Hot In Here (Ashton Heights Fire # 3) (10 page)

Then he glanced down and saw her shoe still
lying on the veranda.

Leo dipped the sponge into
the bucket of sudsy water, then lifted it and slapped it wetly
against the side of the fire truck. He covered the driver’s door
with the detergent and scrubbed. When he was done, he stepped back
and switched on the hose to rinse off the section he’d washed. Then
he went back to the bucket and started the process all over
again.

Most people thought
firefighting was an exciting job. There were days when it could
be—it was certainly unpredictable. When a call came in, no matter
how much detail they’d been given, they never really knew what they
were going to face at the scene, and some days they answered call
after call after call.

Then there were days like
today, when nothing seemed be happening, and it was up to the guys
on duty to tend to the maintenance of the station and its vehicles.
Days when the hours dragged out monotonously.
Kind of like my life
, Leo thought
morosely.

“
Smoko time!” The
announcement came from the front of the station, where Rob
McConnell had just walked in with a tray of something from the
bakery down the street. “We’ve got apricot Danish, cheesecake slice
and some of those choc-chip scones you like, Chats. My
treat.”

The other guys called out their approval.
Blair, whose job this morning was to tidy up the break room, came
out and said, “You’re in a good mood, Curly.”

“
That I am, Blue.” In
fact, Rob was grinning from ear to ear as he walked into the break
room and set the pastries on the table. He reemerged a moment
later, his smile still in place. “I’m moving in with
Sierra.”

A couple of the guys made sounds of
approval, followed by jokes about Rob being pussy whipped as they
made their way to the food. Rob took it all with good humor,
obviously not willing to have his mood derailed. Not even by Blair,
who scowled at the news.

“
So you’re leaving us in
the lurch.”

Rob rolled his eyes. “Come
on, Blue, you must have known it was coming. I spend most of my
time at her place anyway.”

“
Yeah, but—”

“
It’s great,” Leo
interrupted before Blair could issue whatever complaint had been
about to come out of his mouth. Drying up with a towel, he walked
over to Rob and held out his hand. “Congratulations,
mate.”

“
Thanks. I’m really crazy
about her.”

Leo smiled wryly. “We noticed. You going to
make an honest woman out of her soon?”

“
You can bet on it.” Rob
turned his attention back to Blair, who was still glowering. “Cheer
up, Blue. You guys will find someone else to split the
rent.”

But who else would
tolerate our loud three-way encounters?
Leo
thought, and wondered if that same thing had occurred to Blair when
his look turned uncharacteristically sheepish. “Leo’s right. If
this is what you want, then it’s great.”

The two men shook. Rob beamed and clapped
them both on the back before disappearing into the break room,
where he was greeted by raucous applause. Leo opted to avoid the
festivities and went back to washing the truck.

“
You’re not going to take a
break?” Blair asked.

“
Not hungry.” He also
wasn’t in the mood to be around the others. He really was happy for
Rob. He was a decent guy and he deserved a good woman like Sierra.
Still, there was a part of him that was unsettled by the whole
situation, although he’d gone out of his way not to let Rob see
it.

Blair came over and leant on the front grill
of the truck. “So I guess we’ll have to start looking for a
lodger.”

“
We can afford the place on
our own for a while.” The next words were out before Leo even knew
what he was going to say. “Or we could all go our separate
ways.”

The guys in the break room
laughed. The sound seemed so far away, as though it were behind a
Perspex wall. The cone of silence had descended upon him and
Blair.

At length, Blair asked. “That what you
want?”

There was no hurt in his friend’s voice, but
Leo sensed it beneath the stoic surface. He dipped the sponge in
the bucket and washed the front wheel. “All I know is we can’t go
on the way we have been.”

“
Meaning?”

Leo sighed, threw the sponge in the bucket
and stood. “I’m over hooking up with these girls who don’t mean
anything to us, Blue.”

“
Is this about Rob finding
the love of his life?”

“
Maybe. Ever since I saw
how happy he is with Sierra…” Leo trailed off with a shrug. “I
guess I want the real deal now.”

“
Does this have something
to do with Ally?”

Neither of them had
mentioned her name in the week since Leo had woken to find her
gone. All Blair had said that morning was that she’d left, and Leo
had been too pissed that his friend had done his ejector-seat
routine with Ally to even talk about it. Things had been quietly
tense in the house the whole week.

“
I liked her,” he said
gruffly. “I really liked her.”

“
Yeah, well…so did
I.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

Blair frowned. “I did.”

“
That’s why you kicked her
out before I even woke up. Jesus, Blue. You didn’t even give me a
chance.”

“
A chance to
what?”

“
Talk to her. Tell her that
just because we’d all had sex already, that didn’t mean we couldn’t
go on a date for a real.”

Blair’s eyes narrowed. “Are you talking
about all three of us, or just you and her?”

“
You don’t want a
girlfriend,” Leo pointed out.

“
And you do? You want a
girlfriend like Ally?”

“
Not
just
like
Ally. I
want Ally. Shit.” Leo ran a hand through his hair, uncaring that
he’d probably got soap suds in it. “I haven’t stopped thinking
about her all week. Something inside me clicked when I saw her, and
maybe that’s something I could have followed up in some normal,
traditional way. Instead, we did our usual thing, and
you
kicked her out before
I could even talk to her.”

“
That’s why you’ve been
freezing me out all week,” Blair concluded.

“
That’s why I’ve been so
pissed at you I had to shut you out or risk slamming my fist into
your face.”

The urge to do that very thing rose in Leo
again, and he channeled the frustration into kicking the bucket of
water at his feet so he wouldn’t damage his friend. The bucket
tipped over, spilling the soapy water all over the driveway.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Blair
glared at Leo. “I have to say it’s insulting that you assume you’re
the only one Ally would have been interested in dating.”

“
There was a connection
between us, I felt it.”

“
I felt one too. You’re not
the only one with a claim on her.”

“
What are you saying? That
you’d fight me for her?”

Blair let out a disbelieving laugh. “What
I’m saying is that something normal and traditional would never
work for you, Chats. Not with the way you are.”

Ridiculous, considering everything Blair
knew about him, that his words would make heat infuse Leo’s face.
“I could give it a go.”

Blair shook his head.
“You’d never be fully satisfied. Just like I wouldn’t be if I had
to have vanilla sex all the time. It’s fine occasionally, but
before long, I’d miss the leather bindings. We have kinks, mate. No
point denying that.”

“
So because I have a thing
for watching I don’t get to love anybody?”

“
That’s not it. I’m saying
we’ve always worked well as a team, and if you want to find someone
more…permanent, then maybe I’d be into that.”

Must be the day for big announcements. Yet
while Rob’s news hadn’t been a surprise, Blair’s statement shocked
Leo to the core. “You’d do a steady three-way?”

“
Why not? We’re gonna run
out of girls anyway.”

Leo made a pissed-off
grunt. “Don’t joke about something like this, you
prick.”

“
You’re right. I’m
sorry.”

Blair wasn’t big on apologizing, so his
words had Leo gaping in surprise.

“
I’m also sorry I couldn’t
keep Ally from leaving last week, but you’re wrong about me kicking
her out. In fact, I made it pretty clear she could stay if she
wanted to, and unless my radar is on the fritz, I’d say she wanted
to.” Blair held his gaze, and there was sympathy in the blue
irises. “She still left, mate. Of her own accord.”

On some level, Leo must
have suspected that’s what happened, because he wasn’t surprised.
That didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of something like pain
deep in his solar plexus. Was this what it felt like to want
someone who didn’t want you? If so, he and Blair had both done
quite a few girls a disservice over the years.

Oh sure, they were always upfront about
their arrangements being casual, but there’d been several ladies
who’d hoped for more anyway, who’d probably been inadvertently hurt
by what they saw as a rejection when neither Blair or Leo saw
things the same way.

“
What the hell have we been
doing, Blue?”

“
I don’t know any better
than you do,” Blair said on a sigh. Then he pushed off the truck
and started heading away. “I’m going to nab one of those danishes
before they’re all gone. You going to come to the Sovereign after
work?”

“
I’m not sure.”

Still walking, Blair turned around. “Just
for a drink. That’s what mates do, right?”

Leo knew what Blair was
doing. In a less than forthright way, he was asking if they were
still solid, if they were still mates. Leo couldn’t help but smile.
The guy could be a first-class prick sometimes, but today he’d
surprised Leo with his insight and honesty, not to mention with his
willingness to consider a relationship. Perhaps Blair Bowman was
maturing.

Even if he hadn’t been, Leo would still have
been his friend. Mates stuck by each other.

“
All
right, I’ll come. But you’re buying,
mate.
”

“
We’ll play pool for it.
Loser picks up the tab.”

Leo laughed and shook his
head, but his smile slipped when Blair was out of sight. His
friend’s suggestion only reminded him of how they’d met Ally last
week, of how much fun they’d had playing pool with her—and of
course doing the host of other things that had come after. It was
all fine and dandy for Blair to say they could find a woman willing
to enter into a triad deal with them—in fact, the idea was kind of
thrilling—but saying and doing were two different things. Where
were they going to find a woman who fit them both that
perfectly?

Where were they going to find another woman
like Ally?

“
Medium rare porterhouse
and a chicken parmigiana.” Ally set the meals down in front of the
couple in the corner booth. “Can I get you anything
else?”

The couple said no, so Ally
swiped the number off their table with a smile and headed back to
the kitchen. She saw with relief that there were no more orders
currently waiting to be taken out. She was dead on her feet, but
she couldn’t sit down yet or she’d never get back up. Instead, she
headed behind the bar to grab a glass of water, making sure to stay
out of the bartenders’ way.

“
Busy night,” said Michelle
Turner as she poured a draught beer and set it on the bar. “How’re
you handling it?”

“
No problems.” Ally had
been run off her feet since five-thirty when the kitchen opened,
but she’d worked in places that got even busier than a Brisbane pub
on a Friday night.

“
Kev hasn’t yelled at you
yet,” Michelle noted. Kev was the head chef, who was apparently
notorious for snapping orders at the wait staff when they weren’t
on their game. “So you must be doing okay.”

“
Thanks.” It was only
Ally’s third shift, and the manager had decided to throw her in the
deep end to see if she could swim. Fortunately for Ally, she’d been
swimming plenty of times before. “You need help out here later? I
knock off in forty.”

“
Need the money,
huh?”