Fan the Flames by Katie Ruggle Page B

scrutiny. “It’s Rory, right? Rory Sorenson?”
    Although it had been phrased as a question, Rory was sure he knew perfectly well what her name was. He’d even visited her shop a couple of times, needing a part his usual source in Denver hadn’t been able to supply immediately. Both had been innocuous visits, during which Rory had struggled to keep her gaze from darting to the back-room door, where her less-than-legal inventory was hidden. It hadn’t helped that talking to a good-looking guy, especially one who could arrest her, made her tongue-tied on the best of days. The sheriff hadn’t ever expressed more than a polite but cursory interest in Rory or her shop, and she was really hoping to keep it that way.
    â€œYes,” she belatedly replied, flushing. “How are you?”
    â€œBusy,” he said easily.
    â€œI’m sure.” Rory still felt awkward. Once again, she resisted the urge to wriggle in her seat. “With the fires and that dead body in the reservoir and…uh, Lou’s stuff and everything.” Her flush heated even more. Stupid nonexistent social skills. Ian’s laugh didn’t help, even if he did try to turn it into a cough halfway through. Under the cover of the table, she pinched his leg. Hard.
    He jumped, covering her hand with his so her fingers were flattened against his thigh and unable to repeat the pinch.
    â€œYou’re the lady with all the guns?” Tyler asked suddenly, jerking Rory’s attention away from the rock-hard thigh muscle under her palm.
    Why did the kid have to bring up my semi-illegal business in front of his sheriff dad? Resisting the urge to send Rob a nervous glance, she kept her gaze on Tyler instead. “Yeah. I mean, I have a gun store.”
    â€œAwesome. Do you have, like, Uzi machine guns and shit?”
    â€œTyler!” Rob barked. “Language.”
    â€œNo.” Again, she stopped herself from sending the sheriff a nervous look. “I wouldn’t sell any fully automatic weapons unless they were registered in the U.S. before the 1968 Gun Control Act was passed.” As Tyler stared at her blankly, she risked a peek at Rob. He rubbed his hand over his mouth as if hiding a smile, and Rory relaxed slightly…at least until Tyler asked his next question.
    â€œSo, are you two, like, dating?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œNo!” She glared at Ian before turning back to Rob and his too-nosy son. “This isn’t a date. It’s just us satisfying a biological need.”
    Rory wasn’t sure if Ian was choking or laughing. Just to be on the safe side, she patted his hunched back. When she looked up at Rob’s face, his startled expression had her reviewing her last comment in her head.
    â€œOh!” Her blush before was nothing compared to what was burning her face now. “No! Not that kind of biological… I mean, eating! We were both hungry. That’s it.”
    Tyler made a muffled sound, his hand hiding his grin in an unconscious imitation of his father. Squeezing her eyes closed, Rory wondered how she’d stumbled into blurting unintentional sexual innuendo in front of a teenage boy. Her gaffe shouldn’t have surprised her, though. She was clueless when it came to kids. They baffled her. Even when she’d been young herself, they’d seemed like an alien species, complete with their own language. She avoided them when she could. Owning a gun shop helped with that, since her customers were all over eighteen and rarely brought their offspring along.
    Rob cleared his throat, and she realized she must have missed a chunk of conversation.
    â€œSorry. What’d you say?” she asked, tucking a section of hair behind her ear. In a fit of vanity, she’d pulled it out of her usual ponytail and brushed it out before their date—or non-date, or whatever it was. Now it kept tumbling into her face, annoying her. Rory wished she’d brought the