Page 31 of Heat Exchange
THEREWASNOTHINGlike a woman panicking, forgetting everything she knew about grease fires and managing to turn cooking bacon into an all-hands fire to start a guy’s day off right.
Aidan jammed the Halligan tool into the wall and used the hook to rip it open. Smoke filtered through with the ancient dust and plaster, and he sighed into his mask. This sucker was never going to be fully extinguished. The only good thing about it was the fact it was a single-family and, as soon as the homeowner realized the fire in the pan was now a real fire in her kitchen, she’d grabbed her kid and the dog and run like hell. Her insurance company was going to be pissed, but being able to focus all their attention on the fire and not searching under beds for people meant the structure might not be a total loss. Assuming the practically antique building materials ever stopped smoldering.
Once they were cleared, Aidan set his self-contained breathing apparatus, helmet and coat on the ground and accepted a water bottle from Walsh. The weather should be starting to turn cooler, but instead it was looking like another scorcher and it was hot as hell in the SCBA.
“I’m glad I’m not the one who has to call her husband at work,” Scotty said, taking a seat on the engine’s bumper next to him.
“Yeah.”
“At least it didn’t get the garage. You see the Harley the guy’s got in there? What year do you think it was?”
Aidan screwed the lid back on the empty water bottle. “A Panhead. Probably a ’56, but since it didn’t have a sign on it and I’m not a walking motorcycle encyclopedia, I don’t know for sure.”
In his peripheral vision, he saw Scott turn to frown at him. “What the hell’s wrong with you today? And don’t give me anyjust tiredshit. You’re the relaxed, happy guy. I’m the guy wound tighter than an eight-day clock. That’s how it’s supposed to work and you’re screwing up the vibe today.”
What was wrong with him? What was wrong was that he’d given Lydia a pretty decent orgasm, judging by how it looked from his side of the equation, and in return she’d given him a verbal shot to the balls.
“My old man called me at the crack of dawn this morning,” Aidan lied. “You know how that goes.”
Scotty took a swig of water and shook his head. “I keep telling you to send his calls to voice mail.”
“Then I worry something happened and I listen to it right away, anyway. And then I have to callhim. It’s easier to take the call.”
“What did he want this time?”
“Same shit,” Aidan said, trying not to dig himself into the untruth hole. He sucked at lying and his best friend would probably know any of his more obvious tells. “Different day.”
As pissed as he was at Lydia, he was never going to repeat what she’d said. She’d insulted him on purpose because she was running out of willpower and wantedhimto do the walking away. In the process of making that happen, she’d not only insulted pretty much everything and everybody he loved, but everybodysheloved, too.
So, yeah, he might have a hair across his ass at the moment where Lydia was concerned, but he wasn’t going to put her in a bad spot with her brother or the old man. Tommy would probably just give her some shit and get over it, but it was the kind of thing that would set Scott off and he’d been known to hold some ridiculous grudges over the years. Kicking off a Kincaid family feud because she’d said something stupid Aidan knew she didn’t mean just to get him to back off wasn’t his style.
He also didn’t want to have to explain the circumstances behind her saying what she’d said.Well,Ihad my hand down her pants and...
So he’d just lied to his best friend and it was a straight-up lie this time, not one of omission. His stomach ached and his head hurt, and he bent forward to prop his elbows on his knees and drop his head onto his hands.
When Scotty clapped a hand to his shoulder, it just made him feel worse. “We should go out. Not to Dad’s bar, either. We need to find a club with loud music and hot women wearing short dresses and high heels.”
There was a time Aidan might have agreed with him, but the only woman he wanted wore T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. And the fact he still wanted her so badly his body ached just pissed him off even more. On top of all the very valid reasons she was off-limits to him, last night should have been the nail in the coffin when it came to his infatuation with her.
Walsh walked around the end of the truck. “Let’s get this wrapped up so we can get out of the way. They want to get the street open again.”
“Funny how we become a nuisance as soon as the flames are out,” Scotty said before chugging the rest of his water.
When they finally got back to the station, Aidan took care of his gear and then went to drop onto the couch. Leaning his head against the back cushion, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He hadn’t slept for shit last night, which of course didn’t help his mood any today. And right now he was angry with himself for checking his phone on the ride back, hoping for a text from Lydia. He’d convinced himself he just hadn’t felt the vibration, so when he checked and there was nothing, the disappointment had felt bone-deep.
No matter how badly he wanted to talk to her, though, he wouldn’t text her. The ball was in her court and she either regretted what she’d said enough to apologize, or she didn’t. And if she didn’t, there was no sense in them talking.
Aidan felt somebody sit down on the other end of the couch and opened his eyes to see Cobb. “Hey, Captain.”
“What’s up with you, Hunt?”
“Just relaxing for a minute. What’s up with you?”
“Funny. You know what I mean.”
Aidan scrubbed his hands over his face, buying himself a few seconds. “I’m in a shitty mood. They happen. It’s no big deal.”
