Page 56 of Heat Exchange
“There’s a plan,” she said, and she filled him in on the scheme she and Ashley had concocted. It was brilliant in its simplicity, really. Nobody was going to insist on going up the stairs and into her bedroom to see if she was really sick in bed, especially her dad or brother. They wanted nothing to do with sick women. And if anybody sent her a text, she could just text them back.
“You really thought this through.” There was a short silence, and then she heard him blow out a breath close to the cell’s microphone. “God, I hate lying.”
Lydia felt a pang of guilt. “I know you do. Look, it’s no big deal if you don’t want to—”
“I want to,” he interrupted. “I definitely want to.”
The eagerness in his voice made her smile. He sure was good for a girl’s ego. “I’m glad. I’m looking forward to it.”
“So did you and Ashley come up with a plan for a secret handoff in a parking garage with your hood pulled up, or will I just pick you up at her house?”
She laughed, trying to picture that scenario. “I think you can just pick me up at Ashley’s. Let me know when you’ve worked out your schedule and we can figure out a time.”
“Okay. Are you going to stop by after work?”
She shouldn’t. They were becoming too much like a real couple as it was, and now they were going on a couple’s weekend getaway. Their casual fling was in danger of becoming a lot less casual. But she wanted to see him. Shealwayswanted to see him.
“I’ll be there,” she said, mentally kicking herself in the ass. “But I can’t stay long.”
“I don’t care if it’s only long enough so I can give you a hug and a hello. And a kiss. I’d stop by Kincaid’s for the hello, since I just want to see you, but the kissing would be awkward.”
“I’d rather kiss you without an audience.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
* * *
TOGETTHEENTIREweekend off, Aidan worked the day tour on Friday, but it was a blessedly quiet day outside of some routine calls. At 6:30 Friday evening, he parked on the street in front of Ashley’s house and got out of his truck.
He’d warned Lydia he hadn’t been able to get out of his commitment to dinner at his parents’ house on Sunday, since he hadn’t been in a while, but she’d told him they could be back in plenty of time. The roommate would be back by Sunday night and Oscar the cat could survive a few hours of solitude.
He made it as far as stepping around the front of the truck and onto the curb when the door opened and Lydia walked out. She was walking fast, with a duffel bag in her hand and the hood of her sweatshirt pulled over her head. She gestured for him to get back in the truck, which made him laugh, even though he did it.
“You’re kidding, right?” he asked when she’d hopped into the passenger seat and closed the door.
“Just go.”
He pulled away from the curb and started making his way toward the highway. Friday evening traffic could suck, and it would be a longer than usual drive north. “I was going to go inside and say hi to Ashley. I didn’t realize this was a covert mission.”
She pulled her hood down and smoothed her hair. “Ashley was on the phone with Danny. And you know how neighbors are. This way, if anybody says anything, Ashley can claim it was her and you were helping her out with something that required a pickup truck.”
Her neighbors must be idiots, then, because she and Ashley didn’t look alike, even with their heads covered. “You guys sure covered all the bases.”
She laughed, leaning her head back against the headrest. “I think we were bored, so we amused ourselves with this little adventure. The hood might have been too much.”
They stopped for coffee and a drive-through dinner once they were out of their neighborhood, and they made small talk as the miles passed. She always had funny stories about Kincaid’s over the years, and he shared a few sibling tales from his childhood. He didn’t dip into work stories because he wanted to keep Scotty and the fact he was a firefighter on the back burner this weekend, at least as much as possible.
“I haven’t seen a single cow yet,” he said when they were about twenty minutes into New Hampshire. “Where do they keep all the cows?”
She laughed, but when he didn’t, she quieted and looked over at him. “You were kidding, right?”
“I heard there were cows.”
“They don’t keep them in the highway median strip, dumbass.” When he grinned, she realized he was joking and slapped his arm. “And you’ve been here many times. You’ve been to Hampton Beach a few times, and you’ve been up here four-wheeling. And there was a big paintball thing you guys did. I remember Scott having a wicked welt on his face because one of the other guys accidently shot him when he had his face shield up.”
So much for leaving her brother on the back burner. He supposed it was natural, since they were all tied together so closely, but he wanted it to be just him and Lydia this weekend.
She finally gave him the heads-up that they’d be getting off at the next exit and he moved out of the fast lane. A few turns, stoplights and stop signs later, she told him to turn into a small lot beside a huge square, brick building and to park in one of the two spaces marked for unit three.
