“Dinner. Tonight.” Channing was so confident in his request that I seriously thought about it.
I dug my teeth into my bottom lip and quickly looked at Ty. He huffed and headed over to the other firemen, who were busy getting their hoses and making their way to my toxic burn pile.
Jerking my eyes back to Channing, I sighed. “I wish I could, but I promised Lincoln some girl time tonight. She’s been knee deep in diapers and breastfeeding for two weeks.”
With a laugh that I found myself really liking, Channing nodded. “I get it. My sister had a baby a few months ago, and getting that little bit of time away every now and then is a lifesaver.”
I looked over toward the fire. “So, am I really going to get into trouble for this?”
He winked and shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. How about a rain check on that dinner date, though?”
“Yes! For sure.”
I was saying yes mainly because the guy was letting me off the hook with yet another task I’d taken on gone bad. I needed to really be more careful with fire in the future. Maybe I needed to avoid it altogether.
“Friday night? I’m off.”
A part of me panicked. Why was I so scared to go out on a date? It wasn’t like I didn’t want to meet someone. I was tired of being alone. Tired of endless nights of crawling into bed by myself.
I took another glance in Ty’s direction. A rush of sadness washed over me, and I tried to ignore it. Why wasn’t it Ty who was looking at me the way Channing was? Why wasn’t it Ty asking me out? It wasn’t like I didn’t like Channing. I did. It was that my body and my mind liked Ty more. A whole lot more.
“Can I get back to you? I have a book I’m trying to finish up for a client, and honestly, this fire has put me behind. I thought it would be a quick burn; apparently I was wrong.”
We both looked toward the burn pile. Channing chuckled again, then turned to face me. “I’ll wait to hear back from you. I better go give the guys a hand.”
“Thanks, Channing.”
He turned and walked backward, a sexy smile spreading over his face. God, he looked hot in his firefighter uniform. What harm would it do to have dinner with the guy? It wasn’t like I’d be scraping the bottom of the barrel if I went out with him, after all.
“Anytime, Kaylee.”
Jesus, sex just dripped off my name as it passed between his lips. I bet the man was good in bed. Damn good, if I let my mind wander in that direction. He was sexy as all get out. The only problem was, he wasn’t as sexy as the cowboy walking toward me, the one who had a scowl on his face. That wasn’t anything new for Ty, though. It seemed just being around me made him unhappy.
I started to say something to Ty as he approached, but he spoke first as he walked slowly past me, lowering his voice only enough for me to hear. “Could you eye fuck him any harder, Kaylee? The man has a job to do, after all.”
My mouth opened, and for a moment I was devoid of words. So not like me. Not like me one damn bit. No matter what this man threw at me, I had always held my own. But his words felt like a brick landing in the pit of my stomach. Why did he have to be such a dick? What in the hell had I ever done to him?
My moment of speechlessness didn’t last long.
Glancing over my shoulder, I called back, “Yes, I could, but I was too busy fantasizing about the punishment he’s going to give me Friday night. Multiple punishments, from what I understand.”
Ty stopped walking and turned to face me. He looked like he wanted to say something, then shook his head and scoffed. “Watch out, Kaylee. The last thing you want in this town is a reputation as someone who’s easy.”
Anger pulsed through my veins. How dare he say something like that to me? He knew damn well I hadn’t dated a single person since I’d moved here last spring. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had sex!
I said the first thing that popped into my head, and the moment the words slipped out, I regretted them. I had let myself stoop to his level, but worse, I saw the hurt in his eyes.
“You would know, wouldn’t you, Ty?”
Chapter Three
KAYLEE
“He drives me insane. I don’t know if I want to stab him or run him over with my car. Maybe tossing him off one of these mountains is what I need to do . . . after I stab him and run him over.”
Lincoln rocked slowly as she held Morgan in her arms, as if nothing I was saying was out of the ordinary. It wasn’t really, when it came to me and Ty. We constantly bickered. At times it was fun; other times, not so much.
There were only two times in the past year when we hadn’t tried to kill each other and had actually gotten along. One was when we’d found out Lincoln was pregnant with Morgan. Which even Lincoln didn’t know at the time.
The second was in Brock’s kitchen when we’d shared the second kiss. My heart had broken in two because I could see the torment on Ty’s face as he looked at the bottle of pills. I walked over, took the pills from him, and did the only thing I could think of doing. I kissed him. He had kissed me back, and for one moment my world felt whole again. That small empty feeling inside me was fulfilled, if only for the shortest amount of time.
When I pulled back from him and saw nothing in his eyes, I turned and walked away.
Ty Shaw wasn’t interested in me, and I needed to let that sink in.
“What did he do now?” Lincoln asked, smiling down at Morgan, then looking my way.
“He called me a slut.”
Lincoln’s eyes went wide and she stopped rocking. “Brock will kill him.”
“Well, he didn’t actually call me that.”
She frowned. “Then what did he actually call you?”
I shrugged. “He made it sound like people in town would think I was easy, all because I was doing some innocent flirting with Channing.”
Lincoln’s brow rose. “You were flirting with Channing? The fire chief?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. A little.”
“Do tell,” Lincoln said with a giggle and a naughty smile.
“Well, I needed a bit of harmless flirting. And the idea of going out with a guy who actually wants to spend time with me is tempting. I’m tired of being alone. Crawling into bed every night without a warm body to snuggle up to is messing with my head.” I closed my eyes and sighed. “I just want to stop thinking about him.”
Lincoln stood, and that caused me to open my eyes and look her way. She walked over to put Morgan in her bassinet, then leaned down and kissed her daughter before she faced me.
“Let’s go for a walk. I’ll let Brock know.”
Oh, great. My comments now had Lincoln’s radar up and running, and her need to protect me was pushed to DEFCON 5.
After grabbing my coat, I slipped it on and stepped outside onto Brock and Lincoln’s large wraparound porch. The view of the mountains nearly stole my breath. Almost a year of living here and I still got lost to the mountains. Half the time they looked fake, and I felt like I was staring at a picture. Today they were covered in snow, the sun shining off their peaks and making them look like a million sparkling diamonds. I couldn’t help but smile. This was home now, and I would never get tired of this massive blue sky and beautiful country.
“One of these days I’m going to hike you,” I said to myself and to no particular mountain.