Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 by Lila Ashe

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