Heat Exchange (18 page)

But the important thing was there
was
a future. Ashley was his again and that was the only thing that mattered to him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Danny. I always have and that’s never going to change.”

* * *

L
YDIA
HAD
BEEN
at work for only half an hour the next day when Scotty walked through the door. He looked agitated, but she didn’t think anything of it because it wasn’t an usual look for her brother.

He sat at the end of the bar, rather than down where their father was loitering, which
was
unusual. Lydia set a coaster in front of him. “You want a soda? It’s a little early for a beer.”

“Day off, so I can have a beer if I want.”

She raised her eyebrow, not caring for his tone. “A beer it is, then.”

After she set it in front of him, she started to walk away, intending to get the order sheet so she could start figuring out what they needed from their distributors in the near future. While Danny and Ashley had had a good talk, according to her sister, they still had a ways to go in the communication department. But at least they both knew now that neither of them wanted a divorce.

“I wanna know what’s going on between you and Hunt.”

Lydia jerked her head around, eyebrows arched. He’d said it quietly, so maybe she’d heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”

“You and Aidan. What’s going on with that?”

“You seem to have me confused with somebody who answers to you.”

“It was bugging me last night, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then, this morning, it hit me. Aidan’s been acting weird for a while, like there was something wrong. I haven’t seen as much of him. I haven’t seen a lot of you. And there were some looks between you last night.”

It was something of a crossroads, she thought. She could tell him he was crazy and, if she tried hard enough, she could make him believe that. Then they’d laugh at how stupid he was and she’d give him another beer.

But this was a head-on confrontation, right here, and she knew that in this situation, Aidan wouldn’t lie to Scotty. He would see a distinction between lies of omission and lying straight to her brother’s face, and it would matter to him.

“It’s not really any of your business,” she said, because that wasn’t a lie, either.

“Like hell it’s not.”

She leaned across the bar so their faces were level. “Leave this alone, Scott.”

“How long has he been screwing you behind my back?”

The fuse lit and she jabbed her finger at his chest. “If you don’t watch your mouth, I’ll slap you so freakin’ hard, you’ll fold like a cheap paper napkin.”

He glared back at her. “You’re sleeping with my best friend. My
best
friend, Lydia. You’re not supposed to do that. And he sure as hell knows better. How long has it been going on?”

“Since shortly after I came back.”

“Are you serious?” He dropped his head into his hands, then looked up at her again. “Did you have the flu? When Aidan was at his parents’ doing whatever, which made no sense because his family just pays people to do that kind of shit.”

“I wasn’t sick. I had to go back to Concord to babysit my roommate’s cat for the weekend and Aidan went with me so we could be away from nosy-ass people who can’t mind their own business.”

“So Ashley’s lying to me, too. I can’t fucking believe you two.”

“What are you two carrying on about?” their dad called from the other end of the bar. “I heard what happened with Danny and Ashley last night and, I swear, the next member of my family to raise a ruckus in this bar is getting my boot up the ass.”

“It’s Hunt who needs a boot up the ass,” Scotty said before Lydia could say anything. She would have preferred keeping their father out of it.

“What does he have to do with it?” he asked, scowling at Aidan.

“Maybe you should ask Lydia.”

When he turned to look at her, she wondered if her dad might actually be happy to hear she and Aidan had been seeing each other. In his mind, it would bring her back into the fold and—more importantly—back into the bar for good. But since that probably wasn’t going to happen, he was going to end up having a problem with it one way or another.

“It’s none of anybody’s business what Aidan and I do,” she said firmly, looking him in the eye.

It took a few seconds and then she saw the understanding dawn in his eyes. “Ah, damn. That kid.”

So much for being happy about it. He shook his head and looked at Scotty. “You just find this out?”

“Yeah. You think I’d have bought him a beer last night if I knew?”

“Why shouldn’t you buy him a beer?” Lydia demanded. “Your friendship with him is no different now than it was yesterday. This has
nothing
to do with you.”

She could see that he wanted to say more, but then he shook his head and got off the stool. After knocking back a long swallow of beer, he started toward the door.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“I’m going home.” He stopped to turn and glare at her for a second. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to go kick the shit outta your boyfriend.”

“He’s—” She sighed and waved a hand at him, not wanting to get into the semantics of whether or not Aidan was her boyfriend. “Just leave him alone until you’ve cooled off.”

Lydia watched him leave, wincing when he opened the door by slapping his hand on the glass and shoving so hard, she was surprised it didn’t break. She hoped like hell he was telling the truth when he said he was going home.

“I really hate to butt in here,” a guy at the counter said, “but can I get another beer?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” She got him a beer and looked around to see if she could sneak a few minutes more out back, but she really needed to take care of the customers. They’d probably finished their drinks while watching her family’s circus sideshow performance.

She pulled out her phone to send Aidan a text. A phone call would be better, but she’d have to go out back to have any privacy and it would take too long. She’d be lucky if anybody tipped her as it was. And she didn’t want to wait until after the customers were taken care of just in case Scotty changed his mind about going home. She couldn’t leave Aidan to be blindsided.

Scott
&
Dad know about us.
Not thrilled.

It was a bit of an understatement, but she knew he’d get the picture.

Should I lock my door?

He said he was going home.
Wanted you to know in case he changes his mind.

Thanks for the heads-up.

There was a lot more she wanted to say, but she could almost feel the impatient stares drilling into her back.

Busy now.
Talk to you later.

Coming over?

She hesitated, but somehow it didn’t feel right tonight.

Not tonight.
But I’ll text you.

Good night.

As she put her phone away and plastered a smile on her face, Lydia wondered how upset Aidan would be that their secret was out. And she wondered if, like her, he’d feel a good amount of relief along with everything else. She had no idea how this was going to turn out for any of them, but at least the lying was over.

Chapter Seventeen

A
T
LEAST
THE
lying was over, Aidan thought as he walked toward the front door of the ice rink. He wasn’t sure what his reception would be today, but at least he wasn’t hiding anything anymore. Maybe they could work through it and salvage their friendship.

They didn’t have a tour scheduled for several days, which would have been nice as a cooling-off period before they had to work together again. But they’d already scheduled this ice time and Aidan wasn’t going to back out at the last minute, if for no other reason than Scotty would see it as a sign of weakness.

He was running a few minutes late, though, having sat in his truck for a few minutes in his driveway, debating on whether or not showing up was the right move, so he anticipated the locker room being empty when he went in.

Scotty was sitting on one of the benches, obviously waiting for him. “I wasn’t sure if you were gonna be here.”

“I said I would be.”

“Ah, that’s right. You’re a man of integrity, right?”

Aidan looked him in the eye. “I never wanted to lie to you. I hated every minute of that, but...”

“But what? I think you owe me complete sentences, at least, after all these fucking years.”

“If I talked to you about her and you told me to keep my hands off her, it was going to be worse because I couldn’t do it. I tried. At least this way, I didn’t outright lie to your face.”

“You’re not too ugly, you’re a firefighter and you don’t live in your mother’s basement. You could bang any chick in Boston, but you gotta mess around with my sister?”

“It just happened, Scotty. It’s not like it’s something I planned to do. But when she came back...it was just different somehow. I don’t know if I was different or if she was different, but there was chemistry.”

“She’s
not
different. She’s still my sister.” Scott scrubbed his hand over his face, shaking his head. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time. There wasn’t any blonde chick at the market whose name you didn’t remember. That text was from Lydia.”

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t have the balls to just come and talk to me like a man about it?”

Normally, Aidan wouldn’t take well to a comment like that, but he forced himself to accept that, in this case, he had it coming. And the only way his friendship with Scott Kincaid would survive was if he took whatever venting his best friend needed to do without escalating it.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. It was just going to be...hell. I don’t know. We knew you’d be pissed, even though she’s an adult and can make her own choices.”

“That sounds like a douche bag way of saying it’s none of my business.”

“I don’t know.” Aidan dumped his bag and stick on an empty bench. “Part of me wants to say it’s not, but I know I crossed a line.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

The door to the locker room banged open and Jeff Porter stuck his head in. “You two girls start your periods or are you gonna play some hockey?”

Scotty, who was dressed and ready, stood and grabbed his stick. “I’m coming.”

“I’ll be right there,” Aidan said. When Scotty followed Porter out without another word, he unzipped his bag and popped open his locker.

It sucked. He and Scotty had been tight since they were teenagers and, though they’d had some disagreements over the years, this was a bad one. Scotty hadn’t swung on him, which was good
and
bad. He didn’t want to fight his best friend, but Scotty being quiet often meant he’d decided something wasn’t worth his time or effort anymore.

By the time Aidan hit the ice, the others were warmed up and they fell into an easy rhythm. They’d all been playing hockey together a long time—whether just for fun or for the league—but they’d decided this year they were going to step up the practices. They’d had their asses handed to them by the police department’s hockey team in their last charity matchup and that shit couldn’t happen again.

There was a lot of trash-talking and name-calling, along with a lot of laughter, and for a little while Aidan almost felt as if everything would be okay eventually. It would take a while. But he and Scotty were practically brothers and, like brothers, they’d find a way to get through this and maybe even come out stronger on the other side.

Then he and Scotty reached the puck at the same time and Aidan realized at the last second that Scotty wasn’t slowing down. He barely had time to turn his body before his best friend checked him into the boards so hard he dropped to his knees, sucking air.

For a few seconds, he let himself believe it was an accident. But then Scotty slapped the puck and skated away without offering him a hand up and he knew the hit had been deliberate.

He shoved himself to his feet and, leaving his stick on the ice, took after Scotty. His friend watched him come, a sneer twisting his mouth, and then he dropped his stick and gloves onto the ice. Aidan flung his gloves to the side and led with his right.

Scotty jerked his head back so it was only a glancing blow. They grappled, and Scotty tried to come up underneath with a blow to his ribs. Aidan shoved hard against him, looking for room to get a swing in. He connected with Scotty’s cheek, but Scotty’s left grazed the corner of his mouth and Aidan tasted blood.

Enraged, he hit Scotty in the gut and then threw him down on the ice. With his practice jersey clenched in his left fist, he cocked his arm back, ready to drive his right fist into Scotty’s face. Somebody caught him from behind, dragging him backward.

Scotty scrambled to his skates, still coming, but Gullotti wrapped his arms around him from behind and held tight.

“What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” Gullotti bellowed. “Cut the shit.”

Aidan strained against whoever was holding him, but he wasn’t breaking free so it was probably Porter. “I got more, Kincaid, if you wanna keep going.”

“Fuck you, Hunt.”

“That’s it.” Gullotti shoved Scotty away. “We’re done here. You guys give us a few minutes to get this one outta here and then he can change.”

Aidan relaxed, but Porter didn’t release him. “I’m good. You’re breaking my freakin’ arms, dude.”

“And you ruined my hockey time, so be thankful it ain’t your kneecaps, too.”

He sat on the players’ bench and waited until Gullotti sent a text to Porter telling him the locker room was clear. Porter showed him his phone’s screen.

Tell Hunt to go directly to the house.
This shit will stop.

Aidan snorted. “You ladder guys can be real pushy.”

“Walsh isn’t here and somebody’s gotta keep you guys in line. It’s gonna be Cobb that reams your ass, anyway, not Gullotti.”

Porter wasn’t wrong about that. Cobb was waiting for him in the second-floor office, and Scott was already seated in one of the two chairs on this side of the paper-covered desk.

“Sit down,” Cobb said. “And if either of you two morons even thinks about throwing a punch in my office, I’ll knock you both senseless with a five-pound sledge. Tell me what’s going on.”

Both men sat silently, arms folded and gazes fixed on spots over Cobb’s head. He was the equivalent of the school principal and no matter how pissed off they were, neither Aidan nor Scotty was a rat.

“So now you put up a united front. Idiots. Look at you.” He gestured to their faces, which probably weren’t pretty. “You two are brothers. Not just on the job, either.”

“Makes it even more fucked-up that he’s banging my sister, then, don’t it?”

His eyes widened. “I hope like hell you don’t mean Ashley or I’ll need to contain Walsh. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, tell me that’s not why they separated.”

“He’d be dead already,” Scotty said quietly.

“Lydia, huh?” The captain leveled a look at Aidan. “That true?”

He thought about his answer for a few seconds. He wasn’t going to lie, but he wasn’t going to let anybody disrespect Lydia, either. Even her brother. “I object to that description of our relationship.”

“Oh, excuse me,” Scotty said, his voice dripping with fake sincerity. “It’s fucked-up that he’s having sexual intercourse with my sister. Is that better?”

“You need to have some manners if you’re talking about Lydia, asshole.”

Scotty scooted to the front of his chair, ready to stand. “Oh, really? You gonna give me a lesson on my own family, Hunt?”

“Enough!” Cobb leaned back in his chair and threw his pen onto the desk with so much force it slid across the paper planner and off the other side. “I won’t have this bullshit.”

Aidan sank back against his chair, shaking his head. “I don’t want to fight with you, Scotty. I never meant to hurt you and I’m sorry I lied.”

“I’m not going to swing again,” Scott said after what seemed like forever. “I’ll work with you. I’ll have your back when we go through the door. But you and me? I don’t know if we can be friends again.”

* * *

L
YDIA
CLOSED
THE
FRONT
door quietly, in case Ashley was sleeping. They’d had a late rush at the bar and it had taken her forever to get out of there, so the house was dark. She flipped on the light switch as she walked into the living room, but the television being on struck her as weird. Her sister usually shut it off when she went upstairs.

Usually Lydia would watch it for a few minutes, relaxing after being at work, but tonight it would take a lot more than the television to relax her. She had no idea what was going on with the guys, and it was giving her a stress headache. When she’d called Aidan earlier in the night, he’d been quiet and when she asked him about Scotty, he’d said they were still working some stuff out. Then he’d told her he was going to catch up on sleep and he’d talk to her tomorrow.

Then she’d sent a text to Scotty asking him to stop by the bar, but he said he was busy, and didn’t respond at all to her text asking him to make time to talk to her. She didn’t appreciate being shut out of whatever was going on, as if it had nothing to do with her.

On her way to shut off the TV, she tripped over something and swore in a low voice, before realizing it was a man’s shoe. That was even weirder than the television being on, she thought.

“Oh, shit,” she heard Ashley say, and she realized her sister was on the couch. She hadn’t seen her because the furniture was in some kind of conversational arrangement, whatever that meant, and the back of the couch faced the entry. “Don’t come in.”

Lydia froze, not sure what that meant. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. But I’m...not fully dressed.”

“So?”

“I’m not fully dressed, either,” a male voice said, and Lydia realized it was Danny.

“Oh.” Ashley and her husband were partially undressed together on the couch.
Okay.
“I’ll, uh...be upstairs for a while. Or for a long time. Actually, I’ll just go to bed, so good night.”

“Lydia,” Danny called, “you don’t have to go upstairs. Just give us a second.”

“I don’t want to be in the way.”

Ashley’s head popped up over the back of the couch, and Lydia smiled at her. Her sister’s hair was disheveled and her face was flushed. Then Danny sat up, looking much the same. Obviously her sister and her brother-in-law were finding a way to accelerate working through their communication issues.

“You’re not in the way,” Ashley said. “And you can stay down here. We’ll go upstairs.”

Danny turned around so he could give her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about us.”

But she had been worried about them, and right now Ashley looked happy and in love and she needed some alone time with her husband. “You guys want to be alone.”

“I took some time off, so she and I have plenty of time to catch up,” Danny said. “If you can spare a little more time for the bar.”

“Sure, no problem. And give me ten minutes and I’ll be out of here. I’ll go stay at Dad’s.”

Ashley grimaced. “You don’t have to do that, Lydia. You know that.”

“I want to. Really. Nothing’s more hideous than being the third wheel to two people acting like newlyweds.” She grinned at them. “Trust me. Ten minutes and you guys can go back to making out on the couch like teenagers.”

She went upstairs and pulled her bag out of the closet. Taking just what was clean and necessary, as well as her toiletries from the bathroom, would save her some time. She could come back for the rest another time.

“You aren’t really going to stay at Dad’s are you?”

Lydia closed the top drawer of the bureau and dropped the handful of undergarments into the open bag. “We grew up in that house. It’s Dad. I can handle staying there.”

“You’re making me feel guilty.”

“Don’t.” Lydia straightened and gave her sister a warm smile. “I’m happy for you. I really am, and you two need to be alone right now.”

“Can’t you stay with—” Ashley broke off, looking over her shoulder, and Lydia realized Ashley didn’t know the secret was out. Danny must not, either. Then, in a lower voice Ashley continued, “I’m sure you could find somebody else to stay with.”

“That’s not really...” Lydia let the words die away, not sure what to say. Playing house, even temporarily, with Aidan was a recipe for disaster as far as her emotions were concerned. “We’re not really heading in that direction and it’s probably best not to muddy the water.”

“I think you guys are a great couple.”

“That’s based on what, exactly? We haven’t been running around doing the couple thing where everybody can see us.”

Ashley shrugged. “No, but I’ve seen you together a couple of times at the bar, and I know you both well enough to know you’re probably great together.”

“Yeah, we are, I think.”

“So...what’s the problem?”

Lydia threw some more clothes in the bag, figuring they would be enough for a couple of days, and fell back on her standard excuse. “I don’t live here anymore, Ash. I just came here to help you out and now you won’t need me much longer.”

“You could live here again. Just don’t leave.”

It was that easy and also that hard, but she didn’t want to open that door with her sister. If Ashley knew Lydia was even considering staying in Boston, she’d never hear the end of it. “You’re missing the point, which is that I don’t
want
to live here anymore. The reasons I left are still valid reasons to leave again.”