After that they’d switched to underwear. Aidan couldn’t remember why, exactly, other than that it was funny. Now, once a month or so, whoever had last been punk’d would purchase and have delivered a particularly embarrassing pair of undies, and they had to have proof that they were worn the day post delivery no matter what.
Gray, who’d sent this particular pair, shook his head. “Dude, pull your pants back up, what if Penny walks in?” So far they’d managed to keep her out of the loop on the undies thing. No sense in bothering her …
At Gray’s question, Hudson just shrugged—which loosely translated meant, Penny isn’t here, so why should I worry? At the movement, his pants sagged beneath his ass. Completely unself-conscious, Hudson frog-marched through the place with his pants still at his ankles, vanishing into his room.
Aidan’s stomach rumbled loudly, and Gray tossed Aidan the package of salami. “Feed that beast. And how did that last call turn out? The kid?”
Aidan shoved some of the meat into his mouth. “Got him home to his hysterical mom in one piece. Can’t say the same for the husband, though. He was supposed to be watching their son while Mom was out shopping. He’d gotten into the game, and the kid walked out the door right beneath his nose.”
Gray winced. “That’s going to hurt.” He took the salami back from Aidan and grabbed some bread and a knife. He added mustard, mayo, cheese, lettuce, and some tomato, then handed the sandwich to Aidan.
Aidan wasn’t the only caretaker in the family. He looked down at the sandwich. “Aren’t you going to cut off the crusts for me, Mom?”
“Bite me, bitch.”
“I should,” Aidan said. “Explain the Lily thing.”
“I did.”
“How about in a way that actually makes sense,” Aidan said.
“The salon needed an experienced stylist and cosmetologist,” Gray told him. “I told you Jonathan was looking for someone.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me he was going to hire Lily.”
“Because you didn’t call me back.”
Aidan shook his head. “When?”
“A couple of weeks ago,” his brother said, with a vague wave of his hand as he dove back into Aidan’s fridge. “You were on a call fighting that Eagle Peak fire or something.”
“You mean when I was gone for nine straight days working twenty-four seven fighting that seventy-five-thousand-acre fire, trying to save a hundred homes and uncountable livestock?”
“Maybe.” Gray pulled out some leftover Chinese. He sniffed it, shuddered and grimaced, then shoved it back into the fridge. Next he found a plate of brownies and his eyes lit. “Score.”
“What about our rule?” Aidan asked. “The no working with exes rule.” He yanked the plate from Gray’s hand. “And those are mine. A woman brought them by the firehouse. For me.”
“The statute of limitations regarding working with exes is long over as it applies to Lily,” Gray said, and managed to steal a brownie off the plate, licking it to claim it.
“Are you serious right now?” Aidan asked. “How old are you?”
Gray grinned. “And plus, Lily’s not a real ex. She’s more a fantasy ex.”
That it was mostly true just pissed Aidan off. Yeah, okay, so he’d fallen hard and fast for Lily. Unfortunately the recovery from her leaving without so much as a Dear Aidan letter hadn’t been nearly so fast.
“Did you ever find out what she thought she was doing up near Dead Man’s Cliff?” Gray asked around a mouthful of brownie.
“We both know what she was doing. She wanted to see the last place Ashley had been.”
“Well she didn’t. She didn’t get more than halfway up there.”
“She will,” Aidan said with certainty. Lily was tough to the very bone, and she didn’t give up. At least the old Lily wouldn’t have given up. “What I don’t get is why Cedar Ridge now, after all this time?”
“Now, see, if you followed Buzzfeed you’d know why,” Gray said smugly, licking residual chocolate from his fingers.
“What’s Buzzfeed?”
Gray shook his head. “One of these days you need to do something on your iPad other than watch porn. Lily was working at some fancy spa in San Diego where the rich and famous go, not just for hair but stuff like Botox and chemical peels too.”
“What the hell is a chemical peel?”
Gray shrugged. “Beats me, but they do it, all far away from the Hollywood eye. Lily had worked her way up from cosmetologist to assistant manager. Then it got out that some celebrity client used hair extensions or some such shit like that, which was a problem because she’s in all these shampoo commercials. Word is that Lily leaked it.”
“She lost her job over hair extensions?”
“That celebrity’s kinda known for her soft tresses. The news that her hair isn’t real has the potential to backfire for both her and the salon, which lost a lot of credibility.”
Aidan went brows up. “Tresses?”
“Shut up,” Gray said. “I’m married. I know shit like the word tresses. And yeah, Lily got canned. Not only that, she was blacklisted over it. Seems that Hollywood’s got a long reach. Anyway, she needs this job. She’s got a bunch of resumes and feelers out, but so far no one’s willing to touch her. And Jonathan said it’s only a temp thing, until Cassandra has her baby and finishes her maternity leave.”
“That’s such bullshit, Lily’d never do something like that.”