Page 28 of Heat Exchange
“Lydia’s cool. And I know Ashley was going to some kind of bridal shower thing with a friend of theirs tonight, so she won’t be around.”
Aidan watched Danny consider it for a moment, and then he nodded. “I could really use a burger and a beer.”
“That sounds like one helluva plan,” Gullotti said. “Kincaid?”
When Scotty nodded, Aidan felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The lack of customers and Tommy not being around meant nothing if everybody else they knew—including her brother—showed up.
“How about you, Hunt?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I could go for that.”
He got dressed, tuning out whatever small talk they were making, and trying to mentally shift fromtalk Lydia into going out back and making outtodon’t even look at Lydia because he might give away how badly he wanted her.It sucked, but there really wasn’t a valid reason he could offer up as to why none of them should visit one of their favorite haunts. Especially since anything he could come up with—gas leak, health code violations—would be something Scotty would know before him. Or be able to disprove the story with onewhat the hellphone call.
Aidan was just going to have to suck it up and pretend his interest in the gorgeous bartender was the same as it had always been—she was his best friend’s sister and therefore a friend. They could chat. They could laugh. But he couldn’t kiss her up against the brick wall again.
They’d ridden over to the rink in two vehicles, so they all threw their bags and sticks into the back of Scotty’s truck. Then they divided between that and Gullotti’s jacked-up Jeep for the ride to Kincaid’s, with Aidan automatically getting shotgun in the truck.
“You feeling all right?” Scotty asked when they were almost there. Grant and Gavin, who were each the young guy in their companies, were chatting in the backseat.
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know. Your game seemed off tonight, and you’re pretty quiet. Something going on?”
Aidan swallowed past the lump in his throat and stared out the passenger window. Maybe if they’d been alone and not in a moving vehicle, he would have been honest. But it wasn’t the time. “Nope.”
“You’re not going through some kind of midlife crisis or something, are you? I already told you, we’re not old enough for shit like that.”
Aidan laughed. “No crisis, though I wouldn’t mind the Corvette that supposedly comes with it.”
“Maybe a hot blonde in the passenger seat.”
Or a hot brunette with a hotter temperament and dark eyes a man could lose himself in. “Maybe a rich, hot blonde whose daddy has Bruins season tickets. What the hell, let’s give him season tickets to the Patriots, too.”
“Just in case we ever meet her, I’m calling dibs right now.”
They were laughing when Scotty pulled the truck down the narrow alley that led to a small parking lot reserved for Kincaid’s employees and the upstairs tenants. Cutter parked on the street and they met up outside the door.
The good feeling Aidan had managed to momentarily capture faded with every step he took toward the door. The night was going to be very different from how he’d spent a good part of the day imagining it and, instead of enjoying Lydia’s company, he was going to be doing everything possible to avoid it.
The thrill Lydia felt when Aidan walked through the bar’s front door was short-lived. The look he gave her was nothing short of apologetic and she knew why when he stepped inside and Scotty, Danny, Grant Cutter, Gavin Boudreau—who was with Ladder 37, though she didn’t really know him—and Rick were right on his heels.
They weren’t part of the plan. None of them were, but especially her brother.
“Hey, guys,” she said when they all stepped up to the bar. “Did you all just randomly happen to arrive at the same time?”
“We were playing some hockey,” Grant told her. “And then Danny said he was in the mood for a burger and a beer and then we wereallin the mood for burgers and beer.”
“You came to the right place, then,” she said, giving him her work smile. She actually liked the young guy well enough, but it wouldn’t be very professional to have her expression mirror what she was actually feeling on the inside.
There were a lot of bars that served burgers in Boston. If Tommy hadn’t gone out of his way to turn Kincaid’s Pub into a second home for the local firefighters, she could be flirting with Aidan already.
He didn’t look any happier about it than she did. He was down near the end of the bar, standing with her brother, and every time she looked at him, his gaze skittered away. The knowledge he was that worried about Scotty’s opinion of their relationship—or flirtation or whatever she should call it—was annoying.
She took her order pad out of her apron pocket and slapped it on the bar, then pulled out a pen. “Okay, let’s have it.”
Grant hadn’t been kidding about them all being in the mood for burgers and beer and, once they all had a drink, they disappeared into the pool room. A minute later, she heard the rattle of pool balls being cued up and male laughter. It caught the attention of three women sitting at one of the tables, and she wondered how long it would be before the men had company.
Then she wondered which one of them would try to lay claim to Aidan and felt a surge of jealousy. If any one of them put a hand on him, all three of them would find themselves out on the sidewalk pretty damn quick.
