Page 58 of Heat Exchange
“Do you miss it?”
She laughed. “Not even for a second. I hated that job.”
“Why didn’t you get a different one?”
“The money was good.” She shrugged. “I hated it and I found out I’m not very good at serving fancy dinners or being formal with those kinds of diners, but when the check is high, the tip is, too.”
“Were you saving for something?”
“What do you mean?”
“To be worth being unhappy at work, it seems like you must have had a goal. Something you wanted to do or buy.”
“Not really. I guess I would have liked to get my own apartment at some point but, like I said, Shelly and I get along really well. And my car runs fine. I thought about doing some college courses, but there’s nothing I really want to do that’s worth the money, time and work. I like what I do, just not where I was doing it.”
“How does it feel being back at Kincaid’s?”
She sighed, looking out the window. “That’s a tough question. I’ve always loved working there. I just haven’t always loved working for my dad and being surrounded by...everybody we know.”
“Like firefighters,” he said, but he turned his head to give her a quick grin as he said it.
“Yeah. I don’t know anybody here. I’m nobody’s daughter or sister or ex-wife.”
“Speaking of which,” he said, yanking the truck into an open parking space. “There are all kinds of neat shops on this street and I’m tired of driving around. Let’s walk for a little while.”
They spent several hours walking down one side of the street and up the other, ducking into any of the shops that interested them. She bought a couple of books, and a few storefronts later, she had to talk him out of spending way too much money on a cool guitar he didn’t know how to play. They walked hand in hand, enjoying the sunshine and the lazy nature of not having anywhere to be.
“I can see why you like it here,” he said after a while. “Plenty to see and do, but there’s a little more room to breathe.”
“It’s nice. It’s different, but nottoodifferent.”
“So you’re going to come back here, then? When Ashley’s ready to take over the bar again.”
Lydia didn’t stop walking, but something froze inside of her. “That’s the plan. This is where I live now, which you know since you slept in my bed with the crappy sheets last night.”
He chuckled at her joke, but it sounded forced to her. “I didn’t know if things had changed. You quit your job, so the only thing actually tying you here is a bedroom. And you told me you like working at the bar.”
She’d also told him there were things shedidn’tlike about working at Kincaid’s, and he knew how she felt about the community as a whole. They might be family, but she wanted out of the goldfish bowl. “There are bars in Concord. There’s actually a sports bar in walking distance I might check out when Ashley’s ready to go back to work.”
He nodded, but fell silent for a few minutes. It was an awkward silence, but Lydia wasn’t sure how to fill it. As dismaying as the thought was, maybe this weekend getaway had been a bad idea because she couldn’t have it both ways. She’d wanted to spend some time alone with Aidan, but the more they did things like a real couple, the harder it was to remember they actually weren’t.
“Hey.” Aidan squeezed her hand and she looked up to see him smiling at her. “Stop overthinking things and enjoy the day. Is there some place on this street we can get some ice cream before we go check on Oscar?”
A dish of black raspberry drowning in whipped cream and jimmies went a long way toward saving the weekend. And when Aidan let her have a lick of his soft-serve twist and then kissed her with a sweet, sticky mouth, Lydia decided to stop worrying about tomorrow and just enjoy the hell out of today.
Chapter Fourteen
AIDANWASSTRETCHEDout on the floral couch, having a stare-down with the cat perched on his chest like a Sphinx. Oscar was purring so hard they were both vibrating. “I can’t decide if this cat really likes me or if he’s trying to keep me pinned down so I can’t do anything nefarious.”
“It’s probably some kind of subliminal mind control,” Lydia told him. “Cats are like that.”
“You gave him food and water, and now you’re scooping his shit out of his box so it’s all fresh and clean. What else could he possibly need?”
“To rule the world. Obviously you haven’t spent a lot of time around cats.”
“My sister’s allergic to them and I’ve always been a little afraid of them. I dated a girl in high school—do you remember Nicole, uh...do you remember Nicole’s last name?”
She laughed. “No, I don’t remember your high school girlfriendorher last name. I was probably too busy doing adult things since I was already an adult and didn’t have time for you and Scotty’s little-boy doings.”
