Flirting With Fire (Hometown Heroes) (17 page)

“She won’t.” A
smirk tugged at one corner of his lips. “At least, not for long.”

He sighed then,
and looked out toward the parking lot. “I suppose I know what’s coming next.”

“What’s that?”

“The question
every poor sap who owns a pickup truck always seems to hear.”

“Oh yeah,” I
said, a grin breaking out across my face. “So, uh, what are you doing Sunday
after the lunch rush? ‘Cause I might just need…”

“…someone to
help you move. Right. Well, you’re in luck—I’m actually off Sunday.”

“Really? That’s
great! Oh, but wait—what about Sarah? The news that I’m moving will hit the
gossip chain before my first box is in the trunk!”

“I’ll think of
something to tell her. Just leave it to me. Have to go over there after work
tomorrow, anyway, to help Ron with his growing honey-do list. Darned pregnancy
hormones.” He shook his head.

“Oh, thank you,
thank you, thank you!” I pulled him into a grizzly bear-sized hug. “You’re the
best. Ever.”

“And don’t you
forget it.”

CHAPTER
15

I stopped by the
tiny office at my apartment complex first thing Saturday morning and submitted
the obligatory thirty days’ notice in writing. Their insistence, not mine.
Though, it did give me plenty of time to move all my stuff.

But the thing
was, I didn’t want time—I wanted to be done. Gone. Liberated.

So, I worked my
tail off packing all day Saturday. And true to his word, Mitch stopped by my
place just after lunch on Sunday. I asked him to load the big, heavy boxes in
his truck. In the meantime, I’d load my wardrobe and other, smaller items into
the Grand Prix.

“What about your
furniture?” Mitch asked after our first trip outside.

“Putting it in
storage for now. Dawn’s place is already furnished, so I don’t need most of
it.”

“Seems a waste
of money to me. And energy. Because I’m guessing you’ll try to recruit me for
that job as well.”

“Who, me?” I
batted my eyes at him. “Though, if you’re volunteering...”

“Come on,” he
said, and snagged my arm as he led me back inside. “Before you con me into
anything else you need done today.”

We focused on
our work after that, and in no time at all were on our way to Fort Wayne. With
radio cranked I led the way, the thrill of adventure coursing through my veins.
I was actually doing it: leaving Autumn Lake behind! Mitch, I could see in my
rearview mirror, looked much less enthusiastic about my move. But it was just
something he would have to get used to, because once I got settled into my new
apartment, there was no going back.

Once we made it
into Fort Wayne, I had Mitch follow me down into the basement parking garage.
There was an access elevator down there, Xavier had told me, which would mean a
lot fewer trips back and forth. Since I hadn’t brought much in the way of
actual furniture, and the apartment complex had a few moving dollies handy by
the elevator, the transfer of my things to upstairs was relatively painless.

“Wow,” I said,
closing the door behind me after our last trip up from the parking garage.
“That went way smoother than I thought it would.”

Mitch’s right
brow crept higher. “Yeah, especially since I did all the hard work.”

“Did not.”

“Did, too.”

“Did not!”

“Okay, Mr. Low
Blood Sugar, do I need to order some pizza or something?”

Mitch ran the
back of his arm across his forehead. That was when I realized how badly he was
sweating…and that I really wasn’t. Okay, so maybe he had done most of the hard
work.

“I think that’s
the least you could do.”

I dug out a
cooler I’d packed with the contents of my old fridge and pulled out a few
beers. “And these?”

“Getting
warmer,” he said with a grin.

I put a call
into the nearest Pizza Hut, then kicked back to enjoy a cold one with him. In
no time at all, the doorbell rang.

“See?” I said,
rising from my seat. “You move to the big city, you get treated with faster
service.”

Mitch rolled his
eyes. “Whatever.”

I headed to the
door and looked out the tiny peephole. All I could see was the back of
someone’s head, and they seemed to be on the phone. A moment later, my visitor
turned back to face the door. She looked to be in her early twenties, with long
blonde hair tied up into a sloppy ponytail. A cell phone was wedged between her
ear and shoulder.

How cool is
that? A neighbor coming to say hello already?
I reached out and opened the
door.

“…I know, that’s
what I told her, too. And she was like, ‘no way’, and I was like ‘yes, way’,
and, oh, hold on a minute, G.”

“Can I help
you?”

The gal smiled
at me and shifted some wrinkled laundry in her arms to free up one hand and pluck
the cell from her shoulder. “Hi, I’m Savanna. From down the hall,” she said,
her thumb over the phone’s mouthpiece. “Are, uh, you moving into Dawn’s old
place?”

“Hi! Yes, I am.
And I’m Liz, by the way. Thanks so much for—”

“Awesome,” she
said, and extended the laundry pile to me. “Then this is for you.”

I looked down at
the cream-colored bundle, confused. That’s when I realized the laundry had four
paws, bat-like ears, and the creepiest pair of wide, pale blue eyes I’d ever
seen. “What is it?”

She huffed out
an exhale as if I were the dumbest person on the planet. “Dawn’s cat. She asked
me to watch it for her until she found it a new home. But the stupid animal
keeps knocking over my plants. So, since you’re here now, I’m giving it back.”

The thing she’d
called a cat stared at me with big, unblinking eyes.

“Giving it back?
But it’s not mine! A-and I’m allergic to cats!”

“It is now.” She
lowered the cat to the ground. Creepy Cat trotted past me and into my new
apartment. “And don’t worry, most people with cat allergies do just fine with
hairless cats.”

Hairless cat? It
looked like something that would be the offspring of an encounter between E.T.
and Doby the elf. No way could I possibly stand to have something that
scary-looking living in the same apartment as me. “But—”

“Here’s Fluffy’s
food, bowls, litter, litter box, shampoo, and lotion,” she said, picking up a
bag from just outside my door. “I know Dawn said to bathe him weekly, but he
can go two weeks no prob. But you’ll want to do the lotion once a week, to keep
him from getting all dried out.”

“All dried out?”
Lord, the thing could actually look worse than it already did? I simply
couldn’t imagine it. “Wait, its name is
Fluffy
?”

“Yeah,” she
said, stepping around me to put the bag in my apartment. “Kinda stupid, if you
ask me.”

She moved for
the door and I panicked. No way was that alien-looking thing staying in my new
apartment! I glanced behind me for the hideous beast. He had hopped up onto the
back of Dawn’s couch, and was bent over in a grotesque position, cleaning
himself.

“Well, stupid or
not, I really need you to take him back.”

Not bothering to
let him finish, I hurried over and scooped the cat up. He felt all warm…and
saggy. It was all I could do not to drop the darned thing.

“Look, I’ll talk
to Dawn tomorrow, first thing, but—”

“Welcome to the
building, Liz!” she called.

I spun around to
find the doorway empty. The sudden movement surprised Fluffy, who arched his
back and hissed. I held him away from me, in case he hadn’t been declawed. Hard
to find Mr. Right when you’ve had your eyes clawed out.

“Nice kitty,” I
whispered and hurried to the door, keeping a close eye on his feet as I went.
But by the time I made it out to the hall, it was empty. The sound of a door
clicking shut echoed in the distance.

Shit.

“Who was that?”
Mitch asked from behind me.

“It was one of
my new neighbors.” I looked down at Fluffy and grimaced. “And she brought me a
housewarming present.”

* * * *

Once Mitch finally
left and I had my new apartment all to myself, I felt the urge to go streaking
through the apartment in my birthday suit, shrieking with joy. But I worried
the shrieking might freak out my new neighbors, and I didn’t want to start my
first night off on the wrong foot. Or wrong pitch.

Plus, with Creepy
Cat slinking around the apartment, the whole streaking idea quickly lost its
appeal. Feline or not, having another pair of eyes in the room still made me feel
a bit more self-conscious. Especially those wide, pale, creepy eyes. Ick.

I’d be having
words with Xavier tomorrow first thing. No way was that thing staying here. He
hadn’t been part of the deal.

So, instead of
skipping around naked, I left the cat to lick himself and headed for my new
garden tub. I shut the bathroom door safely behind me, ran the faucets, added a
bit of bubble bath for good measure, and then eased in.

After the sting
of hot water eased, I leaned my head back onto the tub’s ledge and closed my
eyes in weary bliss. It’d been love at first sight with this master bath when
I’d stopped by the place yesterday to scope it out. And all through the
weekend’s packing and hauling, moving and nail-breaking, the image of me taking
a dip in this deep, wide tub was the one thing that’d kept me going.

In the next
room, my cell phone buzzed. It was probably Sarah, checking in on me. Or Mitch,
though he’d just left half an hour ago. That’s how it would probably be for a
while—one or the other constantly checking on me. Small town paranoia at its
best.

Though I knew he
wasn’t keen on me leaving town, Mitch had seemed to be in a great mood all day.
Which had been a huge relief. I’d been worried that he might try to talk me out
of the move now that he’d had time to digest what was really happening. Once we’d
recovered from the cat debacle and had had our fill of pizza, I asked him the
question that’d haunted me all weekend.

“So, I take it
you talked to Sarah?”

He took a drink
from his Summer Shandy, then nodded.

“How did she
take it?”

“Pretty well,
actually.”

I’d stared at
him in disbelief. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said
with a shrug. “I mean, especially after I reassured her you’d be back down
every weekend to visit.”

“
Every
weekend?” So much for me saving on gas.

“Sure. You said
yourself that we’d probably see more of you now than we had before.” His gaze
met mine. “If you’re gonna back out on that promise already, you can be the one
to tell her.”

“No! No, I’ll
come and visit. And of course you guys are welcome to come up here and visit
any time you like, too. Maybe watch some baseball. We used to love watching the
Cards on TV when we were kids, remember? It’ll be just like old times, except
live in my own backyard.”

Mitch looked out
over the silent ball diamond and my gaze followed his. The sun had begun to set,
casting shadows across its pristine chalk baselines. The darkened stands were
empty, expectant.

“Yeah, I guess
it’d be nice to catch a game sometime,” he said, his gaze shifting back to mine.
“Though, not nearly as nice as you moving back home.”

I sighed. “Let
me get this itch for adventure out of my system, then we’ll talk. Who knows?
Maybe I’ll absolutely hate city living and all the things that come with it.
The traffic, the noise…”

“…the crime, the
sirens…”

“Yeah. That,
too. Maybe it will all drive me away.” I looked back out over the serene view
and tried to keep worry off my face. Every siren I’d heard this week had made
me jump. How could they not, with all these stupid dumpster fires. Especially
since I still had that sinking feeling in my stomach that they were somehow
directed at me. But since they hadn’t followed me home to Autumn Lake, hopefully they wouldn’t follow me here, either.

“One can only
hope,” he said with a wink, then downed the rest of his beer.

I’d just laughed.
But as I lounged in the garden tub now, feeling more relaxed and uninhibited
than I had in eons, the thought of moving back was the furthest thing from my
mind. No, this spacious apartment, this bustling city,
this
was the life
for me now. And it was going to take a heck of a lot more than a few silly fires
to convince me otherwise. Or some creepy, hand-me-down, hairless cat.

Now if only I
could find Mr. Right to make this even more worth my while.

* * * *

I woke Monday
morning to the sound of Fluffy mewing outside my bedroom door. He hadn’t been
happy with me when I’d banished him from my bed the night before. I’d been even
less happy when he’d pounced on me at midnight when I was dead asleep. Felt
like someone had thrown a wiggly, velvet-covered hot water bottle on me.

Creepy Cat was
lucky to even be alive after that incident.

Even so, I was
bound and determined not to let him ruin the first morning at my new place. So,
after showering and getting ready for work, I headed out to the kitchen to get
us both some breakfast. Lucky for the cat, he behaved himself. And while I was
tempted to box him up and take him to work as a present for Xavier, I decided
to leave him behind. Because while I wasn’t happy about the four-legged
surprise, I wasn’t about to risk my job over it.

A short while
later I headed out for my first walk to work. The late spring air held only a hint
of chill, and the sun shone brightly across a cloudless sky. Shade from the
trees lining my path dappled the sidewalk before me, and it was all I could do
not to whistle as I walked.

Not that it
would have mattered—no one around here knew me from Adam.

“Hey, Liz! Wait
up!”

Or did they?

I turned to spy
a sunglasses-wearing Torrunn loping less than gracefully toward me. Still, his
light blue t-shirt stretched and tugged in all the right places across his chest
and shoulders, and I had to remind myself for the hundredth time that he was
off-limits.