Page 56 of Heating Up (Nugget)
“Harlee gave it to me, and a whole bunch of other stuff.” She stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles. “Do you think it looks okay? It’s not something I’d ordinarily wear, but she and Darla made such a fuss that I . . . well, what do you think?”
“It looks great.” He particularly liked the tube-top part. If he had to guess, she wasn’t wearing a bra. She might even be going commando under the skirt; he didn’t see any panty lines.
Aidan wrapped his arm around her waist. “Let’s hit the road.”
They made good time to Reno. Dana spent much of the ride making their reservation and returning calls to clients.
“I’ve been so caught up with the Rosser deal that I’ve been neglecting my other folks,” she told him as she directed him to the parking lot of a strip mall.
“This it?” It didn’t look like much, just a storefront with lace curtains in the windows and a worn sign that said “Gaetano’s.”
There were a million trendy restaurants in Chicago, and Sue had insisted they go to every one. None of them looked like this.
“Don’t worry; it may not look like much, but the food’s good,” she said and stepped down from his truck before he could help her out.
True to her word, the place was packed. Even though they’d gotten a reservation, they had to wait for a table. Aidan ordered them drinks at the bar: Prosecco for Dana and a scotch for him. A stool became available and he grabbed it for her, leaning his front against her back as they shared a small swath of bar.
“You smell good,” she said.
“Thanks. So do you.” He sniffed her neck and, in the process, got a quick glimpse of cleavage as she bent closer to the bar to get her drink. He’d been wrong about the bra. She had some kind of lacy band around her breasts.
The hostess came, showed them to their table, and lit the candle. Dana buried her face in the menu and Aidan asked for refills on their drinks.
“Tell me about the fire.” She put her menu down. “I heard you leave early this morning, and Harlee said something about it when I was at her house today.”
“It was at the Rigsby farm. You know the family?”
“Not by name. Was anyone hurt?”
“Nah. The Rigsby kids got a hold of some of the father’s fireworks and were shooting off mortar rockets. The barn caught fire and one of the McCreedy kids—they were involved too—called 9-1-1. They got the goats out in time, but the barn’s a wreck.”
“Did you help fight the fire?”
“It was pretty much knocked down by the time I got turned out. I was there in an investigative capacity because the captain suspected right off the bat that something wasn’t right.”
“The fireworks?”
“Yep.”
The server came with their refills and took their orders. The place was old-school Italian, none of those tiny plates with food Aidan couldn’t describe. He got the veal parm and Dana got the osso buco. He ordered them an antipasto plate and fried calamari to start.
“Was it dangerous going through the fire, looking for clues?” she asked when the waiter left.
“Nope. The dangerous part is putting out the fire. But get this: Rigsby got belligerent when we told him we were confiscating the fireworks.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Like how?”
“Acting like an asshat by throwing his weight around. Eventually he gave in. It wasn’t like he had a choice.”
“Could you arrest him?”
“Technically. But I’m not into that. I just wanted to get the pyrotechnics out of there. That’s all.”
She leaned across the table. “Be careful. People out in the country sometimes get weird about authority figures. They don’t like being told what to do, and a lot of these guys have guns.”
“Yeah, I get that impression.”
He enjoyed talking to her about his work. Sue had been attracted to the idea of his job because a lot of women were hot for firefighters. As far as the details of his day-to-day work, she couldn’t have cared less. It bored her, which Aidan had never been able to understand. How could arson, the act of intentionally setting something on fire, be boring?
