Too bad it couldn’t last. Bailey was back at the Thurston University campus—the same campus where Aiden attended med school—and I’d been on my own again.
Thankfully, business had slowed a little this week. I’d mostly had routine maintenance jobs like oil and filter changes, along with a couple of basic repairs. Those I could easily handle, so I’d managed not to make an ass of myself in front of the brothers.
For now, anyway.
I cranked up the radio, stuck a fresh cinnamon toothpick in my mouth—I’d had to kick a nasty smoking habit I picked up in prison, and the toothpicks helped—and hummed along to some Twenty One Pilots, Fall Out Boy, and Metallica on the drive. Once I hit town, I turned down the radio so I could focus on my phone’s GPS leading me to Wicked Grind, a coffee shop in the downtown square about six blocks from campus. I slipped into an angled parking spot and cut the engine.
Aiden sat at a little high-top bistro table with two ceramic mugs in front of him. He waved me over.
I bypassed the short line at the counter, made up mostly of college kids, with one or two professor types, and hunched my shoulders to look less like the big brute I was. Even before I’d ended up in prison, I hadn’t been on the college track. I’d been more at home on a construction crew.
At least Forrester Bros Auto was a step up. They were trusting me with real responsibility. It made me nervous, but only because I didn’t want to screw it up.
I pulled out a tiny chair across from Aiden and balanced on it. “Hey. Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
“Nah, I got here early to grab a table and order. You still like pumpkin spice, right?”
“Shh.” I snagged the blue mug he offered and lifted it up, inhaling the scent of sweet spices. “I’ll lose my man card.”
“Not likely,” Aiden mumbled. “I wish I could have gotten your genetics.”
“No, you don’t.” Aiden was only my half brother, and I’d taken after my father. “You got brains instead of brawn. Be grateful for that. You’re going to do a lot more good in the world than I ever will.”
Aiden took a sip of his drink—probably something strong as fuck; my brother practically lived on caffeine—and lowered his misshapen orange mug. “I wish you wouldn’t put yourself down like that. I wouldn’t be doing any of it without you.”
I hadn’t meant it as a putdown, exactly. Just a fact.
“I couldn’t pass your exams,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s all you.”
Aiden smiled. “Maybe, but you got me here. I won’t ever forget that.”
The shadows in his eyes told me he wouldn’t forget what came before, either. I’d left him with his abusive asshole father for too long. I should have known that when Mom left like she did, someone would have to pay.
I was already out of the house. Otherwise, I would have stepped forward and let it be me. I couldn’t get into med school, but I could take a punch like a champ.
Too bad the same couldn’t be said for everyone.
Before my mind could travel down a darkened memory lane, I changed the subject.
“Tell me about school,” I said. “Are you getting any sleep at all?”
Aiden took a big gulp of his chai. “I have perfected the art of the catnap between classes,” he said.
“You have to take care of yourself, Aids. Who will heal all those future patients if you aren’t there?”
He cocked his head. “If you want to talk about who looks more tired?—”
“Okay, okay,” I said, ego still smarting from Bailey’s comments about how worn-out I looked. “It’s not a competition.”
Aiden laughed, and he looked so damn happy here. It made the knowledge of what I’d done easier to live with. Not light exactly, but bearable, at least.
He filled me in on his classes while we drank our coffee. Aiden was a driven student, and med school didn’t leave much room for a social life, but I still had to ask.
“Anybody special in your life?”
“I’ve got everyone I need.”
“You know what I mean.”
