I should let go.
I don’t.
Her pulse jumps under my thumb. I feel it like a confession.
The smile drops right off her face. “Why?”
“This isn’t showtime, Ms. Hart. It’s an emergency response routine that requires my crew to focus.”
Slowly, she lowers her phone, letting her arm drop to her side. “Well, yes. That much is clear. That’s why I’m documenting it from a safe distance. They didn’t even notice me up here.”
“This isn’t the sort of content that—”
“Actually, it isprecisely the sort of content that we agreed to in the contract,” she cuts in, standing her ground with the impenetrable resolve of a five-foot-nine brick wall. “This is literally the point of Save A Hero. The video I just captured will let people see what you do, fall in love with your devotion to helping people, and then hopefully stop calling for your heads.”
“Public opinion isn’t swayed that easily.”
“In fact, it is,sir.” The sarcasm in her tone makes me bristle, and yet there’s a part of my brain that goes a little hazy at her use of that particular title. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.”
I clench my jaw, and search for something else to argue about. I’m not even sure why I bother.
My gaze trails down the length of her body, landing on her bare feet. Toenails painted neon pink. One little freckle on her pinky toe.
“You need to be wearing shoes at all times inside the firehouse.”
“Aye-aye, Captain. Won’t happen again.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Please just call me Hale.”
“Duly noted. And you can call me Lila.”
When I drag my eyes back up to her face again, I swear there’s a light blush on her cheeks. Probably born from frustration. I seem to have that effect on people. Perhaps if people didn’t have that effect onme…
“If it helps,” she adds, “you did look very heroic down there. Very captainly.”
“I’m not sure that’s a word.”
“Well, you know what they say about language.”
I stare at her, waiting for whatever punchline is coming.
She looks like she’s resisting the urge to roll her eyes, clearly annoyed that I won’t play along. “It’s, like, always changing or whatever. New words are made up all the time. I can say ‘captainly’ if I want. Just take the compliment.”
“Is that what it was?”
Inexplicably, a smile dances on her lips. “Of course. I mean, you really know how to deliver a command. It’s very impressive. Maybe you were a noble king in a past life.”
I lost the thread of this conversation almost as soon as it started, and yet I find myself unable to detach and march away. Wasn’t I just thinking that I didn’t have time to deal with this woman?
“A past life?” I repeat.
She leans her hip against the railing again, letting her golden hair tumble down over the edge. “Don’t you ever think about stuff like that?”
“No.”
“Hm. Well, if I were to guess what I was in a past life, I think I’d like to have been a swan.”
“What?”
