“Lily Pad,” Jonathan said. “You did tell him about Lenny being here intoxicated like I asked you to, right? And the way he spoke to you? You told Aidan all that?”

“No. I didn’t want to be the rat fink.” But she stared at them as their words sank in, especially Rosa’s. Because Rosa had been right. Aidan had never made it a secret how he felt for her. He’d been open and frank. Always.

And in return she’d … been neither of those things. “Oh, my God,” she said.

“What?” Alarmed, Rosa looked around. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s me,” Lily said, turning to look at Jonathan. “It’s all me,” she said to him.

“Finally.”

“This doesn’t change the fact that he was an ass,” Lily said to the room at large.

“Absolutely not,” Jonathan’s client said. “But just so you know, they all have their asshat days.” She smiled at Jonathan. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“Of course,” he said demurely.

Chapter 25

Aidan got stuck on a ranch fire that went long into the night. By the time he got back to the station, he was losing his shit and not in the mood for anyone. Especially not Gray, who stopped by at six in the morning with some papers for him to sign before Gray went in to the office.

At least he remembered that he had something to make Gray as grumpy as he was.

“While you’re here …,” Aidan said, and went to his locker to pull out a brown bag, which he tossed to Gray.

“Shit,” his brother said. “What is it?”

“Plain black boxers.”

“Really?”

“No,” Aidan said.

Gray peeked into the bag with trepidation. “Shit,” he said again, and gingerly pulled out a small neon-yellow package. “What the hell?”

“It’s called a Man Sack,” Aidan said. “Pretty self-explanatory.”

Gray swore colorfully and shook his head. “Penny’s going to love this.”

“I thought she didn’t know.”

“Turns out she knows everything about everything.”

“Just don’t show her then,” Aidan said.

“I save my secrets for the important stuff.”

“Like when you come down to our place to eat our junk food?”

“Whatever, man. At least one of us is getting laid every night.” Gray met his gaze, and his prissiness vanished. “What’s wrong?”

This was the problem with having a brother who noticed every little thing, every single last detail, not to mention the fact that he knew Aidan like the back of his own hand. “Nothing.”

“Try again,” Gray said.

“I’ve got gear to clean.”

“So talk while you do it.”

“You’ve got a bunch of shit to do too,” Aidan said. “Go be someone else’s pain in the ass.”

“Is this about you getting dumped after you accused Lily of giving out secrets like she did at her last job?”

Aidan narrowed his eyes.