Second Chance Summer(26)

Jonathan was smiling at Aidan like he’d just brought Christmas. “She’s something else, right?” he asked Aidan.

Aidan looked at Lily. “Definitely something else.”

She gave him a long look that made him grin.

Jonathan too. “I’m thinking of putting her in charge just so I don’t have to be.”

Aidan nodded. “I’m sure you’ll be in good hands.”

Well dammit, it was hard to hold on to a good mad with a compliment like that, but she gave it the ol’ college try.

“Get me a list of the work you need done,” Aidan said. “I’ll talk it over with Gray and see what we can do.”

“Maybe we could just deal with Gray directly,” Lily said.

He gave a slow shake of his head. “Why?”

She tried not to notice how his T-shirt had stretched itself nearly beyond its limits to cover his broad shoulders. Or how the shirt was only partially tucked in at his abs. Or that he smelled fantastic. “It’d make things easier,” she said.

“For who?”

She stared at him. Was the air suddenly too thick to breathe or was that just her? “Me,” she admitted.

He cocked his head. “Maybe I’m not interested in making things easier for you,” he said so casually that it took a moment for the words to process. By the time it sank in, he’d changed out the blown fuse and was gone.

Jonathan was still grinning.

“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, irritated.

“Because this is going to be fun.”

Lily was pretty sure this, whatever this was, was going to be the exact opposite of fun.

Thanks to some idiot throwing a lit cigarette out his window on Highway 74, Aidan and the entire fire department spent the next three days fighting a blaze fifteen miles away on Mt. Rose.

Finally a violent rainstorm rode in like a tumbleweed and saved the day, helping them beat the fire into submission.

When he finally got home, he felt disgusting. He stripped on the way to the bathroom and then stood beneath the showerhead for a full thirty minutes—the best thirty minutes he’d had in days.

He’d no sooner turned off the water and wrapped himself in a towel when his phone buzzed an incoming Facetime call from Gray. He hit ACCEPT and when Gray’s face appeared, Aidan went on the immediate offensive. “No,” he said, before his brother could speak.

“I didn’t even ask you anything.” Gray looked at his bare torso and grimaced. “And Christ, put on some clothes.”

“I just got out of the shower. And you didn’t ask me anything—yet,” Aidan corrected. “I’m just warding you off at the pass.”

“I don’t only call you to get you to do something,” Gray said.

“Yes you do.”

Gray opened his mouth and then shut it. “Shit,” he finally muttered. “Fine. I need you to do something.”

“If it doesn’t involve a beer and then an entire night of sleep, forget about it,” Aidan said.

“It’s Mom.”

The only two words that could have Aidan rustling through his dresser for clean clothes instead of hanging up on his brother. “What is it?” he asked. “She didn’t fall again—”

“No,” Gray said quickly. “Healthwise she’s fine.”

Neither of them liked to talk about Char’s physical limitations. On the night that their father had left, they’d had a big fight. She’d hit him with a frying pan, but then he came after her, and she’d fallen and broken her wrist and hip. They’d both been arrested for battery and assault, and his father had taken off afterward, never to be seen again.

His mom had healed, at least physically, although her hip had never been the same. After she re-injured it last week, the doctor said she was supposed to limit her physical activity for the next month.

“She’s … on a date,” Gray said.

Aidan blinked. “What?”

“Yeah, she’s wearing that blue dress she saves for weddings and everything. I tried to talk her out of it and she …”

“She what?”

“Laughed at me,” Gray said, looking butt-hurt. “Gave me some line about how our generation has lost all sense of romance. She said she was like a fine wine and deserved to be uncorked and aired out.”

Aidan stared at him.

“I know, dude, my ears are still burning too. So you’re up. And don’t even try reasoning with her. She’s completely unreasonable and illogical. She says she’s going dancing.”

“Dancing?” Aidan repeated. “She’s supposed to be taking it easy. She can’t go dancing.”

“Thank you,” Gray said. “Penny thinks I’m being overprotective.”

The phone was suddenly wrestled away from Gray and then Penny’s face appeared. She took a good look at Aidan and smiled.

Aidan cursed, tossed the phone aside, and ditched the towel for a pair of jeans.

“Gimme that,” Gray said to his wife. Then he reappeared, though he was still glaring at Penny, who was laughing.

“Does he have clothes on yet?” she asked.

“Yes,” Aidan said, buttoning his jeans and grabbing a T-shirt. Jesus.

“Too bad,” Penny said, and got serious. “Now listen to me—both of you have to leave your poor mom alone. She’s going out to The Slippery Slope tonight with Marcus Dolby. She’s a grown woman who’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.”