Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 Read online

  Coin got it.

  He was on the wrong date.

  Ginger and Thomas should be gazing into each other’s eyes, preferably at a restaurant far, far away. And he needed to be on a date with this woman. Lexie. Yeah, he could admit he’d always had a crush on her. Every firefighter at the station knew that and teased him for it, though he always denied it. It was time to admit it.

  He wanted to be alone with Lexie. Really alone. Man and woman alone. In his mind’s eye, he pictured Lexie leaning close to kiss him smilingly … He needed to nuke this stupid date. There had to be a way.

  He would find a way.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Something was wrong with Coin, and Lexie had no idea how to fix it. It must have had to do with what she’d said about Serena because that’s when he’d gone all weird, but Lexie couldn’t figure it out. Should she not have bragged on his daughter? Shouldn’t that have been a good thing to do in front of his date?

  Instead, he’d gone all quiet. Spooky quiet. Lexie had seen him silent many times, but not like this. He put off a dark energy, a kind of pulsing, low-grade anger. Ginger, appropriately, seemed more interested now. Of course. Women always loved a brooder, right? Earlier, when Coin had been chipper, Ginger had been merely sweet and polite. Now she gazed at him between sips of her wine, as if she wanted to be the one to make him talk.

  Well, screw that. Lexie was his actual friend. It was her job to find out what was wrong with Coin. In the meantime, though, he had to pull himself together.

  She kicked his ankle, hard.

  “Hey!” said Coin.

  “What?” asked Lexie innocently. She gave him a look. Talk now or I will kill you later.

  Coin seemed to get it. He started flirting with Ginger. Lexie was amazed by the change in him. Even when Thomas asked her direct questions, she kept half her attention on what Coin was saying. She should have been happy. Instead, she just felt more irritated. She gulped wine to try to cool her temper and ended up spilling it down her front.

  If someone had been watching their table, they would have seen a perfect-looking foursome, though. Coin got almost gregarious, and Ginger got even prettier under his attention. And Thomas, it turned out, wasn’t the bore that he looked—he’d spent time in Guatemala and had hair-raising stories that kept them all entertained.

  All Lexie wanted was for them to leave.

  She stood and started clearing plates. Ginger, who was still picking at her salad—of course she was, the waif—looked surprised when Lexie swooped it away, but she didn’t protest.

  “There’s dessert,” said Lexie brightly. “You all just stay right here, and I’ll get it ready.” She wanted to be away from all of them. Maybe in the kitchen she could grab the deep breaths she so suddenly needed. Sitting next to Coin as he flirted with Ginger had done something to her, something she didn’t like.

  “Please, let me help,” said Ginger. In any other circumstance, Lexie would have claimed this funny, interesting, pretty woman as a new friend. Now? She wanted to jab her with a salad fork.

  “No, thanks. You just sit there and look pretty,” Lexie said. As if stick-thin Ginger could do anything else. She probably woke up pretty. Her eyes probably never got puffy with tiredness or dark with allergies.

  In the kitchen, Lexie ran the water good and hot to rinse the plates. She wanted her hands to sting. She wanted to feel something other than this ridiculous, petty jealousy.

  Behind her, the kitchen door swung open. Coin set two more plates on the counter.

  “I got it,” said Lexie shortly. “You just go out there and flirt.” She couldn’t help adding, “You’re doing a great job at it.”

  Coin turned and leaned with his back against the counter. He was inches from her, and it was making her nervous.

  “Am I?” His voice was low.

  Holy Helen, he looked good in that button-up shirt. It pulled against the width of his broad shoulders. The fancy clothes made him look like someone else. Someone who would have a great time on a date with someone named Ginger.

  “Ow,” she said. The water was so hot it made her eyes water.

  Coin reached in front of her and turned it off. “Stop,” he said.

  “I’m almost done.”

  “Me, too,” said Coin.

  Lexie’s eyes widened as he put one hand behind her neck, turning her away from the sink to face him. Her back was against the sink, and he caught her there, trapped between his body and the counter.

  For one desperately long moment, Lexie wondered if she’d misunderstood something. Maybe this was how Coin always told women not to do his dishes. Maybe there was something she was supposed to say so that he would burst into laughter and she would be able to breathe again.

  Instead, his eyes got darker. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But there’s no way I’m not kissing you, darlin’.”

  Then he did.

  Lexie—if she’d ever taken the time to wonder what it would be like to kiss Coin, which she hadn’t—would have thought it would be nice. Sweet. A charming kiss, perhaps. She would have thought Coin would be a kind, considerate kisser, echoing the way he was in other parts of his life.

  She would have been dead wrong.

  Coin kissed her hard. Fast. It was a kiss that was made to melt the kneecaps of the one kissed, and sure enough, Lexie found she had to reach her arms around him to keep herself standing. His mouth was hot, so hot against hers, and when she parted her lips at his insistence, she felt his tongue meet hers. He knew exactly what he was doing. He tasted of beer and need, and then all rational thought left her head.

  All she knew was that the way he moved his mouth on hers was making her certifiably crazy. She wanted more, more of his lips, more of his tongue. He nipped her bottom lip and she gasped so loudly she wondered if Thomas or Ginger could hear her losing her mind.

  She pulled her mouth away and stared at him. “We’re on dates.”

  “We sure as hell are.”

  “With other people!”

  “Seems that way.” He traced her wet lip with the pad of his thumb.

  “We can’t do this.”

  In answer, he lowered his mouth to hers again. More insistent this time, he kissed her harder, as if he was challenging her. Goading her.

  That wasn’t fair. Coin knew better than anyone else how much she liked a challenge.

  So she kissed him back, for all she was worth. She swept the tip of her tongue along his upper lip, a lick and a promise, and then plunged her hands, still wet from the dishes, into his hair. She couldn’t help the low moan she let out, a sound he matched. He pressed himself against her harder, and while the counter dug into her back, Lexie didn’t care, because she felt him against her, hard and needy, just like his mouth. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled, knowing in the back of her mind that her lips would be swollen from this kiss, that there would be no way to hide it.

  And still she didn’t care. Why hadn’t she ever kissed him before? Why had she wasted her time with not kissing him?

  Coin pulled back with a curse. “We’re being rude,” he said.

  Lexie made a noise that was half gasp, half laugh. “You think?”

  “I’ll handle this,” he said.

  Lexie rubbed her lips with the back of her hand, grateful she’d only worn lip gloss, now long gone, and not a telltale lipstick. Then she followed him into the dining room.

  “Sorry, folks,” said Coin, but he didn’t sound sorry at all. “We just both got paged to work.”

  Ginger’s eyes narrowed, and Lexie could practically see her doing the math. “Really? I didn’t hear any beeping.”

  Coin shrugged. “Phones are on silent.”

  Thomas recovered more quickly, and while he was putting on his light jacket, he said, “Lexie, this was too short. Can I call you tomorrow? Maybe take you to that new Burmese place on Route 119?”

  Lexie opened her mouth to answer but Coin beat her to it. “No,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”
Thomas looked surprised. Ginger may have already figured it out, but Thomas was slower on the uptake.

  “No, you can’t call her.”

  “And why not?” Thomas widened his stance, but though he was tall, Coin still had an inch on him. Lexie couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed for him. She should step in. Coin was being unbelievably rude.

  And it was completely fascinating. Lexie didn’t want to move a muscle or say a word, she just wanted to watch. And breathe. Maybe she could get her heart rate to slow down a little.

  “Because you’re not her type.”

  Thomas laughed, but it sounded thready. “And what’s her type?”

  “I am,” Coin said. “Go away.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Coin closed the door on Thomas and Ginger. Maybe in front of the house, as they discussed their host’s rudeness, they’d exchange phone numbers and hook up. He did feel sorry for them, but hey. They’d gotten dinner and a show.

  He turned the deadbolt, slowly. Somehow, he needed to put off the next moment, when he would turn and meet Lexie’s eyes. What if she was furious? He’d seen her mad plenty of times, but he didn’t want her to be angry with him over this.

  Not this.

  When he turned, though, she was closer than he’d thought she was.

  And she was just standing there. With that look. One hand twisting a corkscrew curl the way she did when she was flustered, she just looked at him.

  He didn’t know whether to apologize for being a huge jerk or to kiss her again. And the longer he took to decide what to do, the closer she probably got to leaving, so he said, “Do I need to say I’m sorry?”

  Lexie tilted her head.

  “Because I will. If that’s what you need.” He sat on the couch with a thump and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table. Yeah, she’d kissed him back in the kitchen, but he hadn’t given her much choice. What kind of kiss was that? If she wanted to yell at him, he deserved it.

  “Why did you do that?” She pulled that curl again, and it was possibly the cutest thing he’d ever seen a woman do.

  “I don’t know.” That was a lie. He knew why he’d done it. He’d kissed her because the thought of her kissing Thomas was too much to bear. Because he should have done it years ago. Because way too often, when he closed his eyes at night, her face was the last thing he thought of.

  Because he would never, ever be able to admit that to her.

  “Was it because you were trying to show off?”

  “What?”

  “In front of them. You were all put off by Thomas and his job, and you had to prove you didn’t like him, so you kissed me.”

  If Thomas had talked about his podiatry business, Coin hadn’t heard it. Of course, pretty much any time the guy had said anything Coin had tuned out, so he’d missed a lot of the conversation. “That wasn’t it.”

  Lexie sighed impatiently. “Then what was it? Why did you do that?”

  “Why do you sound so upset about it?”

  “Because I am,” she said. “That wasn’t fair.”

  “Who said life was fair?” It was a line he’d always hated when his dad had said it. Coin had managed successfully to never say it to his daughter, and here he was, trotting it back out for Lexie. He wished he could take it back, but it was too late.

  Lexie blew out an exasperated breath. “I don’t understand you tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “Stop it.”

  “Stop what?” Man, he was being a jerk. And he couldn’t quite seem to cut it out.

  “This.” She waved her hands at him. “This whatever you’re doing. This isn’t my Coin.”

  Her Coin? That was rich. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”

  “I know you better than anyone else.”

  He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “That doesn’t mean much.” He felt her sit on the couch next to him, and it was all he could do to keep his hands on his lap, to not reach for her.

  “Then tell me,” she said softly. “Tell me what’s going on with you. I don’t get it.”

  “You.”

  “What?”

  Coin kept his eyes closed. “You’re going on with me.”

  “Me?”

  “Lexie Tindall, I’ve liked you since we started working together.”

  “Me, too. You’re my best friend.”

  Great. In a second, she’d probably pat him on the head. “I don’t want to be your pal.”

  “What do you want?”

  He opened his eyes and leveled his gaze at her. He wouldn’t give her half truths now. “I want you. I’ve always wanted you, Lexie.” He watched her lips part in surprise, and he continued. “I want you in the morning, and I want you before I go to sleep. On my days off, I save up my best stories to tell you. When we’re at work, I have to stop myself from sitting in dispatch all day, just to watch you work. When you work overtime, I leave my radio on so I can listen to your voice.” He curled his fingers into fists to keep from touching her. She was just a breath away, a breath he shouldn’t take. “I can’t stop thinking about you when I’m not around you, and you make me completely freaking insane when you pull on your hair like that.”

  Her hand dropped to her side, and the curl bounced back into place. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I’m freaking sick of lying.” He tried not to think about how bad it would be at work when she hated him for this.

  “Are you drunk?”

  “No!”

  She let a pause hang between them. “Coin, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Admit that you were kissing me back in the kitchen.”

  She blinked. “I was. I did.”

  Happiness burned a trail through him.

  “But,” she went on, “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “You seemed pretty comfortable.”

  “It’s you. You’re my friend. I don’t kiss my friends. Or my coworkers. Or any firefighter, ever. You know that.”

  Coin wanted the look of confusion on her face to clear. He’d gone too far to turn back now. “Tell me you don’t feel something between us.” He could feel it at that exact moment, a heat, an incredible tension that almost shimmered visibly in the air.

  “You’re imagining it,” she said slowly, not meeting his eyes. “There’s nothing between us.”

  No. She had to feel it, too. “Come on, Lexie. Don’t pretend like that kiss in the kitchen wasn’t life changing.”

  Lexie pushed a hand through her curls and then touched her bottom lip. “It was just a kiss, Coin.”

  If she was saying that, if she believed that, then Coin had just been proven to be a huge fool. Everything he thought existed between them, didn’t. He’d imagined the whole thing. “Oh.”

  “I should go,” she said, standing.

  He moved to join her.

  “No, don’t. Where’s my purse? Here it is.” She grabbed it off the floor. “I brought that pan, but you can bring it to me at work later.”

  Her words were fast, tumbling over each other. Her voice, usually clear and calm, was high pitched and tense. “Lexie, don’t go. Let’s talk about this.”

  “Nothing to talk about, Coin. You have a little crush. You’ll get over it, and then someday we’ll laugh about all this.”

  Coin touched her arm and said, “Don’t leave.”

  Her face tilted up to meet his eyes. Six inches, that was all that separated them. He waited for her to come to him. Taking the kiss from her hadn’t been fair. He wouldn’t kiss her again until she kissed him first.

  Her eyes were sad. Had he done that to her?

  “It was just a kiss,” she repeated. “I have to go.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  There were few things good about a knock at the door at 7 a.m. on a day off, but the worst part of it was that Lexie knew who it would be.

  She was right.

  Her mother stood on the doorstep, a basket in hand. “May I come in?”
/>   Lexie stood the door open and turned around, going into the kitchen. She poured water in the carafe and didn’t ask her mother what she was doing there. She’d know soon enough.

  “You haven’t even made coffee yet?” Mira sounded incredulous.

  Lexie did a half turn to show her mother that she was still wearing pajamas. “I hadn’t gotten up yet, either.” She’d been lying in bed, thinking about the kiss from the night before. About Coin.

  Mira pointedly looked at the watch on her slim wrist. “You know what they say about the early bird.”

  “I don’t like worms,” said Lexie. “They’re slimy.”

  “Your date. Tell me.”

  Oh, crap. She’d forgotten she’d told Mira about her blind date. “It was great.” And by great, Lexie meant horrible. Thomas had been a bore, she’d been horrified at how amazing Ginger was, and then, out of nowhere, Coin had kissed her.

  He’d kissed the blazes out of her. And worse, she’d liked it.

  She’d loved it, actually, although she hadn’t told him that—she couldn’t. That was only the second worst part of it, though.

  The very worst part was that somehow he had feelings for her. Feelings! For Lexie!

  Lexie knew Janice, Coin’s ex-wife. She’d been a perfect firefighter’s wife—pretty and popular. She was a tiny little thing. Petite. She had birdlike wrists that looked as if she wouldn’t be able to wear more than one bracelet at a time.

  For that reason, Coin had always existed in Lexie’s mind as someone who liked a thin woman. She’d never thought, even idly, what it would be like to kiss him, although apparently she should have.

  All that he’d said? About feeling that way for her for so long? It couldn’t be true. It just wasn’t possible. When Lexie was at work, she felt like she was camping. Being at work for two days straight didn’t lend to marathon makeup sessions. She didn’t do her hair. The guys had seen her a million times in the middle of the night, bleary eyed with lack of sleep, and she’d seen them the same way. There was no romance at the station.