When they got back to shore, Lexi and Dane changed out of their swimsuits and into the extra clothes they’d brought with them. For her that meant slipping back into her shorts and tank top—minus the bikini this time—while Dane came out of the changing room wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt. She didn’t mind the cargoes because they still showed off his muscular legs, but she was a little bummed he’d put on a T-shirt. She’d enjoyed seeing those washboard abs of his ripple and flex while he’d worked it on that board.
“You feel like stopping by Keller’s Drive-In for burgers then taking them back to my place and eating there?” Dane asked.
Lexi was all about that. She’d never been to Keller’s, but everyone she knew raved about their burgers being the best in Dallas. And after basking in the hot, hunky firefighter that was Dane Chandler all day, she definitely wouldn’t mind having him all to herself. She was kind of curious to see where he lived, too.
She smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Keller’s was a few miles from the paddleboarding place, so it took barely ten minutes to get there. Lexi glanced at Dane as he pulled into one of the drive-in spaces.
“How did you find this place?” she asked. “Another late night shift at the station?”
He chuckled. “Pretty much. We’ve stopped here a couple times in Engine 58 on the way back from a call.”
Lexi ordered a cheeseburger with all the standard fixings while Dane got a double meat with chili and cheese. They both got fries, plus an order of onion rings to share between them as well as chocolate shakes. Because if you went to a drive-in, you had to get shakes. Everything smelled so delicious, she couldn’t resist stealing a fry or two on the way to Dane’s apartment.
“I’ve been dying to see where you live,” Lexi said as they took the elevator up to the eighth floor of his apartment building.
Dane waited for her to step into the hallway before following her out of the elevator. “It’s kind of small and not nearly as nice as your place.”
She laughed. “My place is only nice because there are two of us paying the rent.”
Dane hadn’t been exaggerating when he said his one-bedroom apartment was small. But it was neat and clean and had a big window in the living room with a killer view that made it seem bigger than it really was.
While Dane went into the kitchen to grab some plates, she lingered in the living room to check out the framed photos on the walls. There were some of him with a dark-haired woman with eyes so similar to Dane’s she could only be his sister, which meant the middle-aged couple in the pictures must be his parents. All the other photos were of him with the firefighters and paramedics from Station 58. Besides the regular cookouts, there were a few from the various charity and sporting events as well.
“You’re really close to the crew at the station, aren’t you?” she asked as she joined him in the kitchen.
“Yeah.” He reached into the fridge and came out with mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. “Until my sister moved back to Dallas, the people at the station were the only family I had.”
Lexi’s heart ached at the reminder of what happened to Dane’s parents all those years ago. She was glad he and his sister had reconnected. While her family might drive her crazy, she wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“You mentioned the other night that you’re a Texas girl, but I never did get a chance to ask you exactly where you’re from,” Dane said as they sat at the tiny table in the eat-in kitchen.
She blinked as he squirted a big dollop of mustard on his plate then dipped some fries in it. He must have seen her staring because he offered the mustard to her. “You want some?”
“No, thanks. I think I’ll stick with ketchup.” Lexi watched in amazement as he dunked another fry into the spicy stuff. “How can you eat that much mustard all at once? I might put a little bit on a sandwich, but no way would I even think of putting it on fries. In fact, I think Melinda and I have probably had the same bottle of mustard in our fridge for two years.”
Which was kind of gross, now that she thought about it.
He dipped an onion ring into the same puddle of mustard and wolfed it down. “I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved mustard on everything.”
Lexi suddenly pictured Dane bringing mustard into the bedroom to slather on her. Okay…not going there.
“I’m from San Marcos,” she said when she finally got around to answering his question. She took a few onion rings from where he’d dumped them on a plate and stacked them on her burger. “It’s halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Kind of quiet compared to a city like Dallas, but it was a nice place to grow up.”
“Does your family still live there?”
She nodded, grabbing another onion ring and crunching into it. “Two brothers and two sisters, along with a whole bushel load of cousins, nieces and nephews. I’m the only one who ever moved away from home for more than a couple years. Both sisters and one of my brothers went off to college, but they all moved back to San Marcos after graduation.”
As they ate, Lexi found herself telling him about her family and all the crazy things she and her siblings did growing up. Like the time she and her sisters decided to have a picnic with their teddy bears when she, Heidi, and Misti were four, six, and eight respectively.
“The only problem was that there was a herd of free roaming cattle who thought the lush field of grass was the perfect place to graze,” she said. “As you can imagine, the bull wasn’t too happy with us. He chased us and our teddy bears right out of there.”
Dane chuckled.
“Don’t laugh! I was afraid of cows for years after that. Something which my brothers tease me about to this day.” Lexi picked up her drink. “Which is when I remind them of the doofuses they made of themselves at the state fair.”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Dane said with a grin. “What’d they do?”
