Page 11 of Second Act
The footsteps stopped and then sounded again, but in the reverse direction.
“Jeez, you sound just like Mom,” her brother said as he reached the bottom step. “And that’s not a compliment.”
“We have to talk,” Jessica said, pointing to the chair where she’d been sitting.
“Sure thing.” Aidan perched on the chair with a nonchalance that she saw right through. She had to admit that he looked good. His rangy frame had filled out, so that he appeared more man than boy now, even in faded jeans and a T-shirt with a beer logo on it. His tan brought out the slight tint of blue in his gray eyes, and his sun-streaked hair waved down to his shoulders. That and his unshaven scruff gave him the look of a model in an advertisement for outdoorsy living. However, that just ratcheted up her irritation with him.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said, sitting on the couch. “So I know the news is bad. What happened this time?”
He shrugged. “I asked for time off to see a lunar eclipse at Machu Picchu with some friends, but my boss wouldn’t give it to me, even though I had the vacation days saved up.” He spread his arms wide. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime. I couldn’t turn it down.”
“If you had the necessary vacation time, why wouldn’t your boss let you go?”
“We had a big project that was behind schedule and he claimed that he needed me there to get it done. Which was total BS, because I wasn’t even working on that project.”
Sympathy for the boss she’d never met flooded Jessica. “Maybe he needed you to take up the slack on your project so other people could focus on the big one.”
Aidan wouldn’t meet her gaze. “He was just being a jerk. He didn’t like me.”
Jessica could imagine why. Aidan was a wizard at programming when he was interested enough to focus on the job. But keeping his attention on a project long enough to complete it was a challenge.
“Did you quit or just not show up?” Jessica asked.
“I resigned in an e-mail from the airport,” Aidan said. “That’s more than he deserved.”
“You can’t keep pulling this crap, Aidan. Pretty soon no one will want to hire you.”
He gave her a complacent smile and tapped his temple with his index finger. “There’s pure tech genius in this brain. People beg me to come work for them.”
Jessica shook her head. “Word gets around. You don’t want to become known for being unreliable.”
Not to mention that Aidan had complained about the lower pay at the last two jobs he’d taken. She suspected that his reputation had preceded him at the higher-paying tech companies.
“Don’t worry, sis, I won’t become a permanent resident here.” His tone was resentful.
She gave him a long, steady look. “You know that’s not what I’m worried about.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “You’re concerned about my future, when I’m not so young anymore and need health insurance and a pension plan.” He gave her his little-brother grin. “But I’m young now and I want to enjoy life while I can. I’m not a workaholic like you.”
His last words felt like a smack in the face. Shewasn’ta workaholic. She put in long hours because her patients needed her, not because she preferred work over pleasure. In fact, her job gave her pleasure. Sucking in a deep breath, she counted to ten before she said in an even tone that she was proud of, “A job is called a job for a reason. You have to show up even when you don’t want to in order to get paid. If it were all fun and games, people would do it for free.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m twelve,” Aidan said, but his sulky expression made him appear about that age.
“Then don’t act like you are.” She held up her hand in apology. She didn’t want to fight with him any longer. “Sorry, I had a rough day.”
“That’s why I brought Pete over,” Aidan said in a blatant redirection of the conversation. “I thought he would take your mind off things, cheer you up.”
“You’re such an altruist,” Jessica said with heavy sarcasm, but she gave up on trying to drum a sense of responsibility into Aidan. He seemed to be impervious to the concept. He was good-looking, highly skilled, and charming. In the real, imperfect world, his combination of attributes meant he could always find a job, even if it wasn’t always a good one. He had skated happily through life that way—so far.
“Hey, Pete’s a great guy. I’m glad you’re going out with him.” His expression shifted to concern, making him look entirely adult. “I worry about you, Jess. You may think I have too much fun, but I don’t think you have enough. Your clinic has kind of taken over your life.” He shook his head as she opened her mouth. “I know you do important work. I think that’s great. But you’ve got no balance.”
Her irresponsible little brother was talking about balance? Yet she’d had the same thought yesterday and the sense that her life was becoming single focused had niggled at the back of her mind for the last couple of weeks. She’d ascribed it to the postholiday letdown when the once-pristine snow had frozen into gray, grit-filled heaps with no colorful decorations to distract the eye from them.
“Maybe Pete won’t be the right guy,” Aidan continued. “But you have to get out there again. I mean it’s been eight years since you broke up with Hugh. How many guys have you dated between then and now?”
He might as well have body-slammed her into the couch. Hugh had just shown up in her life again, and now her brother was insinuating that she was still pining after him. Yes, it had taken her a while to get over the end of their engagement, but she didn’t turn down other men because of that.
“I’ve dated plenty.” Once, twice, three times at most. Maybe because it was impossible for them to measure up to a man who was now half the world’s romantic fantasy. The thought made her look at Aidan with a mix of respect and dismay. When had he become so perceptive about her love life?
