You and Me Baby Read online

  Aiden doubted this, even as Frank handed him a bottle. “And just why would I get a ticket?”

  “Drunk driving,” Frank said, matter-of-factly.

  Aiden frowned. “I don’t do that.” Well, he did. Sometimes. Not often, though.

  “Would have last night,” Frank noted. “If Laurie hadn’t saved your butt.”

  News got around in a small town. Aiden had forgotten all about that.

  “I thought you didn’t talk to Laurie about me?” he asked, hopeful at least that she’d said something, anything about him.

  “She didn’t say a word about you,” Frank answered. “It was that oldest Collins girl. Told me Laurie brought you over to Travis’s house last night because you were too drunk to drive. Travis must have told her.”

  Ahh. Well, that explained it. Unfortunately.

  “Yeah, I wasn’t drunk,” he said. “So, no big deal, Frank.”

  “Oh, it is a big deal,” Frank said. “We could lose our license to serve, you know. Which is why Laurie helped you.”

  It wasn’t because she liked him, of course, as if she hadn’t made that abundantly clear all the other times he’d seen her since he’d been back home.

  “Cops don’t crack down on much of anything in this town,” Aiden said, brushing this disappointment off. “Except for the speed traps.”

  “Yep,” Frank smiled, finally agreeing with something Aiden had said. “And one of their favorite places to catch folks is about a block away from here.”

  “I seem to remember that,” Aiden said, recalling a time or two when he’d gotten a ticket for speeding as a teenager after eating at…

  What was this place called before it became the Dive?

  He was about to ask Frank, but the older man spoke up before he could.

  “And, kid, just to warn you, the cops wait a block away from here for someone to pull over, every night after closing,” he said, wiping down the bar. “And rightly so, because you don’t need to be driving drunk. You’d have been pulled over and put in jail for sure last night if Laurie hadn’t done what she did.”

  This sobered Aiden considerably, no pun intended.

  She was probably just covering their behinds here at the Dive, making sure that they didn’t get into legal trouble with people drinking and all, but part of Aiden hoped that maybe there was more to it, that she’d honestly not wanted him to get in trouble.

  He thought about her car out there and looked around, wondering if she was on a break maybe, thinking that she’d probably come here after work to help her dad with the dinner crowd, which was just now picking up.

  “Where is Laurie?” he asked.

  “At the clinic,” Frank said. “Pulls a late night every now and then.”

  “But her car’s outside,” Aiden said, nodding that direction as he finished his drink.

  “She had some trouble with it at lunch,” her dad said. “Came over to help with the lunch rush, then couldn’t get it to start again. She walked back.”

  Aiden had no trouble imagining that. Hadn’t he told her the night before that her car needed some work?

  Wait… had he told her that? He couldn’t remember. Maybe he had been drunk.

  Either way, though, she needed to get that car checked out.

  “She have a mechanic to take it to?” he asked.

  “Nope,” Frank said. “Said she couldn’t afford it right now. Big balloon payment on the clinic coming up soon.” He shrugged. “Can’t help her out myself. Money, fixing it…”

  There it was in Frank’s eyes, just as it had been in his features. Exhaustion, aging…

  Laurie needed help.

  Aiden took another drink and put down the bottle. “Hey, Frank, did she leave her keys in it?”

  “I imagine,” Frank said. “No one’s going to steal it in that shape, after all.”

  No one would steal it no matter what shape it was in. This was the kind of town where you left your keys in your car without worrying about it. Freaking Mayberry and all.

  “Think she’d mind if I take a look at it?” Aiden asked, standing up from the stool, thinking through the toolbox still in his truck, what he might be able to do to get it running, at least.

  “You know what you’re doing?” Frank asked.

  “I know a few things,” Aiden said, remembering how he’d kept his old truck running through high school, how he’d learned a lot along the way.

  “Sure, then,” Frank said, appreciation in his eyes. “Hey, beer’s on the house then, if you can get that thing running.”

  Beer as motivation?

  “Throw a second one in for free, and you’ve got yourself a deal,” Aiden said.

  And Frank nodded. “Done.”

  An hour later, Aiden felt like quite the man.

  He’d done the impossible with this car. Maybe that made him greater than a man, though. Maybe it made him immortal or –

  “Get away from that!”

  Or not, since an immortal probably wouldn’t be on the receiving end of that kind of yelling.

  He lifted his head up from where he’d been admiring his hard work, only to find Laurie walking his way.

  More like storming his way.

  “What did you do to my car?” she hissed, shooting him a scathing look.

  “I fixed it,” he said, slamming the hood down. “You’re welcome, by the way.” And with that, he dropped the keys into her hand and made a move to leave.

  “What do you mean, you fixed it?” she asked. “How did you even know it was broken?”

  “Your dad told me,” he said. “I saw your car out here and stopped by. I wanted to thank you for doing that physical. I started work today, thanks to you.”

  “Oh,” she said, seemingly uncomfortable with this praise. “Well, no need to thank me for doing what you paid me to do.”

  “Yeah, there was,” he said. “And I wanted to thank you for not letting me drive last night while… well, you know.”

  “While you were drunk,” she said, looking at her car. “But that doesn’t explain what you did to my car.”

  “I couldn’t find you when I went in to say thank you,” he explained. “But like I said, I’d seen your car. Asked your dad if you were in the back, but he told me you weren’t. Explained to me that your car had broken down this morning when you came to help out with the breakfast rush and that you’d walked to your clinic.” He lowered his voice. “Such as it is.”

  That earned him another dirty look. “Watch it.”

  “Watching it,” he said. “Anyway, I told your dad I could take a look at the car. So, I did. And good grief, Laurie, have you ever had this thing serviced?”

  She looked away for a minute. “No,” she said, a hard edge in her voice even still.

  “Cars are like the human body,” he said. “Every now and then, they need a physical. Surely you can appreciate that analogy since you’re a doctor.”

  “Well, aren’t you the expert now,” she said sarcastically, looking back to her car with concern. “What did you do to it?”

  “I could tell you, but I’m guessing that you wouldn’t understand a word of it.”

  Guessing nothing. He knew she wouldn’t.

  “Maybe I would,” she said, just a little less sourly than earlier.

  “I took a look then went and got some stuff,” he said. “Brought it back and fixed a few things. Go on and get in and tell me what you hear.”

  She nodded tightly, then followed his directions. When the engine turned over, she looked surprised, and after a glance at the dashboard, her eyes grew even larger.

  “The check engine light,” she said. “It’s not on.”

  “Yeah,” Aiden said, crouching down so he could look at her through the open window. “That’s a good thing. You don’t want that light to be on. Just FYI and –”

  “Shhh,” she instructed him, whispering. “Do you hear that?”

  Oh, glory. Was there something else wrong with this heap of junk now?

  Aiden cocked his head to the side and listened.

  “I don’t hear anything,” he said after a long moment.

  “Exactly,” she said softly. “You fixed that, too.”

  He couldn’t help but smile.

  She looked at him with awe. “Do you do this kind of thing?”

  “I guess I do,” he said, wondering if it made him any more appealing in her eyes. Or, at the very least, just a little less repulsive.

  “So, you’re handy, right? You can fix things?”

  “Yeah,” he said, wondering what she was getting at.

  “I left the clinic unlocked,” she said, a grimace on her face.

  Well, what did that have to do with anything?

  “Small town, so maybe no one will break in,” he said, shrugging. “I mean, your car is still here and all, and you left the keys in it. But that’s probably because it wasn’t running, and –”

  “No, let me explain better,” she said, flustered. “I left it unlocked – the clinic, that is – because the lock is broken. I stuck my key in that old, rusty lock, and it broke right off.”

  Aiden couldn’t keep himself from smiling at this, imagining it and the cry of frustration Laurie had probably given as it had happened.

  “What?” she asked irritably.

  “Oh, that kind of thing happens. Locks breaking and all,” he said, waving this away, trying to get a serious face back on. “You’ve got a spare key, right?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t use it to lock the door because the key that broke off is still in there!”

  “You need someone to fix it?” he asked, hoping that she would and hoping that he could be the one to do it.

  “You think you can fix it?” she asked. “I can… I can comp you a dinner down here once you’
re done.”

  Free beer, free dinner. He was loving the Roberts family.

  “Sold,” he said. “You want me to follow you there in my truck?”

  “No,” she said, genuine appreciation in the tentative smile she gave to him. “Just throw your tools in the back of the car, and I’ll drive you out there.”

  So, he did, shutting her back door once his grandfather’s tools were in place, then sliding into the passenger seat with a smile as she began to drive. Maybe things were going to work out just fine after all. He reached forward to turn on her radio, and while she didn’t slap his hand like the last time he tried to touch something on the dash, she spoke just a little cuttingly all the same.

  “What are you doing?”

  “It’s all good,” he assured her. “Just listen to this.”

  And with a simple turn of the dial and his crossed fingers, music filled her car.

  “Ahh,” she said simply.

  “Nice, huh?” he asked.

  “Yeah, that hasn’t worked in… well, ever,” she said. “Not like I need it, though, because here we are.”

  Aiden looked up, surprised to see that they were already at the clinic. Getting out and getting his tools, he looked over at her questioningly. “You live close to here, too? If so, do you even need a car?”

  “Fairly close,” she said, even more flustered as she went to the front door. “But I like having the car so I can drive back and forth on the cold days. I feel like this, right now, is super cold. Lame, right?”

  It was probably sixty degrees outside.

  “Not lame,” he said, following her, thinking that, yeah, it was a little lame.

  “I need to check and make sure no one slipped in while I was out,” she said, making her way inside.

  “I’ll check with you,” he said, attempting to follow her.

  “No, really, it’s –”

  “If there’s an armed intruder in here, let them shoot me first, okay?” he said, getting in front of her despite her protests.

  “Armed intruder,” she argued. “That never happens here.”

  “Then, I won’t get shot,” he said. “Come on. Let me check it out for you.”

  After just a moment of hesitation, she relented.

  “Okay,” she murmured as he began to walk through, checking the exam rooms, the lobby, the storage closets, and Laurie’s office. Just as he came to one last door and put his hand to the knob, ready to check it over as well, Laurie jumped in front of him.

  “Oh, not this one, it’s good,” she said.

  Aiden could just imagine someone having snuck back to this room, waiting for her. Sure, the town was safe, but the longer he stood here with her, the more protective he became.

  “Just a quick glance around,” he told her. “Humor me.”

  “There’s no need,” she said again, her hands to his arm.

  He ignored the pleasant way that felt because what was more important at the moment was convincing her to be safe.

  Keep your mind on the task, Aiden, and out of the gutter.

  “What’s back there?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said, still flustered. “It’s closed up most of the time. We don’t use it for the practice.”

  “Then, if I was up to no good and had come in here to case the joint –”

  “Case the joint?!”

  “Yeah,” he said. “If someone came through looking to do something illegal, don’t you think they would’ve taken note of a door that no one opened, where no one checks anything, where they might slip in and hide?”

  Laurie watched him for a long moment.

  “Fine then,” she breathed. “You’ve scared me. Are you happy?”

  “I don’t want to scare you,” he said. “But you need to be safe.”

  “Fine, check it,” she groaned, moving away from the door.

  What was she keeping back here anyway?

  He opened the door tentatively, switching the light on slowly.

  What he saw made his breath catch.

  A bed. A rolling clothes rack, filled with clothes. A desk with a stack of books, next to a few boxes, lined up all along the walls. A sink and a tub in an alcove just off the room –

  “Laurie, are you living here?” he asked, turning to face her.

  There on her face was embarrassment, clearly. Maybe even a little shame. Aiden was suddenly sorry that he’d asked at all.

  “Temporarily,” she muttered. “You done checking, then?”

  “Yeah, just a sec,” he said, more gently this time, moving inside even as she gave a little groan of protest, lowering himself down to his knees by the bedside, and checking underneath. “All clear. Well, clear enough. Couple of pairs of socks and… well, there’s a bra –”

  “Okay, you’re done,” she said, shutting off the lights, forcing him back to standing and out to her side as she closed up the room.

  Neither one of them said anything about what she’d just revealed. Why would she be living in her clinic? Were things so bad that this was her only option?

  “It’s a nice room,” Aiden offered, wanting to abate the embarrassment he’d clearly made her feel.

  Laurie took a breath. “It’s, uh, actually a room I’d planned on using for patients who needed a shower, needed to get cleaned up,” she said softly. “You know, drifters through town and all. I had plans to do some charitable work, giving them check ups and letting them get cleaned up.”

  “But now, you’re living here,” Aiden said.

  “Yeah, temporarily,” she said weakly.

  “How long have you been living here?”

  “Two years, give or take a few days.” She wouldn’t even look at him.

  He stared at her incredulously. “Why?”

  “Because I’m paying a fortune for this building,” she breathed. “It was supposed to be easier than this. I mean, I didn’t enter into all this debt without a plan, but the plan…”

  It what? What had happened?

  She looked so embarrassed that Aiden didn’t have the heart to ask anymore.

  “Well, plans change,” he said simply, thinking about his own job, taken because other people had made dumb choices. “And sometimes, you’re not even to blame.”

  She just continued looking at her shoes.

  He turned to go back to the front door.

  “Where are you going?” she asked weakly.

  “Now I’ve got an even better reason to fix that lock,” he murmured, thinking that he’d add a second one and a deadbolt to go with it, making sure that Laurie was safe at night here all by herself.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  He woke up feeling optimistic.

  Sure, the rent house was falling apart all around him, but he’d done such a good job with that lock last night (not to mention Laurie’s car) that he felt just a little more capable. (Just a little.)

  He went to the fridge after he showered and heated up some leftovers from his parents’ house in the microwave the last tenants had left. Probably needed to clean that up before cooking in it too much (and wipe down the fridge as well), but it could wait. He pulled open his laptop and started looking at job opportunities as he ate, shooting off a few copies of his resume and knowing it would have to be good enough for now because it was almost nine o’clock.

  He had to be punctual in getting to work, after all, no matter what kind of late night he’d kept.

  He grinned as he got started on his first project, thinking of the night before. He’d fixed that lock on Laurie’s door, then added a deadbolt while she was doing some filing work, telling her once she saw it and protested that she was lucky he wasn’t adding bars to the windows.

  She’d lived up to her promise of dinner afterwards, but he’d been disappointed when she’d not sat with him and eaten. No, she’d gone back to the bar and starting filling orders as the restaurant had filled up, and Aiden had enjoyed a few drinks while watching her interact with what felt like everyone in town.

  It was no wonder that when he’d come back from paying the bill for all those drinks, she was standing there at his table holding out her hand.

  “Well, give it to me,” she said.

  “I’ll give you whatever you want, Laurie Roberts,” he’d said, feeling really good about everything.

  “The keys to your truck, then,” she said.