She coughed on the sip she’d just taken. He reached over to pat her on the back.
“Really?” she squeaked out.
“Yep, caught you off guard, didn’t I?”
“So you liked me back then?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what terms you want to put on it. Don’t turn it into a chick thing. High school sucked and I was there to get it done. You made it more tolerable.”
“What a great way to ruin a compliment.”
She hadn’t expected him to be blunt. Thankfully, there was a spark of humor in his eyes, but she was sure every word was the truth.
“I don’t think women like you need compliments. Or if you do, I’m not the one to give them to you other than saying you wear a pair of jeans damn fine.”
“Why, thank you,” she said. She stood up and did a turn for him and sat down.
This time he coughed for a second, then took another sip.
“And that’s why I liked you,” he said. “You’re not afraid to give it back.”
“I’m not. Too bad for years all the men I’ve been around haven’t liked it.”
“Wusses.”
“They were that,” she said. “And youstillhaven’t said how you became a fireman.”
“I took the test,” he said. “I wanted something that was more stable than I had. I’ve always worked more than one job and didn’t want to spend the next sixty years of my life busting my ass. I’ve got a good pension, can put my twenty years in, and keep my insurance, then collect my pension with a different job. Sounds like a win to me.”
“Wow. Insurance and pension are the last kind of talks I expected from you.”
“There you go, putting me in that bubble.”
“Nope, you’re doing it too. Just like you didn’t think I’d drink a beer. That’s why we are talking. But the truth is, you hated math, so you know, thinking of things like that, I put it together.”
“Math sucked too,” he said. “But money doesn’t. I know money and I know hard work. No fancy dreams about always wanting to be a fireman. I scored high on the test.”
“Because you’re smart.”
“Not many thought that.”
“They didn’t see the real you,” she said.
“And neither are you,” he said. There was a challenge in his tone and gaze.
“Don’t kid yourself. I’m willing to bet we are both showing it more than we have in the past to anyone else.”
“Why are you?” he asked, sipping his drink.
“Because what I was doing before wasn’t working and now it’s time for something else.”
She wouldn’t admit how happy she’d been being able to speak freely around him and he liked it rather than being turned off that she was a confident speak-her-mind woman. No reason to show her insecurities that she’d had in the past.
“So it’s a game?”
“Aren’t games fun?”
“Only if I get to win,” he said, winking.
