Page 11 of Off the Clock
“Good for you. Second chances and all that.”
“Yep.” Tony abruptly stood up. “You want a beer or something?” He glanced down at me, but before I could reply, he called out to the others in the yard. “Hey, who wants some soda or water?”
Not surprisingly, all four of the teens requested drinks, along with nods from Denver and Sean across the yard.
“If you’re going in anyway,” Sean called, stretching lazily in his chair. “We’ll take some of that local root beer. I got a case on the last shopping run but forgot to bring some bottles over here.”
“I’ll help you carry drinks,” I offered, standing and following Tony into the kitchen before he could tell me not to bother. The kitchen was a bright room with white cabinets and a large island. Tony headed for the double fridge and started placing soda bottles on the counter.
“Beer?” He held up a bottle from a local brewery known for its pale ale. “Something else?”
“Beer is great.” I accepted the bottle. As I removed the cap with the nearby bottle opener, I tried to catch his gaze. “I’m sorry if I made you think about unhappy memories.”
“You didn’t.” Tony let out a rough exhale. “Or rather, you did, but it’s okay. They’re not all crappy memories. And I’m forty-two. Way past when I should be pining for high school glory days.”
“At least you had glory days.” I saluted him with my beer.
“That bad, eh?”
“You could say that.” I groaned, not particularly wanting to revisit my own past, but he’d already shared. “I was a chubby, geeky kid with a talent for saying the wrong thing and being too eager to be included. Bullying was a daily thing through most of middle and high school. The curse of being an extroverted nerd. “
“You’re sure not nerdy now. Or chubby.” For the first time, Tony looked at me. Likelooked,an appreciative once-over that was the last thing I’d expected from him.
“Thanks.” My face heated. Damn, I liked his notice so much more than was wise.
“What changed for you?” Tony asked as he filled plastic cups with water from the fridge dispenser.
“Losing my dad partway through high school.” I kept my voice flat, the same way Tony had when reporting his career-ending injuries and bad home life. “My dad was a firefighter and died on the job in a bad warehouse fire in North Portland.”
“I’m so sorry.” Tony set aside the last water cup, stepping closer and placing a hand on my shoulder.
“I’d never really given much thought to what I’d do after school. I only wanted to survive high school.” My words sprung out too quickly, Tony’s palm searing my skin and jumbling my brain. Maybe if I kept talking, though, he wouldn’t pull away. “After he passed, Dad’s two best friends started taking me to work out, like a mentor thing. Funny thing, the more I worked out, the less teasing I had to endure. And there was this scholarship fund the station started for us. I wanted to prove I could do the fire academy and make him and all his friends proud.”
“Sounds like you did exactly that.” Tony’s tone was as warm and welcome as his touch. He stood far closer than a friendly distance, and damn if I didn’t want to lose myself in his embrace rather than revisit old memories.
“Mostly. I got good grades in the fire program at a community college closer to Portland, but getting on with Portland Fire is notoriously hard. When the job in Mount Hope opened up, Dad’s friends encouraged me to take it for the experience.”
“So this is short-term for you?” Tony dropped his hand but didn’t step away.
“Maybe at first. Not now. I’ve got to get Scotty through his senior year, and I genuinely like Mount Hope.”
“That’s good.” Still much, much too close, he peered deeply into my eyes. His breath gusted across my cheek, but pulling away was the last thing on my mind. “Anyone ever tell you that you’ve got hypnotic eyes?”
“Never.” At least I was honest, and he chuckled as he continued to stare.
“Well, you do.” His voice was somewhere between pissed off and turned on. “And they’ve been torturing me all damn week.”
“That so?” My voice came out all husky.
“Yeah.” He returned his hand to my shoulder, squeezing gently. Nothing friendly or bro-like about this touch, and I leaned into it, testing. My memory of our conversation faded, and I couldn’t recall what we’d been talking about ten seconds prior.
In fact, the whole world tunneled down to his brown eyes shooting laser beams at me. And he thought I was hypnotic? He exerted his own gravitational force field.
“You gonna do something about it?” I wasn’t going to be the one to move away, but I darn sure was going to make him take the next step.
“This.” And with that, he closed the minute gap left between us, muscled chest meeting mine, strong thigh wedging between mine, head dipping to capture my mouth in a kiss.
Kiss.My heart hammered, vision blurring and head swimming. Even through my disbelief, I met his incoming kiss eagerly.Brace for impact.His mouth was as solid as the rest of his rugged features, but his lips had an unexpected softness. And for all he’d sounded almost angry at me for having distracting eyes, his kiss was achingly gentle. The first pass of his mouth was tentative, but when I placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him even closer, he growled his approval and deepened the kiss.