Page 60 of Her Summer Hope
Evans did and then stuffed the chair into the backseat so it wouldn’t get wet. Kyle jumped in and started the truck. He saw Aiden clutching the seat with white knuckles. The man was nervous.
“When’s the last time you went out?”
Aiden finally looked at him and he noticed how pale the younger man was. “You mean aside from the trip here and my appointment?”
Evans whistled and stuck his head through the opening between the seats. “You mean it’s been that long? Damn son, we need to take you out on the town. Get you some—”
“Wyatt,” Kyle growled.
“What? I was going to say some socialization,” he insisted.
“Sure you were.”
The closer they got to town, the more Aiden looked as if he was going to face a firing squad. Kyle couldn’t think of a thing to say, so he kept quiet while Evans chattered away in the back about his half-remembered attempt at karaoke last night.
Apparently, the folks down at Paddy’s had thought Wyatt singing about respect was a riot.
Kyle admitted to himself that it was fairly ironic.
The market was mostly abandoned on the rainy afternoon and they would have the place to themselves. Most people had probably gotten their Labor Day shopping done on Saturday.
“Let’s go!” Evans said, jumping down and reassembling the wheelchair in two seconds flat. Kyle was about to ask Aiden if he needed help when Evans just lifted him down and plopped him in the chair before he could even open his mouth.
Wyatt started jogging and pushing the chair up to the store like a maniac while Aiden protested. He hurried to follow, mostly to make sure Evans didn’t get them kicked out before they had a chance to buy the food.
Evans was going to be very fortunate if he made it through the trip without Aiden laying him out in the soda aisle.
“Man, are you on drugs? How the hell are you so chipper with a hangover,” Kyle complained.
“Years of practice, old man. Mind over matter…and biscuits,” he joked, sliding into a motorized cart.
"You aren’t driving that thing around,” Kyle ordered.
Evans grinned enthusiastically. “Watch me.”
Kyle closed his eyes as Evans challenged Aiden to a race to the meat coolers and he pulled a regular cart from the corral and followed more slowly.
Aiden seemed to be handling Evans's hijinks just fine, so he hurried to get everything on the list before someone called the police.
He might even be able to get away with claiming he didn’t know them at all.
∞∞∞
By the time the shopping was done and they were on their way back, Aiden was more relaxed and he even had a slight smile on his face as Evans groused about losing their race.
“I don’t know why they have to make those things so slow…next time, you get the cart and I get your chair,” he demanded.
“Nah, I’ll stick with the chair.”
“Just wait until you get your legs. I’m going to haul your ass up that mountain and we’ll see who’s laughing then.”
“We’ll see,” Aiden promised, though the reminder of his legs dampened his mood a bit.
It was part of the healing process, he knew that, but it was still hard.
That evening he paced the house restlessly. He was taking a rest day from exercise, but now he was starting to regret it. There wasn’t much else to take his mind off things. Nothing much could drag his thoughts away from her and whatever predicament she seemed to be in.
“You’re as bad as I am,” a voice said from a dark corner upstairs.