“Mom okay?” Gray asked, in lieu of a greeting.
Their mom, Char, had taken a fall last week and reinjured her bad hip, not that she’d let either of them know how much pain she was in. The woman might look frail on the outside, but on the inside she was The Rock.
“This isn’t about Mom,” he started. “It’s—”
“If it’s not about Mom, you’ve got two seconds,” Gray interrupted. “Penny’s on a twenty-minute break, I haven’t seen her all week, and I have plans for every single one of those twenty minutes.”
Aidan could hear Penny’s soft laugh in the background and grimaced. Gray had been married to his high school sweetheart going on seven years now. Apparently afraid they were starting to act like old marrieds, they’d decided to spice up their marriage. Just last week Aidan had walked into Gray’s office without knocking and found them role-playing Fifty Shades of “Gray.”
There was some shit you just couldn’t unsee. The next day Aidan had installed a dead bolt on Gray’s office door and begged him to use it. He could only hope they would.
“Oh, and before I hang up on you,” Gray said, “Lenny’s an idiot. He got a DUI last night.”
Shit. This made strike two for Lenny—strike one had been getting caught having sex inside one of their machines on the night shift. Worse, a DUI meant that his driver’s license would be revoked for a minimum of ninety days. Aidan shook his head. Lenny was the best of the best when it came to taking care of their equipment, but that didn’t mean shit when it came up against an arrest history. “You want to suspend him until he gets his license back?”
“No, I want him to not be an idiot.” Gray sighed. “Yeah, he has to be suspended at the very least. He’s lucky you suggested that. I was thinking of firing him on his bad attitude alone.”
“I’ll deal with it.”
“Good. I’m going to go get laid now.”
“Wait,” Aidan said. “I think there’s something else you forgot to tell me.”
“Not into guessing games at the moment.”
“Here’s a hint. Lily Danville.”
Silence from Gray.
“Jesus.” Aidan rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You really did know. You knew she was coming here and you didn’t tell me.”
More silence from Gray.
“Answer the damn question,” Aidan said.
“You didn’t ask me one.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Been busy,” Gray said. “And that’s not the question you really want to ask.”
True, but he refused to voice it. Instead he looked up at the sky. No place had skies as big and all-encompassing as Colorado. Things could change in a blink at this altitude, but for the moment the sky was a stark, glorious blue without a single cloud marring it for as far as the eye could see. Which wasn’t all that far because the sharp, jagged outline of the Rockies blocked a long-distance view. “How long have you known about this?”
“A few weeks.”
This staggered Aidan. “Are you kidding me?”
“Look, not everything’s about you, okay? And I have it on good authority that this, her being here, has absolutely nothing to do with you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Aidan asked.
“I—” Gray broke off, and Aidan could hear Penny murmur something in the background. Unfortunately for him he could make out the words along with Gray, which included a very explicit, very sexual request.
“Holy shit, Pen,” Gray said, his voice low and soft the way it only got with his wife. “Don’t take that off yet. Don’t move. Not an inch.” Then he was back with Aidan. “Gotta go.”
“Not until you tell me why she’s here.”
“Really don’t have time for this right now, man.”
“He really doesn’t,” Penny piped in. “What he does have time for, my dear brother-in-law, is a quickie. Since I know you don’t want details, we’re going to hang up now. Oh, and don’t forget the board meeting in twenty minutes, and the staff meeting after that for the upcoming Tough Mudder event.”
“I’m coming,” Aidan said.
“Me too,” Penny said cheerfully, and disconnected the call.
Aidan shook his head and rubbed his eyes to dispel the images of Gray and Penny knocking it out, but he’d probably need an entire bucket of bleach for that.
And shit. He still had to call Lenny, who answered sounding hung over.
“What?” Lenny snapped, not friendly.
“We need to talk,” Aidan said.
“No can do, compadre. Got a date with my bed.”
“It’s important,” Aidan said. “It’s about work.”
“I called in sick today. I’m off the clock.”
“Sick or hung over?” Aidan asked.
There was a pause. “We used to agree those two were one and the same.”
“That was before we got responsibilities,” Aidan said.
“Aw, shit,” Lenny grumbled. “Don’t talk down to me, man. And I haven’t had any caffeine yet. This conversation is way too heavy without caffeine.”