Page 23 of Heating Up (Nugget)
“It’s not that,” she said. “I just prefer swimming in a pool to floating in the river.”
“Okay. You ready to go, then?”
“I am. But I’m paying for my own air conditioner.”
“Nah, I’ve got it covered. It’s the least I can do after you did all the heavy lifting on the move.”
She started to squabble with him, but he threw his credit card down. After she paid for her closet organizer, they headed to the door. That was when a little boy about three or four emerged from the paint aisle, sobbing his head off.
Aidan scooped him up and asked, “Hey, little guy, what’s the matter?”
The kid, now eye level with Aidan, stopped crying and just peered at him. Aidan looked around for a parent but didn’t see a soul.
“You lost, fellow?”
The boy didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at Aidan like he was an alien. At least the kid didn’t talk to strangers.
“I’ll search the store,” Dana said and started walking up and down the aisles.
A few minutes later, the clerk grunted something and nudged his head at the glass door.
“Ah, Jesus,” Aidan muttered, and then quickly shut his mouth. “Is that your mom out there?” He brought the child closer to the window and pointed to a woman standing by a pickup on her cell phone, clearly engrossed in a conversation.
“Mama, Mama!” the boy shrieked.
“Hey, Dana, we found her,” Aidan called.
“Where?” She trotted back and followed the direction of his eye roll.
With one hand, he wheeled the cart, and with the other he carried the boy outside. The woman looked up, held the phone to her ear with her shoulder, and waggled her hands to take the child into her arms without even breaking a sentence. As Aidan loaded their purchases into the back of his Expedition, he could still hear her complaining about her boss or whoever she was bitching about.
“Can you believe that?” Dana said as they drove away.
“I wonder if she even noticed he was missing?” He shook his head. His old man would’ve chewed the woman’s head off, but what was the point? There was no changing a person that self-absorbed.
When they got home Aidan took the air-conditioning units into the house. “You see my tools?”
“I put them in the garage,” Dana said. “You want me to get them?”
“I’ll get ’em.” He found the heavy metal box easily enough on one of Tawny’s many shelves. Christ, Dana had even organized the garage.
He brought the whole thing into the house and got to work installing the first unit in the living room, securing the brackets to the window’s metal frame. Within ten minutes he had the air conditioner up and running.
He stood in front of it, letting the cold air wash over him. “Ah.”
Dana laughed. He liked the sound of it. Throaty and genuine. He didn’t figure her for a giggler, which was good because he didn’t much like gigglers.
“Next,” he said, and grabbed the toolbox with one hand and the second box with the other, heading to Dana’s room.
She opened the door for him, and again he noticed how neat and perfect everything was. He got the unit installed in no time flat and turned it on. Then he headed to his own room, Dana trailing behind him with the last unit. The truth was, he was fading fast and was gonna need to sleep soon. So of course to spite him, the air conditioner gave him all kinds of problems. After messing with it for what seemed like forever, he finally got the metal screws into the frame, adjusted the height of the unit just right, plugged in the sucker, and let it rip. The cooler blew out a steady stream of cold air. Yep, now he’d sleep well.
“Would you mind terribly carrying in my closet organizer and lending me your tools?” Dana asked.
“I’ll do it for you in the morning, Dana, but I’ve got to sleep now.”
“I can do it myself.”
Having a sister who would shoot anyone who challenged her self-sufficiency, he knew better than to insist. “Okay. I’ll bring it in for you.”
