She rolled her eyes and stalked from the room, back out into the crisp morning as the sun started to rise.
“Oh, Leash, please don’t make me regret letting you go,” I muttered into the empty kitchen.
7
Nick
* * *
“Let’s call it a day, Adams. I got a very hot date waiting at home for me,” Aaron said, tossing down the last of the tools in his hands.
I glanced up from the blueprints that detailed the engine specs and nodded at him. “No arguments here. It’s been a long ass day.”
“Especially for a Saturday…” Aaron commiserated. He came over to where I was working on taking some notes and threw himself down in the chair beside the desk. “Sorry about having you come in on the weekend.”
“Nah, it’s all right. I just hope we can get her ready in time.” I gave the F-4 an appraising glance. Aaron had received an offer to have a showpiece in an aerial show in LA and he’d decided that he wanted to get the F-4 in flight condition for the event in honor of his dad.
“We will.” Aaron lifted up from his seat and started for the door between the hangar and the museum warehouse. “You wanna lock up for me?”
“Sure,” I replied.
“Thanks. Don’t stay all night.” He flashed a smile and sauntered out the door, leaving me alone in the large space.
My first week at the museum had been a success. Aaron and I continued to bond and were becoming fast friends and now that there was a time crunch to get the F-4 rehabbed, we were working on the project together.
He’d told me he’d honor our 90-day contract one way or the other, so I wasn’t worried about the job ending prematurely, and it was fun working on it together. We’d spent the entire day tearing everything apart and putting things back together one by one to determine where all the issues were after spending most of the week on a wild goose chase going from one theory to another without much success.
I’d overslept my alarm this morning and didn’t have time to go to Carly’s before coming to the museum. I’d driven by the strip where her shop was on my way out of town and had contemplated pulling in anyway. I doubted Aaron would care—especially if I brought him a coffee too—but had resisted the pull. I didn’t want to push my chances of getting an extension on my contract. The longer I stayed in Holiday Cove, the more money I’d make and a better chance at getting to know Carly.
I folded up my papers, tucked them into the large folder Aaron and I had been using to compile all of our testing notes, and then grabbed my keys and phone from the counter where I’d dropped them that morning. I flipped off the lights, set the security code, and locked up. I made it halfway to my truck when my cell phone started ringing. I fished it out of my back pocket and saw an unknown caller.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Nick!” The voice belonged to my younger brother, Nate. He was currently stationed with the Marines over in Japan and called every few months. Usually, when he’d had a little too much to drink and got all sentimental.
“Hey Bro, what’s up?” I continued on to my truck and hopped inside to keep warm. The sun was getting ready to dip down over the ocean and there was a slight chill in the air.
“Not much. Just bored.”
“You stayin’ out of trouble?”
“More or less.”
I pressed my eyes closed. Not the answer I was looking for.
“You do realize you have a lot of eyes on you right now, right?”
Nate groaned. “Nick, I didn’t call you to get a lecture. If I was in the mood for one, I would’ve called Dad. He’s better at chewing my ass than you are, anyway.”
“Maybe you should listen sometime. Then you wouldn’t be in your position,” I growled.
“This was a mistake. I’m gonna go.”
“Nate, grow up. Don’t hang up just ‘cause you don’t like what I have to say. You fucked up, little bro, and you’re gonna have to live out the consequences.”
Nine months ago, he and some buddies got drunk, crashed into a General’s car with the rental they were joyriding in. He was lucky to still be in the Marines. He’d been punished, but in my opinion—he’d gotten off way too easily. Likely because one of his buddies was the son of a high-powered officer. He had undoubtedly pulled some favors to get the entire fiasco glossed over and put away.
But, if Nate made one more wrong move—it would cost him his career.
Not that he seemed to care.
“I know! I know! Damn! I’m keeping my nose clean.”
I was skeptical, but he was thousands of miles away and there wasn’t anything I could do about his choices anyway. It didn’t stop me from worrying though. If anything, I worried more because I wasn’t there to bail his ass out like I was when we were kids.