by Sonya Weiss
Josie poised her fingers over the keyboard, but hesitated. “The dating pool is a little shallow here.”
“Only because I’ve lost business, but it’s already starting to pick back up. Once we get you into the system, I’m sure we’ll find a match.”
“Maybe I’m being optimistic.”
“Not if it’s what you want,” Casey said firmly.
“It is what I want.” Josie began filling out the application with such a grim face that Casey couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s a dating site, not your execution.”
The bell jingled again, and Casey excused herself to see who the new arrival was. Lincoln stood in the waiting room, legs braced apart, head bowed, his attention focused on his phone.
“Sorry, Linc, this is a matchmaking service for women only,” she joked.
His head snapped up. “Ha-ha. I’m here because I need to use your truck.”
Casey had an old rust bucket of a truck she’d bought a couple of years ago sitting in her garage. She mainly drove her car. “If you have a girl to impress, trust me, my truck isn’t the ride you want to take.”
“Can I use it or not? Something came up I have to deal with, and I can’t get hold of Rafferty to use his.”
Whoa. It wasn’t like Lincoln to be so impatient. “Okay, not a problem. I’ll get my keys. Is Rafferty working?”
“No.”
The way he said it made Casey’s heart fill with trepidation. “Did he get hurt? Is that the something that came up?” Though both he and Lincoln were well trained and had been with the fire station for years, fires were unpredictable. In the past, her brothers had kept her from knowing they’d been injured. She’d never forget the day she’d learned about Kent’s accident. It was like the world had stopped turning.
“No, he’s fine.”
She caught the slight emphasis, and feeling like her mouth was full of cotton, asked, “Grayson?”
Lincoln’s throat worked. “It’s his girlfriend. He left his phone at the apartment and went back for it. When he got there, he caught her and the guy across the hall…”
Casey closed her eyes briefly, her heart breaking for her brother. “That’s his girlfriend’s apartment. I can’t imagine he wants to stay there now.”
“He doesn’t. He’s going to crash at my place until he can find something else.”
“Casey? Is everything—”
The second her friend spotted Lincoln, she froze. Once she recovered, Josie flicked her hair over her shoulders and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” he countered.
“She’s helping me,” Casey jumped in, realizing Josie wouldn’t want Lincoln to know her business.
Josie smiled her thanks before switching her attention back to Lincoln. “Is everything okay?”
“There’s a family problem,” Casey explained, not intending to go into details.
Lincoln apparently didn’t share the same intention. “Grayson caught his girlfriend cheating on him.”
Josie gasped. “How could anyone cheat on Grayson? He’s perfect.”
Lincoln stared at her with narrowed eyes for a second. “Anyway, I need to move his stuff right now.”
Casey had thought it was bad enough being left at the altar. Poor Grayson. “I have a client coming in half an hour, but I can meet you after that to help.”
“Given how your business is suffering, are you sure that’s wise? Maybe you should stick around in case you get any walk-ins,” Lincoln said.
“Grayson needs me.” For her family, she’d risk anything. They’d always had one another’s backs, through the good times as well as the bad. It was Grayson who’d handled canceling her honeymoon reservations and a dozen other associated tasks.
“I’ll help, too,” Josie said. “I don’t have another client until tomorrow.”
Casey pulled the truck key from her key ring and gave it to Lincoln. As they left, the phone rang, and after Casey answered, she was thrust back into the reality of why she’d needed Kent’s help in the first place.
…
Nothing Kent tried worked. He hadn’t been able to get Casey out of his head. He’d come so close to kissing her when they’d been on the bed and then again when they were on the floor. If his mother hadn’t interrupted, he would have. What had he been thinking? He hadn’t, that’s what. God, he needed to quit thinking about her. Concentrate on getting through today. Take a cold shower. Or two if concentrating on work doesn’t do the trick.
Once the afternoon training drills were completed, Kent headed toward the area of the firehouse he’d been assigned to clean for the day. He thought about Casey and accidentally splashed the cleaner on his shoes. Maybe he was just tired. He hadn’t slept well last night, and he’d arrived at six thirty this morning for the seven o’clock start time of his twenty-four-hour shift. He was thankful that the morning had been a slow one compared to last week. Then, his station had handled just over twenty calls a day and he’d been on the scene for mostly EMT situations. They were all cross-trained in emergency medical, and he and the crew had saved a little boy who’d been a front-seat passenger in a rollover. Accidents or fires involving children were always the worst. He’d never get used to that.
His stomach suddenly growled, reminding him it had been several hours since he’d last eaten anything. The aroma of spaghetti cooking in the kitchen wafted down into the bay. He was heading toward the scent when he spotted Casey’s rusty old truck pull up on the street outside, careful not to block the path of any of the fire trucks.
Instead of her usual dress and heels, Casey wore jeans and one of Lincoln’s old high school football jerseys she’d swiped after he’d left for college. She looked good, a fact he couldn’t let himself dwell on. They were partners in a mutually beneficial fake-ship, and it was better that he didn’t lose his head and forget that. There would be too many pitfalls when he had to walk away. He noticed in addition to looking good, Casey also looked exhausted. Concerned, he headed out to meet her.
“We need to talk,” she said once she reached him. “You’re not going to like it.”
He tensed at the warning. “Don’t tell me you want to call the whole thing off.” He’d been looking forward to going to his cousin’s wedding without being bombarded about his bachelor status or having to deal with the pity.
“No, I don’t want to call it off. It’s the opposite, actually. We need to amp things up.” She shifted her feet, clearly nervous.
“Because of the meeting with David?”
“It’s not just that. I got a phone call.” Her words ran together.
“Slow down, Casey. Take a breath and tell me what’s happening.”
“The phone call was from a friend who cuts my hair. She wanted me to know people are talking, saying that our relationship is fake. We have to prove them wrong before word gets back to David. I can’t lose my business.”
Feeling like his brain was moving in slow motion, Kent shook his head to clear it. “Hang on a second. You don’t mean that you and I have to make out, do you?”
She nodded. “We fake a few kisses, some hugs, that’s all.”
His insides knotted. That’s all? After having her pinned beneath him on his bed, he had a feeling kissing Casey was going to light him up like a firecracker. “How do we fake a kiss?” He rubbed the back of his head and nodded in the direction of one of his colleagues, who called out a greeting. Deciding humor was the best option to stop his brain from thinking about Casey under him, he said, “If I kiss you, you’re going to be all over me. Treating me like a piece of meat. You’ll want more.” Hell, he was pretty sure he’d want more.
Casey laughed, and he loved the rich sound. “We can do this, Kent. We have to make it work.”
“I don’t know about kissing and making out with you.” I’m not sure I’d want to stop until we took things to a level neither of us could walk away from unscathed.
“Dammit, Kent, my business i
s at stake. Don’t screw this up for me. Just put out when I need you to, okay?” The corners of her mouth turned up. “A hug, a kiss.” She touched her lips, then patted her butt. “A fake booty call. Whatever I need, you deliver, got it?”
Kent laughed at her exaggerated hand motions, then he sobered. “You do realize that if we take this physical publicly, our families might start thinking you and I are planning a future together. Our parents will start naming our kids.”
Casey’s mouth turned down. “Well, they’ll just have to think that.”
The honking of a horn drew their attention, and Kent bit off a groan. Trixie Majors climbed out of her sports car and ambled toward them with a pronounced sashay. “I’m here to talk to the battalion chief about the firefighter calendar idea I have. I figure since she’s a woman, she’ll be more receptive to the idea than your captain was.” She smiled, and it reminded Kent of a monster he’d seen in a movie right before it pounced.
“The battalion chief isn’t here.”
Trixie pouted. “I’m having a hard time catching her. Doesn’t she ever work?”
“She’s in charge of six stations,” Kent explained, tamping down his irritation.
“Oh.” She swung her attention to Casey. “I heard a rumor the two of you aren’t really dating.”
Kent shifted to stand beside Casey rather than in front of her. Feeling the urge to protect her, he put his arm around her shoulders. “You heard wrong.”
Trixie snapped her fingers together. “Then I guess I missed my chance. Although, with Casey’s history, you might be back on the market soon.”
Casey tensed, and humiliation flooded her face at Trixie’s not-so-subtle dig.
Kent pulled her closer as if to shield her from any more verbal blows. The nearness of her body warmed his like he’d moved too near a blazing building. “Everyone who matters knows Dominic was too stupid to realize what he had. I’m a smarter guy than he is. Now, if you don’t mind, Casey and I are having a private conversation.”
Trixie looked defiant but reluctantly excused herself.
Once she was gone, Casey said, “I could have beaten her with my wit eventually, but thanks for the save.”
“In friendship or fake dating, I’ll always have your back.” Because she didn’t try to free herself from his arm around her shoulders, he stepped away. His concentration was wrecked every time they came in physical contact. He’d admitted to himself that he found her attractive, that he had since he first realized she was a woman and not just Lincoln’s little sister. But attraction aside, she was still in the no-pass zone.
“And you can always count on me.” She patted his chest, and he sucked in a breath so fast he started coughing. Every little touch only stoked the attraction.
“You’ve acted differently for days.” She frowned. “You’re sure you’re not coming down with something?”
When he could speak without sounding like he’d just hit puberty, he said, “You asked me that before, and I’m fine.” He cleared his throat to be sure. “Don’t forget, my cousin wants us to stop by to go over some wedding details Wednesday evening.”
“I can be there.”
She grinned—a bit smugly, he thought.
“What?”
“I knew this relationship gig would work out well for both of us.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Anyway, I’d better get back. I’m taking a load of Grayson’s things to storage for him, and they’ll be wondering where I am. Though I suppose I could always tell them I stopped to make out with my boyfriend.”
“They won’t be any happier hearing that than they are with us dating,” Kent said drily. At the puzzled expression on her face, he said, “I’m violating the bro code.”
“The bro code?”
“Guys don’t mess around with one another’s ex-girlfriends or sisters.” He shrugged. “The bro code keeps the friendship intact. If a guy breaks the heart of his friend’s sister, that damages the friendship and would get his ass—” Kent shook his head. “It’s not done, okay?”
“We can’t tell them the truth.” Casey chewed on her thumbnail. “Lincoln knows I asked you for help. I told him at our parents’ celebration, because he knows how to keep quiet. But the rest of my brothers have to think we’re really dating so they won’t accidentally say something that will get back to the investor.”
He’d received some pretty hard glances from them since Beverly’s announcement at the anniversary party. “Your brothers don’t like it.”
“They’re overprotective,” Casey said. “But they have good intentions.”
Yeah. They’d intend to kick his ass good. Not that he’d let that hold him back if he ever did lose his sense of self-preservation and their relationship became real. Being with Casey would be worth an ass kicking.
She stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, and Kent tried to act like he didn’t notice the way it pulled her shirt tighter across her breasts.
“Anyway, I was thinking it would be a good idea to meet for lunch tomorrow at the diner. Word would get around town, and that should help quiet the rumors.”
“That’s a good idea.”
She hesitated for a second, and when he didn’t say anything more, she said, “I guess I’ll see you then.”
He should have turned around and gone back into the station. He knew better, but he watched her walk away, her hips swinging gently, looking as good leaving as she had approaching. Thinking what he was thinking was as smart as standing in a collapse zone hoping nothing landed on him. When had little Casey Bradford grown up, and how blind was he not to notice how it affected him until now?
Chapter Five
Gathering the clothes she needed for the day, Casey mentally shook off the remnants of a steamy dream she’d had about Kent and jumped into the shower, hurrying because she’d invited Grayson for breakfast. As she lathered shampoo into her hair, her thoughts drifted back to Kent. He was a good guy, and she hated how his ex had crushed his heart. She wondered what it would be like to share a kiss as she had in her dream.
No, no, no! Casey hauled her thoughts under control, shoving the image of Kent and his toe-curling kiss back into the friend zone, where he needed to stay.
By the time she finished her shower, dressed, and applied her makeup, she heard Grayson’s voice at the door as he ended what sounded like a terse conversation. She let him inside, and he headed straight for the kitchen to start rooting through her cabinets for pots and pans.
“Hey, I invited you over, remember? I’ll cook.”
“I figured you might sleep in. And you suck at cooking.” He held up a frying pan. “Okay to use for omelets?”
When she nodded, he went to search through the contents of her refrigerator. Grayson had always been the best cook in the family. Even more so than their mother, and everyone raved about her meals. She’d tried hard to teach Casey more than just the basics during her teen years, but there’d always been something more interesting to do or get into than paying attention to her mother’s cooking lessons. She’d hated being cooped up in the kitchen while there was a world waiting to be explored.
“Sleep okay at Lincoln’s?” Casey asked as she opened the pantry to take out a loaf of bread and a jar of apple butter. She wanted to test the waters, see where Grayson’s head was at this morning.
“It’s not like he’s a party animal. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well—”
“You’re tiptoeing around the subject, sis.” He shot her a glance. “We Bradfords don’t beat around the bush. We come out and say what’s on our minds.”
Casey sighed. Grayson had always been able to read her. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“No, I’m not okay. Isabel and I were together for three years.” He cracked eggs into a bowl and tossed the shells into the trash can. His throat worked for a second, and he stilled his hands to grip the sides of the bowl. “I bought a ring. I was planning to ask her to marry me.” His laugh was hollow.
“No. It is what it is. Better I found out her true colors now than after marrying her.”
“Someone said that to me about Dominic. It doesn’t help, does it?”
“No, not really.” He chopped up a bell pepper and tossed it into the bowl, then sprinkled cheese into the mixture. He was silent for a second before he said, “What’s this I hear about you and Kent? That’s all Rafferty could talk about last night when he stopped by Lincoln’s.”
“Oh.” To appease her conscience, Casey settled on an explanation that wasn’t quite a lie. “We’re seeing each other.”
After heating the pan, Grayson poured some of the egg mixture in, then pulled a spatula from the utensil crock. “I can’t believe he’d violate the bro code after all this time.” He shot her an amused look. “Maybe he’s taking pity on an old maid.”
“You’re so funny,” Casey said as she focused on making them toast.
When the omelets were ready, Grayson slid them onto plates. He poured two glasses of juice, then sat down across from her. “I don’t mind the two of you dating.”
“Glad it meets your approval,” Casey said drily.
He waved his fork around. “It will put us in an awkward position if it doesn’t work out.”
“Trust me, it will.” Of course it would all work out. Kent’s heart wasn’t involved in their relationship, and neither was hers. She remembered the dream kiss, then shoved it away. That had nothing to do with her heart. It was simply a dream, and she wasn’t responsible for how her subconscious conjured up Kent while she was asleep.
“I’d hate to beat Kent up if he broke your heart.” Grayson spread apple butter across his toast.
“Provided you could beat him in a fight.”
Her brother looked offended. “I could take him.”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty built.” She waggled her eyebrows teasingly.
