7. Aidan
AIDAN
“This feels illegal,” I shouted over the rumble of the truck and the wind in my ears as we bounced along a road that probably hadn’t seen repairs in years.
“Nah,” Carter said with a grin, and I didn’t believe him for a minute. It was weird to see him without Mav lurking in his shadow with that serious look on his face, but Carter didn’t seem bothered by his best friend’s absence.
“No babysitter tonight?” I called as the next bounce almost sent me bouncing out of the back of the truck. I was seriously considering whether agreeing to ride in the back was such a good idea after all.
Carter rolled his eyes. “He’s not my babysitter.”
“Butt buddy?”
“Fuck you.”
“Bromance.”
“Fuck off!”
I cackled as he tried to kick me and ended up sprawling when we hit another bump that took his balance from him. “Then I guess you should just accept babysitter.”
“He…” Carter began as he scrambled back into a comfortable position to finish the ride. “It’s not really his scene. He doesn’t do music he can’t control, being out in public, crowds or, you know…people.”
He wasn’t alone; Trevor had also stayed behind, as had Xander.
Cait had been asked, apparently, but like Trevor, she had answered Reno and Colin by giving them a look so dry and unimpressed that they figured they didn’t need a direct answer.
Not that I blamed them; both could be scary as hell when they wanted.
Xander though? No one had bothered to ask him about joining us.
He had a dim enough view of our intelligence as it was; he didn’t need to see drunken proof of it.
“Don’t get shitfaced and drive back, or start any bullshit,” he had bellowed as we’d all clambered into the truck, Jake in the driver’s seat as usual.
Reno and Mika had a full-blown wrestling brawl over who was taking the passenger seat.
Colin had smacked both of them on the side of the head, and after Mika ‘let’ Reno take the passenger seat, he’d made himself comfortable with Colin.
There really hadn’t been room between the two bigger men for someone of Carter’s size, so he’d decided the back was best. In my infinite stupidity and questionable wisdom, I thought it sounded like fun, even though as the smallest guy in a team of giants, I could have probably fit in the back seat.
“I mean it, Colin, I’m fucking trusting you with these buffoons!” Xander had finished, but the truck had already started with a roar and the radio and laughter drowned him out…almost.
Who the fuck called people buffoons nowadays?
“Mav doesn’t like people? I never would have guessed,” I said as the ride evened out and I could see the lights of the town on the horizon.
It wasn’t exactly blazing lights in the sky; the town was fairly prosperous from what I’d seen and heard, but the soft glow of lights showed its presence all the same.
“Hey,” Carter said with a frown as someone finally turned the radio down. “Don’t be like that.”
I frowned. “Dude, I wasn’t being an ass. Hell, half the fucking time I can’t stand people either. I’m not going to fault him for not ‘sucking it up’ and going out with us if that isn’t his thing.”
“Good,” Carter said.
I snorted. “What’s the story with you two, anyway?”
“Story? Why’s there gotta be a story?” he asked, sounding startled.
“I mean, we all have a story, don’t we?” I wondered, repositioning to be a little more comfortable rather than steady and safe now the worst of the drive was behind us. “Doesn’t have to be a happy story or a sad story, but they’re all stories.”
I thought I heard him snort over the sound of the wind. “You sound like a guy I knew.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not,” I admitted.
He shrugged, or at least it looked like he did; we were still bouncing around a little so that was harder to make out. “Neither, I guess. He liked to ask about people’s stories too. Pretty sure he went on to write or do, like…journalism or something.”
“Well, I’m none of those things,” I said with a snort as Jake eased off the gas and the sound of the wind also died down. I could hear loud conversations from inside the truck.
“What do ya mean?” he asked with a snort. “You’re writing all the time, and it’s kinda like journalism.”
“It’s social media posts,” I said with a laugh. “Not what I’d call writing.”
“You’re fucking stupid,” Carter said with a shake of his head.
“I’ve been called worse,” I admitted.
I was distracted by the sound of a lively debate on what made a ‘proper’ sundae.
Which, for any other group, would have made no sense because who, in all good conscience, wanted to argue about something as stupid as that?
Well, that group, that’s who. They were apparently trying to settle whether peanuts deserved to be on sundaes with lively arguments for and against. That was, after they all agreed that yes, it didn’t count when there was someone who had a nut allergy, which…
yeah, maybe Xander was right, they were all idiots.
The thought made me chuckle, and I wondered if Xander thought of them as idiots with the same affection I felt.
They were all kind of stupid, but they were good, hardworking men too.
I hadn’t had to work out in the field with them, but from what I knew, I would trust every one of them with my safety and my life.
Which, of course, was accompanied by the squirming guilt of my second, more secret role at the outpost. I had been diligent in sending my reports as instructed before I left for the airport, and I…
didn’t know how to feel about it. After all, it wasn’t like I was a professional in the field to assess whether they were good at their jobs and worth being trusted, not from someone with far more expertise than me.
And in all fairness, I thought my reports were positive, even though I knew if I was too obvious in my praise, then I would probably be punished or yanked from my position.
I had to mention some of the less than…professional aspects of working there that stuck out to me.
Such as the amount of leeway they were all given, how Jake was a borderline menace at times and interfered in other people’s work, or how Trevor could be so uninterested in proper procedure or organization with his work.
I wasn’t able to speak too much about Reno and Mika’s work, which was a blessing.
Bad enough that I had to report on everyone, which reflected on Xander’s leadership, but to report on Mika?
God, the less I thought about how he’d react if he found out, the better.
It was fitting that I could use the one thing Mika had always accused me of being too good at, which was shoving an unpleasant thought out of my head to deal with…
whenever, if ever. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing, but what was I going to do?
Stew in my own thoughts and guilt when I was supposed to be going out and having a good time with the group?
Maybe I wasn’t there under the most honest of conditions, but I still liked these men and I was doing the best I could with what I had to work with.
Trying to think too hard about it was a road to misery.
Thankfully, we were pulling into the parking lot.
It was…a bar as far as I could see, nothing notable about it.
I’d seen plenty of bars in my time, and clubs, and they all looked the same.
But that made sense; it was probably one of a handful of bars in the town, which meant the competition wasn’t all that stiff and they didn’t need to stand out.
“Let’s go,” Jake proclaimed as the lumbering beast squeezed out of the truck, Reno crawling over the seats to follow him despite the protests from Colin and Mika.
If I wasn’t mistaken, Mika had taken a kick to the side ‘accidentally’ during Reno’s exit.
I hopped down in time to see Mika ‘accidentally’ shoulder-check his brother into a parking sign on the way to the front doors.
“Children!” Colin called after them, but there was no mistaking his smile as Carter hopped out and joined us to follow the other three.
“So, when is the appropriate time to start referring to you as Mom?” I wondered.
“I kind of already do, in my head,” Carter grinned, which grew wider when Colin gave him a side-eye.
“Say it aloud and I’ll start referring to Xander as ‘daddy’ when he’s not around,” Colin said with a snort.
“Ew!” Carter complained, darting inside with a loud complaint to the rest of the group to get their support because that was ‘not right!’
“You do realize that sort of threat only works on them, right?” I asked as I stepped into the bar.
And again, it was…a bar. There were square tables at the back which were being pushed together by Jake and Reno, while Mika stood at the bar to order.
There was a line of booths along one wall, and a large bar opposite.
I supposed the space in the middle was meant for dancing, but either that wasn’t the standard clientele’s preference or they just hadn’t warmed up yet because it was vacant despite a dozen or so people in the place, excluding our group.
“My oh my,” I said as I approached the bar to stand beside Mika. “Look at the straight-edge kid, getting off the straight and narrow.”
“Shut the hell up,” he muttered, but I could see my joke made the corner of his lips threaten to curl up. “What the hell do you drink nowadays?”
“Depends, are we starting off strong or easing our way in?” I wondered.
“The rule, apparently,” Colin said as he leaned on the bar next to me, “is that everyone has to start the night off with at least a shot and a drink, beer or cocktail. After that, the DD has to behave themselves and stick to weak beer, only three a night. Everyone else drinks to their heart’s content.
Now, whether you’re required to participate in more rounds of shots is, uh… they’re not clear on that.”
“Huh?” I wondered.