Page 77 of Heat Exchange
“I guess I don’t have to make a choice, then,” Aidan said, his deceptively quiet voice at odds with his flexing jaw and the tightness around his eyes. “Sounds like you’ve already made it for both of us.”
She looked at him a long time, her heart slowly breaking. It had been inevitable, this moment, but she hadn’t imagined it would hurt so much. She hadn’t realized how very badly she’d been hoping that, if it came down to it, he would choose her.
“I’m sorry it turned out this way,” she said in as steady a voice as she could manage. “I hope you and Scotty can find a way to be okay again, without me in the middle of it.”
“Lydia, I don’t want it to be like this between us.”
“It won’t matter because I’ll be back in New Hampshire.” She forced a shaky smile. “But I might see you around sometime, if I come to visit Ashley.”
Before he could say anything else, she left, closing the door quietly behind her. She made it all the way to the ground floor before the tears started falling. She’d actually thought he might choose her.
* * *
ALONG,LONELYweek passed for Aidan, and he figured it was just the first of many long, lonely weeks in his future.
He’d lost Lydia. In trying to keep her out of the ugliness between him and Scotty so she wouldn’t feel torn, he’d inadvertently disrespected her in a way she wasn’t going to forgive. Now every minute of every day—even times he wouldn’t have seen her anyway—he missed her.
He and Scotty had worked a few day tours together without any problems. The day after the fight and the chewing out from Cobb, Walsh had asked them if he should switch up Engine 59’s crews, so he and Scotty would be on opposite tours. One would work the day and the other, the night. It wasn’t ideal because together they all made a strong team, but if their relationship degraded too much, it would destroy the crew anyway.
Aidan had left it up to Scotty, since he was the one struggling with the situation. Aidan may have thrown some punches, but that was mostly self-defense and temper. He loved Scotty and he’d do whatever he could to heal the rift between them.
Maybe it was the fact news Lydia and Aidan were over had spread through the family, but Scott seemed to get a little less angry with him every day. Not that they were buddies, but they could be in the same room. And it had helped when Scotty told Cobb he didn’t want anybody but Aidan at his back when the shit hit the fan.
So things were awkward and the probationary status of their friendship would last awhile, but at least Aidan wasn’t going to lose everybody he loved. Only Lydia.
“Let’s go have a beer,” Danny said when the tour was over and they were all heading out. “You two and me.”
Aidan glanced at Scotty, whose face looked as if it was carved from stone. “I could use a beer. I, uh...shit.”
“We can go to that new sports bar over by the park. We just can’t tell Tommy.”
“Oh boy,” Scotty said. “More secrets.”
Aidan didn’t rise to the bait. He knew there would be a lot of digs coming his way, since that’s how Scotty tended to work through things. He just waited to see if the invitation would be accepted or not.
“Maybe,” Scott finally said. “I’ve gotta do a couple of things and I might meet you there. If not, then I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
Aidan almost wished he’d said no outright. Every minute between getting in his truck and meeting Walsh at the new bar and getting a beer seemed to take an hour. He felt like this was a pivotal moment—if Scott showed, they might be okay again in the near future, but if he didn’t, it might be a long time before he had his best friend back.
When Scotty finally walked up to the table and seemed to be waiting for an invitation to join them, Aiden breathed a sigh of relief and used his foot to shove the empty chair away from the table. “Have a seat.”
“This sucks, you know. I can’t even get a beer in my own family’s bar because Lydia’s still not speaking to me.”
“I’m out until Lydia goes back to New Hampshire, at least,” Aidan said. “Even after, it’ll depend on Ashley. And Tommy, too, I guess.”
“I’m just here because of you two morons,” Danny said. “Lydia likes me again, since Ashley and I are back together.”
“I think we know for a fact Lydia has questionable taste in men,” Scotty said, giving him a pointed look before taking a swig of his beer. “She tends to date assholes.”
“What the fuck’s your problem now, Kincaid?” And why the hell had he come if he was just going to pick a fight? “You didn’t want me hooking up with Lydia. I’m not. Either let it go or we can step outside and have a discussion about it right now.”
Danny slammed his beer bottle down on the table in a rare show of temper, and Aidan hoped being forced to open up to his wife wasn’t going to have the lieutenant opening up on all of them now, too. “If that’s code for going outside and trying to beat the crap out of each other, we’re going to have a problem.”
“That’s up to Scotty.”
“That was a cheap shot. I’m not going to apologize because I have a right to be pissed, but that was uncalled-for, I guess.”
Aidan had a drink, and then shook his head. “I deserve some cheap shots, but only for so long. What I did might be wrong, but I’m not going to be your whipping boy forever for it.”
