Page 3 of Heat Advisory

Oh my God. I was going to kill her later.

“Great,” Jay said excitedly. “Let me get your phone number so we can connect.”

He pulled his phone out to type my number into it.

Oh my God. He asked for my phone number. Breathe. Normal breathing.

I did my best to look casual as I rattled off my phone number and he typed it in.

“Perfect. I’ll send you a text so you have my number too,” he said to me. “I’ll let you go since I’m sure you ladies are busy. Good to see you both.”

“You too, Jay,” Iris said gleefully.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself,” he said to Christine, holding out his hand. “I’m Jay Rainer.”

“Nice to meet you,” she responded as she shook his hand.

“Same,” he replied and then turned to Iris and me. “It was good to see you, ladies.”

I silently waved, like a moron, with a loopy grin on my face.

There went the last of my dignity and grace.

“We’re all going to go out to dinner when this is over, if you’d like to join us,” Iris offered.

Before I could even think of a response, Jay smiled and responded.

“I wish I could, but unfortunately, there was a big fire on the south side of town that appears to be arson,” he said solemnly. “I need to hop on a flight and get back as soon as this is over so our team can get out there and dive into the investigation.”

I’d heard about that suspected arson. The fire had been bad. If it was arson, I hope they would be able to find who did it before another one was set.

“Thank you for the offer. I’ll see you next week,” he said to me and winked.

He winked. Winked.

My high school crush. The man I had thought about so many times, in many inappropriate ways, had just winked at me.

Why was it suddenly hard to get a full breath of air?

I blankly stared at him as he walked away, retreating to his original place on the other side of the room.

Then my view was blocked by my sister waving her hand in front of my face. “Yoo-hoo. Earth to Cora.”

I turned to my sister and angrily whispered to her, “Why would you tell him I could show him around?”

“Because you had the biggest crush on him in high school, and as your sister and pseudo wingman…or woman, I’m here to help you,” Iris explained.

I turned to Christine, who was just watching us go back and forth. “Is murder illegal in all fifty states? Asking for a friend.”

She snorted and chuckled at my question. “I think he’s cute, and you should definitely meet up with him.”

Ugh. Now they were ganging up on me.

It’s not that I was unhappy to see him. He was my biggest crush ever—of course I was excited to see him. I just didn’t like surprises or being caught off guard.

I was a planner. I liked being able to create a plan B, C, and D in my head.

Jay appearing out of nowhere had me feeling completely off balance. I did not like being unprepared for variables I had not accounted for.