by Jill Shalvis
“Kincaid,” he answered after the third ring, not sounding particularly happy to hear from her.
She held her breath and nearly hung up.
“Lily,” he said, still impatiently but with something else as well.
And that something else coiled through the connection, jump-starting her heartbeat and scraping across her belly. And farther south as well. She closed her eyes. “Remember that favor I owe ya?”
He paused. “Yeah.”
“I’d like to repay it. Now.”
Crickets.
“So if you could come over,” she said.
“I just got down off the mountain from a rescue, I’m filthy dirty.”
Oh, the images that conjured up in her mind … She shook them off. “It’s okay. It won’t matter for what I have in mind.”
A shorter silence this time, filled with a new kind of tension.
And her nipples went hard. “Aidan? You still there?”
“Your place in ten.”
Her place? What the— Omigod. “No, I’m at the Mane Attraction! I have a treatment I want to give you!”
More crickets.
“Aidan?”
“In ten,” he repeated.
“Okay, good—” But she was talking to dead air. She looked at Char. “He needs to work on his phone etiquette.”
“God himself couldn’t teach those boys of mine phone etiquette. So is he coming?”
“In ten.”
Char smiled wide. “Yep. He likes you.” Her gaze went speculative. “So what’s your stance on children?”
Lily’s mouth fell open.
“Kidding!” Char said, and laughed, the sound a little evil actually.
“He doesn’t like me like that,” Lily said.
“Honey, let me tell you something about my boy. It takes an act of Congress for me to get him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. You follow me?”
Lily was afraid she did but she shook her head no.
“It’s the middle of the day and he’s busier than a priest in a whorehouse. So if he’s coming now, he dropped a million things to do so. For you.”
Oh, God. “Why are we doing this again?” Lily asked desperately.
“Because the mess-ees are going to become the mess-ors.”
Lily stared at Char. Yep. Evil. “Promise me something.”
“Anything,” Char said.
“If you ever get mad at me, you’ll just kill me dead. You won’t pin me to a board and slowly pull off my legs.”
Char laughed again, sounding delighted now. “I’d better get out of here.”
“Wait— What? I thought you wanted to see your son.”
“No, I want you to see my son.”
“But—”
“Just work your magic, get him to talk to you.” Char hugged her. “He needs that, honey. More than you know. He doesn’t have anyone in his life to let go to. Oh, and give him a haircut—or whatever treatment floats your boat. God knows he could use a little TLC. But don’t forget to feed him the old folks home story.” She grinned. “I’ll leave my credit card at the front desk. Make sure to wear that pretty little sign on your forehead.”
“What sign?”
“The one that says, Spill your guts to me.”
Lily was boggled. “I don’t have a—”
“Yes, you do. That’s what makes you such a good cosmetologist. You listen. You care. It’s what he needs, trust me. He doesn’t spill his guts to anyone. Ever.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have any real feelings to spill,” Lily said.
Char laughed again. “Aw, now we both know that’s not even close to true.” She hugged Lily again, winked, and left.
“But what am I supposed to do with him?” she asked Char’s empty chair.
The chair didn’t answer.
Chapter 14
Aidan was exhausted. The night before he hadn’t gotten to bed until midnight, and no sooner had his head hit the pillow than an S&R call had come in.
Two hikers, a newlywed couple from Denver, hadn’t checked back into their honeymoon suite for the night at a local hotel. Earlier in the day, the concierge had sent them on a hike and then had worried that maybe they were lost.
When the couple hadn’t returned by the next morning, their family and friends became concerned as well.
Dispatch had finally gotten a panicked call from the couple themselves, who’d managed to climb high enough to get cell service. They were hopelessly lost, freezing, freaking out, and hungry.
They were told to start a fire to keep warm while S&R worked their way to them.
The couple had called dispatch back twice. They’d had trouble starting a fire. Dispatch walked them through it, instructing them to find something for kindling before carefully stacking the wood correctly to catch fire.
By the time Aidan and Mitch had located them, the couple indeed had found something for kindling. In spite of being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of forestland filled to the brim with pine needles and fallen twigs, they’d been burning their cash.
Aidan had seen people burn their clothes, their supplies … He’d genuinely thought he’d seen it all. But this was a new one, even for him.
And now Lily wanted to see him at the salon, something about returning the favor, which he didn’t care about.
What he did care about was the tone in her voice. Uncertainty. Nerves.
What the hell was up? Sliding his phone into his pocket, he stood up.
Gray and Hudson stared at him.
“Got a thing,” he said.
“You’re in the middle of a thing,” Hudson said. “A management meeting thing.”
Aidan kept heading to the door.
“Hey,” Gray said. “There’s still a few items on the to-do list. What about Lenny?”
Aidan turned back. “He’s pissed.”
“So am I,” Gray said grimly.
“He says he’s quit drinking. I’m trying to keep an eye on him. So is Mitch.”
“Listen,” Gray said, “it might be easier if I take over Lenny watch.”
“I brought him on board, I’ll take responsibility.”
There was a long silence during which Gray and Hudson gave each other a long look.
“What?” Aidan snapped.
“Lenny’s a friend of yours,” Gray said. “That’s what. And he’s an alcoholic. Not your fault, by the way. So you don’t have to take responsibility for him.”
“I said I’d do it,” Aidan said.
Gray looked at him for a beat. “Fine. Moving on to Dad.” A muscle in his jaw ticked. “Hudson still wants to track him down.”
This gave Aidan a gut ache. Track him down? Christ. Just the thought brought a tidal wave of memories. It’d been hot as hell that night he’d found his dad cheating. He could remember the sweat pouring down his face after having the shit beat out of him. Nearly passing out walking home to his mom. But what he remembered most was the look on his mom’s face when he told her his dad was cheating on her. Which had been nothing compared to her expression when she discovered Richard had laid his hands on Aidan. He’d never intended for her to know that. Had wished she hadn’t figured it out. Because as he’d known it would, it just about killed her.
And then Richard had shown up and that was when Char clocked him with her frying pan …
Gray had been away at camp. He had no idea that a thirteen-year-old Aidan had been the catalyst for the fight. No one but Char knew. Shortly after that, she’d found out about the other kids Richard had deserted, which further cemented her hatred of the man who’d never lived up to his own responsibilities.
One year later the twins had shown up in Cedar Ridge, and Char, being a better person than anyone Aidan had ever known, had taken them in as hers. And then Kenna had come along a few years later.
Aidan had been doubly resolved to keep what had happened between him and Richard a secret after that. Hud and Jacob were so messed up from taking care of their mom instead of
the other way around, the last thing Aidan wanted to do was destroy any fantasy memory they had of their dad as well. And then there was Gray. If he ever found out, Aidan probably wouldn’t be able to keep Gray from hunting Richard down and killing him.
Nope, the secret was still his alone to keep. “I told you to forget it,” he said to Hud. “We don’t need him. We never have.”
“Yes, we do,” Hudson said. “He got us in this mess, and he can figure a way to get us out. His fault, his problem.”
“His fault,” Aidan agreed. “But our problem. Trust me, bringing in the man who’s abandoned everything and everyone in his life will be a joke. We’ve never been able to count on him, how much help do you really expect him to be? No, we do this as always—on our own.”
While he and Hudson were going back and forth, they lost Gray, who was staring down at his phone, shaking his head.
“Seriously?” Hudson asked him.
“I’m still listening,” Gray said, but thumbed something on his phone.
Two seconds later his phone buzzed again. He looked pained as he read the response.
“Care to share with the class?” Aidan asked banally.
Gray turned his phone to reveal the text conversation:
Penny: PROBLEM. Spider in the clean laundry basket and now it’s gone. I have to burn down the house.
Gray: No.
Penny: You’re not grasping the severity of this situation. The spider is huge and it’s going to eat the cat.
Gray: Then the spider will rightfully take our cat’s place and become our beloved spider cat.
Penny: This is on you. And remember that thing I said you could do to me tonight? It’s off the table.
Hudson grabbed Gray’s phone and executed a three-pointer into the trash.
“What the hell?” Gray said.
“We’re talking about finding Dad,” Hud said. “I want to and Aidan doesn’t. You’re the tiebreaker.”
Aidan gave Gray a long look that said, Side with me or I’ll kick your ass.
Gray ignored him to look at Hudson. “Shelve it.”
“But—”
“Shelve it,” Gray repeated. “For now.”
At this, Aidan relaxed marginally. Because Hud had different memories of their dad than he did. Hud had seen a different side of the man. He’d been too little to remember anything bad, he only knew him as Absent Dad. And apparently there’d been one early birthday memory that Hud had held on to, when Richard had brought Hud and Jacob bikes.
There was no way in hell that Aidan was going to ruin that memory with the reality that was their father.
Plus, the guy wasn’t just a deadbeat dad and an asshole, but also unpredictable, not to mention uncontrollable. If they got him here and he found Kenna, complete with all the buckets of money she’d earned in sponsorships and endorsements during her snowboarding years, he’d find a way to bleed her dry too—even though Gray had managed to convince Kenna to lock her money up in long-term investments. It’d been a hard sell, because Kenna had wanted to give them the money to put toward saving the resort. Gray had refused to use her hard-won money to save their asses, and Aidan agreed.
If they were going down, she wasn’t going down with them. “Subject closed,” he said now to Hud.
Hudson opened his mouth to argue the point to death, because that’s what annoying-as-shit little brothers did, so Aidan cut him off and shook his head. “No,” he said again.
“And what,” Hudson said, pissed. “You’re the end of the line?”
“On this, yeah.”
“That’s bullshit, A.”
“It’s the way it is,” Aidan said.
“Bullshit,” Hudson said again, and stormed out.
“Don’t say it,” Aidan said into the deafening silence.
“That went well,” Gray said anyway.
“You’re an ass,” Aidan said.
“No doubt,” Gray said. “And he’s not going to stop. You going to tell me what the real problem is?”
Hell no. But Gray was right. Hud wasn’t going to stop pushing, because Kincaids never stopped. Looking for trouble. Finding it. Fucking things up. All of the above, they were masters at all of it.
Five minutes later Aidan opened the front door of the salon just as his cell buzzed. Another Facetime call.
“What the hell are you doing at the salon?” Gray asked.
Aidan vowed to delete the Find Your Friends app off his phone if for no other reason than to have a private life. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m off the clock.”
“You getting a perm? Your cuticles done? A manscape?”
Aidan flipped him off, ended the call, and entered the salon.
Jonathan came from the left at the exact moment Lily came from the right.
Aidan took in Lily’s warm smile and without warning his brain went to war with his dick.
Why is she smiling like that? his brain asked, a little stunned and also immediately skeptical. She never smiles at us like that.
Who gives a fuck? his dick said. She’s gorgeous.
“I’m on this one,” Lily told Jonathan.
Jonathan grinned.
“Not like that!” she said quickly, her cheeks flaming. “Go away!”
Jonathan laughed and vanished into the back, leaving them alone.
“So,” Aidan said, mentally cracking his knuckles. “You said something about returning my favor.” He looked around the salon warily. The place wasn’t overly girlie or anything, but Aidan saw lots of things he had absolutely no use for.
Lily smiled. “You look nervous.”
He met her gaze and found a light of mischief there that he hadn’t expected. “And you look like you’re up to something.”
She laughed. Laughed.
And damn, he enjoyed that too. He’d missed seeing her happy, but now his brain and dick went on high alert for two different reasons. Danger, abort mission, his brain warned. No, she totally wants us, his dick said. “Listen, this returning the favor thing isn’t necessary—”
“I promise it won’t hurt a bit.” But she looked very amused, which put him on guard.
“Uh-huh,” he said, looking around, fully expecting one of his brothers to jump out at him. “So what are we talking about here?”
“I just wanted to give you a”—
He went brows up. He had no idea where she was going with the rest of that statement, but once again his brain and dick took it