bang shut and smiled. The lady was a prude. Aidan shuffled through the boxes until he discovered the one he wanted, sifted through the contents, found underwear and cargo shorts, and tugged them both on. He shoved the rest of the stuff into his dresser drawers. In another carton, he found his T-shirts, pulled one over his head, and unpacked the rest. Two boxes down, ten more to go. They could wait till later.
He found a crate of tennis shoes stashed in the closet and put them on without socks. Too hot. In the kitchen, he found Dana making a sandwich.
“The house looks great, like a freaking model home. Thanks for doing all this.” He looked around the kitchen, noting her little touches everywhere. Matching towels hanging from hooks near the sink. A big bowl of fruit on the counter. She’d even put a list of emergency numbers on the refrigerator. “To repay you, I’m gonna install us some sort of cooling system, even window fans if that’s all I can find.”
She lifted the hair off the back of her neck, and for some reason, he found it sexy as hell. “That’s great because it’s been so hot in here I can’t sleep at night even with the windows open. This is pretty unusual for the Sierra. Typically, it cools down in the evening. Where do you plan to go?”
“I don’t know. Is there a big hardware store around here?”
“Reno has the biggest ones. But you could try Mountain Hardware in Clio. We could call first.” She grabbed a phone book out of a drawer. Yep, she was that organized.
He used his cell to call, and while he waited for someone to answer, asked Dana, “Slow work week?”
“Are you kidding? I sold two places. One, a farm on the outside of town to this really great couple who raise sheep and alpacas.”
A man from the hardware store came on the phone and Aidan paced around the small kitchen, telling him what he needed. He signed off and said, “They’ve got a couple different window units. I say we get one for every room.”
She blinked up at him. “That’ll cost a fortune.”
“Nah.” He shook his head, then noticed the back door had a screen and opened it. “We don’t need one for the kitchen, just the living room and two bedrooms. I’m paying, anyway.”
He watched her cut her sandwich in half and his stomach growled.
