by Amie Denman
“Why is he so worked up over the party?” Kevin asked. “Unless it rains, no one will even notice the inside of the station.”
Tony shrugged. “He’s getting ready to retire, probably wants to leave on a high note.”
Kevin wondered how many of his friends were considering applying for the promotions that would open up with his uncle’s retirement. Tyler wasn’t interested. As he’d put it, the higher up the ladder a guy gets, the more meetings and headaches he has. Kevin was willing to put in extra hours to advance in a career he loved.
He took a long drink and glanced over at Nicole’s booth. She was with Jane and Laura. Meeting Laura yesterday reminded him why he was treading on dangerous territory trying to have a relationship with Nicole. The sisters shared their brother’s loss and probably the same feelings about firefighters.
“You going over there?” Tyler elbowed him in the ribs and nodded toward the table he’d been staring at.
“Don’t know.”
“If you are, you should send drinks first,” Tyler advised. “Makes you look better when you show up.”
“Is that how you got Hillary to marry you?”
“Yes. And I’m better looking than you.”
Kevin signaled the waitress and asked her to take a bottle of Moscato to Nicole’s table. He waited, watching for Nicole’s reaction when the Italian wine she’d ordered the first night they’d met arrived at her table. Even if it didn’t soften her feelings toward him, he could at least try to say thank you for her words the night of the drowning.
His partners exchanged glances and grinned at him. He would have expected Charlie to rib him about it, but Charlie stared pensively at the women’s table.
“Is Jane doing that mural for your new shop downtown?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said.
“I thought you two worked all that out.”
“Not by a long shot,” he said grimly.
“Wait a minute,” Tyler cut in. “Is there something going on between you and Jane? Have you managed to piss off the one woman in town who still respects you?”
“Like I’d tell you,” Charlie said. He got up and headed toward the restroom.
* * *
“WHO WOULD SEND us a bottle of Moscato?” Jane asked, raising her eyebrows and smiling at Nicole.
Nicole carefully avoided looking in Kevin’s direction when the waitress brought the bottle and told them it was from another table. Nicole and Jane knew who sent it. Kevin was like the ocean breeze always present in Cape Pursuit. Since her first day in town, he’d been right over her shoulder and right around the corner. It had gone on for over two months at this point. She was going to have to do something about it.
Like kiss him again.
“Seriously, who?” Laura asked, her open expression conveying her confusion.
Jane turned and waved at the table of firefighters in the corner by the television. “Charlie disappeared,” she said to Nicole. “And he’s obviously not sending me a bottle of alcohol.”
“I don’t think it’s Charlie,” Nicole said.
“Of course I have other friends at that table,” Jane said, “but I’d say this is for you.”
“Fine,” Laura said, “don’t tell me. I’m drinking it anyway.” She filled up her glass and downed half of it.
“It’s Kevin,” Nicole said. She hoped she would remove some of the mystery and slow her racing heart by sounding matter-of-fact about it.
Laura cocked her head and looked at her sister. “Kevin who?”
“Remember the guy who was painting the house we toured?”
“Uh-huh. He’s here?”
Nicole glanced over at the table of testosterone. Kevin was looking at her at the same moment. Of course.
Laura swiveled and stared. “He looks way better now. But he’s a firefighter. Those guys live on adrenaline.” She was already finished with her glass of wine. “Until they die on it.”
Nicole felt like a birthday balloon that had floated away from the backyard party and popped on a tree branch. Her sister was right. Kevin would give his life for his job. She’d seen him going under the water over and over to look for that girl. That was his life, his passion. Did she really want to take one step closer to a man who wouldn’t walk away from daily risk?
She sipped her wine and toyed with her food.
“I like the website,” Jane said. “I had no idea you knew how to write HTML code.”
Nicole laughed. “Only a little. I bought one of those premade template-driven sites where you plug in your stuff. Anyone could do it.”
“I doubt it,” Laura said. “We’re supposed to be using all kinds of technology at my high school, but most of the teachers haven’t even mastered our online attendance program.”
“How’s teaching?” Jane asked. “History, right?”
Laura sighed and shoved her salad plate away. “I love history, but I hate teenagers. I need a new job.”
Nicole and Jane exchanged glances. In the two days her sister had been in town, Nicole had felt her sister’s sadness like a heavy winter coat hanging over her shoulders. She’d been there, too. Adam’s death last summer shocked them both into rethinking how they wanted to live.
For Nicole, the picture had come into focus. Cape Pursuit with its sunrises and fresh air touched a nerve and switched on a light for her. And Laura? Nicole wished she knew how to help her sister, who was refilling her wine glass. Again.
“Maybe you could write about history? Or get your PhD and teach college?” Jane suggested.
Laura shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. I like history because it’s safe. You know what did happen instead of worrying about what will.”
Nicole exchanged another worried look with Jane. Nicole signaled the waitress and asked for a pitcher of water. Maybe we should dilute the wine.
“The online store should be ready to open in a few days now that I’ve uploaded pictures of the pieces of art for sale. I have to make sure the commerce end of the site is totally secure before I open it up for business,” Nicole said.
“Next I’ll be launching a chain of art galleries,” Jane said.
“Need a manager for any of them?” Laura asked, a smile erasing her earlier gloom.
Nicole saw movement in her peripheral vision. With a subtle twist of her head, she determined the source. Yes, Santa Claus was coming to town. And she had five seconds to prepare.
Jane shot her a warning glance, a small lift of one eyebrow.
Kevin stood at the edge of their booth’s table. He bestowed a quick smile on Jane and Laura and turned his focus on Nicole like a searchlight. He looked like a different man than the paint-splattered, half-bearded version she saw yesterday. It didn’t matter. Kevin, with his broad shoulders and stormy green eyes, would be attractive if he were frozen in ice for a century and thawed over her grandmother’s old Maytag stove.
It wasn’t fair.
“Thank you for the wine,” Nicole said, congratulating herself on her even, rational tone of voice. Her internal thought of would you consider kissing me in front of this whole bar? temporarily lost the battle. Not the war, though. She still wanted him in an irrational way.
“Not sure if it’s an actual Italian vintage, but it’s probably the closest thing they have,” he said.
“It’s nice.”
He turned to Laura. “How do you like Cape Pursuit? Good vacation so far?”
This was a good sign. He was making small talk with her sister. While he chatted, Nicole glanced over to the firefighter table. Empty glasses stood on the table and a game played on the television, but all eyes at the table were looking in her direction. Maybe they were mentally sending encouragement to Kevin for whatever mission he was on. Or maybe they were just waiting to see him make a fool of himself so they could entertain themselves giving him
grief about it later.
“So far, so good,” Laura told Kevin. “I may never want to go home. No beach in Indianapolis.”
“So you’re staying awhile?”
“Just a week, according to my plane ticket. But my sister here was only staying for the summer and now she’s looking at houses.” Laura smiled, a little crookedly and a lot drunkenly. “Ask me in a week.”
He nodded and returned his attention to Nicole. She wasn’t disappointed to be in the search beam of the stormy eyes, but she wondered if he had something special to say. After all, he’d abandoned man-land and trekked across the bar, even though he hadn’t made an effort to see her in the past week.
Maybe he’d needed time to let the wound of the tragic drowning heal over a little. She understood that well.
“Can I call you later?” he asked. “There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. Unlike her sister, she’d only had one glass of Moscato and she was in full awareness mode. “But you could ask me now...unless you’re planning a surprise gift for Jane to thank her for being such a good listener.”
He grinned, his shoulders relaxing a solid inch. “She told you about that, huh?”
Nicole shrugged. “We’re friends. We talk.”
“Talking is good,” he said.
“Do you talk at the fire station?”
“All the time.” He raised one eyebrow at Jane. “But your friend here is a whole lot more polite. And intuitive.”
“Do you talk about your personal lives?” Jane asked.
“Only if we have to,” Kevin said. “And only if it’s really interesting.”
Nicole knew she and Jane were wondering the same thing. Had Charlie confided in any of his friends at the station? Had he told anyone he would become a father in a matter of months? She wanted to ask Kevin, but she couldn’t just blurt out the question no matter how much wine she had drunk.
Even though her attention was on Kevin, Nicole noticed her sister’s speculative glance. She hadn’t told Laura anything about Kevin—not about the brief flirtations or the scene in his kitchen. Or the lying-awake longing she’d felt for weeks. She’d been standing outside the bakery looking at cupcakes, when all along she’d had enough money in her purse to buy out the whole tray of sweets. What was she waiting for?
Maybe it was time.
“What did you want to ask me?”
Kevin glanced at Jane and Laura, who were listening intently.
“I’m afraid of getting rejected again,” Kevin said. “Maybe I should go sit down.”
“Give it a try,” Jane said. “I’m not drinking tonight so I could use some entertainment.”
Nicole returned her attention to Kevin and tried to appear encouraging, even though she probably shouldn’t. If she wanted to preserve her sanity, she should be preparing a speech that would gently decline whatever he was asking.
“When you have time, that is, maybe after your sister’s visit...would you have dinner with me?”
Nicole considered it. Why was she considering it? What had changed since the last time he’d asked her out? Maybe it was seeing him in action, seeing him put his heart and soul into trying to save that girl. A man with a heart like that...
No. No matter how big his heart was, it belonged to firefighting.
She shook her head and tried for a pleasant smile. “Sorry. It’s very nice of you to ask, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Kevin nodded and swallowed. His fingers played with the edge of the table. Nicole was almost on the verge of changing her mind. Jane and Laura seemed to be holding their breaths.
“I understand,” Kevin said. He turned and walked back to his table of friends, his shoulders squared but his steps slow.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A WEEK LATER, Nicole reminded herself that what she was about to do with Kevin was not a date. It was business.
The owner of the largest marina and boat dealership in Cape Pursuit had seen her pictures in the gallery and asked her to photograph his business and boats for an upcoming feature in a local tourist magazine. If she wanted to save money to get a place of her own, freelance photography was a great opportunity.
“Are you sure you don’t mind being left alone?” Nicole asked her sister. “I could see if the marina could postpone the photo shoot until next week.”
“The weather today is perfect, and this is your big chance to get your pictures in a magazine. I’ll be fine,” Laura said. “You’re leaving me your car and I know how to get any place I want to go in Cape Pursuit.”
“Do you plan to go anywhere?”
“Probably the beach and carryout food. Maybe pick up a souvenir for Mom before I head out on Tuesday. Are you planning to keep your cool with the hot firefighter who’s picking you up?”
“Absolutely. I only accepted his offer of a ride because I didn’t want to leave you with no wheels. His dad is a boat dealer with the marina, and that’s the only reason Kevin is my ride.”
The bell rang. Nicole opened the door and almost gasped. Kevin wore a blue polo shirt and tan shorts. Boat shoes. No socks. He didn’t look the least bit like a firefighter. He looked like a man on vacation. A muscular, well-built, dark-haired, handsome man.
“Hi,” he said, his eyes doing a quick survey of Nicole. “I forgot to ask you if you have boat shoes.”
“I didn’t know we were getting on the boats,” Nicole said.
Kevin laughed. “What fun would it be if we didn’t?”
“I think it’s supposed to be work, not fun, but I’ll grab some different shoes.”
Nicole ducked around the corner and dug in the bottom of the hall closet. She and Jane wore the same size, and she hoped her friend owned boat shoes.
“You’re still here,” Kevin said to her sister, Laura, his tone friendly but questioning.
“I decided to stay a few more days,” Laura said. “There’s over a month until school starts, and I’m not sure I’m going back to high school teaching anyway.”
Nicole wondered what Kevin would think of her sister’s career crisis. He’d probably never wavered in what he wanted to be when he grew up and never considered changing his occupation. She doubted he dreaded going to work every day, unlike the guys she’d seen trudging into the furniture factory back home. They hauled their hard-sided lunchboxes through the gates as if they were going to their own funeral.
“How can you not go back?” Kevin asked. “It’s your job.”
“Easy. I just won’t,” Laura answered, her tone flippant and bitter. “There’s always somebody who wants a job. Some other poor schmuck can try to make teenagers give a darn about history instead of their smartphones.”
Over the past week, her sister had talked a lot about how she dreaded angsty adolescents, homework, hall passes and bus duty. Had Nicole hated her former job and trudged in every day? Never. Quite foolishly, she’d popped into her office each morning, hoping to catch her boss’s eye. It made the days go faster until reality surfaced and she discovered her boss had only been using her devotion. That was a mistake she wouldn’t make again.
“It’s an important job,” Kevin said, continuing his conversation with Laura while Nicole dug through sandals and mismatched sneakers in the bottom of the closet. She really should organize it for Jane before baby and toddler shoes joined the pile. “Don’t you like being a teacher?” Kevin asked.
Nicole found two matching boat shoes with white soles and slipped them on. She heard her sister sigh as she came up behind her.
“Still working on what I like,” Laura said.
Nicole squeezed her sister’s shoulder. “Behave yourself today.”
“You, too.”
The sisters exchanged a quick smile and Nicole followed Kevin through the door. He opened the passenger door of his truck for her.
&n
bsp; As Nicole hoisted herself into the passenger seat, she noticed a leash and a plastic water bowl on the floor. Apparently Arnold was not going along on this ride.
“Does your dog like boats?” she asked, clicking her seat belt in place.
“Definitely not,” Kevin said. He shut her door, went around to the driver’s side, climbed in and started the truck. “We took him out just one time. He’s got a stomach made for land, not sea. He’s just as bad as my brother, the puker.” Kevin laid a long arm across the seat back as he backed out of the driveway. “Tyler never goes out on the fireboat. It would be bad.”
He shifted gears and then swung his gaze toward Nicole, concern wrinkling his brow. “You don’t get seasick, do you?”
“I’ve never been seasick,” she said, smiling reassuringly at him. “I went on a cruise with my family when I was sixteen. My dad won the trip from some promotional thing at work.”
“Where did you go?”
“Nassau in the Bahamas. It was a short cruise, but there was one really rough day. My mom and my sister got sick, so my dad and my brother and I had the dinner table all to ourselves.”
“Calm today.”
“That’s probably good. I haven’t been out on a small boat on the ocean, so it’ll be an adventure.”
“Thanks for helping out my dad’s marina. They worked with a photographer from Virginia Beach last year, but I guess he didn’t have much imagination and the pictures were just...flat.”
Nicole admired Kevin’s smooth shifting on the way down the shoreline from Cape Pursuit. He was easy on the clutch, and the truck moved through gears almost as if it were an automatic. The man has good hands. No matter how many days had passed since their unexpected kiss in his kitchen, she hadn’t forgotten how good he was at that skill, too.
Had he forgotten? Or was he giving her space, doing what she said she wanted and not pushing her to go out with him?
I’m out with him now.
“How is your ankle?” she asked, keeping her tone on the business side of friendly.
“Fine,” he said, glancing briefly at her. “It was just a sprain.”