Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 (10 page)

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.

“I don’t know.” That was a lie. He knew why he’d done it. He’d kissed her 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.

Because he would never, ever be able to admit that to her.

“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?”

“Lexie Tindall, I’ve liked you since we started working together.”

“Me, too. You’re my best friend.”

Great. In a second, she’d probably pat him on the head. “I don’t want to be your pal.”

“What
do
you want?”

He opened his eyes and leveled his gaze at her. He wouldn’t give her half truths now. “I want you. I’ve always wanted you, Lexie.” He watched her lips part in surprise, and he continued. “I want you in the morning, and I want you before I go to sleep. On my days off, I save up my best stories to tell you. When we’re at work, I have to stop myself from sitting in dispatch all day, just to watch you work. When you work overtime, I leave my radio on so I can listen to your voice.” He curled his fingers into fists to keep from touching her. She was just a breath away, a breath he shouldn’t take. “I can’t stop thinking about you when I’m not around you, and you make me completely freaking insane when you pull on your hair like that.”

Her hand dropped to her side, and the curl bounced back into place. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’m freaking sick of lying.” He tried not to think about how bad it would be at work when she hated him for this.

“Are you drunk?”

“No!”

She let a pause hang between them. “Coin, I don’t know what to say.”

“Admit that you were kissing me back in the kitchen.”

She blinked. “I was. I did.”

Happiness burned a trail through him.

“But,” she went on, “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“You seemed pretty comfortable.”

“It’s
you
. You’re my
friend
. I don’t kiss my friends. Or my coworkers. Or any firefighter,
ever
. You know that.”

Coin wanted the look of confusion on her face to clear. He’d gone too far to turn back now. “Tell me you don’t feel something between us.” He could feel it at that exact moment, a heat, an incredible tension that almost shimmered visibly in the air.

“You’re imagining it,” she said slowly, not meeting his eyes. “There’s nothing between us.”

No. She had to feel it, too. “Come on, Lexie. Don’t pretend like that kiss in the kitchen wasn’t life changing.”

Lexie pushed a hand through her curls and then touched her bottom lip. “It was just a kiss, Coin.”

If she was saying that, if she
believed
that, then Coin had just been proven to be a huge fool. Everything he thought existed between them, didn’t. He’d imagined the whole thing. “Oh.”

“I should go,” she said, standing.

He moved to join her.

“No, don’t. Where’s my purse? Here it is.” She grabbed it off the floor. “I brought that pan, but you can bring it to me at work later.”

Her words were fast, tumbling over each other. Her voice, usually clear and calm, was high pitched and tense. “Lexie, don’t go. Let’s talk about this.”

“Nothing to talk about, Coin. You have a little crush. You’ll get over it, and then someday we’ll laugh about all this.”

Coin touched her arm and said, “Don’t leave.”

Her face tilted up to meet his eyes. Six inches, that was all that separated them. He waited for her to come to him. Taking the kiss from her hadn’t been fair. He wouldn’t kiss her again until she kissed him first.

Her eyes were sad. Had he done that to her?

“It was just a kiss,” she repeated. “I have to go.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

There were few things good about a knock at the door at 7 a.m. on a day off, but the worst part of it was that Lexie knew who it would be.

She was right.

Her mother stood on the doorstep, a basket in hand. “May I come in?”

Lexie stood the door open and turned around, going into the kitchen. She poured water in the carafe and didn’t ask her mother what she was doing there. She’d know soon enough.

“You haven’t even made coffee yet?” Mira sounded incredulous.

Lexie did a half turn to show her mother that she was still wearing pajamas. “I hadn’t gotten up yet, either.” She’d been lying in bed, thinking about the kiss from the night before. About Coin.

Mira pointedly looked at the watch on her slim wrist. “You know what they say about the early bird.”

“I don’t like worms,” said Lexie. “They’re slimy.”

“Your date. Tell me.”

Oh, crap. She’d forgotten she’d told Mira about her blind date. “It was great.” And by great, Lexie meant horrible. Thomas had been a bore, she’d been horrified at how amazing Ginger was, and then, out of nowhere, Coin had kissed her.

He’d kissed the blazes out of her. And worse, she’d liked it.

She’d loved it, actually, although she hadn’t told him that—she couldn’t. That was only the second worst part of it, though.

The very worst part was that somehow he had feelings for her. Feelings! For Lexie!

Lexie knew Janice, Coin’s ex-wife. She’d been a perfect firefighter’s wife—pretty and popular. She was a tiny little thing. Petite. She had birdlike wrists that looked as if she wouldn’t be able to wear more than one bracelet at a time.

For that reason, Coin had always existed in Lexie’s mind as someone who liked a thin woman. She’d never thought, even idly, what it would be like to kiss him, although apparently she should have.

All that he’d said? About feeling that way for her for so long? It couldn’t be true. It just wasn’t possible. When Lexie was at work, she felt like she was camping. Being at work for two days straight didn’t lend to marathon makeup sessions. She didn’t do her hair. The guys had seen her a million times in the middle of the night, bleary eyed with lack of sleep, and she’d seen them the same way. There was no romance at the station.

That was how she thought about work. That was how she thought about
Coin
. As a friend.

Such a good friend.

Why, then, could she still feel him on her lips? Why was it she could still taste him, feel the weight of his mouth on hers?

And why had she had so many dreams about him all night? In the most disturbing one, he’d pulled off her dress and touched her in the places she’d never imagined Coin touching. She’d wanted him to. Then he’d disappeared, and she’d heard his voice, calling out for her on the radio. She’d known he was trapped, pinned, hurt somewhere, and she couldn’t help him. She’d woken with her hands shaking and tears on her cheeks.

Lexie put the coffee into the filter and hit the red button. Behind her, Mira twittered about something, flitting in and out of the kitchen. She’d settle soon enough, and Lexie would have to listen. But now, as she leaned against the counter—which reminded her of how she’d leaned against his sink last night—she put her fingers to her lips.

Online, men who liked big women just came right out and said it. In fact, men online were often disappointed that Lexie didn’t weigh more, which was always a strange kind of treat. Online dating meant she could weed out the ones who had issues with bigger girls. “Please be height/weight proportionate.” If Lexie knew one thing, she knew that’s something she was. Her round curves suited her frame, they always had. It had taken years and years for
her
to accept them, especially with a mother like Mira always chipping away at her, but finally, she was okay with what she had to work with. Her weight was truly appropriate to her height and frame. She was strong and fit.

But height/weight proportionate—to men—meant thin enough to disappear while standing sideways.

Coin had put that in his ad.

What if he’d stopped kissing Lexie because he’d felt her love handles? What if he hadn’t followed her outside when she left last night because he was mortified by his mistake?

How on earth was she supposed to go back to work tomorrow?

Mira flitted back into the room, rubbing oil into her cuticles. “You know, I just love that manicure set I gave you. Don’t you?” Mira reached out and grabbed Lexie’s hand, looking carefully at the chipped nails, at her old, worn-off polish. “Honey. That just sits in your bathroom, and you don’t even use it. Let’s go get mani-pedis today! Together!”

“No, thank you.”

“Why not?”

“No, thank you.” Sometimes that was all she could say to her mother, all she could think of saying. If she kept repeating it, kept saying no without explaining why, she knew from past experience that eventually her mother would give up and start bugging her about something else.

Mira poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table.

“Will you make me a slice of toast, darling?”

“Yes,” said Lexie. That she could do.

“Gluten-free?”

Lexie didn’t bother answering. The regular kind of bread—full of delicious gluten—would be just fine for her mother.

“Now tell me about the date, darling, from start to finish. No, just one piece is fine for me.”

It wouldn’t cross her mother’s mind that perhaps the other piece of bread might be for Lexie. She pressed the toaster’s button, folded her arms, and turned to face the music that was Mira Tindall.

“I didn’t tell you, but it was a double date.”