Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 by Lila Ashe Read Free Book Online Page A

like that.”
    Coin took the turn onto Lowry Avenue.
    Lexie’s voice filled the cab. “Engine One, check for open mike.”
    Coin felt a sick chill. “Tox,” he hissed.
    “It’s not me.” Tox held his hands up. “I’m not touching anything.”
    Hank said, “Dude. You’re sitting on it. Your shoulder mike fell off.”
    Tox undid his belt and scrambled in his seat. Replacing his shoulder mike, he said, “Well. That sucks.”
    Hank said, “You so owe her a coffee.”
    Coin groaned. It had been Tox’s voice, but their engine. She knew they were talking about her. It was going to make whatever was going on in her head even worse.
    They owed her more than coffee.
    He turned on his left signal.
    “Where are we going now?”
    “Apple pie. And strawberry ice cream.”
    “Yeah, man,” said Tox, his voice chastened. “I’ll buy.”
    “Yep. You will,” agreed Coin.
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
     
    Lexie was still in Coin’s profile. What she should do was insert something into the profile she’d written for him. Instead of “occasional life saver,” she should put “occasional jerkwad.” Instead of five foot nine, she should put that he was five one. For fun, she typed, “My feet stink but since I leave my shoes on for sex, you’ll never know.”
    With a grim smile, she hit save.
    For one second, Coin was available for dating on the internet with really stinky feet. It felt pretty good.
    But it wasn’t fair. She erased the sentence and hit save again. He was back to being almost perfect. If it wasn’t for him having a kid, he would be pretty completely irresistible. Some women were going to dismiss him because he was a father.
    But others? They would love him for it. They’d see his Brady Bunch potential. A ready-made family.
    Gah.
    And he’d flipped right past her picture.
    She went to her own profile again, seeing it as he would, from his profile.
    Lexie had thought it was a good picture. Her brother had taken it in his backyard as she helped him prune the roses that had gotten completely out of control. She’d had her hair piled messily on top of her head, yeah, but that was par for the course. One long curled strand was falling over her eye, and she was laughing, her mouth open.
    When she’d posted the picture, she thought her eyes looked like the eyes of someone having a good time. Someone fun. Someone who could be attractive to the opposite sex. She’d gotten some “likes” from a few men just in the couple of days it had been up.
    Coin had flipped past it. Right past it. Hadn’t even slowed down. For Pete’s sake, she’d been wearing a short-sleeved striped T-shirt, and her tattoo could be seen winding down toward her wrist.
    How could Coin have not recognized her?
    Was it possible it was a joke? Maybe he’d been planning on exclaiming, “Just kidding! Cute pic, Lex,” before she answered 911. For one second, Lexie let herself hope.
    Then she gave it up.
    He hadn’t been going to do that.
    It hurt. Anyone else could have flipped past her picture and she wouldn’t have cared. For some reason, though, the fact that it had been Coin stung. Deeply.
    The door to dispatch slowly opened.
    Tox poked his head around the corner even slower.
    “Permission to enter?”
    Lexie sighed. “Why do you want to come in? To talk to a witch? You sure you didn’t mean there to be a letter B at the beginning of that word?”
    Tox held the door open for Coin and Hank who slunk in behind him. Coin held a pie in his hands. Hank was juggling a quart of ice cream back and forth.
    “We brought you pie and ice cream.”
    “Good.” Lexie wouldn’t forgive them this easily. It had hurt her feelings, what Tox had said. She tried to be the best dispatcher in the department. She tried to be professional on the radio at all times. And still they talked crap about her.
    “Dude, we’re sorry,” said Hank.
    “Dude,” echoed Lexie. “Whatever. People always ask, but this is why I never date firefighters.” It wasn’t,