Was he talking about us, or the trip? “It’s this Thursday. I don’t want to make it inconvenient.”

“When are you coming over?”

“I have Thursday off. I can just swing by on my way to the airport.” Aiden would be at work and I wouldn’t have to bug him any further.

“I’ll double-check everything and send you a confirmation. It should take less than an hour.”

The King Oil Gulfstream flight crew would answer Aiden immediately. “I appreciate it. I’ll let you go now.”

“Kate—”

I waited for him to finish, but he didn’t continue. “Aiden?”

“How was work?”

“Good.” Had he ever asked me about work before? “Other than the conference rearrangement, it was pretty quiet. Normal.”

“Lauren applied here.”

“Lauren? From the library?” She was one of our regular patrons, and the staff was extremely protective of her. She wore stilettos and dressed for a Southern brunch when it was the middle of winter. Most days she tied a bandana around her military cut, and many times, she didn’t shave her salt-and-pepper five o’clock shadow. She talked with a low rumble while wearing her reading glasses, peering at everyone over them as if she were working on the computer. I considered her more of a friend than a patron after all these years.

“The same. She applied for the entrance receptionist position. She put you as a reference but didn’t list a number. Human Resources asked if it was okay to get your personal phone number.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“No need. I said you spoke highly of her. I gave her a reference.”

He remembered me talking about Lauren? It’d been nothing more than commenting about the old war movies Lauren wanted to check out and maybe a running tally of how many online MS Office courses she’d completed during her allotted computer time.

“Do you think she’ll get the job?” Lauren hadn’t done reception work before. She’d mentioned once that she’d spent thirty years working a tow truck but wanted a job out of the elements to get her to her retirement years.

“I don’t pull rank often, but I expect my reference will go further than the others.”

He spoke so plainly my lips twitched. “I hope that means she’s not going to quit coming into the library.”

“She won’t be between the hours of eight and five Monday through Friday.”

I chuckled. Aiden’s sense of humor didn’t make an appearance nearly enough. “Thank you for checking on the flight.”

“The pilot just messaged. They aren’t scheduled, so your trip is cleared.”

That flight was more money than a lot of annual donations the library received.

I was about to ask him if I could stop by Wednesday night, perhaps late enough to catch him at home, when a phone rang.