Flirting With Fire (Hometown Heroes) (13 page)

“An apple?” I
shook my head. “That poor tooth fairy. She’ll go broke, if you keep this up!”

My surrogate
nephew laughed and raced off down the hall just as Sarah reached the foyer.

“I thought I
heard someone at the door,” she said and smiled at me sheepishly.

“Hey there,
stranger.” I stepped forward and gave her a hug as well.

She returned my
hug, resting her head on my shoulder. “I’m really sorry about how I acted this
week.”

“Don’t worry
about it,” I said, stepping back. “I knew you’d freak out when you saw me, Mrs.
Preggo. If it makes you feel any better, you do a much better scalp massage
than Tony.”

“Really?”

“No.” A devilish
grin tugged at my lips. This being honest stuff was kind of fun. Her eyes
narrowed but the smile on her face remained, so I knew she hadn’t taken my diss
to heart. “But you would know better than me, I got you an appointment for next
Tuesday evening so you can decide for yourself.”

Sarah’s hands
flew to her hair. “But I can’t go into Fort Wayne! I’ll get lost or something.
And who will watch the kids?”

I swatted at
her, then looped one arm through the crook in her nearest elbow and led her out
onto the porch. “I’ve signed up to be your personal chauffer, and Ron has
already agreed to stay home and watch the kids.”

We took our
usual seats on their whitewashed porch swing, and I turned to face her. Tears welled
up in my best friend’s eyes.

“I…I don’t know
what to say. After I treated you like crap this week, you still went and did
something sweet for me.”

“You’re going
through a lot right now,” I said, my voice soft. “And you work your fanny off
all day, every day with those kids. You deserve a break sometimes, too.”

“Wow, Liz. I
just don’t know what to say.”

A rare occasion.
“You can thank me later. I’m just sorry I haven’t been around as much as usual
to help out.”

“Well, you’ve
been through an awful lot lately, too.” She sniffled and blinked rapidly,
trying to reabsorb her tears before they had a chance to spill down over her
flushed cheeks. Her gaze focused on me, then, and narrowed. “Wait a minute…you
went out with him, didn’t you? On a date!”

“Who? What? No!
Why would you think that?”

“Elizabeth Ann
Williams! Don’t you even sit there and deny it! You broke your
rule
?”

“There was no
date!”
A moonlighting job and an unprompted kiss, but definitely no date.

Ron hollered for
her then, my savior once again.

“You’d better
get going if you don’t want him to leave without you. Where are you two going,
anyway?”

“Back Forty
Junction in Decatur,” she said with a smile, rubbing her belly. Mine grumbled
with jealousy—there wasn’t a better, more filling meal to be had for three
counties than at the Back Forty. She stood to go, but paused to study me one
last time. “You sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me?”

“Nope. I swear nothing
happened between me and Mr. Fireman.” I looked out over her beautiful lawn,
decorated with her kids’ outdoor play toys, and felt an all-too-familiar ache
settle back into my soul. “And that’s the way it’s gonna stay.”

* * * *

Tony found me mid-morning
Monday, alone and folding clean sheets. Well,
trying
to fold them. My
mind was elsewhere, churning over a conversation I’d had with my boss first
thing, which made wrestling the linens a bit tougher than usual.

“So?” he asked,
grabbing a bottled water from the refrigerator. “How did it go?”

“Go?”

“With Sarah.”

“Oh. Better than
I thought it would. She apologized for being so awful to me, then got all
teary-eyed when I told her I was bringing her to see you.”

He nodded. “I
told you she’d come around. True friends always do.”

“Yeah, I guess
so. It’s just….” I sighed.

Tony rolled his
eyes. “Oh, stop being so melodramatic and spit it out already.”

I threw a clean
towel at him. “You’re such a shit sometimes, you know that?”

“Ummm! Liz said
a naughty word! I’m
telling
!”

“Stop,” I
laughed. “I only said it because I hear it around here so much. You’re all such
a bad influence on me.”

“Am not,” he
said, then took a drink. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you,
or not?”

“Xavier cornered
me this morning.”

Tony’s brows
rose in unison.

I stepped closer
and lowered my voice, in case the walls had grown ears. “He asked if I was sick
of driving so far to and from work every day. Of course I said yes, because the
drive
does
get old. What I didn’t know, was that he’d totally set me up.”

“Ah, they’re
still trying to find someone to take Dawn’s lease off their hands, aren’t
they?”

Dawn had a
great, one-bedroom apartment at the brand new Jefferson Apartments that
overlooked the city’s pristine ball diamond’s left field. She’d moved in with
Xavier, now that they were engaged and all. Unfortunately, she was still locked
into her lease for six more months.

“You knew about
that?” I asked.

“Honey, there
isn’t anything that goes on around here that I
don’t
know about. At
least, not for long.”

I rolled my eyes
and slumped down in the nearest seat. “So what happened, then? She signed a
year lease at the new Jefferson Apartments and
then
found out she was
pregnant?”

“Yes, that
pretty much sums it up.” He took the seat across from me and leaned in close.
“Well, that, and she wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was Xavier’s. But Suspect
Number Two admitted later that he was infertile and had a list of witnesses a
mile long, so that narrowed things down.”

“Yikes. I sure
as heck hope if and when my time comes that there’s no doubt as to who my
baby’s daddy is.”

“Your time will
come, Lizzie. And getting your own place in Fort Wayne has
got
to boost
your chances. What are there, four eligible bachelors in Autumn Lake?”

I grinned.
“Something like that.”

“I bet only one
still has a full set of teeth,” he added, his nose scrunched up in disgust.

At that I laughed.
“I know at least one bachelor my age who would be mildly offended by that
comment.”

“Oh?” Tony’s
eyes lit up. “And what about this bachelor? Does he have a name?”

“Who, Mitch?”

“Mitch… Hmm, the
name has potential.”

“Oh, no, not
this guy. We’ve been friends forever. Heck, he’s practically my brother.”

“Ew.” Tony’s
face scrunched up like he’d just bit into a lemon. “Well we can’t have you
making out with a relative, assumed or not. It’s not like we’re in Kentucky.”

I stared at him,
wide-eyed. “I have good friends in Kentucky, Tony.”

“Y-you do? Well,
I didn’t mean, I mean, it’s just an—”

“Gotcha,” I said
with a grin and a wink.

He threw me a
mock scowl. “Indeed you did. So, what’s it going to take to get you to move
into town and get away from toothless bachelors numbers two, three, and four?”

“I don’t know. How
about a guarantee that Mr. Right will appear on my doorstep if I do?”

“Oh, we can
definitely make that happen.”

I threw him a
warning look. “Tony…”

“When are you
going to learn to trust me, Elizabeth?” He stood then, and recapped his water.
“I need to get back up front—Mrs. Shimkis is due in for her color. Look, you do
the moving, and leave the rest to me.”

He walked out
before I had time to mount a proper rebuttal. I gathered up the folded, clean
linens and headed back toward my massage room. It
would
be sweet to have
a place right next to the ball diamond. But the monthly cost was twice what I
was paying now. Then again, living two blocks from work would save me hundreds
of dollars in gas money over the next few months, so that argument didn’t
really have a leg to stand on.

And yet,
something seemed to be holding me back. But what? What had happened between
Sally’s closing and now to have me back-pedaling on the idea of finally moving
away from Autumn Lake?

I shifted my
gaze to the door that led to the fire escape and frowned. Torrunn MacKay had
happened, that’s what. Not that I should let the possibility of our paths
crossing from time to time scare me away from moving into the city. It wasn’t
like the guy came with Dawn’s apartment or anything. I’d just have to do my
best to find out where he went most often…and avoid those places like the
plague. No big deal.

* * * *

“They’ve been
talking about you all weekend, Liz,” said Joe as he greeted me that evening in
the fire station’s parking lot. “Wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t in there
now, fighting over who gets to go first.”

“Wow, you all
must be in an awful lot of pain.”

Joe grinned.
“Some of us are in pain, others just cause it for the rest of us.”

“There’s always
one,” I laughed, and followed him toward the back door.

Time at Fire
House One flew by that evening. With Torrunn off duty and who knows where, I
found it easier to relax and be myself. Everyone seemed genuinely happy to see
me—a sign that I’d done good by them during my last visit. And truly, any time
I could ease a client’s pain, it made my day. This was what massage therapy was
all about.

I got home
around nine, changed into my pj’s and headed for bed. After being on my feet
most of the day, I was utterly exhausted. At least tonight I’d thought ahead
and grabbed dinner between the spa and the fire station. Lord knows I needed
sustenance to keep me upright.

Tired or not, though,
sleep managed to escape me for a long while. I tossed and turned, hoping a
little shift here or a fluff of my pillow there would be the key to nodding
off. What felt like eons later, I finally started drifting off…only to get
slammed wide awake by the memory of that damn kiss.

I flopped onto
my back and dug two fists into my sheets. Why did Torrunn have to go and do
that? He’d ruined me for life. I’d probably never experience another kiss like
that. Ever. And how was I supposed to act toward him at his appointment tomorrow?
Like nothing had happened?

That’s
exactly how you’re going to act
, came a small voice from the back of my
mind.
Don’t let him get the upper hand.

Easier said than
done, when he had the kind of bedroom eyes that made me melt every time they
fixed upon me. Then there was that sexy tattoo on his shoulder, the solid
muscles he wore so well on his back, and that alluring stubble he liked to
leave around his jaw. Stubble that I was now wondering how it would feel along
my jawline, my neck, my—

Nope, not going
there.

In one swift
movement, I slid off the bed and started for the kitchen. Time for a glass of
water to cool my over-imaginative mind. A tall glass. And if that didn’t work,
a cold shower would be my next stop. There had to be some way to get playboy
Torrunn MacKay off my mind.

CHAPTER
12

Though an icy
shower wasn’t necessary, the glares from his girlfriend the next morning helped
keep Torrunn off my mind. They were darker today, more direct, but nothing I
couldn’t handle. But when she cornered me in the break room around nine o’clock
and asked what I was doing, hanging out at Fire House One, well, that caught me
off guard.

Did she know
about the kiss? Had he run home and confessed?

“What, are you
stalking me now?” I asked with a smirk.

“No, but maybe I
should. You pulled into their lot ahead of me when I was on my way home last
night. I wanna know why.”

“It’s none of
your business where I go or why after work,” I answered, my chin held high. “But
since I have nothing to hide, I’ll tell you. I stopped by to see a friend.”

Joe qualified as
my friend now, right?

She snorted.
“Nice try,
Lizzie dear
. I saw the way you looked at Tory yesterday when
he brought me lunch.”

Anger coursed
through me. Her accusation was a load of crap. Yes, Torrunn had stopped in and yes,
I’d noticed. But I’d done my absolute best to pretend I hadn’t. In fact, I’d
made a beeline for my massage room. Hadn’t even glanced in his direction,
partly because I didn’t want the image stuck in my head all afternoon, and
partly because I was still worked up over that kiss.

“Lots of people
came in yesterday, and you’ll be happy to know I smiled at all of them. It’s
what I do. Maybe you should try it sometime.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “I’m warning you, Liz—stay away from Torrunn. He’s
mine
.”

Funny, he was
kissing me on Thursday to show a room full of his co-workers that title
belonged to me.

“Trust me, you
can have him. He’s a client to me, nothing more, and that’s the way it’s going
to stay.”

At least, it
will if I have anything to do with it.

Bunni headed off
to her next appointment, leaving me to fume alone in the break room. I looked
around, searching for something to help divert my attention. Usually when I got
really worked up over something, I went for a run. And though I had forty-five
minutes until my next appointment, running was out. So, I dug into my next best
diversion tactic.

Cleaning.

Tony walked into
the break room a short while later to grab a drink, spied me, and stopped.

“Lizzie, dear,
what are you doing?”

I looked down
from my perch atop a ladder I’d found earlier while cleaning out one of the
back closets. “Cleaning. Did you know some of these hair products actually have
expiration dates?”

He looked at me
like I’d asked if he knew the sky was blue. “Yes. Now come down from there
before you find one that startles you right off the edge of that ladder and we
have to call 911.”