Fully Ignited (Boston Fire #3) (6 page)

“You guys in Boston have a weird sense of walking distance, though. Driving here is such a nightmare I think you’ve all convinced yourself that ‘easy walking distance’ and ‘would be considered a marathon if you jogged it’ are the same thing.”

They all laughed, and then they watched some cowboys riding around fake cacti while they finished their stew. Chris walked in a little while later and took their bowls, since he was doing the dishes.

“You need help?” Jamie asked. She’d noticed some of the other guys going through to the bunk room or to the weight equipment, so he might be alone.

“After I wash these bowls, I’m taking a power nap. You can dry them and put them away if you want, or they can sit and drip dry. Either way.”

“It would be nice to have a dishwasher,” she said.

“Budget,” all the guys said at the same time, and she laughed.

Old Westerns weren’t her cup of tea, so she followed Chris into the kitchen and pulled a clean dish towel out of the drawer. After he’d pulled the plug in the sink, he gave her a mock salute and went to take his nap, leaving her alone with a pile of dishes and the sound of Hollywood gunfire from the other room.

She wasn’t alone very long, though. Scott came in, and judging by how close he stood and the fact he was practically staring at the door, she knew he had something to say he didn’t want anybody else overhearing.

Jamie hoped whatever it was wasn’t very important, since she had trouble concentrating when he was so close to her. She could smell the soap and shampoo that all the guys used, but there was something about smelling it on him that made her want to tousle his hair and bury her face in his neck.

“You don’t have to go to my dad’s for dinner if you don’t want to,” he said in a low voice.

“I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t want to go. Do
you
not want me to go?”

“What do you mean?”

She kept wiping the bowl in her hand, even though it was already dry. “You didn’t look too thrilled when Aidan offered the invitation, that’s all.”

“I just... I don’t know. I’m not sure if the old man’s up to something, that’s all. Like maybe he has the wrong idea.”

“Where would he get the wrong idea?”

“Because of the fight at the bar. Because I got so pissed that guy was disrespecting you, and then he thinks it’s funny that you broke it up by pulling my hair, so who knows what thoughts he’s got in his head.”

“You’re never going to live the hair thing down, are you?”

He grinned, which made her feel better. “Never.”

“Maybe he just wants to meet me because you have a dangerous job and I’m a big part of it and of helping you go home safely at the end of each tour, so he wants to make sure I’m up to it.”

“Maybe.”

It was the nature of a firehouse that they weren’t going to be alone very much longer, so she cut to the chase. “If you don’t want me to go, I’ll tell Aidan I just remembered something else I had to do. No hard feelings.”

“No, I
do
want you to go, which is part of the problem. You know I’m attracted to you, and I’m doing my best to bury that. Us being possibly set up by my father for a family dinner makes that a little messy for me, but I’ll handle it.”

She looked into his dark eyes, surprised by his candor. He wasn’t playing games, and she appreciated that. He wanted her, she’d told him why she didn’t think it was a good idea, and he was trying to respect that. “I won’t go. It’s really not a big deal.”

“I want you to go more than I don’t want you to go.” He ran a hand through his hair. “How’s that for messed up?”

“I understand.” She sighed and set the bowl on the counter to pick up another from the dish rack. “Trust me, I know what you mean.”

Grant walked in then, rubbing his stomach. “Is there any stew left? I’m still hungry.”

“You’re
always
hungry,” Scott said, picking the dried bowl up off the counter and turning toward the cabinet as if he’d been standing so close to her because he was putting the dishes away. “And no, there isn’t any left.”

“Should I bring anything Sunday?” she asked Scott while Grant rummaged around in the fridge. She was going to go because she
did
know exactly what he meant. She wanted to see him more than she feared what would happen if she saw him.

It was a mess, and all they’d done was kiss one time. But she didn’t have the willpower to turn down an invitation to spend more time with him.

SIX

S
COTT
SLAPPED
THE
PUCK
,
and then groaned when it bounced off the goal crossbar with a solid and unmistakable clang.

“You are seriously off your game tonight, Kincaid.”

“Screw you, Hunt.” He flipped Aidan off as he skated by.

“Got something on your mind?” his friend called back to him. “Or somebody?”

The same somebody who’d been on his mind since the night of the wedding reception smoke machine, when Jamie had walked into the engine bay. “Just keeping Gullotti on his toes.”

“On my toes?” Rick called from the net. “I could sit here on my ass and you couldn’t get that puck by me tonight.”

Trash-talking wasn’t as fun when it was almost the truth. Not quite the truth, though. He wasn’t on his game, but if Rick sat down, he could probably score on him. Thankfully they weren’t playing a game tonight. Grabbing some ice time was simply their favorite kind of workout and a bunch of them often got together to play outside of the fire department league. Tonight, only three of them had been able to make it but they were playing anyway because they had the ice, taking turns in the goal.

“How’s the dating break going?” Rick asked when Aidan pointed at the clock to signal their time was up.

“I haven’t been on a date, so I guess it’s a big success,” Scott said. He’d date Jamie in a second, of course, but since she was off-limits, the break lived on. “How are things with you?”

“Good. I’ll be happy when Jessica’s here for good and doesn’t have to go back and forth to San Diego, but it’s worth the separations.
She’s
worth it. And this way she’s building a great relationship with her grandparents without bailing on her relationship with her dad.”

“You set a date yet?”

“Not yet. Once Danny’s back, she and I will take Joe and Marie to California to see Davey. They’ve been estranged for so long, it won’t be an easy reconciliation, but she wants them all there when we get married.”

They sat on the bench to unlace their skates. “There’s only one of him. Wouldn’t it be easier for him to come here?”

“It would. And cheaper. But there are so many memories here and so many people who know them that it’ll be easier on his turf. More neutral, especially since we’ll all stay at a hotel. And Joe and Marie have never been to California, so at the very least, it’ll be a nice vacation.”

“How about you and Lydia?” Scott asked Aidan. “Set a date yet?”

“Soon. Maybe as soon as Danny gets his cast off and can be in the wedding photos without the crutches.”

“Really?” Scott paused with one skate in his hand. “Is there a reason for that?”

Aidan laughed. “If Lydia gets pregnant, you’ll be the second to know. Trust me.”

“Who’s going to be first?”

“Hopefully me.” Aidan shrugged. “But with your family, I can never be sure.”

“So why the rush?”

“I don’t think it’s a rush, exactly. She doesn’t want a big, fancy wedding. Maybe because she doesn’t have her mom...your mom. You know?”

Scott nodded, reaching down for his other skate. Losing their mom touched them all in a thousand different ways, but he’d always thought it was a little harder on his sisters. There were so many milestones and occasions a girl needed her mother for, and Tommy wasn’t the kind of dad who could fill that role.

“Anyway,” Aidan continued, “we want to be married more than we want to plan a wedding, so we’re thinking of a civil ceremony at the bar with just family.”

“Hey,” Rick said.

“
All
of our family. You know we wouldn’t get married without you guys.”

They walked toward the locker rooms, Scott listening to the two guys talking about getting married. He didn’t feel left out, exactly. He genuinely loved both guys and couldn’t be happier for them. But before long he’d be choosing between being an extra wheel to the married couples or hanging out with Grant and Gavin, and he was over the club scene.

“I’m going to grab a shower at home,” Rick said. “Jess sold her place so she stays at a hotel when she’s in San Diego. The Wi-Fi’s better at the office, so we usually chat before she leaves there and I’m already cutting it close.”

“I’m going to shower at home because I forgot to throw clean clothes in my bag,” Aidan said and they all laughed. “Scott?”

“I’m going to shower before I leave. I walked and you never know who you might run into on the way home.”

“Hey, you could bump into your television wife,” Rick said.

“My television wife? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, that’s what Eriksson calls the woman you stopped dating to meet. Like an old sitcom wife or whatever. Aprons and baking and perfect children.”

That made him laugh. “Perfect children? It would take one hell of a woman to bring perfect Kincaids into the world.”

“I’ve been your best friend since we were teenagers and the fact my children will each have one foot in the same gene pool as you scares the crap out of me. I mean, think about it. Me and the Kincaid DNA means there’s a possibility I’ll have gorgeous, perfect daughters—like their mother—and then very attractive sons with bad tempers who kind of suck at hockey.”

“Or they might take after me,” Scott shot back.

The other two were still laughing when they left the rink, and Scott shook his head. It still blew his mind that Aidan was going to be his brother-in-law, but once he’d gotten over the initial shock, he had to admit he couldn’t have picked a better husband for Lydia even if she’d let him.

He hit the shower before getting dressed and then slung his hockey bag over his shoulder. Maybe he should have done like the other guys and just showered at home, but the last time he’d done that, he’d run into some old friends and ended up in a bar in smelly workout clothes.

Walking was the right choice, though, he thought. Mother Nature had opted for a warm spring night, though there was another cold snap in the long-range forecast. A lot of people waved to him, and a couple of kids even recognized him from a Fire Prevention Week program he’d done with Chris and a few other guys at the elementary school. He talked to them for a few minutes.

After a couple of blocks, he turned down a side street to take a shortcut. The bag was heavy and he shifted it from one shoulder to the other. Sometimes he was tempted to drive to the rink because it was a long walk with a hockey bag, but he liked to think of each trek to the rink and back as one less hour he had to feel guilty about not being in the gym.

“Scott.”

He looked to his left, at the woman he’d been about to pass by without really noticing, and stopped short. His tired legs and shoulders were forgotten as every nerve in his body seemed to spring to life.

She was wearing a long gray sweatshirt over black leggings or yoga pants or whatever they called those things. Her feet were shoved bare into sneakers and her hair was caught in a messy knot on top of her head by one of those clips with the painful-looking teeth.

God, he wanted her. He wanted to squeeze the clip so it opened, watch her hair tumble down around her shoulders in waves, and then bury his face in it. “Hey, Jamie. What are you doing here?”

She nodded her head toward the building they were standing in front of. “I live here.”

“Oh. That makes sense then.”

“Had a craving for chocolate pudding.” She held up a folded-over paper bag. “They sell this pudding at the corner that’s amazing. The owner’s wife makes it, I guess. Have you ever had it?”

“Nope.”

She peered around his shoulder. “That’s a pretty big bag.”

“Hockey stuff,” he said, and then he smiled. “And some free life advice—don’t ever open a guy’s hockey bag without a gas mask or a clothespin for your nose. I’m pretty sure women who think hockey players are sexy have never smelled one before he hits the showers.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. So what are
you
doing here?”

“I was playing some hockey with Aidan and Rick, and this street is a shortcut between the rink and home. I’ve been walking this way since I was so young my mom would hold my hand on the way to youth league practice.”

She smiled. “I bet you were a cute kid.”

“I was.” He loved the sound of her laugh.

Then she sighed, and he realized they’d run out of standing-on-the-sidewalk small talk and were heading toward awkward silence.

He tried desperately to think of something to talk about—anything that would keep her there and give him an excuse to spend a few more minutes with her. But he’d already had this conversation with himself and he needed to do the right thing and say good-night.

* * *

S
CREW
IT
,
J
AMIE
THOUGHT
. She was done torturing herself, and the chocolate pudding in her hand was good, but it was no substitute for the man standing in front of her. She wanted him. She knew he wanted her. They were adults and they were both fully capable of showing up when scheduled and doing their jobs. Spending some time together off the clock wasn’t going to change that.

So, before he could end the silence by telling her he’d see her around, she demolished the weak, teetering wall of professionalism she’d tried to build between them. “You want to come up? Maybe share my pudding?”

Something flickered in his expression, and then he gave her a wry smile. “Is this an offer you make to all of your coworkers?”

She assumed he was trying to feel out what kind of invitation she was offering. The “ran into a friend and why not share her pudding” kind? Or the “using the pudding as an excuse to get him alone” kind? “No. Sharing my chocolate pudding is a very exclusive offer, just for you.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back a little on his heels. “I’ve spent a lot of time this week trying
not
to imagine you inviting me up to your apartment because I don’t want to be a problem for you.”

“I appreciate that.” And she really did. It meant a lot to her that he’d taken what she’d said to heart. “But having all this...tension between us is a problem for me, too. You and I have chemistry. It sure as hell isn’t burning itself out, and it seems like everybody can see it and there’s going to be speculation no matter what. If my sex life is going to be the subject of gossip for the next month and a half to two months, I’m going to damn well
have
a sex life.”

She must have said it louder than she meant to, because a guy passing by paused to look at her. He looked like he was going to say something, but one look from Scott sent him on his way.

“Oops,” she muttered.

“I’d love to come up and share your chocolate pudding,” Scott said. “I’ve worked up an appetite.”

As she unlocked the side door that gave residents access to the interior stairwell, Jamie decided that was the problem with innuendo. She didn’t know if he’d worked up a sexual appetite for her, or if he’d literally worked up an appetite playing hockey with the guys and was going to try to eat all of her pudding.

They wound their way up the narrow staircases to the fourth floor, while she told him about the building. “Obviously you know there’s a barber shop on the first floor, since you walk by here all the time and there’s a sign. Then there’s a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor and two one-bedroom apartments on the third. I’ve got the studio they managed to fit on the fourth floor.”

“This explains why you haven’t spent any time in the workout room,” he said.

“I could afford the rent because they have a hard time finding people willing to climb this many stairs multiple times a day. There’s no elevator, so this is it.”

“Do you have decks off the back?”

“No, just a bare-minimum fire escape.” At the top of the stairs, she unlocked her door and let Scott into her apartment.

Once inside, he set his hockey bag off to the side and made a relieved sound. “I need to get wheels for that thing.”

“Or you could drive.”

He shrugged, then unzipped his sweatshirt and tossed it on top of the bag. “The problem with driving is finding a place to park.”

When she toed off her shoes, he did the same, but he didn’t follow her when she walked to the counter to put down the bag from the market. She turned to face him, leaning the small of her back against the edge of the fake granite.

“Are you really sure about this?” he asked, his eyes serious as he looked at her from across the room.

“I wouldn’t have invited you up if I wasn’t. Are
you
sure about this?”

“I’ve been sure I want you since you first walked into the station. But you were right before, when you said it would be worse for you because you’re a woman. I’d like to deny it because it sucks, but I’ve been around long enough to know it’s the truth.”

“My record speaks for itself. And if that’s not enough... I don’t care. I’m not going to spend the next six weeks being miserable because of other people’s hang-ups.” He didn’t move, and she chuckled. “I swear. I’m very sure.”

He moved then, crossing the room to her in long strides. When he reached her, he grabbed her hips and tugged so she was standing straight, almost pressed against him. “I swear I haven’t been able to think about anything but you for days.”

“I’ve been thinking about you, too, and I don’t know why.” When he arched an eyebrow, she laughed. “That didn’t sound right. I just mean that I’ve never been this distracted by a guy before. Also, you smell delicious.”

“I’m glad I took the time to shower after I left the ice or you’d be opening the windows right now. Or throwing me out.”

“You’re not going anywhere for a while.”

He grinned and slipped his hands under the hem of her sweatshirt, pushing it up until his hands were at her waist. “I love these legging things. They make your legs look wicked long, and the elastic waist is nice, too.”

As he said it, he dipped a finger under the waistband and she shuddered as his knuckle tickled her skin. But then she grasped his jaw with her fingers, tilting his face up until he met her gaze. “There’s no home run if you skip first base.”