Page 21 of Heat Exchange
“Yeah, but we’ve all got the time off. Maybe I’ll stop by the bar later for a beer. And to say hi.”
He said it casually because, as far as he knew, they were friends and it seemed like something a friend could say without deeper meaning, but she cocked an eyebrow at him. “Maybe I’ll see you around, then, kid.”
“Definitely,” he said as she opened the glass slider and stepped out onto the deck.
And the first chance he got, he was going to get to the bottom of thiskidthing.
Chapter Six
ANHOURBEFOREclosing time, Lydia gave up on seeing Aidan walk through the door. It was late enough so if he hadn’t stopped in by now, he probably wasn’t going to.
She figured he wasn’t doing the night shift at the station or he wouldn’t come in and have a beer beforehand. And if he had to be in at eight tomorrow morning, ten o’clock at night was a little late to head out for a drink.
It had probably just been a throwaway line anyway.Hey,maybe I’ll stop in and say hi.She’d heard it many times before. Sometimes people popped in to say hello and sometimes they found better things to do.
Hoarse laughter caught her attention and she looked to the back corner of the bar where her dad and his buddy Fitz were perched on stools, one on each side of the polished wood. Besides that pair, there were a couple of firefighters she didn’t really know sitting at the bar, and three guys she pegged as not from around there sitting at one of the tables.
“Hey, Dad,” she called. “Are you going to be here awhile longer?”
“Yeah, I got another half an hour or so in me.”
He shouldn’t, she thought. He should be home in bed already. “I’m going to go check the other room, then.”
When her dad waved her away, Lydia grabbed an empty bus pan from under the bar, along with a rag and the spray bottle of cleaner. The more she did now, the closer she was to being able to go home once she’d locked the door. The kitchen closed at nine, so all she had to do was cash out the register, clean up the last few mugs and wash the floor.
The room wasn’t too bad, most of their patrons knowing enough to bring their empties to the bar when they were done, but she found a couple of bottles on the floor next to the leg of the pool table. And there was a half-full bottle balanced precariously on top of the rack of pool cues. Shaking her head, she dropped it into the bus pan.
Movement at the door caught her eye, and she turned to watch Aidan walk through the door. Heat suffused her body and she moved away from the opening before he saw her. While she could see the door from the alcove, she couldn’t see the bar. She imagined him going over and shaking her dad’s hand, though. Maybe accepting a beer.
“Kinda late,” she heard her father say. The place was quiet enough so his loud voice seemed to echo through the bar. “We’ll be closing up soon.”
“I was going by and figured I’d say hi for a few minutes. See if anybody was around.”
“Lydia’s in the pool table room. If they made a mess, that bus pan might be heavy. And she’s gotta put the chairs up. Go give her a hand, would ya?”
Great.Thanks a lot,Dad.
Lydia grabbed the spray bottle and spritzed the nearest table before wiping it down. And when Aidan stepped into the alcove, she gave him a welcoming smile. He was wearing a Boston Fire T-shirt with a pair of faded jeans, and his hair looked freshly washed. She wanted to run her fingers through it and see if it felt as soft as it looked, but she curled them in the cleaning rag instead.
“Hey, kinda late to start the night, isn’t it?” she asked.
He held up the open bottle of beer. “Told you I’d stop by. But it took forever to build that damn ramp and then Gullotti’s landlady insisted on making supper for us. After that, we went upstairs to his place because he needed a hand moving some furniture. Next thing you know the night’s gone and we’ve all got to work tomorrow.”
“But you still came here? Just because you said you might stop by.”
“I wasn’t going to but I took a shower and I wasn’t tired and...” He set the bottle on one of the tables she hadn’t wiped yet and alarm bells went off in her mind. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
He walked slowly toward her as he said it, his voice low. She could almost feel the energy crackling between them, and she tried desperately to remember this was Aidan Hunt. He was Scotty’s best friend. He was a firefighter. He could be an annoying pain in the ass. That was three strikes and he was out.
“What is it you want to talk about?” she asked, surprised her voice sounded as steady as it did.
“You keep calling mekid.”
She tried to ignore the way he moved into her personal space, but it wasn’t easy. He smelled too good and she was eye level with that hollow at the base of his throat.
“I’m not a kid anymore,” he continued when she didn’t say anything.
Oh, she knew that. But calling himkidwas her way of reminding herself he was her younger brother’s best friend. Or attempting to, anyway. It didn’t seem to be working.
