Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey

not ready for that yet?”
    “I think I’m getting there, but not quite yet. And besides the age issue, there’s my father.The men I’ve dated have either wanted a chance to work with my father or they’ve been scared spitless of him. It’s really annoying, so I haven’t dated much at all lately.”
    “You’d be surprised how many friends I have with grandsons that would be perfect for you.”
    Jess side-eyed Marie, who laughed at her. “I have enough on my plate right now.”
    “Oh, but let me tell you about this oneyoung man. Well, young meaning forty-five or so.”
    Two hours of blind date dodging and a lot of laughter later, Jessica found out why Rick had been willing to forego doing his own chores to come back downstairs for dinner. Even though the ones Jessica had stuffed looked a little messy, the manicotti tasted amazing and she ate until she couldn’t bear to put another bite in her mouth.
    Then she leaned back in her chair with a groan. “I can’t keep eating like this. I swear my jeans are already getting too tight and I have a closet full of pencil skirts. Those are not forgiving.”
    “What’s a pencil skirt?” Rick asked from across the table.
    “They’re long, like midcalf length, and they hug your...let’s just say they’re somewhat form-fitting.” When he raised an eyebrow, shetried not to blush. “They’re flattering, but they won’t be for long if I keep having seconds of everything Marie cooks.”
    “You have a beautiful figure,” her grandmother said, and Jessica didn’t miss the slight nod of Rick’s head before he quickly turned his attention back to his plate.
    “Not for much longer. Our office building has a fitness center in it, so I usually work out at the endof the day. Only for half an hour or so, but I can gather my thoughts and sweat out any frustrations before heading home. And it keeps my jeans from getting too tight, I guess.”
    “Rick, you belong to a gym, don’t you?” Marie asked. “Even though she doesn’t need it as far as I can tell, you should take her to work out with you if it makes her feel better.”
    Jessica’s imagination coughedup an image of a shirtless, sweaty Rick and the instant hot flash made her feel anything but better.
    * * *
    Rick had just put a big chunk of stuffed manicotti into his mouth and he took his time chewing it. He didn’t need a flashing neon arrow to see what direction Marie was going with that question, but he had a suspicion the place he had a membership to and the San Diego office building“fitness center” Jessica used were on totally opposite ends of the gym spectrum.
    “Sometimes,” he said once he couldn’t put off swallowing his food any longer. “We have some workout equipment at the station, so I don’t really get to the gym very often. I probably talk about it a lot more often then I actually see the inside of it.”
    Marie set her fork down and took a sip of her drink beforeturning her laser focus on him. “There aren’t any of those gyms just for women nearby, I don’t think, and I don’t want Jessica running around the city trying to find one. But I don’t want her going to your gym with a bunch of strange men all by herself, either.”
    “It’s honestly okay, Marie,” Jessica said, but Rick knew it was a lost cause. “I don’t think I’ll actually outgrow my jeans beforeI get back to San Diego.”
    “But you use it to clear your mind, too, and it’s probably stressful being out here while you have a business to run all the way across the country.”
    The obvious answer would be for Jessica to go back across the country and just run her business, but Rick wisely kept that suggestion to himself. “I can take you to the gym. You want to go tomorrow?”
    “I...”She gave him a look across the table that clearly said she wasn’t sure she wanted to at all, but she was getting the hint that Marie wasn’t going to give up on the idea. “Okay.”
    “How’s ten o’clock? It’s not far.