Thomas arrived next. He was tall and looked like some Clark Kent wannabe, all the way down to the chunky, hipster glasses. Sure, Coin’s clothes were good, too, as nice as this guy’s, but he knew he didn’t look comfortable in them. Coin felt best when he was in a firehouse T-shirt and cargo pants, clothes that had been washed a million times and gave comfortably when he moved. The shirt he wore tonight was so crisp he could hear it whooshing as he moved his arm to shake Thomas’s hand.
“Come on in. I’m Coin. Should we call you Tom?”
“Thomas, actually,” he said smoothly. “I’ve never liked Tom.”
Neither did Coin.
In the kitchen, the women greeted him with a handshake, but in the case of both of them, Thomas followed up the handshake with a kiss on the cheek. It was smooth. Both women smiled.
Great. Now Lexie had kissed both of them on the cheek tonight. And she was only on a date with one of them.
“Get you a beer, Thomas?” Coin gestured with his own bottle.
“Actually, Lexie mentioned that we’d be eating Thai, so I brought a bottle of white, a nice vintage I picked up the last time I was driving through Napa. My friend owns the winery, and this is a special reserve. They only bottled a hundred of these, and I think the ladies might enjoy it.” Thomas gave Lexie a toothy smile. “May I open it and pour you a glass?”
“Sure,” said Lexie, her voice a little breathy.
Coin reached for the wine opener. “Let me. This opener can be a little tricky.”
“Oh, no problem.” Thomas took it from him smoothly. “I’m good at this.” And he was. A flick and a twist, and the bottle stood open.
Nosey, the cat he’d rescued from the tree years before, wandered in, yelling for food. This might be good, Coin thought, as he watched Thomas eye the cat. Nosey wasn’t particularly friendly, and he didn’t like strangers.
But then Thomas said, “Gorgeous beast. Can I give him a piece of cheese?”
“No,” said Coin.
“Of course!” Lexie handed him a small ball of mozzarella. “Coin, don’t be mean to your cat.”
“Watch out,” Coin said reluctantly. “He bites.” Hopefully, that was.
Nosey—traitor that he was—took the cheese from Thomas and then wrapped himself around the man’s ankles. So much for loyalty.
Lexie took a sip of the wine Thomas had poured for her and sighed. “This is wonderful.”
“I’m so glad,” said Thomas. “So, will you show me the garden, Lexie?”
The garden? Coin bristled again. It was his backyard, not hers. “I’ll go with you. I need to check the grill.”
“I can do that, if you like. Happy to help,” said Thomas.
Of course he would. He’d probably be happy to save Lexie from a speeding bullet, too.
“I got it,” Coin growled.
While Thomas ambled with Lexie through the back part of the yard—down where the jasmine was, Lexie’s favorite flower—Coin scrubbed the grill. Black ash flew from the grate and landed on his shirt. Brushing it off, he just made it worse, grinding the ash into the weave of the fabric.
“Great.” He took a long, deliberate pull on his beer. What kind of jerk brought white wine to dinner? And knew the wine maker?
It was his fault. He’d picked the guy.
He heard Lexie laugh at something Thomas said, and it was her real laugh. The big one, the one she let out when she was surprised and delighted by something. It never failed to make him feel like a million bucks when he got her to laugh like that. Thomas sure seemed to have brought it out in her quickly.
Fine. The grill was clean. Thomas and Lexie were hitting it off.
He’d go hit it off with Ginger, then.
By the time Thomas and Lexie came back into the kitchen, Coin was putting the food on the table and counting the minutes until the night was over. Ginger was delightful. Everything she said was sweet and kind and generous. Just to test his theory, he asked if she did any charity work in her free time.
“Oh, yes,” she said with an enthusiastic smile. “On Wednesdays and Fridays, I work at the soup kitchen in Eureka. Just in my free time, you know.”
Yep. She was fantastic. And absolutely, thumpingly boring. Coin nodded, attempting to look interested.
They sat at Coin’s dining table. For one brief second, he felt embarrassment that his napkins looked as handmade as they were. Serena had made them—yellow and polygonal—when she’d been briefly obsessed with sewing. When Thomas shook one out onto his lap, he raised one eyebrow.
The embarrassment faded and pure pride took its place. That was right, his daughter had made the funny-looking napkins. Because she was awesome.
As if Ginger could hear his thoughts, she said, “What about you, Coin? You have a daughter, right?”
“I do.” What if he faked a migraine? Lexie wouldn’t buy it—he’d never complained of one before—but would she blow his cover? She might. She seemed to be enjoying Thomas’s company quite a bit, if you could judge that by the number of times she reached out to touch his arm as she laughed.
“Tell us about her.” She sounded genuinely interested.
Coin gave Ginger a second look. A real one. It was rare enough to find a woman willing to date a man with a kid, and even rarer still that she sounded interested. And with that long dark hair, and those snapping, sparkling eyes—this woman could get just about any guy on a string.
Why, then, was it that Coin couldn’t keep his eyes off Lexie? For one night, you’d think he could fake it, but no. He couldn’t.
Lexie filled in the awkward pause that had happened while Coin had been thinking. “Her name is Serena. She’s eleven, technically, but could pass for thirty in terms of world awareness. She says she wants to be an artist or a baseball player, but I think she’s going to be a writer. Every single second she has to spare, she has her nose in a book.” Lexie smiled warmly at Coin. “She’s supremely great. And Coin is amazing with her. They’re the best pals, except that he takes care of her, too.”
Coin finally figured it out.
He was on the wrong date.
Ginger and Thomas should be gazing into each other’s eyes, preferably at a restaurant far, far away. And he needed to be on a date with this woman. Lexie. Yeah, he could admit he’d always had a crush on her. Every firefighter at the station knew that and teased him for it, though he always denied it. It was time to admit it. He was finally over his divorce and ready to face his feelings for Lexie.
He wanted to be alone with her. Really alone. Man and woman alone. In his mind’s eye, he pictured Lexie leaning close to kiss him smilingly … He needed to nuke this stupid date. There had to be a way.
He would find a way.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Something was wrong with Coin, and Lexie had no idea how to fix it. It must have had to do with what she’d said about Serena because that was when he’d gone all weird, but Lexie couldn’t figure it out. Should she not have bragged on his daughter? Shouldn’t that have been a good thing to do in front of his date?
Instead, he’d gone all quiet. Spooky quiet. Lexie had seen him silent many times, but not like this. He put off a dark energy. Ginger, appropriately, seemed more interested now. Of course. Women always loved a brooder, right? Earlier, when Coin had been chipper, Ginger had been merely sweet and polite. Now she gazed at him between sips of her wine, as if she wanted to be the one to make him talk.
Well, screw that. Lexie was his actual friend. It was her job to find out what was wrong with Coin. In the meantime, though, he had to pull himself together.
She kicked his ankle, hard.
“Hey!” said Coin.
“What?” Lexie gave him a look. Talk to Ginger now or I will kill you later.
Coin seemed to get it. He started flirting with Ginger. Lexie was amazed by the change in him. Even when Thomas asked her direct questions, she kept half her attention on what Coin was saying. She should have been happy. Instead, she just felt more irritated. She gulp
ed wine to try to cool her temper and ended up spilling it down her front.
If someone had been watching their table, they would have seen a perfect-looking foursome, though. Coin got almost gregarious, and Ginger got even prettier under his attention. And Thomas, it turned out, wasn’t the bore that he looked—he’d spent time in Guatemala and had hair-raising stories that kept them all entertained.
And she was annoyed.
She stood and started clearing plates. Ginger, who was still picking at her salad—of course she was, the waif—looked surprised when Lexie swooped it away, but she didn’t protest.
“There’s dessert,” said Lexie brightly. “You all just stay right here, and I’ll get it ready.” She wanted to be away from all of them. Maybe in the kitchen she could grab the deep breaths she so suddenly needed. Sitting next to Coin as he flirted with Ginger had done something to her, something she didn’t like.
“Please, let me help,” said Ginger. In any other circumstance, Lexie would have claimed this funny, interesting, pretty woman as a new friend. Now? She wanted to jab her with a salad fork.
“No, thanks. You just sit there and look pretty,” Lexie said. As if stick-thin Ginger could do anything else. She probably woke up pretty. Her eyes probably never got puffy with tiredness or dark with allergies.
In the kitchen, Lexie ran the water good and hot to rinse the plates. She wanted her hands to sting. She wanted to feel something other than this ridiculous, petty jealousy.
Behind her, the kitchen door swung open. Coin set two more plates on the counter.
“I got it,” said Lexie shortly. “You just go out there and flirt.” She couldn’t help adding, “You’re doing a great job at it.”
Coin turned and leaned with his back against the counter. He was inches from her, and it was making her nervous.
“Am I?” His voice was low.
Holy Helen, he looked good in that button-up shirt. It pulled against the width of his broad shoulders. The fancy clothes made him look like someone else. Someone who would have a great time on a date with someone named Ginger.
“Ow.” The water was so hot it made her eyes water.
Coin reached in front of her and turned it off. “Stop.”
“I’m almost done.”
“Me, too,” said Coin.
Lexie’s eyes widened as he put one hand behind her neck, turning her away from the sink to face him. Her back was against the sink, and he caught her there, trapped between his body and the counter.
For one desperately long moment, Lexie wondered if she’d misunderstood something. Maybe this was how Coin always told women not to do his dishes. Maybe there was something she was supposed to say so that he would burst into laughter and she would be able to breathe again.
Instead, his eyes got darker. “I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m not kissing you, darlin’.”
Then he did.
If she’d ever taken the time to wonder what it would be like to kiss Coin —which she hadn’t— Lexie would have thought it would be nice. Sweet. A charming kiss, perhaps. She would have thought Coin would be a kind, considerate kisser, echoing the way he was in other parts of his life.
She would have been dead wrong.
Coin kissed her hard. Fast. It was a kiss that was made to melt the kneecaps of the one kissed, and sure enough, Lexie found she had to reach her arms around him to keep herself standing. His mouth was hot, so hot against hers, and when she parted her lips at his insistence, she felt his tongue meet hers. He knew exactly what he was doing. He tasted of beer and need, and then all rational thought left her head.
All she knew was that the way he moved his mouth on hers was making her certifiably crazy. She wanted more, more of his lips, more of his tongue. He nipped her bottom lip and she gasped so loudly she wondered if Thomas or Ginger could hear her losing her mind.
She pulled her mouth away and stared at him. “We’re on dates.”
“We sure as hell are.”
“With other people!”
“Seems that way.” He traced her wet lip with the pad of his thumb.
“We can’t do this.”
In answer, he lowered his mouth to hers again. More insistent this time, he kissed her harder, as if he was challenging her. Goading her.
That wasn’t fair. Coin knew better than anyone else how much she liked a challenge.
So she kissed him back, for all she was worth. She swept the tip of her tongue along his upper lip, a lick and a promise, and then plunged her hands, still wet from the dishes, into his hair. She couldn’t help the low moan she let out, a sound he matched. He pressed himself against her harder, and while the counter dug into her back, Lexie didn’t care, because she felt him against her, hard and needy, just like his mouth. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled, knowing in the back of her mind that her lips would be swollen from this kiss, that there would be no way to hide it.
And still she didn’t care. Why hadn’t she ever kissed him before? Why had she wasted her time with not kissing him?
Coin pulled back with a curse. “We’re being rude.”
Lexie made a noise that was half gasp, half laugh. “You think?”
“I’ll handle this.”
Lexie rubbed her lips with the back of her hand, grateful she’d only worn lip gloss, now long gone, and not a telltale lipstick. Then she followed him into the dining room.
“Sorry, folks,” said Coin, but he didn’t sound sorry at all. “We just both got paged to work.”
Ginger’s eyes narrowed, and Lexie could practically see her doing the math. “Really? I didn’t hear any beeping.”
Coin shrugged. “Phones are on silent.”
Thomas recovered more quickly and put on his light jacket. “Lexie, this was too short. Can I call you tomorrow? Maybe take you to that new Burmese place on Route 119?”
Lexie opened her mouth to answer but Coin beat her to it. “No.”
“Excuse me?” Thomas looked surprised. Ginger may have already figured it out, but Thomas was slower on the uptake.
“No, you can’t call her.”
“And why not?” Thomas widened his stance, but though he was tall, Coin still had an inch on him. Lexie couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed for him. She should step in. Coin was being unbelievably rude.
And it was completely fascinating. Lexie didn’t want to move a muscle or say a word, she just wanted to watch. And breathe. Maybe she could get her heart rate to slow down a little.
“Because you’re not her type.”
Thomas laughed, but it sounded thready. “And what’s her type?”
“I am,” Coin said. “Go away.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Coin closed the door on Thomas and Ginger. Maybe in front of the house, as they discussed their host’s rudeness, they’d exchange phone numbers and hook up. He did feel sorry for them, but hey. They’d gotten dinner and a show.
He turned the deadbolt slowly. Somehow, he needed to put off the next moment, when he would turn and meet Lexie’s eyes. What if she was furious? He’d seen her mad plenty of times, but he didn’t want her to be angry with him over this.
Not this.
When he turned, though, she was closer than he’d thought she was.
And she was just standing there. With that look. One hand twisting a corkscrew curl the way she did when she was flustered, she just looked at him.
He didn’t know whether to apologize for being a huge jerk or to kiss her again. And the longer he took to decide what to do, the closer she probably got to leaving, so he said, “Do I need to say I’m sorry?”
Lexie tilted her head.
“Because I will. If that’s what you need.” He sat on the couch with a thump and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table. Yeah, she’d kissed him back in the kitchen, but he hadn’t given her much choice. What kind of kiss was that? If she wanted to yell at him, he deserved it.
“Why did you do that?” She pulled that curl again, and it was possibly
the cutest thing he’d ever seen a woman do.
Because the thought of her kissing Thomas was too much to bear. Because he should have done it years ago. Because way too often, when he closed his eyes at night, her face was the last thing he thought of.
But what if she was just about to be horrified by the kiss?
“Was it because you were trying to show off?”
“What?”
“In front of them. You were all put off by Thomas and his job, and you had to prove you didn’t like him, so you kissed me.”
If Thomas had talked about his podiatry business, Coin hadn’t heard it. Of course, pretty much any time the guy had said anything Coin had tuned out, so he’d missed a lot of the conversation. “That wasn’t it.”
Lexie sighed impatiently. “Then what was it? Why did you do that?”
“Why do you sound so upset about it?”
“Because I am,” she said. “That wasn’t fair.”
“Who said life was fair?” It was a line he’d always hated when his dad had said it. Coin had managed successfully to never say it to his daughter, and here he was, trotting it back out for Lexie. He wished he could take it back, but it was too late.
Lexie blew out an exasperated breath. “I don’t understand you tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” Man, he was being a jerk. And he couldn’t quite seem to cut it out.
“This.” She waved her hands at him. “This whatever you’re doing. This isn’t my Coin.”
Her Coin? That was rich. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”
“I know you better than anyone else.”
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “That doesn’t mean much.” He felt her sit on the couch next to him, and it was all he could do to keep his hands on his lap, to not reach for her.
“Then tell me,” she said softly. “Tell me what’s going on with you. I don’t get it.”
“You.”
“What?”
Coin kept his eyes closed. “You’re going on with me.”
“Me?”
Burn (The Firefighters of Darling Bay Book 2) Page 6
