To Protect & Serve (3 page)

Lisa’s ears tried to peel themselves from the conversation as she slid farther down into the booth.

“Yeah, well, dancing isn’t everything,” elbow guy said as he laid his forearm on the booth back, causing the remaining sanity in Lisa’s head to disperse.

Lunacy. It was the far side of it; however, the alcohol or something had a hold of her because Lisa’s brain took a nice little journey to the middle of that hot dance floor with her in his arms, swaying in time with only one another. A low growl of disgust with herself crawled into her gut. Where was her willpower? He was a guy after all. A guy. And that meant only one thing—trouble.

“Lisa-girl! What are you doing sitting over here all by yourself?” Haley asked as she, Bryn, Chandra, and a tall, well-built black man danced up to the table. He had his arms around each of the two girls.

“We found ourselves a fireman!” Bryn said loud enough for the whole bar to hear.

“Hey,” the man said with a glance to the table next to them, “well, look what we have here!”

Not one part of Lisa liked the sound of that statement.

“Man, you ladies must have some seriously good compass directions going for you. These are the friends I was telling you about!”

Occupants from both tables looked across in surprise.

“Ramsey, what did you do?” pullover guy asked as though he was reprimanding a two-year-old.

“Two,” Ramsey mouthed over the top of the girls’ heads as he nodded and smiled.

The darkness under the table was looking very inviting to Lisa at that moment.

Pullover guy waved them over. “Well, what are you standing over there for? Come, join us.”

“What do you say, ladies? Join us?” Ramsey’s clothesline of a grip around Bryn and Chandra made arguing pointless as he led them over to the other table.

Instantly Haley stood to follow them. “Come on, Lis.”

Lisa closed her eyes and exhaled. There was no way this was going to turn out
well.

“We’re going to be dancing,” Bryn said as she stood under Ramsey’s arm next to the table, “so why don’t you get in first?”

The tips of Lisa’s ears flamed, but she didn’t want to make a complete scene, so she slid a hand under her straight, light beige skirt and slipped into the booth. Elbow guy slid all the way around until he was sitting by pullover shirt, and in the next instant Lisa was so close to him, she could feel the heat from his shoulder. Carefully she wound the strand of hair around her ear as she smiled over at him sheepishly. At that moment Haley bumped into her and nearly sent her careening right into him.

“So, Rams, are you going to introduce us to your friends?” pullover shirt guy asked.

“Oh, sure,” Ramsey said smoothly. “This is Chandra, and Bryn, and the bride-to-be, Haley, and…” His gaze chanced on Lisa and stopped as though he wasn’t quite sure where she had come from.

“Lisa,” she said so quietly it was drowned out by the music.

Ramsey nodded although she was sure he just wanted to get on with the introductions. “And over here we’ve got Eve and Dustin and Jeff.” He looked around as the name wound right into the middle of Lisa. Jeff. Jeff. It was a nice name. Ordinary. Just like he looked—ordinary in an unbelievably extraordinary way. “Where’re Craig and Bridget?”

“Dancing I think,” Eve said, looking out to the floor.

“Well, then what are we all sitting here for?” Ramsey asked in annoyance. “Ladies.”

One-by-one they slid back out of the booth, and Lisa slid over two inches wishing there was more oxygen in the room. When Haley was out, she looked back. “Lis?”

It was a trap. Either way, it was a trap. “I think I’ll just stay here.”

With an annoyed shrug Haley followed the group into the crowd. A second and then two, and suddenly Lisa wished she had followed her sister.

“So, a bachelorette party, huh?” the guy she was pretty sure was Dustin asked.

“Yeah, Haley’s getting married next week,” Lisa said, clearing her throat to get the whole sentence out.

“Ugh, I remember that,” Eve said. “Horrible, horrible, horrendous week.” She laid a hand on Dustin's, and he looked down at her. “I’m glad that’s over.”

“What’s over?” a blonde asked as she slid into the booth next to Lisa, and then she stopped for a second when she realized she didn’t know who that was.

“The wedding,” Eve said theatrically as the guy with the blonde sat down next to her, leaving precious little space between Lisa and Jeff.  Why couldn't she even think that name without her heart slamming in her chest?  She had to get it together before they all figured out she was an idiot.

“Oh.” The blonde glanced at Lisa with curiosity mixed with confusion.

“Guys,” Dustin said, “this is... um, Lisa, wasn’t it?”

Wishing there was a non-threatening place to put her gaze, Lisa nodded. Instantly the new guy held his hand across the table.

“Craig,” he said gallantly, “and this is my wife, Bridget.”

Lisa shook the other two hands as her senses wrapped around the fact that although he was inches away from her, Jeff hadn’t so much as said a word in ten minutes.

“You know.” Bridget looked at her watch. “We really better be getting home. The babysitter’s going to fire us.”

“Wouldn’t want that, would we?” Eve asked sweetly as she huddled closer to Dustin.

“You all take care.” Craig extended his hand first to Dustin and then to Jeff, and when Jeff extended his hand, Lisa’s senses snapped to a full understanding of the size of his forearm. It made at least two of hers. And it was four shades tanner than hers as well. Then Craig waved at her. “It was nice to meet you, Lisa.”

“Yeah, you too,” she said, willing rational to come back to her.

“Night,” the departing two said, and Dustin waved at them.

For a moment the music simply surrounded them, and then Dustin looked down at Eve. “You do realize we’re wasting good music here.”

“Wouldn’t want that, now would we?” she replied. Hand-in-hand they slipped out, and just before they walked off, Dustin turned and pointed at Jeff.

“You behave yourself.”

There wasn’t a single inch of space anywhere on Lisa’s face that wasn’t 57 degrees hotter than it should have been. Slowly, hoping he wouldn’t notice, she slid an inch and then another away from him. It wasn’t the direction she wanted to go, but for her heart’s sake if nothing else it was the direction she had to.

A moment and then another, and she was starting to think this would be the longest night of her life. The edge of her finger wrapped around the hair at her temple and pushed it behind her ear as she glanced over at him. He wasn’t looking at her—instead his gaze was transfixed on the dance floor. “So, you never said what it is you’re celebrating,” she said softly, hoping he might actually talk again.

In the next heartbeat his gaze caught hers, and she saw the apprehension in the depths of his eyes.

He smiled kind of. “Oh, we graduated today.”

“Graduated? From what?” She laid her temple onto her hand as she looked at him.

“The fire academy,” he said, nodding.

“Fire academy?” Then she understood. “Oh, so you’re a fireman too.”

He nodded as the bottom of his lip disappeared under his teeth.

“All four of you?” she asked to clarify.

“Yeah, but after tonight we’re kind of going our separate ways, so...”

She smiled at him with gentle understanding. “That’s tough. I guess you get pretty close working together like that.”

The glance over at her held
only gratefulness. “Yeah.” His gaze fell back to the table, and he sat for a moment lost in thought. “It’s weird you know. A year ago I didn’t even know them, and now it’s like saying good-bye to brothers.”

“Are they... like leaving for good?”

“Ramsey’s going to College Station, and Dustin’s going to South Houston. I’m not real sure where Craig will get stationed. Probably somewhere around here, but who knows.”

The list stopped. She waited, but plans for the fourth person didn’t come. “What about you?”

His glance snapped up to her and then drifted back out to the dance floor. “I’ve got an interview on Monday—downtown.”

“Oh really? Huh. I work downtown.”

The shift of subject brought his gaze back to her. “Oh? Where do you work?”

Instantly it was her gaze that was running. “Oh, it’s just a little office in the Travis Tower.”

“What do you do there?”

She hated this part. “Umm, I... well, I own my own…” She cleared her throat. “I’m in advertising.”

“Hmm, that sounds cool.” Then his face fell in thoughtfulness as he realized where she was headed with her original statement. “You own your own business?”

Slowly she nodded, knowing she should look more proud of that fact than she seemed. “Me and three employees.” She shook her head at that statement.

“What?” he asked, zeroing in on her with his gaze making her brain feel like a jammed intersection.

She shook her head. “I don't know. Sometimes I think they’re more trouble than they’re worth.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I just wish I could do it all on my own, then things would get done right the first time, and I wouldn’t always be running
around after everyone trying to keep things going and redoing everybody’s mistakes.”

“They don’t... I mean they’re not trained for that kind of work?”

“Oh, they’re trained all right, but that doesn’t always mean much.”

He seemed to relax a little. “So, what do you come up with? Ads?”

“We’re supposed to do it all, but we have to farm the TV and radio production out. I don’t have time for that. But I draw up a bunch of the stuff we use.”

“Like what?”

“Like… well, there’s that billboard over on the Eastex Freeway for Zebra Carpets, that’s mine.”

“The one with all the stripes in the background that has a zebra in the middle if you look real hard?”

Her surprise jumped out. “You’ve seen it?”

He laughed. “Yeah, I drove by that thing like six hundred times before I ever saw the dang zebra, and now every time I go by, I can’t believe I missed it.”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to see when you’re going 70.”

“Unless it’s five and you’re going two,” he said with another laugh. It was a nice laugh, hearty but not booming.

“True.” She matched his laugh, then shrugged. “Sometimes I wish I could do the stuff I like to do and let somebody else do all the rest.”

“Then why own your own agency? Why not just get on with someone else?”

She felt her face corkscrew. “That’d never work.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m too much of a solo player. Teams just hold you back.”

The softness of his gaze drifted across her face, and she felt the surface of it go hot. “Sometimes it’s teamwork that makes life interesting.”

At that moment Haley slid into the booth beside Lisa and bumped into her shoulder. It was quite clear that her sister was having a very good time. “Man, that Ramsey guy is insane! I think my legs are going to fall off.”

“That’s not good,” Lisa said, turning her attention to her sister. “Cory might shoot me if I let something happen to you.”

Haley waved her off and looked over to Jeff with a sarcastic shake of her head. “Over-protective maid of honor.”

He smiled at Haley and then trained his gaze back on Lisa.

Trying to think of something to do so her head wouldn’t spontaneously combust, she looked at her watch. It was nearly one. “What time are we planning on leaving anyway? It’s getting kind of late.”

“Late?” Haley asked in horror. “It’s early!”

“Not when you’ve got work tomorrow it isn’t.”

“Work? Come on, Lis. Is that all you ever think about?”

“Well, I’m supposed to pitch that proposal for The Youth Leadership Conference on Monday, and it’s not...”

Haley put both hands in the air and waved at Lisa to get her to stop. “No, no, no. I don’t want to hear it. You know what? I want to dance some more.” And with that, she slipped back out of the booth.

“But you’re my...” Lisa started although Haley was already six deep into the crowd, “…ride.” She sighed and shook her head. Nobody understood.

“Looks like you’re stranded,” Jeff said, and absurdly there was an apology in is tone.

Lisa growled in frustration. “Yeah. Looks that way.”

His fingers played with the fraying edge of the paper on his beer bottle. “Well, if you need a ride, I wouldn’t mind...”

“Oh, no,” she said quickly. “That’s okay. I’ll just stay until they’re ready. It’s fine.”

He nodded. “Oh, okay.
Of course.”

Through the crowd Lisa caught sight of Dustin and Eve in a head-to-head, gazes-locked dance on the smoky fringes of the dance floor. “Looks like your friends are having a good time.”

He followed her gaze and smiled. “Yeah, those two are always having fun when they’re together.”

“And they’re married?”

“Eight months,” he confirmed.

“Ah, newlyweds.”

“In every sense of the word.” He laughed. “You think they’re bad now, you should’ve seen them that first month. You’d have thought they were joined at the hip.”

“They seem like they’re really in love.”

“Yeah, Eve’s great, but she always looks a little incomplete without him by her side.” Jeff’s whole countenance softened as the thoughts behind his eyes floated away on the wings of a dream. “She comes to the station on her lunch break just so they can be together.” He shook his head slowly. “And Dustin’s always ready to just get done so he can get back home to her. It’s like they are determined to spend every single second they possibly can together.”

Lisa heard the wistfulness in his voice, and she turned her head from the dance floor and laid it on her hand to look at him. “What about you?”

Instantly he looked at her as though he hadn’t realized he was having a conversation with anyone other than himself. “What about me?”

“You got somebody special in your life? Anyone coming to see you at the fire station?”

“My mom came once. Does that count?”

She laughed. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Yeah,” he said, joining her laugh. “I guess so.” Then the smile fell. “It’s hard sometimes going out with them. Craig and Bridget are just such a couple, and Dustin and Eve… well…” One of his hands slid down under the table as he straightened from sitting too long in the booth, and he stretched out his jeans. “Ramsey’s always got a dozen dates swirling around him. So, I get to sit and hold down the table a lot.”

“Oh,” she said, nodding. “So that’s what you were doing.”

“Yeah.” His eyes were a mixture of hesitation and thoughtfulness.

“Well, you do a good job of it,” she said teasingly, and he looked at her with a question in his eyes. “I mean, look at it.” She laid her hands on the tabletop. “It hasn’t moved a single inch all night.” The hesitation was gone when he smiled at her as she examined the table from top to bottom. “Nope, not a single inch.”