Free Heat Exchange by Shannon Stacey Page A

knew it wouldn’t take long. Scott and Lydia both had tempers with a low flash point, but they also burned out almost as quickly.
    Sure enough, in less than two minutes, the siblings were laughing and Aidan exhaled a deep sigh of relief. The storm had passed. This one, anyway.
    “Why do you have a ceramic bear on your back deck with dead flowers in it?” Lydia was asking.
    Aidan could see Scott shrug from where he sat on the couch. “It was a gift from a woman I dated a while back.”
    “Interesting gift.”
    “Black bear. Yellow flowers in it. It was supposed to be a Bruins thing.”
    “That’s sweet,” she said. “How come you broke up?”
    “She just wasn’t the one.”
    Aidan laughed. “She wasn’t the one whose name he said in his sleep is what he means.”
    “Screw you,” Scotty shot back. “I’m going to get dressed. Try not to spill all my secrets, Hunt.”
    “I’m heading out,” Lydia told him. “But I’ll talk to you later.”
    Scotty waved goodbye before disappearing into his room, and Aidan stood as Lydia walked toward him. “Feel better now?”
    “Yeah, I do. I don’t like fighting with my brother, believe it or not. And I love Ashley, but I can’t kick Danny while he’s down.” She shrugged. “I guess I should mind the bar and my own business.”
    It was close enough to what Scott had said so he had to fight not to grin. “I don’t think minding your family’s business is a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind mine interfering now and again.”
    “It’s their loss,” she said in a quiet voice rich with sincerity.
    The affection she clearly had for him shone in her eyes and it kicked his heart rate up, even though he knew it only came from having known each other for so long. “Thanks.”
    “I should head out and let you guys get ready for your pedicures.”
    Aidan chuckled. “Not quite that glamorous. We’re helping Rick Gullotti build a wheelchair ramp for his landlords.”
    “Hot day for it.”
    “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 this
kid
thing.

Chapter Six
    A N HOUR BEFORE closing 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