“You’re a bigger man than me. I’ll wait for you. I haven’t gotten the scoop on you and Jenna yet. Although I’ll definitely take partial credit since I did set up that double date a few weeks back.”
“Take all the credit you want. I’m too happy about it to care.”
Luke chuckled. “I haven’t seen this side of you in a while.”
Yeah, the past year had been a rough one with Britt’s infidelity and their divorce. And if Ty was honest, the year before that hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park. It felt good to be happy again. To feel optimistic about the future. To know Jenna wanted to be with him as much as he wanted to be with her.
Every day was like a gift. And even though they’d jumped headfirst into an exclusive relationship, they’d decided to take things slow in other ways. He didn’t want anything ruining what they shared.
Luke followed Ty onto the apparatus floor but hung back as he headed toward the 3–1 ambulance where Marissa mopped down the vehicle.
As he approached she turned a sour look on him before returning to her task.
Ty managed to maintain a congenial smile. “How’s it going, Marissa?”
“Fine.” Her flat tone left little doubt about her current feelings toward him.
“I understand you guys have been busy this week. Heard you had a great save with a heart attack victim yesterday.”
“That was 3–2.”
“Oh. Well, a save is good for everyone, right?”
His question was met with silence.
Okay...He shifted. Rubbed the back of his neck. “Listen, we never really got a chance to finish the conversation we started before, and I just wanted to clear the air. Make sure things are okay between us. I heard there were some rumors flying around the firehouse, and that’s not good for the company.”
She nailed him with a look. “Are you accusing me of starting rumors?” Her raised voice echoed through the bay.
He kept his tone low and moderated. “No... I didn’t say that.”
“That’s how it sounded to me.”
“That’s not what I meant, Marissa. You’re twisting my words.”
“Andyou’reharassing me. You’ve approached me four times about this, and I’ve been as nice as I can be. But you never seem to get the message, so I guess I just have to be direct—I need you to leave me alone.” Her eyes glazed with actual tears.
He blinked. “Whoa. I was just trying to make peace with you. I don’t want hard feelings between us, that’s all.”
“There aren’t any feelings at all between us. And if you don’t leave me alone, I’ll have to report you.”
He gave his head a shake. What was happening? Where was this coming from? Clearly he wasn’t helping the situation. He put his hands up, palms out, and turned away—only to find a dozen or so volunteers at the back, hanging on to every word. Great. Just what he needed.
Luke followed him into the hallway. “What the heck was that?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
“What did you say to her?”
It had been a mistake to speak quietly. He’d been trying to de-escalate the situation, but the whole group had heard only her accusations. Never mind that they were entirely unfounded. He explained the whole conversation to Luke, who seemed just as bewildered by her reaction as Tyson.
“Man, that woman’s got some issues.”
“I’m the last person to call a woman crazy, but that was not normal.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Stop trying to make things right for starters. Obviously that’s not helping. And the last thing I want is to get reported.”
