Page 9 of Heating Up (Nugget)
“My house burned down, Griff, not my bank account.”Why did he have to be so damn nice?
“Okay.” He held his hands up. “Just trying to help.”
“I know, and I really appreciate it. But I’m fine. How do you know Aidan?”
“Met him when he came to visit Sloane in February. He was a hotshot arson investigator in Chicago. The dude’s like a total stud. Good guy to have as a roommate. This news will make a lot of people feel better about your situation.”
Especially Lina, Dana thought.
He reached in to give her a friendly hug. “You let me know if there is anything you need, you hear?”
“Between Aidan’s new flat-screen and the washer and dryer he recently bought, we should be fine.” She smiled a little too brightly.
God, what had she gotten herself in to?
Chapter 3
“You hardly freakin’ know this guy.” Aidan sat on the stoop of his new house, hoping the neighbors wouldn’t hear his telephone conversation. It was too hot to go inside.
“We’ve been seeing each other for the last six months and have worked together for more than a year, not that it’s any of your business,” Sue huffed.
Nope, it wasn’t, but he didn’t want to see her make a mistake. “Whatever you want, then.”
She let out a mirthless laugh. “What I wanted was for you to get your shit together. Three years, Aidan. I wasted three years waiting for you to marry me. Anyhow, I just wanted you to hear it from me before you saw it on Facebook or Instagram. ’Bye, Aidan. Try to have a good life in California.”
She clicked off and he wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. Damn, it was hot.
He and Sue had been playing phone tag all day and now he wished he’d never called her back. She’d dumped him for Sebastian, a fellow schoolteacher, more than six months ago. It had been a wake-up call. Yet, instead of fighting for her, Aidan’s solution had been to move to Nugget. Yeah, a shrink would have a heyday with that one. So what did he expect? Of course she’d moved on.
He blotted at his face again, noticing how many people were sitting out, trying to catch a breeze. It was the kind of neighborhood where folks didn’t think twice about dragging their sofas, TVs, and a couple of forties onto the front porch. Not the classiest.
Still, you could see the mighty Sierra mountains in the distance, smell the pines, and hear the occasional train whistle, which sounded nothing like the “L.” More like a beautiful riff on a blues harp. A dozen train songs came to mind. Just past the tracks was the Feather River. A few times he’d seen kids hiking down the street in swimsuits, carrying inner tubes. As soon as his stuff arrived, he’d get down there himself.
A brand new Outback pulled up, which seemed to be the car of choice around here. With its all-wheel drive, the car probably performed well in the backcountry, especially in the snow. Hard to believe Nugget got any on a day like this, when he could see steam coming off the blacktop.
Dana got out in those exceptionally nice jeans of hers and came down the walkway. He hadn’t expected to hear from her until the end of the week—if at all. Even though he didn’t really want a roommate, it had seemed selfish not to offer, given her situation. Hell, he’d seen her face cave the minute she’d learned he’d taken the place. Then she’d tried to pretend she had other prospects and he had tried to pretend he believed her.
But when he’d seen her later at her burned-down house, she’d looked so lost that he hadn’t been able to help himself from making the offer. Playing the hero was sort of a problem of his. It went along with his profession, he supposed.
Now, looking at her, he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. She was hot and he’d been without sex for too long. He didn’t need that kind of temptation lying in the bedroom next to his.
“Hey,” she said, and sat on the stoop with him. “You waiting for a delivery or something?”
“Nope. It’s boiling in there.”
She nodded. “No air conditioning. If you’re still okay with it, I’d like to take you up on your offer.”
“Sure. You want to move in tonight?” He was staying at Sloane and Brady’s until his furniture came. She could have the place to herself.
“I reserved my room at the inn for the rest of the week and it’ll take a few days to get a bed delivered, so next week.” She reached into her purse and handed him a check. “Here’s half the deposit and the first month’s rent.”
“Thanks.” He shoved it in his back pocket.
“Did you have a roommate in Chicago?”
“Until almost seven months ago I lived with my girlfriend. We broke up and she moved out. How about you?”
“No roommates since college. I guess we should make rules, right?”
