Page 46 of Heating Up (Nugget)
Aidan absently tucked a strand of hair that had come loose from her bun behind her ear. “Nah, wait until tomorrow morning when I’m off. We’ll go together.”
She supposed the big supermarkets would be open. “Okay.”
“Stay cool,” he said as she got in her car.
“You too.” She turned on the ignition to get the AC running and suddenly asked, “Did you and Sue used to entertain a lot?”
“In the beginning we did.”
“Why not later?”
He hitched his shoulders. “We had different ideas of what a party should be.”
Dana was dying to know more but didn’t feel right about prying. If Aidan had wanted to elaborate he would’ve. Yet she couldn’t help wondering if it was one of the reasons Sue had run off with someone else. Crazy woman. In Dana’s mind, Aidan McBride was the epitome of perfect. No one had ever made her feel more at ease and so included. Odd that it had taken a newcomer like Aidan to make her feel like she belonged in Nugget, even though she’d been here first.
“Hasta la vista,”she said and pulled away from the curb, smiling. They were having a party.
* * *
Aidan got a kick out of watching Dana decorate. Like with everything else she did, there were lists and charts and Excel spreadsheets. If the act of organization didn’t make her so damned happy, Aidan would’ve found it tremendously annoying. Not that he was a psychologist or anything, but he got the impression that it helped her cope with situations that made her nervous.
Like the idiotic closet organizer was really a metaphor for putting order back into her life after the fire had destroyed it.
“It’s just a casual barbecue,” he reminded her.
“I know.” She looked up at the red, white, and blue paper lanterns she’d hung from the trees and winced. “Oh God, I overdid it, didn’t I?”
“Nah. I like ’em. Very patriotic and festive. Good choice.”
She beamed. “What about the centerpieces?”
“Meh.” He rocked his hand back and forth, then laughed to show he was kidding. “It’s all good, Dana.”
The first guests to arrive were Sloane and Brady. They each carried a big bowl.
“What have you got there?” Aidan asked.
“Potato salad and spicy slaw.” Brady stuck his bowl under Aidan’s nose.
Aidan raised his brows. “A busman’s holiday?”
“No.” Brady shared a look with Sloane. “We didn’t want to starve.”
“Who else is coming?” Sloane examined the yard, checked out the flag bunting Dana had tacked to the porch railing and seemed to approve.
“A couple of guys from the firehouse and you and Brady.”
“That’s it?”
“I’m new in town; what do you want, a Cubs crowd?
“Dana knows people.”
Aidan searched the yard for her, and when he couldn’t find her, figured she’d gone inside. “Because of the short notice her friends were all busy,” he said. In all honesty, he didn’t think she had any friends to invite.
The fact that she seemed content enough to plan a nice gathering for his new Cal Fire friends—and to be included—both saddened and touched him. Sue had always been more interested in impressing people she thought were worthy—their lawyer, accountant, and anesthesiologist neighbors. Firefighters were just a little too blue collar in her book, even though all the members of his family were civil servants. From what Aidan could tell, Dana didn’t have a snobby bone in her body; she just wanted acceptance.
Given her smarts, beauty, success, and sense of humor, she should have a wide social circle. He certainly enjoyed being around her, and not just because he wanted to get inside her pants, which he did.
