“No.” Bo stepped closer and frowned at me. “Rumor has it that you were up here drinking away your sorrows and we figured you might want some company.”
I sat up a little taller at Bo’s words and swiveled my head, looking at everyone inside the bar and wondering which set of loose lips had started the rumor. “Drinking away my sorrows? Hardly. It’s fun to get Buddy make margaritas and his cook makes way better buffalo nachos than I do.” None of that was a lie, it just wasn’t the whole truth. “But I’m always up for a little girl talk.”
Bo’s expression was still skeptical but she shrugged and sighed before sliding into the seat across from me while Mikki booty bumped me over with her wide friendly smile. “So why are you drinking alone?”
“I’m not. You girls are here.” I flashed a wide grin at Bo’s unamused expression before taking a long, dramatic sip. “How are things with you?”
Mikki rubbed her belly and groaned. “Great. I’m surrounded all day by gorgeous clothes I can no longer fit into, and I may never fit into again. But pregnant sex is incredible.”
I suppressed a shudder and tried for a smile instead. “Good to know.”
“I hear the calendar is finished,” Bo said, changing topics because she was a world class bulldozer, guiding the conversation until it was where she wanted it. “Got any advance copies?”
“Not you too?” I shook my head and took another long sip of the icy drink. “I haven’t gotten the proofs yet but just like everyone else in Tulip and beyond, you’ll have to wait until next week. Trivia Night release party right here at Black Thumb.”
“That’ll be a fun night out, watching the girls go crazy over my sexy man,” Mikki cooed, still rubbing her belly with a wistful smile on her face.
Bo had none of that or if she did, she hid it well. “What’s going on with you and Rafe? Is that why you’re drinking alone?”
I let out a low growl and shook my head. “I’m not drinking to do anything other than get a nice buzz that’ll allow me to relax. Unwind. Because in addition to running my business, I’ve spent the past twelve months up to my ears in Hometown Heroes stuff. Now that the calendar is done, I can unwind a bit.” Again, not a lie.
“So you and Rafe are still goin’ on then?” Mikki’s question was more like girl talk and less like an interrogation.
“You could say that.” No one needed to know the nature or details of our relationship, besides this was Tulip they would all make up the details they didn’t know anyway.
“So you do like him?” Bo’s dark look was enough to send me back to my glass for another, longer gulp.
“Of course I do. What’s not to like, he’s hot and sweet and we all know it’s rare for guys who look like that to be sweet.” And it turned out that Rafe was a pretty great guy, which was bad news for the women who got sucked into his orbit.
“Wait a minute,” Mikki frowned and turned to me as much as her belly would allow in the booth. “Didn’t y’all grow up together?”
“We did but we weren’t close. Neither were me and Bo, not until after high school.” I shrugged at Mikki’s shocked look because it wasn’t like I was a social outcast or anything, I was just on the outside of most of the fun, capturing it for posterity. “I mean look at Rafe. He was hot and popular and kind of wild, we didn’t exactly run in the same circles back then.” But I could admit that he hasn’t been that Rafe in a long time. Now he was respectable, an upstanding member of the community. He’d started as a firefighter and EMT and now he ran the whole fire department. He was no longer the magnetic, troublemaking boy he’d been.
Though thankfully, for my sake, he wasn’t always so respectable, a thought that immediately took me back to dinner a few nights ago. Before I could remind myself where I was and who I was with, I felt the blush heat my cheeks.
“Uh oh,” Bo grinned. “She’s got that look.”
Look. “What look?” I turned to the window that overlooked the dark side of the parking lot to get a look at my face but it was just an outline with all neon signs reflecting back at me. “What look?”
Mikki put a soft hand on top of mine and grinned. “The look of a woman in love.”
Her words could not have shocked me more. I shook my head before I even had time to get my thoughts together because I knew one thing, I was not in love with Rafe Montgomery. “You’re wrong. Sorry but you are. I like him, sure, more than I should even, but it’s not love. It can’t be.” This was just sex. Casual sex with a fun guy. “Never mind that I would never allow myself to fall for a guy who thought a month was long term commitment.”
Bo grunted and rolled her eyes, sharing a look with Mikki, who spoke for them both. “Who says he doesn’t want more?”
Dead wrong, echoed in my head again. “Everything,” I responded with a snort. “His track record is exhibit A.”
“Except,” Bo chimed in with a glint in her eyes, “that he’s spent all his free time for the past few months with you. No one else,” she said proudly and held up a hand. “No trips to Ogden or Dallas, or San Antonio,” she said and lowered her index finger. “No mysterious weekend trips out of town,” she said and dropped another finger. “No lovelorn women showing up in town looking to change his mind.” Another finger lowered. “Just you, Janey. A lot.”
Dang, she made a good point. A really good point. When the new waitress stopped at our table with my nachos, I was thankful for the interruption. “Another of these please and two virgins for the old ladies.”
“And wings and fries,” Bo added with a friendly smile to the newbie.
“And a steak taco platter with extra salsa,” Mikki added with a grateful smile. “Thanks, hon.”
While Mikki and Bo bantered back and forth about my suddenly silent state, my mind reeled. I wasn’t in love with Rafe. I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. Not that I was an expert on the topic, I wasn’t, both times I thought I was in love, it turned out I was in it on my own. But this time I wasn’t quite as sure as I led the girls to believe. I liked Rafe and I thought about him a lot, and not just the sexy times. I wondered what he was doing when he wasn’t around and I often fought the urge to share funny stories with him about my day. But that was infatuation, maybe even a grownup crush. Not love.
“How did you both know you were in love?” The question itself was a dead giveaway but they took pity on me and answered.
“Well I nearly lost my best friend forever and I was a lot more hurt by that than I should have been. In hindsight it was a dead giveaway but in the thick of it?” She shook her head and let out a thoughtful sigh. “I felt like my heart was being ripped out, and that’s how I knew.”
“That sounds…awful.”
Mikki let out a loud laugh, complete with her hand smacking the table until the drinks shook. “Oh lord, doesn’t it though?” With one hand on her chest, she continued to laugh until only the need to breathe stopped her. “For me it was vegan cheese. And breakfast.”
Bo frowned. “Vegan cheese is an abomination.”
“Not for a very pregnant cheese lover,” she shot back. “He cared enough to find a way to give me something I wanted and that let me stop fighting my feelings so hard. Plus a big sexy man cooking breakfast? How could I resist.” Her face took on a dreamy quality that gave me a pang of envy. “Plus I couldn’t’ stop thinking about him. Or the sex. And I wanted to tell him everything, like an elderly woman wanting to buy crotchless panties.” She laughed at the memory and Bo joined in, sharing her own stories.
“The tingles,” Bo added with a wistfulness that was uncharacteristic of her.
“Oh yeah,” Mikki agreed. “And that tightness in your stomach because you’re so happy and in love that you’re terrified it’s all fake or worse, not returned.”
I listened with half an ear because my heart beat so loudly it drowned out everything else. Because my hands shook too badly to take a drink without drawing attention to it. Because my mind didn’t want to accept the conclusions that had already be drawn.
&nb
sp; I spent the rest of the night thinking of their words while trying very hard not to think about them. But two oversized margaritas had my thinking a little fuzzy, allowing thoughts of Rafe and his smile, his laugh, his gorgeous face and capable hands, to invade my mind. By the time I said my goodbyes, I was in a full blown panic.
And when I got home and saw the big sexy package waiting for me on the doorstep, I felt it. The tingles. The tightness in my gut. “Crap, they were right,” I whispered under my breath as I took in Rafe’s smiling face.
I was in love with Rafe Montgomery.
Rafe
“Looking for someone?” Nate Callahan clapped me on the back with a wide, knowing grin.
I shook off his shoulder, ready to pummel the next person who asked me that damn question. “Nope, just scoping out the place.” Not that there was much to actually scope out. It was the Black Thumb which hadn’t changed in about twenty years so there wasn’t much to scope out but there was no way in hell I would tell Nate or anyone else that I was wondering where in the hell Janey was. This was her night as much as it was for anyone but Tulip herself and an hour into the night, she was nowhere to be found.
“Really?” I could hear the laugh in his voice and instead of responding, I took a long pull of a brown ale. “Because everyone has noticed that you’re watching the door like there’s a warrant out for your arrest.” His quiet laughter was the only thing that could have pulled my gaze from the door.
“No idea what you’re talking about,” I told him easily and took another pull from my bottle.
“Then I shouldn’t tell you that Mikki’s running late because Janey made a last minute stop in the store for something to wear.” I tried hard but my eyebrows betrayed me and Nate laughed again. “That’s what I thought. What’s got you so worried?”
“I’m not worried,” I said easily, refusing to put what I was feeling into words.
“Good because here come the matchmakers my friend and you,” he clapped me on the back again with a sympathetic smile, “are on your own. Later.”
“You wouldn’t.” But Nate was already backing away, gesturing like he was saying something important.
“I would. In fact, I’m already gone.” He turned on his heels and disappeared into the thick throng of people who’d showed up to celebrate the release of the infamous Hometown Heroes charity calendar, which was to say that all of Tulip had turned up along with plenty of people from outside of Tulip.
So far the night appeared to be a success, and Janey should be here enjoying it. Instead, she was late and I was five seconds away from being ambushed.
“Chief Montgomery, I have someone I’d like you to meet.” Eddy stood before me wearing a tiger print athletic suit that somehow made her small frame seem bigger and more menacing. Her lipstick was bright red with a requisite amount on her teeth, which I chose to ignore, and curved into a knowing grin.
“Good evening Eddy. Any friend of yours,” I began but she cut me off.
“Could be a potential love match for you.” Her smile was so bright and so proud she didn’t notice the dark look that crossed my face.
“That’s doubtful but tonight is about charity and helping out Tulip, so introduce me to your friend.”
“Don’t be so sure,” she said and wagged a finger at me. “This is Tonya Roberts, she’s a corporate attorney in Dallas.”
Tonya stepped forward with a blinding white smile on her face that was only eclipsed by her in your face cleavage and bright red hair. “Rafe, Eddy has told me so much about you but her description didn’t do you justice.” Just to make sure she made her point, Tonya shoved her chest in my face and stood close enough that her perfume damn near choked me.
“Well she didn’t tell me anything about you Tonya, but it’s nice to meet you.” I stuck a hand out for her to take, a bland smile on my face. “Thanks for coming out tonight to support the town.”
Her smile slipped just a little but she wasn’t deterred. Not yet. “If you want to grab a table in the corner, I’ll be happy to tell you all about me.”
Classy. “Sorry, I’m on duty tonight.” She didn’t need to know it was calendar duty and neither did Eddy.
“Well I’ll just leave you two alone to get acquainted. Remember Rafe to show Tonya that Tulip knows how to treat strangers.” There was a gleam in her eyes as she walked away to join the other matchmakers set up right beside the table where Ry, Preston, Jase and Antonio were signing autographs and taking photos with women who had a fetish for men in uniform.
“So Rafe, that’s such a great name.”
“Thanks.” My gaze wandered back to the door and then around the room twice, clockwise and then counterclockwise and still, no Janey.
“I’m just gonna be honest with you Rafe. I’m not looking for a husband right now and even if I were, this town is too damn small for the life I want.”
My shoulders relaxed before I could be bothered to worry if I’d just been insulted or not. “Okay, great because I’m not in the habit of marrying women I don’t know.”
Her smile spread, wide and seductive. “But you’re hot and so am I and we could wreck a couple of beds before the sun comes up. What do you say?” In another time and another place, I would have grabbed her by the hand and found the nearest dark room or flat surface. She had that kind of confidence that I used to find appealing.
Instead, Nate’s words rang in my ears like a damn bell. I wasn’t interested in Tonya and it had nothing to do with her, she was gorgeous and willing and straightforward about what she wanted. But dammit, she wasn’t Janey. “Thanks for the offer but I’m gonna have to pass.”
She frowned but the look was more of confusion than offense. “Did the other woman get here first?”
Now it was my turn to look confused. “Other woman?”
She rolled her wide green eyes that were the wrong shape and the wrong shad, and released a frustrated sigh. “So what’s the problem then? Are you gay?”
I barked out a laugh at her arrogance, not offended in the slightest. “If it’ll make you feel better, I can say yes.”
Her eyes went wide. “There’s someone else. I waxed and bought a new dress to come down here and there’s someone else? Unbelievable!” She dug around in her tiny purse until she freed her hand and her cell phone with a victorious grin. “The last time I listen to a bunch of old ladies.”
“They mean well,” I told her with a shoulder shrug, “but they are ruthless when it comes to matching up the hometown heroes so go easy on them.”
Tonya turned to me and handed me her business card. “When you’re free again, give me a call. Offer stands.”
I flashed a bland smile that she took as acceptance, flashing her own confident smile before sauntering off, eyeing all the men in the room in search of a plan B. “Damned matchmakers,” I grumbled and headed to the bar for another beer. “Another please, Buddy.”
The old guy dug an icy bottle from behind the bar and slammed it on the bar in front of me with an amused grin. “Having fun already, huh?”
“So much fun I can hardly contain myself,” I told him and took another quick look for Janey before I took a long, fortifying gulp.
“Poor kid, in love with a great woman and having two more beauties panting after you.” Buddy snorted and shook his head. “I’d kill to have your problems.”
“Really? Because I know for a fact that Eddy and Helen aren’t seeing anybody.”
His salt and pepper brows dipped low. “Just what the hell are you gettin’ at boy?”
“Just that if you really wanted my problems you could have them. In fact,” I reached for the bottle and stood, glancing over my shoulder at the far too interested matchmakers. “Maybe I’ll go let the old girls know that with the calendar project complete, it’s time to focus on some of our more seasoned heroes.”
Buddy wiped down the already clean and dry bar with a whistle before he looked up at me with a conspiratorial smile on his face. “Keep your trap shut and your next
Trivia Night tab is on the house.”
I flashed a wide smile and held my hand out. “Deal.”
“Dammit,” he grumbled. “That was too damn easy.” I laughed and Buddy shook his head with a grin that slowly faded and darkened. “Incoming. Betty and Helen with a leggy blonde.”
I froze at his words for just a second before I held my bottle close and took a long, fortifying sip. “Maybe a shot of something strong to go with this,” I whispered before turning with my best choir boy smile. “Helen. Betty. To what do I owe the pleasure.”
“We told Eddy she had no idea what you’d like, but we do.” Helen flashed a proud smile and almost as if choreographed, stepped aside to make sure the leggy blonde reveal was as dramatic as possible. “This is Shannon McIntyre and she’s come all the way down to meet you.”
Betty stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. “Dr. Shannon McIntyre, she’s a pediatrician.”
Ah, Eddy’s first choice. “Nice to meet you Dr. McIntyre.” She had long blond hair and big blue eyes and pouty pink lips, all done to perfection. Absolute perfection. “I hope you’ve already gotten your calendar?”
“I did,” she said, the words coming out on a seductive purr. “Want to sign it for me?”
Betty patted my shoulder with a smile as she handed me a gold marker and I flashed a grateful smile. “It would be my pleasure, Dr. McIntyre.” I accepted the marker in one hand and the calendar with the other, smiling as I scribbled a grateful message, complete with a winky face. “There you are.”
Shannon smiled at me and stepped in close, too close, brushing her fingertips against my hand as she pulled the calendar free. “Thank you, Chief. What do you say we get outta here?” She leaned in even closer and pressed her chest against mine, completely oblivious to the fact that I was beyond not interested.
“Thanks for the offer but I’ll have to pass.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I spotted her. Janey. “Janey!”
She looked up at the sound of her name and smiled. It was a great smile, the kind of smile that made a man dream of things he shouldn’t. Things like seeing that same smile every day at the end of shit shift. Every morning when he woke up. All the times in between.
That Hot Night: A Firefighter Romance Page 13