Up in Flames

by Elle James

  “I won’t take no for an answer,” Lola warned. She turned Kate toward her apartment. “Hurry, go change into something glamorous. I’ll wait for you. And while you’re getting ready, I can feed Bacchus.” She marched Kate up the stairs and into her apartment.

  Short of being rude, Kate really had no other choice but to do as her landlord demanded. She changed into a denim skirt and a white sleeveless knit shirt that hugged her breasts and accentuated her narrow waist. When she slipped her feet into a pair of flat sandals, Lola looked at her in horror.

  “Oh, sweetie, tell me you have a pair of heels.” She stood staring at the flat sandals, her face creased in a frown.

  “I do have a pair, but this is a denim skirt. Aren’t casual sandals what goes with denim?”

  “Honey, when you have a choice between flats and heels, go with heels every time. Unless you’re hiking through the woods, of course. Heels make you look taller and tighten your calves to perfection.”

  Kate grimaced. “I’m not that comfortable wearing heels, but if you think it’s the right thing to wear…” She reached into the bottom of the wardrobe and extracted her one pair of high heeled sandals with narrow silver straps that crisscrossed over the top of her feet. She slipped her feet into them and almost groaned.

  “Those will do for now. Sometime soon, you need to come to my shop, and I’ll find the perfect pair and fit for you. You can have stylish shoes without completely sacrificing comfort, I promise. Do you have a brush?”

  Kate handed her a brush.

  “Turn around,” Lola commanded.

  Kate turned and let Lola pull out the elastic band holding back her hair. In quick, strong strokes, she brushed the tangles out of Kate’s hair.

  “There.” Lola stood back and smiled. “A dab of lipstick, and you’ll do.”

  Kate touched her lips with her only tube of rose-colored lipstick and turned. “Better?”

  “Perfect. Now, let’s go before they run out of food. I’m starving, and I can’t wait to see my man.” Lola led the way out of the apartment and down the stairs.

  Kate held her breath as the other woman navigated the staircase in her three-inch heels. “I don’t know how you do it,” she muttered as she held onto the rail and eased herself down the steps on her two-inch silver sandals. “There’s a reason I don’t wear heels.”

  “Honey, you look fabulous. That’s enough reason to wear heels.” Lola winked.

  When Kate made it to the bottom, Lola offered her arm. “Let’s go get some dinner and a whole lot of lovin’.”

  “I’ll stick with dinner. The lovin’ part I’ll leave to those who are better at it.”

  Lola shot her a narrowed glance. “I take it you’ve been unlucky in that direction?”

  “And how.” Kate held onto Lola’s arm as they walked the two blocks to the fire station. She gave her the digest version of how she’d found her boyfriend in bed with another woman in the apartment Kate had been paying rent on during her deployment.

  Lola winced. “Ouch. That was harsh. I hope you booted his ass out.”

  “I did. And moved here the same day.”

  “A fresh start is always good.” Lola’s eyebrows dipped. “He won’t try to get you back, will he?”

  “I doubt that. I had the police there to see him to the door. Unfortunately for him, he dropped a bag of cocaine in front of them. He ended up in jail. I doubt seriously he’ll want to have anything more to do with me.”

  Lola laughed. “Sounds like he deserved the jail time.”

  “I doubt they’ll keep him long. Possession isn’t as tough a sentence as distribution.”

  “Still, he deserved to be thrown in the slammer. Anyone who’d use one of our members of the armed services while they’re deployed and can’t do a thing about it, should be stripped naked, tarred and feathered and marched down Main Street for all to see what a jerk he was. Jail time is too easy on the bastard.”

  “Lola Engel, I like the way you think.” She squeezed the woman’s arm and grinned. And that’s how they arrived at the fire station.

  * * *

  Chance sat at the back of the station at one of the tables they’d pulled out for the dinner and training. He held a red stadium cup of iced tea in his hand, wishing it was a beer. While everyone around him was laughing and joking, he sank into that dark place he’d inhabited all too often since he’d returned from the war.

  “Hey, Chance.” Becket pulled up a chair across from him and laid his plate full of Italian deliciousness in front of him. “You better hurry and get yours before it’s all gone.”

  “Don’t bother. I got a plate for you.” Rider set two plates filled with lasagna and garlic breadsticks on the table, one in front of Chance, the other in front of an empty chair he quickly plunked himself into.

  “Thanks,” Chance said. “I wasn’t all that hungry.”

  “Well, if you’re not eating it, I will.” Rider started to take the plate back.

  Chance gripped the edge and held on to it. The rich tomato-y scent of lasagna made his mouth water, and his stomach reminded him that it needed to be fed. “I said I wasn’t. But I am now.”

  Becket chuckled and dug into his food. “Flannigan knows his pasta.”

  “What’s got you down in the dumps?” Rider asked and took a bite of a garlic breadstick.

  Chance frowned. “Who said I’m down in the dumps?”

  “Seriously, dude,” Rider said. “You’d have to be blind to miss that look of abject misery on your face.”

  His frown deepening, Chance cut into the lasagna. “I’m not miserable.”

  “You could have fooled us.” Daniel brought a plate of food and sat across from Rider. “That’s the same face I have when Lola’s out of town. You really are taking it hard that the pretty deputy shot you down, aren’t you?”

  Chance slammed his fork onto the table so hard everyone standing nearby stopped talking and turned to see what the commotion was about.

  Heat stole into his cheeks, and he picked up his fork. “Dropped it.” To prove everything was all right, he scooped up a chunk of the steaming hot lasagna and shoved it into his mouth. And promptly burned his tongue. Forcing a smile to his face, he turned to Daniel and swallowed. “She didn’t shoot me down, nor did she have a reason to shoot me down. I’m not interested. She’s not interested. The end.” He stared pointedly around the table at his friend and two brothers. “Understood?”

  Becket held up his hands. “Whatever you say. I’ll stay out of it.”

  “I guess you don’t care that your little deputy just walked into the station with Lola then, do you?” Rider asked with a twisted grin.

  Chance spun toward the open bay doors just in time to see Kate, Bacchus and Lola step out of the sunlight into the shaded bay. Immediately, they were surrounded by the men waiting their turn in line for the lasagna.

  “Yeah. Not interested, my ass,” Rider mumbled and shoved a breadstick into his mouth.

  “Shut up, Rider,” Chance said through gritted teeth. He fought the urge to jump up from his seat and cross the floor to break up the gang gathered around Kate and Lola. If he truly wasn’t interested, he wouldn’t be itching to get up and go see what had made Kate change her mind about joining them for dinner.

  “This must be my lucky day.” Daniel pushed back from the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go kiss my girl.” He left Chance and his brothers to cross the floor and wade through the men circled around the women.

  Chance found himself envying Daniel and his openness about loving and dating Lola. Not that Chance was interested in loving or dating Kate. But for some crazy reason, he wasn’t keen on the idea of her loving or dating anyone else.

  “If looks could kill, every one of those guys standing near Kate would be lying on the ground, twitching in death throes,” Becket commented. “Why are you so adamant that you’re not interested in Kate? You clearly are. Why deny it?”

  “Will you leave it?” Chance said and dropped his g
aze to his plate, pretending to enjoy the food Daniel had spent so much time putting together for the training event that evening. He told himself it didn’t matter if a hundred guys flirted with Kate. She wasn’t his girl, and she didn’t want to be. So, why was he clenching his fists and gnashing his teeth?

  “I’m going to go rescue her from the guys,” Becket said. “Lola just ditched her for Daniel.” He pushed to his feet.

  Chance stood so fast, his chair tipped over backward and landed with a loud clatter against the concrete floor. He stood the chair on its feet then busted through the men around Kate. “Change your mind?” he asked Kate, holding out his arm.

  She gladly took it and grimaced. “Lola made me come.” Her gaze went to the woman and the night’s chef where they were locked in each other’s arms, kissing.

  “I’d tell them to get a room, but they don’t need to be told,” Chance shook his head. “They will soon enough.”

  Kate laughed, the sound beautiful and heartfelt. It hit him like a sucker-punch to the gut and made him want to make her do it again. “Hungry?” he asked.

  “Very,” she said, rubbing a hand against her belly. “I wasn’t looking forward to opening a can of soup. I could stand some real food.”

  “Fortunately, we only serve real food at the station,” he said. “And by real food, I mean steak, chicken, potatoes and stuff that sticks to a man’s ribs and fuels him with the energy he needs in case he has to fight a fire.”

  “Sounds positively healthy,” she declared.

  “Don’t believe it for a moment. We all have our ideas about what’s best for us. Jace Kelly would have pizza every night of the week, if he could.”

  “Hey, I heard that,” Jace said from across room. “And what’s wrong with pizza? It has meat and cheese. That’s protein, isn’t it?”

  “And a whole lot of calories.” Becket joined Chance. He held out his hand to Kate. “How are you after your first day on the job with the sheriff’s department?”

  “Good,” she said, shaking it firmly.

  Chance frowned at Becket’s easy familiarity with Kate.

  Becket turned to Chance. “Aren’t you going to offer to get her a plate of Flannigan’s finest?”

  Heat rose up Chance’s neck. “I was getting to it when you interrupted.” He held out a hand. “Come with me. Dan always leaves a tray full of lasagna warming in the oven while the others are being devoured.”

  Kate hesitated for a moment, and then put her hand in his. “Lead the way before I pass out from starvation.”

  “Can’t have that, now can we?” His mood lighter than it had been in a long time, Chance led her and Bacchus into the kitchen where Daniel had left one tray of his spicy Italian meal in the oven just like Chance had said.

  Grabbing an oven mitt, he pulled out the tray and set it on a brass trivet in the shape of a firefighter’s hat. Then he pulled a real plate out of the cabinet, not the paper ones they were using out in the bay, and a spatula out of the drawer.

  “You don’t have to wait on me. I’m capable of helping myself,” she reminded him.

  “You’re new around here. I’m just trying to be nice.” He scooped a heaping helping onto the plate and handed her a fork. “We can eat in here to avoid the crowd outside, if you like.”

  “Thanks.” She took the plate to the table and slid into a chair. “It’s been a long day.”

  Chance put a smaller piece of the lasagna on another plate and joined her at the table.

  She stared at her heaping plate and his smaller one. “Is that all you’re having?”

  He nodded. “I had some already. This would be seconds.”

  “Okay, then. I was beginning to feel like a glutton.” She dug her fork into the tomato-y, cheesy pasta. “Because I’m hungry enough to eat every last bite.”

  “It’s good to see a woman who doesn’t pick at her food.”

  “Oh, right, you say that now,” she said between bites. “But if a woman gets fat, you’d be singing a different tune.”

  “I’ve seen you out jogging. I’d struggle to keep up with you. I’m sure you burn off every last calorie you consume.”

  She shrugged. “For the most part.”

  “Oh, wait.” Chance jumped up and pulled another tray from the warming oven. This one was filled with garlic breadsticks. “You can’t have Italian pasta without garlic bread.” He placed a basket full of bread in front of her.

  “Mmm.” She took one of the breadsticks and bit off the end. After she’d eaten the last bite of her lasagna and the breadstick, she leaned back and rested a hand over her flat belly. “That beat the hell out of a can of soup and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’ll have to jog a couple of extra miles to burn that off.”

  “I’ve been meaning to get back to jogging on pavement. Mind if I join you on my days off?”

  “You mean you’d rather jog than sleep?” she asked.

  “I need incentive.” Which wasn’t a lie. “I usually come in and jog on the treadmill. But you and I both know it’s different than jogging on pavement.”

  Kate nodded. “I get out there around six-thirty. It gives me enough time to get thirty minutes in before I have to shower and get to the office by eight.”

  “I can be there,” Chance promised.

  “All the way from the ranch?”

  He nodded. “I have an alarm.”

  She raised and lowered a shoulder. “When will you start?”

  “How’s tomorrow morning? I have the next two days off, and I don’t report to work until seven in the morning the following day.”

  Kate’s brow wrinkled.

  “Don’t worry. I just need to get out. I promise not to bug you. I know you’re not into relationships, and neither am I. I see it as a chance to throw everyone off. If my family thinks I’m seeing you, they’ll get off my back about dating.”

  Kate’s lips spread into a grin. “And if the rest of the people in town think you and I are dating, maybe they’ll leave me alone as well.”

  “Right. Win-win either way you look at it,” Chance said. “Do we have a deal?”

  With a nod, Kate held out her hand. “We have a deal.”

  “Friends?” he said as he shook her hand.

  “Friends,” she repeated.

  “Then tomorrow, we’ll show Hellfire that we’re together, even though we both know we’re not.” Chance grinned. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. It’s the perfect solution to meddling family members.” He sat back in his chair. “So, what are you doing with the rest of your evening?”

  “Going home, taking a shower and curling up in bed with a good book.” She smiled. “I probably won’t even make it through a chapter before I fall asleep.”

  An image of Kate curled up in bed reading a book flashed through Chance’s mind and made his groin tighten. He shifted in his seat to relieve the pressure. “I’d offer to bring a movie over, but I’m on duty tonight.”

  “No worries. I really am tired.” She pushed back from the table and stood, teetering a little in her heels.

  “By the way, you look great,” Chance said. “But aren’t those hard to walk in?”

  Kate laughed. “They weren’t my idea.”

  Chance chuckled. “Let me guess…Lola.”

  She nodded. “I like her. A lot.”

  “She’s a little eccentric, but Daniel is crazy about her. She lost her husband a few years back and wasn’t looking for a replacement.”

  “What was it your sister Lily said?” Kate tapped a finger to her chin. “You seem to find what you’re looking for, when you aren’t looking.”

  Chance nodded. “Sometimes my sister shows a lot more maturity than her years.”

  “I’d better go.”

  “Right. I’ll walk you to the door.” He cupped her elbow in his hand and led her through the kitchen, down a hallway and out through the open bay where the others were just finishing up dinner and clearing the tables for the training.

  Lola
joined Kate. “I’ll walk with you. I have to get my car and go to the shop. I’m exhausted.” She smiled at Chance. “I hope you all have a quiet night.”

  “Thanks.” Chance stood at the corner of the building until Lola and Kate disappeared down Main Street.

  A large hand clapped him on the back. “She’s pretty and smart,” Becket said.

  “Yes, she is. But I’m not looking for anything more than a running buddy.”

  “Since when have you gotten back into running?” Becket asked.

  “Since a certain deputy joined the sheriff’s department,” Rider answered, joining the brothers.

  Chance flung his hands in the air. “Are we really going there again? Come on, we have work to do tonight. Then I’m going to try to catch some Zs.”

  “So, you can run after the new deputy tomorrow?” Rider laughed and held up his hands. “Okay, I’ll lay off. Let’s get this training started. I have a date with Salina on video chat later tonight.”

  “When will she be finished with PA school?”

  “Not soon enough,” Rider said, grimacing. “I look forward to having her home full time, not just on breaks between semesters.”

  They were almost through training when a call came through dispatch.

  Daniel came out to the bay, slipping his arms through the sleeves of his turnout coat. “Got a dumpster fire. The teens are at it again. Let’s roll.”

  Chance ran to get into his boots, pants and coat and grabbed his helmet.

  Soon, they were pulling out of the station, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

  A dumpster fire helped break the monotony of everyday life at the station. Hopefully, it ended at the dumpster and didn’t spread to other buildings. Chance didn’t want any lives to be at stake or more property damaged. He wanted to get to sleep early enough to be worth a damn jogging with Kate early in the morning.

  Chapter 9

  Kate fell into a nice routine through the week of running with Chance in the morning and spending the day at the sheriff’s department, training with Nash and retraining Bacchus to sniff for drugs.