Jonathan was smiling at Aidan like he’d just brought Christmas. “She’s something else, right?” he asked Aidan.

Aidan looked at Lily. “Definitely something else.”

She gave him a long look that made him grin.

Jonathan too. “I’m thinking of putting her in charge just so I don’t have to be.”

Aidan nodded. “I’m sure you’ll be in good hands.”

Well dammit, it was hard to hold on to a good mad with a compliment like that, but she gave it the ol’ college try.

“Get me a list of the work you need done,” Aidan said. “I’ll talk it over with Gray and see what we can do.”

“Maybe we could just deal with Gray directly,” Lily said.

He gave a slow shake of his head. “Why?”

She tried not to notice how his T-shirt had stretched itself nearly beyond its limits to cover his broad shoulders. Or how the shirt was only partially tucked in at his abs. Or that he smelled fantastic. “It’d make things easier,” she said.

“For who?”

She stared at him. Was the air suddenly too thick to breathe or was that just her? “Me,” she admitted.

He cocked his head. “Maybe I’m not interested in making things easier for you,” he said so casually that it took a moment for the words to process. By the time it sank in, he’d changed out the blown fuse and was gone.

Jonathan was still grinning.

“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, irritated.

“Because this is going to be fun.”

Lily was pretty sure this, whatever this was, was going to be the exact opposite of fun.

Thanks to some idiot throwing a lit cigarette out his window on Highway 74, Aidan and the entire fire department spent the next three days fighting a blaze fifteen miles away on Mt. Rose.

Finally a violent rainstorm rode in like a tumbleweed and saved the day, helping them beat the fire into submission.

When he finally got home, he felt disgusting. He stripped on the way to the bathroom and then stood beneath the showerhead for a full thirty minutes—the best thirty minutes he’d had in days.

He’d no sooner turned off the water and wrapped himself in a towel when his phone buzzed an incoming Facetime call from Gray. He hit ACCEPT and when Gray’s face appeared, Aidan went on the immediate offensive. “No,” he said, before his brother could speak.

“I didn’t even ask you anything.” Gray looked at his bare torso and grimaced. “And Christ, put on some clothes.”

“I just got out of the shower. And you didn’t ask me anything—yet,” Aidan corrected. “I’m just warding you off at the pass.”

“I don’t only call you to get you to do something,” Gray said.

“Yes you do.”