by Ashlyn Chase
He had hoped this trip would put Kristine out of his mind by seeing her again, but as just a normal woman. Unfortunately, it looked as if his plan might backfire with his respect for her already growing.
He had checked in at a nearby hotel and deposited his stuff in his room. He’d brought only enough for a week’s stay, and the place was so small he could touch both walls with his arms outstretched. Suddenly, he was glad he hadn’t decided to spend two weeks there. Now it was time to stop puttering around and seek out the woman he had come to visit. He didn’t know if his presence would be welcome or not, but there was only one way to find out.
Bravery came in many different forms.
Fortunately, Jayce was an extrovert. He usually excelled in social situations and could charm the pants off almost any female. He hoped Kristine had forgotten about his chipper mood at Ryan’s “funeral.” He felt that enough time had passed and he could let his personality shine through now. She might actually enjoy him.
Hands in his pockets, Jayce stood outside the second-oldest fire station in the country. He gave his appearance a quick mental check. Hair clean and slightly tousled. Recent shave. Well-worn brown leather jacket and blue jeans with no holes or rips.
He took a deep, fortifying breath and walked past Engine 54 into the open bay. Ladder 4 was absent, so they might have been out on a call. Not knowing if Ms. Scott was assigned to the ladder, he’d just have to find out when he breezed in and asked for her.
No backing out now. A tall guy wearing an FDNY T-shirt was checking some equipment near the inside door. Jayce approached, and without waiting for him to look up, he smiled, stuck out his hand, and said, “Hi. I’m Jayce Fierro, a firefighter from Boston.”
The guy faced him and shook his hand. “Hey, Jayce. I’m Lieutenant Jack Mahoney. Welcome to Hell.” Jack gave him a knowing grin.
“Yeah, I’m impressed with what I’ve heard about the Hell’s Kitchen firefighters.” Then Jayce cleared his throat and got down to business. “Do you happen to know where I might find Kristine Scott?”
“Yeah. She’s inside. Probably in the kitchen. It’s her turn to clean up after lunch. I’d take you there, but I’ve got to finish this equipment check before we’re called out on another job.”
“Yeah, I hear that happens frequently here.”
“It hasn’t been too bad since the weather’s warmed up. Only two or three jobs a day.”
Jayce nodded, knowing how many fires were caused by poorly attended woodstoves and fireplaces. In the inner city, they even had to worry about homeless people starting small fires in or near abandoned buildings to stay warm.
“Just point me toward the kitchen, and I’ll see if she’s there. If nothing else, I can make myself a cup of coffee and see if it’s as bad as ours.”
The guy laughed. “Sure. Our kitchen is in the back on the right. Help yourself.”
Jayce found the place and opened the door quietly. A redhead with a ponytail, wearing a black FDNY T-shirt, didn’t turn around. He leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded casually, and watched her as she rinsed dishes and loaded the dishwasher.
Eventually, she must have felt she was being watched and whirled around to face him. Sudsy water dripped off her rubber gloves. “You!” she exclaimed, and her turquoise eyes widened.
“Hey there, Kristine.” He stayed where he was and aimed his most charming grin at her.
One side of her kissable lips curled in the half smile he’d seen before—and couldn’t forget no matter how hard he’d tried.
“Jayce, is it?”
“You do remember me.”
“How could I forget? We only broke up a few months ago. So what are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I was going to come up with something clever, like saying I wanted to get back together, but honesty is more my style. I’m on vacation this week. I thought I’d finally ask you out. Will you have lunch or dinner with me when you’re free? Maybe you can recommend some sights I should see while I’m here.”
She leaned against the counter and studied him for a moment. “Sure, but first I want to apologize.”
“For what?”
She stared at the floor. “For being so mean to someone who had just lost a loved one.” She raised her eyes. “I figured out later you were probably dealing with your grief in your own way. Maybe acting like nothing was wrong was helping you get through the day.”
He smiled and nodded. “You’re forgiven. And if I somehow upset you—”
“No. You didn’t. A fellow firefighter’s funeral is always an emotional powder keg. I think I was just caught up in all the beautiful things that were said about your brother, and the tragedy affected all of us.”
“I totally get that. He was a good man.” Jayce almost said “still is” but caught himself in time.
“So, that dinner… When were you thinking?” she asked as she removed the rubber gloves.
“I can probably be more flexible since all I really want to do is go to a taping of a late-night TV show I like, but it’s filmed in the afternoon. What’s your schedule like this week?”
“I’m coming off my rotation tonight at six, and I have the next seventy-two hours off. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, but after that I’m free.”
“That should go well. I mean, since you floss and everything,” Jayce teased.
She laughed. “Yeah. I expect a gold star on my forehead for that.”
Her merriment seemed to bubble up from her toes. Jayce liked it much better than some of the cute but fake giggles of the girls he usually dated. “So, how about tonight? Where and when can I pick you up?”
“Um…”
Her hesitation began to concern him. Did she not want to give him her address? “Or we could meet at the restaurant,” he added.
She smiled and seemed to relax. “Yeah. That would work better for me. There’s a selection of international restaurants right here in the neighborhood. Where are you staying?”
“Not far from here.”
Suddenly the tones rang out.
“Damn,” she muttered. “What food do you like?”
Recognizing the need for a quick decision, he said, “Thai.”
“Great.” She began running toward the kitchen door. “There’s a Thai place right around the corner on Ninth Avenue.”
He held the door open for her. “Eight o’clock?”
“Fine,” her voice called out as she disappeared around the ladder truck.
“See you there,” he yelled after her.
* * *
“So, what does this ‘friend’ look like?” Amy Scott asked her daughter.
“I’ll tell you that if you give me a hint as to what my father looks like.”
Amy sighed.
“I don’t know why you won’t tell me a damned thing about my father.” Kristine aimed an angry look at her actress mother as she got ready for her dinner out. Still not sure what the evening held, she’d just called it “dinner with a friend” instead of a date.
“We’ve been over this a thousand times, Kristine. You don’t want to know.”
Kristine stomped her foot. “Yes, I do, dammit!” She hadn’t meant to start a fight, especially not as she was getting all dolled up to go out.
Her mother started straightening the items on Kristine’s dresser. “You look awfully nice for a casual dinner with a friend. Little black dress. Black pumps. Gold earrings…” Her mother plucked a cologne bottle off the dresser and handed it to her daughter. “Here. I imagine you might want this too.”
Kristine sighed. “I know what you’re doing.”
Amy gave her an innocent stare. “Oh?”
“Actually, you’re doing two things at the same time. You’re changing the subject, and you’re trying to figure out if this is a date.” She swiped the bottle out of her mother’s ha
nd. “Very clever, but it won’t work.”
With the perfume in her hand, Kristine muttered “Why not?” and spritzed a small amount of the light floral Victoria’s Secret scent on her neck. Yes, she had visited the store Jayce had suggested but walked out with only the fragrance.
Her mother gave her a sly smile. “Where did you meet him?”
“That’s it. No more changing the subject! It may have worked when I was little, but it won’t work now. Tell me about my father. Something. Anything!”
Her mother heaved a deep dramatic sigh. Always the actress.
“We’ve had this argument for a decade! I know you feel you have a right to know, but don’t I have a right to keep my private life private?”
Kristine snorted, and a tiny curl of smoke escaped her nostril.
“Please try not to be angry with me. After all, it’s ‘you and me against the world…’” Amy sang the opening lines to a song they used to sing together when Kristine was growing up. Her mother’s professionally trained soprano voice was as pitch-perfect as ever.
“Mom. Just stop it. My theories might be worse than the truth. For instance, were you raped?”
Amy gasped and slapped her hand over her heart. “Absolutely not!”
“Well, good. There’s one worry out of the way.”
“Honestly, Kristine, you need to just give it up. Any knowledge about him won’t do you any good anyway.”
“How do you know?”
Amy tossed her hands in the air. “I just do.”
“Mother! That’s the parental equivalent of ‘because I said so.’ I’m an adult, dammit. Stop treating me like a child who can’t handle the truth. I want to know something, no matter how ugly.”
“Well, I wasn’t raped.”
Kristine had just about had it with this stupid argument. She was fuming—literally. If she didn’t calm down, she’d probably greet Jayce with skin so heated, it would radiate right through his jacket, and that wouldn’t be suspicious at all. She grabbed her purse and sweater and marched to the front door of the apartment.
Amy followed slowly, looking dejected. That sad face was just more acting. Kristine was sure of it, so she shot her mother a parting glare and slammed the door on her way out.
She tried calming down by walking around her neighborhood for a bit. She’d lived here ever since she could remember, although she had been born in a hospital on Long Island. Why there? She didn’t know. Of course, her mother wouldn’t answer that question either.
Try as she might, staying angry with her mother was difficult. The woman had worked as a waitress and taken acting gigs on Broadway any time she could get a bit part. Kristine had to admire her. She had never been made to feel like she was getting in the way of her mother’s dream of acting, even though she may have been. The widow who lived in the apartment next door was a nice person and had watched Kristine when her mom had to work. Kristine was always taken care of.
She had essentially been a good kid. She came home from school on time, did her homework, and tried not to give her mother too much to worry about. Of course, it helped that Amy knew her dragon daughter was strong and fireproof with heightened senses and could protect herself. Theirs had always been a solid relationship. Kristine had only one problem with the whole arrangement—two, actually. Who the heck was her father, and was he partly responsible for her secret abilities?
Did he even know about her? Since she’d had to form her own theories, she had to assume he probably didn’t. Was he still alive? When her mom said it wouldn’t matter now anyway, that made Kristine think he had probably died.
She had to stop thinking about it. Otherwise she’d never calm down enough to meet Jayce for dinner. Maybe this was a mistake, but since three days were all they had, she didn’t think there was much danger of getting overly involved with the handsome Bostonian. And she needed a fling—badly. It had been a long time since she’d been with a guy. Actors were a worse relationship choice than firefighters, so the local options were slim.
She took a couple of deep cleansing breaths and forced herself to get out of her own head and look around. At almost eight at night, restaurants were well lit and plenty safe simply because of the number of people out and about. The continuous noise of traffic was like the city’s heartbeat. It always reminded her how alive Manhattan was. The occasional blast of a horn or siren was like that live entity letting out a shout.
The laughter of people exiting a bar lightened her mood. Maybe she’d be laughing in a few minutes too. Jayce Fierro was a charming guy with a good sense of humor. She might not know him well, but she’d been able to glean that much already. She was looking forward to spending some time with him.
At last she felt human enough to go meet her…date? Whatever this was, she wasn’t going to worry about it. She vowed to simply have a good time and let whatever happened happen. She dodged pedestrians and made her way to the Thai restaurant, hoping Jayce would be there. The very last thing she needed tonight was to be stood up.
Happily, she saw him leaning against the building, watching the people across the street. Sometimes she engaged in people watching too. One of her silly enjoyable pastimes was to sit at her favorite café that had windows at ground level and check out people’s shoes as she sipped her latte.
Tonight Jayce was wearing boots. Nice ones. Not the shit-kickers most firefighters wore even on their days off. And though he still wore jeans, with his hands in his pockets, she could see he had paired a dark-gray wool blazer with a white dress shirt. Good. He seemed to be treating this as a date too.
She sighed in relief, knowing she wasn’t overdressed.
He turned as if he sensed her gaze on him. His dark eyebrows arched, and a smile lit up his handsome face. If his reaction was any indication, he liked what he saw too.
“Well, hello,” he greeted her. “You look…gorgeous!”
Kristine laughed. Even if he didn’t mean a word of it, she was thrilled to receive a positive review. Boy, did she need a compliment! Fortunately, he seemed sincere.
“You’re not too shabby either,” she said, smiling.
He swooped in, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and extended his elbow as if he were escorting her to a fancy function, not just taking her on a…possible date. Probable date. Oh hell. Just call it a date and be done with it, Kristine.
“I didn’t know the name of the place, but I did some reconnaissance and made reservations.”
“I’m sorry. I should have given you the name.”
“No apologies necessary. I didn’t have any particular plans, and walking around aimlessly is one of my favorite things to do.”
She laughed again. “Aimlessly, huh?”
“Sure. You know. Go where the mood takes you.” He held the door for her. “Sometimes I find awesome things I’d never have discovered if I’d stuck to a plan.”
“I think that’s called serendipity.” She passed him and entered the restaurant.
“Good to know. I’ve been calling it dumb luck.” Leaning close to her, he whispered, “Maybe meeting you was a kind of serendipity.”
His velvety voice and warm breath on her ear created an instant sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time—damp panties. Whoa. She almost groaned as she remembered she had worn her satin granny panties. She figured it could be a joke if he ever got that far; meanwhile she’d be in no danger of showing panty lines in her figure-hugging dress.
He escorted her to the hostess and gave his name. She wondered how he had gotten such an unusual name and filed the question away to ask in case their conversation stalled. Somehow she doubted it would.
When they were shown to their seats, he pulled out the chair for her, and when she was seated, he helped push her in. Kristine wondered where that totally unnecessary action had come from. In olden times, had furniture been so heavy and females so frail that it took a gentleman
to be sure they made it to the table?
Regardless of the stupidity of some customs, his good manners were greatly appreciated. At work, Kristine wasn’t exactly treated like “one of the guys,” but they had no problem using the most vile profanity in front of her or letting a door slam instead of holding it for her. It was nice to be treated respectfully, like a classy woman, for a change.
Jayce leaned forward. “You really do look beautiful tonight.”
She felt a blush warm her cheeks, but it wasn’t due to the dragon within. She was unsure how to answer multiple compliments. “Thank you” seemed like the right response, but it could become redundant around a guy like Jayce.
“I used to work here after school a few years ago,” she said to change the subject. “The place has classed itself up, but the menu is about the same. Do you know what you want, or should I make a few recommendations?”
* * *
Jayce knew what he wanted, all right, but it wasn’t on the menu. At least not the menu in his hands. He closed the long tablet. “Why don’t you order for both of us?”
“Are you sure? I mean, what if you don’t like something in it or if it’s too spicy?”
“Don’t worry about it. I love anything hot and spicy.” He winked at her and then almost groaned aloud. Try not to be too obvious, Fierro. He cleared his throat and added, “If it doesn’t walk off my plate, I’ll eat it, and I’m sure I’ll like it.”
She chuckled. “And if it does walk off your plate?”
“I’ll take a video and post it on Facebook.”
She laughed aloud. He really did love that throaty sound and the way her smile almost split her face. Even at rest, her sensuous mouth was wide and her full lips were…kissable. Very kissable.
A waiter appeared, and Kristine ordered a bottle of wine as well as their dinners. She’d picked choices with three chili peppers next to them on the menu. He quirked a half smile. If she was testing his honesty, she was about to find out how much a firebird loved its food hot. Fortunately she could stand the heat too, or she wouldn’t have ordered it.