Blaze (The Firefighters of Darling Bay Book 1) by Rachael Herron

you.” She ran. Somehow, she knew he’d let her get ahead.
    But she knew he was right behind her. She wanted nothing more than for him to catch her. And at the same time, she knew he wasn’t right. Toxic. 
    He was a terrible idea. 
    A hot, terrible, intoxicating idea. 
    She ran harder.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
     
    Grace, since the kiss on the beach, had kept him at arm’s length, and Tox wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong. 
    Surreptitiously, he blew into his hand. Breath, check. Still minty from the gum he’d chewed on the way to her house. He remembered putting on his deodorant before he left the house, so that wasn’t it.
    Maybe he was a terrible kisser. Oh, no. Could that be it? He’d never had any complaints in that area, but there was always a first time. 
    But then again, she’d accused him of starting a fire. And that had to be a good thing, right?
    They’d tucked Methyl safely into her crate and locked the door. She drank water and promptly passed out in a sandy heap. 
    Now, after getting burgers at Junior’s, they sat facing each other at one of the picnic tables Darling Bay had installed two years before. Tox had never taken the time to sit here before. It was pretty great, actually. The view of the breakers was impressive from up here on the raised sidewalk. They could watch not only the water crashing, but the surfers being thrown over the waves, as if the ocean was shaking them out like a damp towel. 
    “How’s your burger?” he asked. 
    “Terrible.” Grace took another big bite. 
    “I can tell you hate it.” Tox opened his bun and added more salt from the paper packet. “Hey, look, there’s Lexie.”
    Lexie strolled next to an older man who was dressed in a blue polo that paunched out at his round belly. It couldn’t have been a date—he looked at least twenty-five years older and ten inches shorter than she was. Lexie leaned down and said something to the man and then skittered toward them, leaving him standing at the top of the stairs that went down to the sand. 
    Lexie raced toward them and draped herself over the end of their picnic table. “Yes, before you ask, I’m on a date. I’m on a date that I got online, and right after this I’m going to go home, eat a package—no, a crate —of Oreos while in the tub, and then drown myself.” 
    Grace said, “You sure you don’t want to dump him right now and join us?” 
    Tox said, “Yeah. You wanna? Hey, wait.” Was his own date going so badly Grace wanted her friend to join them? But then Grace dropped a quick wink at him, and he remembered the way she’d responded to him on the beach. He took another look at the man standing by the steps. His thinning hair was almost in a combover because of the wind. Tox could have some compassion for the guy. 
    “Nah,” said Lexie. “I just want you both to get a good look at him so that if I go missing, you’ll know whose basement to tear up. His name is Scooter Fuzz.” 
    “It is not ,” said Grace. 
    Lexie held up a hand. “Swear. He showed me his license. Okay, I have to go so I can get this over with faster. Hey, Grace, I saw your sister like five minutes ago.” 
    “You did? She said she was going out…” Grace turned to look through the parking lot. What had she been thinking, not finding out what Sam was up to? She’d been so swept away with the thought of her own date with Tox that she’d barely listened when Samantha said she was going out. 
    “She was getting in some guy’s car, looked like they were getting ready to leave. So I guess we’re all on dates tonight. At least you have burgers. That’s a heck of a lot more than I have. Enjoy!” She waggled her eyebrows and was gone. 
    Tox took her advice and took another big bite out of his burger. Around it, he managed to say, “Thish is amashing.” 
    Grace shook her head and held up her hamburger to the sunset streaking across the sky. “Neither of us should be eating this. Think