Page 46 of Heat Exchange
“Just say it,” Ashley snapped. She was also perceptive.
“Have you toldhimany of that, or are you expecting him to read your mind?”
“A guy doesn’t have to be psychic to know if his wife says she’s so unhappy she’s not sure if she wants to be married to him anymore, that he should sit down and talk to her about it.”
“You’ve told me yourself Danny doesn’t like emotional confrontations. That his parents are always screaming at each other and that he’ll walk away before he’ll lose his temper. Maybe it’s not just his temper he keeps a tight hold on. And you told him you needed space. Maybe he’s just trying to give you that and doesn’t realize you’re expecting him to push back.”
“I should have let you go to work.”
Lydia laughed and got up to rinse out her cup. “You know I always have your back, even if that means telling you something you don’t want to hear. And let me ask you one more question. Have you asked him straight-out ifhewants a divorce?”
Ashley’s long silence was telling, but she waited her out and made her say it. “No, but he’s made it sound like he doesn’t. He’s putting it all on me.”
“Your communication problem is not all on Danny, love.”
“You should go to work now,” Ashley said, and Lydia kissed her cheek and made a break for it.
Kincaid’s Pub felt like a drama-free oasis after her sister’s kitchen, and Lydia quickly settled into the rhythm of the bar. Even though the basic job description was the same, it was amazing to her how much different it seemed than the job she’d quit in New Hampshire. Granted, an old neighborhood bar and a nice restaurant weren’t the same, but serving customers was serving customers.
At some point, she was going to have to decide what she wanted to do when Ashley was ready to return to Kincaid’s. Going back to her old job wouldn’t be an option, even in the unlikely event they were willing to take her back. Being here behind her father’s bar again had reminded her how much she loved bartending. But it didn’t make a lot of sense to go tend bar for strangers somewhere—and for less money—when she had Kincaid’s. At the rate her sister and Danny were going, Lydia had plenty of time to start making decisions, but the question of her future was definitely simmering in the back of her mind.
About nine o’clock, Scotty walked in and Lydia tried not to be disappointed he was alone. In fact, it might even be for the best, since it was hard to know how awkward it would be to see her brother and Aidan at the same time. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad, since it was inevitable that moment would come, but at least it wouldn’t be tonight.
“Hey, sis.” He draped his hoodie over the back of the seat and hopped up onto the stool. After waving to Fitz a few seats down, he turned back to her. “Where’s Dad tonight?”
“He said he was going out with a friend.”
Scotty jerked his thumb toward the end of the bar. “Fitz is here.”
She shrugged. “I assume he has more than one friend. I don’t know. Maybe he’s got a special lady friend.”
“No.” He took the beer she handed him, scowling. “He can’t have a special lady friend if I don’t. That makes me feel really inadequate.”
They laughed together, because it was hard to believe their old man could find a woman who’d put up with his crap at this stage of his life, and because there wasn’t much that would make Scott feel inadequate.
“You eat already?” she asked.
“Yeah, I made a couple of sandwiches at home, but then I got bored so I thought I’d come have a beer with the old man and see who all was here.” He looked around the bar, which wasn’t too full of familiar faces tonight. “I probably should have looked for some infomercials and nodded off to promises of all things new and improved.”
Lydia opened her mouth to tell him that was almost as bad as Aidan’s confession he used animal documentaries to the same effect, but then realized she’d have to explain how she knew that and closed it again. And then she felt stupid because if Scott asked how she knew that, she would just say that Aidan told her. She’d known him as long as Scotty had and, though they’d never spent a lot of quality alone time together, Aidan had spent many hours leaned against the bar over the years.
She couldn’t imagine how Aidan was dealing with this. He probably had the same incidents of almost casually mentioning something about Lydia and having the same conversation with himself that she’d just had. Only it would happen to him more often because he spent a hell of a lot more time with Scotty than she did. No wonder the poor guy was having stress dreams.
She was delivering cheese fries to the table by the door when the old scanner by Fitz squeaked out some noise. It was usually quieter than that, which meant he’d turned it up. Looking over her shoulder, she saw him leaned as close as he could get to it.
“Somebody’s hurt,” Fitz said in a voice that carried over the small talk going on around the bar.
The hush was immediate and all heads swiveled in his direction. He had his ear to the scanner, which was ancient and barely worked anymore. Everybody tended to use text messaging and social media for updates nowadays, so they’d never gotten around to replacing it with a newer model. It was practically antique, too, and her dad liked the novelty of it.
Fitz said the engine company’s number, but it wasn’t familiar to Lydia. Saying a quick and silent prayer for whoever was involved, she made her way down the bar, checking on her customers.
Scotty leaned closer to Fitz, though. “Have they said who? Or what happened?”
“This piece of junk,” Fitz grumbled, slapping the side of it. “I get more static than anything.”
Scott pulled out his phone and there was a sense of urgency about his movements that alarmed Lydia. They all worried about each other because that was how the community worked, but it looked like more than standard worry on his face, so she walked over to him.
“Do you know those guys?” she asked.
