Page 71 of Secondhand Smoke

She reached up to cover one of his hands with hers and squeezed. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

He kissed her again, on the cheek. “Yeah.”

He had his hand on the door when she said, “Aidan?”

“Yeah?”

Her smile was glorious, happiness radiating through her bright blue-green eyes. “It was worth the wait.”

It had been. And he had no intention of making her wait again.

~*~

By the time she finished her hair and dressed for work, Aidan was long gone. But when Sam went to her room, she found her mother standing in the threshold. She stepped up behind her and realized that Helen’s eyes were trained on the messy, unmade bed, and her head turned slowly so that she faced Sam, wide-eyed.

“Mom,” Sam said, drawing breath for an explanation.

Helen said, “Did he spend the night?” She lowered her voice. “I heard…I heard you two talking. You were” – she dropped to a whisper – “in the bathroom together.”

She had no real idea how to play this. Helen had always wanted her to get married and start a family, but Sam didn’t get the impression her mother was going to be the type to allow for sleepovers and bathroom cohabitation. At least not under her own roof. And adult or not, thiswasher mother’s home. She’d have to obey the rules, if any were given.

So she said, “Yes, Mom. We were.”

Helen’s hand tightened around the doorframe. “Oh.” A single syllable that encompassed so many things. Her eyes fell to the carpet a moment and she seemed to think, to collect herself. Then she lifted her head and said, “I don’t like what he’s done to his body.” Ah, the tattoos. “But that was a very nice thing he did, taking care of Erin last night. And I take it you two have become good friends.”

Sam nodded. “We have.”

Helen let out a deep breath and shrugged. “You’re a grown woman. I trust you to keep good company.” She patted Sam on the arm and headed back down the hall to her own room.

Sam stood rooted a moment, in total shock.

Behind her, she heard a door creaking open, and over her shoulder glimpsed Erin poking her head out from her room. She hadn’t bothered to wash her face the night before, and her makeup had smeared in the night. Her hair was in accomplished tangles on her shoulders.

“What was going on last night?” she asked in a tone too suspicious for any sixteen-year-old. “Aidan was here, wasn’t he?”

“I thought you were angry with me. No silent treatment this time?”

Erin’s eyes widened; her stubbornness had been forgotten in her curiosity, and now she remembered it. With a frustrated sound, she withdrew and slammed her door.

Sam went in to make her bed.

~*~

He was about five minutes late as he walked up to the open roll top doors at the shop. Aidan braced himself, and stepped into the first bay.

Mercy and Tango immediately glanced his way. Carter kept his back turned because, for reasons Aidan didn’t understand that somehow involved Jasmine, the kid still wasn’t talking to him, if he could help it.

Tango propped a hand against a tool chest and gave him a small, knowing smile.

Mercy folded his arms across his chest and grinned like the lunatic he was. “You’re late.”

“I’m late lots of times.”

“Tango,” Mercy called, “did our boy here come home last night?”

“Nope.” Tango’s smile got a little wider. “Definitely not.”

“Did you stop in at Ghost and Mags’?” Mercy pressed, the obnoxious asshole. “Should I ask them?”

---