Spark Of Desire (26 page)

Kevin hovered over her mouth as she arched toward him.

“Hello, baby girl, it’s Dad.”

“It’s your father,” Kevin growled.

“He won’t leave a long message.” She squeezed her eyes closed.

Kevin shifted away from her. With her father’s voice in the room he couldn’t continue to touch her. It was almost as bad as having the man standing there.

“You mother told me what you’re doing and I wanted to tell you we’re both very proud of you. She’ll stop leaving her encouraging messages.”

Jessica sighed. “That’s good.”

Kevin sat up. Seven years younger and somebody’s baby girl. Jessica reached for him. She frowned, confused that he was moving away. Didn’t it bother her that she’d just been necking on the couch and her father was on the phone? He didn’t want to think about what that might imply.

“She also told me about your new boyfriend.”

They hadn’t been involved until about five minutes ago. Where did her father get the idea they were dating? He stood up, needing to get some distance between them so he could think. Why did she tell her father they were dating?

“You do whatever you need to be happy. Call us if you need anything. Love you, pumpkin. Bye.”

You do whatever you need?
What did that mean?
Happy hunting
? What had
that
meant? And why all the talk about Kate’s ring? All the talk about families and kids?
My mother has just always had my father around to take care of everything
. The pieces were starting to fit together. He paced to the opposite side of the apartment.

“What’s the matter?”

He turned around. She had sat up. Her hair hung in disarray, and she was blinking against the light in the room. His first impulse was to take her into his arms and take care of her, but that had been the plan, hadn’t it? For her to find someone to take care of her. “What’s going on?”

“It sounded to me like my father is going to stop letting my mother leave evil messages on my answering machine. What did it sound like to you?” She brushed her hair back.

“Don’t misunderstand the question.”

She stood up. “I’m not. The question didn’t make sense in the context.”

“What’s going on here?”

“Where?”

“Between us.”

“Starting when you offered to train me two months ago or when you asked to kiss me five minutes ago?”

Kevin’s mind creaked into gear. The training. The party. The day he saw her talking to Bartlett. “Was that part of it too?”

“Was what part of what too?”

“The training. Did you plan to use me to get into the department and then decide it wasn’t enough? You wanted to trick me into marrying you, too?” The guys were never going to let him hear the end of this. They would all get a huge kick out of how he’d been fooled.

“Marry you? I don’t remember that being part of the bargain. Why would I want to marry a man who wants to turn loony on me all the time?” Jessica clenched her fists.

“You’re not going to get the chance.”

“The chance to what?” she shouted.

“I’m not going to be lured into that trap. Happy hunting, your friend said. Husband hunting, that’s what she meant.”

“You aren’t seriously taking Mindi’s word as gospel, are you?” Jessica looked aghast.

“You told your father I was your boyfriend.”

She faltered. “I told my mother that,” she said. “But I was trying to avoid another conversation at the time and—”

“So you admit you lied once.”

“Yes, I lied once. I’ve lied more than once to my mother. You’ve never lied? You’ve never let anyone assume something for the sake of peace and quiet?” Her lower jaw jutted out. “Listen, old boy, I don’t need this. I’ve got a lot going on right now, and more stress I don’t have time for.”

“Fine. I was just leaving.” He started for the door.

“Wait. This is crazy.” She tried to step between him and the door, but he’d already brushed past her. “Let’s talk about it. We have to calm down.”

Kevin jerked the door open. “What’s the problem? Your little plan falling apart?”

“I don’t have a plan,” she wailed.

He slammed the door behind him.

* * * *

Jessica blinked at the closed door. She could still hear Kevin’s footsteps pounding down the stairs. If she wanted to, she could catch him.

But he thought she was trying to manipulate him. That she was trying to trap him.

He thought the same thing Mindi had thought.

Scratch that, he thought several degrees worse. Mindi assumed she was working out with him to spent time with him. Kevin thought she was using him to get into the department and trying to trick him into marrying her, too.

Then she’d done that thing to him she always did to her mother. Called him
old boy
just to set him off. She hadn’t even known she was doing it until he stormed out.

Outside, his car roar to life. He had stomped on the gas, revving the engine. He must really want to get out of here.

Fine. Go. Jessica swallowed hard. She didn’t need any more help. She was going to pass the exam without him and then he’d have to deal with her professionally. Professional didn’t require nice.

Chapter 13

Kevin walked into the station and took off his sunglasses. He hated wearing sunglasses, but being up most of the night for the past two days had made him sensitive to light. Fortunately, at no time during the last two days had he given in to the temptation to bang his head against a wall or he’d have a raging headache as well.

He would have married her, manipulated or not.

At the moment he wasn’t sure he’d been manipulated at all, but since he’d shouted at her, the likelihood she would accept him back was slim to none.

Lew was the only one in the locker room when he went to put away his stuff. He grunted hello and hoped Lew would be too engrossed in whatever he was doing to ask questions.

“Rough night?” Lew asked.

No dice. “You could say that.”

Lew studied him while he hung up his spare uniform and started changing into the other one. “Did you have a fight with Jessica?”

Kevin frowned at him. “No,” he lied. He winced as he remembered accusing Jessica of lying to him. One guess what she would say to that.

“Really? The last time you were acting like this you were having problems with Jessica.” Lew sat down. “So what is the problem?”

As slow as Lew could be, he had the patience of a saint even when everyone around him was losing their cool. Especially when everyone around him was losing their cool. “I guess it is Jessica. It’s nothing.”

“You look like you haven’t slept,” Lew pointed out.

Jack walked in, already in uniform. “Ouch, what happened to you?” he asked Kevin.

“Nothing.” Kevin buttoned up his shirt. Normally, twenty-four hours with these guys wasn’t so bad. Today, he didn’t know if he could make it to the other end without killing himself or one of them.

“Oh good, are we picking on Kevin today?” Dan asked. He had his uniform on too. “What did he do?”

“Nothing,” Kevin, Jack and Lew answered in unison.

“Oh, it’s one of those.” Dan hung up his spare uniform. “He looks like he’s been run over by a truck, so it’s not a minor problem. We’d have heard if a tree fell on his house, so it’s not the house. His car is parked out back, so it’s not the car. That leaves a hard night partying or a woman. It's Kevin and yesterday was a Sunday.”

Kevin threw his clothes in the bottom of his locker, slammed the door, and walked out of the room.

“It’s a woman,” Dan announced.

“It’s Jessica,” Lew added.

“Jessica?” Jack followed Kevin out with Dan and Lew right behind him. They tracked Kevin to the dayroom where they found him attempting to make coffee. Or throw coffee grounds all over the counter, one or the other. “What happened with Jessica?” Jack asked.

The previous shift, which had been discussing plans for their days off until Kevin walked in, turned as a group to watch.

“Nothing.” Kevin swung around with the carafe in his hand to fill it, and Lew scooped it away before he smashed it against the faucet.

“Nothing?” Dan asked. “I don’t know. It looks like something. Something about this tall woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and a burning desire to be a paramedic. Get it? Burning desire.”

“Will you leave me alone? You guys are all like a bunch of vultures with a fresh kill.” Kevin walked through them and out of the dayroom.

They trailed him out to the exercise yard behind the station. “Come on, man,” Lew said. “Let us help you. You and Jessica looked happy at the wedding.”

“If I tell you, will you leave me alone?” Kevin asked.

The three men looked at each other and shrugged. “Maybe,” Dan said. “Spill.”

Kevin sighed. “I found out a few things about her I don’t like.”

“Such as?” Dan asked.

“She was trying to manipulate me into marrying her.”

Dan burst out laughing, Jack struggled not to, and Lew scratched his head. “Why do you think that?” Jack asked after a labored pause.

“Something her father said when he called. He said she should do whatever she needed to be happy.”

“He wasn’t perchance talking about the department, was he?” Jack folded his hands together. Dan leaned against the fence wiping tears from his eyes, still giggling.

“Quit laughing. I’m not exactly dog meat,” Kevin shouted.

“Okay, okay. I can’t imagine someone like her being that manipulative or someone that manipulative going after a firefighter. You aren’t bringing down six figures.” Dan snorted. “Jack’s right. Her father was probably talking about the fire department. Even if he was talking about you, he might just be being overprotective. Daddies are like that about their little girls. Even when their little girls are five foot ten and thirty years old. Trust me, I’ve had personal experience here.”

“When we left her store a friend of hers said ‘happy hunting’. You know, husband hunting.”

Lew frowned. “If she’s got you, why would she be hunting?”

Unfortunately, he’d already had that thought and decided it made sense. “Okay, what about that whole conversation about my grandmother’s ring then?”

“
You
started it.” Jack folded his arms. “Where did all these conspiracy theories come from, anyway? You know, you haven’t been the same since you bought
The X-Files
DVDs.”

“There’re other things. Things that never made sense to me before.” Kevin looked at his feet. One of the things that didn’t make sense was why he was standing here trying to convince them of something he didn’t believe himself. He had started the conversation about his grandmother’s wedding ring, and he’d aided and abetted the conversation about kids. “Okay, maybe I’m an idiot. It doesn’t matter. It’s too late.”

“What did you do?” Jack asked.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Dan smiled. “Do we have to go through this again?”

“We had a fight, and I said some pretty bad stuff.”

“What did you say?” Jack asked.

“I called her a liar, and I said she was manipulative.” Kevin looked around at each of them. They didn’t look very sympathetic so far. In their shoes, he doubted he would be sympathetic either. He never had been in the past. “She said I was old.”

“Damn, I wish my girlfriends would stop at old when they’re cursing me out.” Dan smirked. “They usually get a little more, um…colorful.”

“Or they hurl things,” Jack added.

“True, sometimes objects are thrown,” Dan agreed.

“She also said I was a loony,” Kevin muttered. That still didn’t sting as much as old had, but he felt the need to slander Jessica a little more to keep himself from looking like as much of a fool as he felt.

“If you had started in on me with that stuff you just said, I’d have called you loony too,” Lew announced.