If Aiden had learned anything during those weeks at the care center with his mother, it was that they were each on their own path. At some point, there was only the option of going it alone. Mom’s path was to fight and fail. And Aiden’s was to give up everything to fund her ability to do just that.
Aiden rubbed his right side, where the tattoo he’d gotten to remember her sat etched into his skin, and shut his eyes against bad memories.
“Hey.” Mike shoved his shoulder and Aiden opened his eyes. “Don’t do that.” He turned back to the grill. “Life turns out this way sometimes. It’s not your fault your momma was sick.”
Was sick.
Mike never said died, or passed on, or is in a better place. Not that Aiden expected him to be morose and pensive like Landon, or loud and angry like Evan. Losing Mom had reduced Aiden into a sobbing puddle of tears. He’d failed her, and no matter how many times he reminded himself that things happen for a reason, there was a certain percentage of the blame he wasn’t willing to unshoulder.
But the way his father handled his mother’s passing…it didn’t seem natural. Aiden had never once seen the man cry—not when Mom took her last breath, not at the funeral, not after. Mike’s solution was to move on. When someone asked how he was, he’d offer a bit of fortune cookie wisdom or share a platitude about God’s timing. And while it could very well be true, it wasn’t easy to hear.
Aiden was grateful to have Shane. Sure he was family, but he was also Aiden’s best friend, and Aiden looked up to him as much as he did his father. What Shane had gone through—his father blaming him for his mother’s death—was something Aiden knew his own father would never do. But it didn’t make it any easier to look him in the eye whenever Mike lamented the weeks he’d lost not being at his wife’s side.
“I’m going to go to the cemetery tomorrow,” Aiden said.
Mike grunted, sliding the burgers onto four waiting buns.
Aiden accepted his plate and dragged up the courage to ask, “Would you like to go with me?”
Predictably, Mike shook his head. “No, no. Nothing but bones in a cemetery.”
He bet Dad hadn’t been to the cemetery since the funeral. Even then, he’d refused to take the chair in front of the casket, instead hovering at the rear of the crowd that had gathered. Mike had been the first to head for his car after the pastor finished speaking. Aiden stayed longer than he should have, watching as they lowered her body into the cold earth.
“Thinking of a ride later. Interested?”
Taking their bikes out was one way they’d bonded since Mom was gone. Aiden didn’t feel like riding tonight, but wouldn’t refuse his father’s request. Even if Dad’s idea of bonding was sharing an hour on the road without speaking.
“Yeah. I’m in.”
Mike smiled, the scar running the length of one cheek puckering slightly. “Good boy.”
* * *
At the entrance of Axle’s, Sadie tugged the hem of her shirt and pulled her shoulders back. She could do this. She had to do this.
The contract Aiden signed two days ago may have been a smidge overzealous. She blamed three years of pining for Axle’s stores for her campaign-esque promises. She’d given them MMS’s lowest rates, slashing her commission in half in the process, and promised to personally oversee the transition at this, their largest, busiest store, from their former parts supplier to Midwest. And while she was throwing in the cart with the horses, why not toss in the driver and cobblestone road, too? That was her only explanation for offering to buy back any of MMS’s competitor’s parts that didn’t sell over the next month. Of course, she’d assumed she’d be dealing with Axle and that she could charm a few of those extras into oblivion.
Sadie yawned. She’d spent half the night reading and rereading the contract for loopholes. No such luck. That Ericka in Legal was thorough. When Sadie woke this morning, however, she’d had a different attitude. Even if she could weasel her way out of the contract, or if she could convince Aiden to sign a new one, there was no way she would. The moment he found out he had something she wanted, he’d lord it over her, watching gleefully as she disassembled displays and hustled to sell out of her competitor’s parts. She wouldn’t have guessed Aiden was that kind of person until he attempted to trade a date for his signature on the contract. The thought made her frown.
She caught her reflection frowning back at her and plastered a smile on her face better suited to a beauty pageant contestant. Sadie Howard didn’t roll over. Sadie Howard didn’t lose. And even if she did lose, she thought as she knocked on the glass door, she wasn’t about to look like a loser.