“I always thought so. Ever since I knew what “sexy” meant. It’s not so strange. Look at you.” The warmth in his eyes embraced her, made her feel like a goddess. “I never thought it went the other way, though.”
“Well…” She thought about it. Took another sip of beer. “It did. Sort of. I mean, I didn’t think of you that way. But if I’d thought about it, I would have said you were sexy.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. “Talk about a compli-sult.”
She liked the way his throat muscles moved. He had a healthy layer of dark scruff covering his jaw. What would he smell like, right there, between his collarbone and his neck? Something told her that scent would please her. He pleased her, on a purely physical level.
But there was so much more to relationships than the physical. Your goals had to be aligned. You had to click on a mental level.
Not for a rebound.
He finished his beer, then grabbed his jacket and stood up. “Should we get out of here?”
“Wait. No. What are you saying? Don’t you think that’s a little presumptuous?”
He shot her an odd look. “I need to get home and make sure the intervention didn’t turn into an emotional bloodbath. I can only handle so many sobbing teenage girls at a time.”
Right. Of course. Her face felt warm again.
“I’ll call you in a couple days. I’ll pick Thomas’ brain about the town manager job and let you know what he says.”
She shook herself back to sanity. This rebound idea was absurd. Also, very bad. Rebounds were trouble. She didn’t believe in them. Someone always got hurt. She didn’t want that to be her, and she didn’t want that to be Jason, either.
“Thanks, Jason. I owe you one. Stop by Alvin’s any time and I’ll set you up with a burger.” She got to her feet as well, and edged her way past the table. They both headed for the exit.
Should they time their departures so that no one thought they were leaving together? No, there was no need for that. No one would put her and Jason together. They were two high school locker neighbors catching up, nothing more.
A tourist who’d had too much beer stumbled into her. Jason put his arm around her shoulders to pull her out of his path. A spray of heat shot through her body. It settled in her lower belly, a throbbing knot of awareness.
“I’m fine,” she told him, trying to sound irritated. Did he notice the unusual shakiness of her voice? “Watch your step, mister,” she told the tourist.
“You better watch your—”
“Okay, okay.” Jason intervened, keeping his body between the two of them. “Lake Bittersweet Fire Department here. Keep it cool.”
“Whatever.” The man gestured recklessly as he turned back to the bar.
It wasn’t until they got outside that Kendra realized he must have accidentally made contact with Jason’s face. His lower lip was swollen.
“Jason Mosedale.” She tugged him to a stop and touched his lip. “You have to stop getting injured on my behalf.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll do my best. Wait. Does this mean you owe me another kiss? Because this’ll be gone by tomorrow.” He pointed at the bump on his lip and grinned.
“You’re pushing it, Jaybone.”
Five
The “intervention” must have been really something. Jason surveyed the teenagers snoring away in the basement den. The six of them filled every sleep-worthy nook in the room. One girl—he couldn’t tell who—was curled up in Rusty’s dog bed with the old Irish Setter. Both were snoring.
The space reeked of popcorn and scented candles. He quickly located the candles and confirmed they were well away from any paper or cloth. Good thing he’d trained Holly on proper fire-prevention protocols.
Holly, who was sharing the couch, head to feet with Chloe, opened her eyes when Jason poked his head in the door.
She put a finger to her lips, lifted Chloe’s draped arm off her leg, and carefully rolled off the couch.
In the dog bed, Rusty stirred, lifted his head, then dropped it back down as if the weight was just too much.
In the kitchen, Holly stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”
“Midnight. Did I stay away long enough?”
“Yes, but I thought you’d probably find someone to spend the night with,” she grumbled through another yawn. “It’s weird having you be so single.”
“I’m sorry my love life isn’t living up to expectations.” He opened the fridge and poured himself a glass of ice water. “How’d the intervention go?”
“Not well, at first. Chloe accused us of being a bunch of Karens getting in her business. Some feelings were hurt on both sides. We talked through it. I mediated. Then we watched a horror movie. There was this girl playing the violin, and—”
“Hey. You know I can’t handle that shit.” It was a running joke with them that the big strong firefighter didn’t like gory movies. The fact was, he saw enough upsetting things on the job, even in a small town like Lake Bittersweet. He didn’t need them in his movies. Give him a fun action movie or a rom-com any day.
“Right. Anyway, we’re all good now. We’re talking about taking a camping trip next week.”
“Is Chloe going to dump her boyfriend?”
“You mean her loser hookup who posts the worst memes in the multiverse? No. She had a point. It’s her relationship. We all agreed to support her no matter what, but reserved the right to say ‘I told you so’ if they break up.”
“Good negotiating.”
“Right?” They exchanged a high-five.
He took a sip and let cold water slide down his throat. It felt good after all that conversation in the crowded pizza shop, trying to make himself heard over all the chatter.
Holly leaned toward him and sniffed. “You had pizza.”
“No, just a beer.” He gave a little laugh. “I forgot to order one, if you can believe it.”
His sister eyed him suspiciously. She wore her favorite thread-worn sleep shorts and a t-shirt with a panda on it. “You must have been with someone fascinating. I know it wasn’t Galen.”
“If eccentric and fascinating are the same thing, it could be Galen. But it wasn’t,” he admitted. “I lost track of him early on.”
“Then who?”
For some reason, he didn’t want to tell her he’d spent the entire evening talking to Kendra. He loved his little sister, but she had opinions about everything.
He fudged. “An old high school friend.”
“Girl or boy?”
“Do you have to be so binary about it?”
She laughed, since that was a conversation they had on a regular basis. In fact, her friend Kayla was a trans girl, and he’d gotten a front-row seat—or maybe front-row, off-to-the-side—to her experience.
“That means it was a girl. I approve. You’ve been moping around about Gretchen way too long. She was never right for you anyway.”
Here we go, thought Jason with an inward sigh. How could Holly be so damn confident in her judgements? Had he been like that at her age? Maybe he had, but his opinions hadn’t generally involved other people’s relationships.