Spark Of Desire (20 page)

“I think I’m in love with her,” Kevin groaned. He hoped no one was listening. The other guys should have headed to the day room, which was why he’d asked Jack to meet him in the dorm. With his luck, one or all of them was standing outside the door eavesdropping just to harass him later.

“This is bad because…”

Kevin started listing off his reasons on his fingers, hoping he wouldn’t forget any. “First of all, she’s too young. She’s seven years younger than I am. Second, the department is gun-shy about couples, and she’s wanted to be a paramedic since she was a kid so it wouldn’t be fair for me to screw up her ranking because I think she’s cute. Third, the department needs her. Cap said they think there’ll be a shortage of paramedics in about a year. Fourth, she’s not my type.”

“Any more?”

“Give me a minute.” Kevin pouted. None of his reasons sounded as good out loud as they had inside his head.

“That’s a nice list of excuses you have, anyway.”

“They aren’t excuses.” Kevin closed his eyes. Jack was supposed to be agreeing with him, not pointing out flaws in his argument.

Jack leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “She’s too young. Seven years isn’t exactly cradle robbery. Now if it was twenty-seven years, I’d be telling you to get off the playground. If the department is nervous about couples for whatever reason, they’ll put her on a different shift, so unless we have an earthquake and they issue a total recall, you won’t be working together. If the department needs her so bad, they’ll find a way around the whole couple problem, if it is a problem.”

“She’s still not my type,” Kevin offered.

“What do you think your type is?”

“I don’t know.” Kevin swallowed. “Someone smaller. More petite. More feminine.”

“Someone more like Kate.”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“And my sister.”

Kevin glared at Jack. “That was just a cheap shot.”

“Revenge is a dish best served cold. You got to harass me about my exes. The only two of yours I ever met were cold-hearted, manipulative lizard wenches with pretty faces and nice bodies. I never did understand why you didn’t go gaga for Leia. She’s your type.”

“I swore off cold-hearted lizard wenches.” Unfortunately, Jack was right. Kevin reviewed his last few girlfriends. The last one had been looking for a wedding ring and a steady paycheck so she could stay home eating bonbons and watching soap operas without giving anything in return. She’d just about made him celibate for life. The ones before her hadn’t been too much better. Jessica was the first woman he’d been more than vaguely interested in since then.

Jack slicked his hair back again. “What about Jessica’s personality? You had to like something about her to agree to work with her.”

“She’s got a great personality. She’s nice, and she’s smart. She’s enthusiastic and competent in a crisis. She’s been to Ireland.”

“Really?”

“She went to Ireland by herself.” That still impressed Kevin. The idea that she had the courage to go overseas alone.

Jack whistled. “That took guts. Most people won’t eat in a restaurant alone. She seemed nice enough when I talked to her. What does she think of you?”

“I don’t know. Most of the time she seems irritated by me. Bobbie’s mad at me too.” Kevin sat up and went back to work on the blanket.

“Why is Bobbie mad at you?”

“I don’t know. I met her and Jessica at the gym Monday, and Bobbie huffed off early.” The knot in his stomach reformed. When Bobbie stormed out, he and Jessica had both been puzzled, but Jessica seemed to know something. Bobbie hadn’t shown up at all on Thursday, and Jessica said she hadn’t heard from her.

“You have a way with women.”

“I do not,” Kevin snapped. He worked the string loose and pulled it, puckering the fabric.

“Okay, you don’t. Let me ask you one question.”

“Do I have to answer it?”

Jack shrugged. “I guess not, but you asked me for help.”

“What’s the question?”

“Why did you kiss her at your birthday party?”

Kevin glared at his friend. “I didn’t kiss her,” he lied. Lying was getting easier.

“Oh yeah? You had her fingerprints on your back, and she came downstairs looking like she’d just been hit by a train and walked away without a scratch. You’re lucky she was carrying a cake or every other guy at the party would have noticed too.”

Kevin cradled his head in his hands. Why had he kissed her at the party? He’d gone inside to tell her they were not and never would be a couple and then attacked her. Since the party, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about that ten-second span when he’d held her. “So what do I do now?”

“Just a wild, off the cuff suggestion. Have you tried talking to her?”

“Yes. She gets defensive.”

“Unlike you.”

Kevin frowned at Jack. “I don’t like you anymore.”

Dan stumbled into the dorm, his shoes squishing, and dropped onto the end of Mark’s bunk across the aisle. “I just had the weirdest experience of my entire life. This chick walked in out of the rain, demanded I kiss her, and then walked away.”

“That must have been terrible for you.” Kevin sighed. How easy life must be for Dan. Bouncing from relationship to relationship. Always a new woman on the horizon. Kevin looked at his friend again. He was soaked like he’d been standing in the rain for a long time. Maybe this time, instead of being able to sail away, Dan had gotten himself stuck. Kevin understood the feeling. About now he felt mired to his chest and there was no elephant wandering by to get him out. Even if there was, he hadn’t decided if he wanted out.

Dan tried to fix his gaze on Kevin, but couldn’t seem to focus. “I’ve got to find her. Jack, Kate’s lived in this area for a while. Do you think she’d know her?”

“No, Kate doesn’t socialize in the neighborhood much.” Jack rested his chin on his fist. “One of the cops she knows might have an idea. I’ll ask, but don’t count on me.”

“What about your girlfriend, Kevin? She lives around here.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kevin growled. “Quit calling her my girlfriend.”

“Whatever she is, do you think she would know? Jessica? That’s her name, isn’t it?” Dan leaned forward.

“I don’t know. Ask her next time you see her.” Kevin sneered. “In between hitting on her.”

“Yeah.” Dan stood up, still looking dazed. “I can ask her the next time I see her.” He wandered out of the dorm.

“I leave for a couple of weeks, and you guys all get weird.” Jack turned away from staring out the door. “So what are you going to do about Jessica?”

“I already asked her to your wedding.” He hadn’t decided yet if that had been a mistake and he didn’t think he’d know until the wedding ended.

“That’s a start. Now you have to start thinking about your next date. Something that doesn’t involve weightlifting.”

“I can’t date her. She’s going to be a probie.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You have excuses for all seasons, Marshall. Look, you like her. You might even love her.”

“Whoa. Don’t start with that. I’m not in love with her.” Lying wasn’t very difficult with practice. Kevin hoped someday to be able to convince himself.

“Whatever you say.” Jack smirked while the thought settled in. “So you like her. You have a lot in common with her. What are you afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid.”

“And I’m a Hispanic woman with a doctorate in nuclear physics. I dye my hair to get it this color.”

“I didn’t know you had a doctorate,” Kevin answered. He’d asked Jack for help because he couldn’t sort this out on his own and now when Jack was trying to help him, he started getting evasive. What he needed to do was stop sabotaging himself. “If I start dating her, everybody is going to think that’s why I trained her. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Okay, then I have another question you won’t be able to answer. Why
did
you offer to help her?”

Kevin sat up straighter. “I felt sorry for her. She said she’d always wanted to be a paramedic and when I told her the cut-off age was thirty-one, she panicked. She’d turned thirty that day.”

Jack frowned mockingly. “Kevin Marshall taking pity on the poor girl. Sorry, I can’t see it. I think it had more to do with her smile or her hair or her trip to Ireland.”

Kevin grunted. It had less and less all the time to do with her trip to Ireland.

“Search your feelings. You know it to be true.”

“I still don’t want to screw up her chances in the ranking.”

“How gallant of you.”

“The department needs her.”

“No, the department wants her. Doubtless, only slightly less than you do.” Jack ignored Kevin’s dirty look. “Do you know why the department wants her so much?”

“She’s smart. She was pre-med. She took good classes in college and got good grades.”

“And
you’re
training her.”

“That has nothing to do with it.”

“That has everything to do with it.” Jack tossed his towel to the foot of the bed. “You met up with her on what, the twenty-third, twenty-fourth of June? I started getting phone calls on the twenty-sixth. Everybody thought if you agreed to work with her, she must be something special, and since you’re not Dan, we figured she wasn’t special in the thirty-six/twenty-four/thirty-six way. I hate to break this to you, but you have a good reputation around here. If you choose, out of left field, to work with somebody nobody’s heard of, there must be a reason.”

“So everybody already thinks I’m a lovesick moron.”

“No, everybody wonders what kind of treasure you found up there at the bookstore. The fact that she’s got a great body, a great personality, and can cook is gravy. When I heard about her, I assumed she was some mongrel who could bench press a cow.” Jack stood up and picked up his towel. “Accept the fact that somewhere along the line you’re going to look like an idiot for her. I’m pretty sure it’s a requirement. Start acting less like a jackass. Maybe she’ll stop acting as if she’s angry at you all the time. Then, maybe you have a chance to only look sort of silly instead of like the village idiot.”

* * * *

Kevin walked into the gym the next morning prepared to follow Jack’s advice. Bobbie should be there to act as a buffer, which would help. It didn’t matter if the guys thought he had ulterior motives. She was very qualified. If she also happened to be attractive then it was, as Jack said, gravy.

Rounding the corner out of the hallway, he spotted her talking to a man. Talking and smiling. Talking, smiling and laughing.

Kevin picked up his pace. He needed to be between her and whoever this guy was. From this perspective he could only see the man’s back, but he could see Jessica’s expression. He wanted her to look at him that way. Like she admired him. Like she thought he was interesting and funny.

“Oh Kevin, you’re here,” Jessica said when she caught sight of him. She looked almost relieved. “I suppose you know Captain Bartlett.”

Kevin forced himself to smile and tried not to swallow his tongue. Captain Bartlett from Four. The one who’d been watching her work out.

“Marshall.” Bartlett held out his hand.

Kevin shook it, trying to figure out what had just happened. What had they been talking about?

“The captain finally decided to come out of the shadows and introduce himself. He’s been giving me tips for the exam.” Jessica laughed.

Kevin didn’t recognize her laugh. Given, she didn’t laugh much around him, but this laugh had a coy, anxious ring to it. Was she interested in the captain? He had to be over forty.

“I promise you. You walk into the room and slip the proctor a fifty, you’ll ace the test.” He patted Jessica on the shoulder. “But I don’t want to interrupt your workout. Remember, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to give me a call. You have my number, right?”

“You watched me put it in my phone.”

“Good. I look forward to seeing you at the fire academy.” He nodded to Kevin and walked away.

“Have you seen Bobbie?” Jessica asked. She looked over Kevin’s shoulder toward the door. “I’ve left her a couple of messages, but she hasn’t called me.”