Page 17 of The Kiss | AllFreeNovel

"Copy, Captain Holloway. Good work."

Sawyer's eyebrows went up as he fed hose back onto the bed.

I clipped the radio back to my gear and started the walk-through. I'd been thinking about her since the play, and the part of my brain that ran on protocol had lost a fight with the part that remembered the green of her eyes when I kissed her.

The crew was asleep by midnight. I sat in the kitchen with a cup of tea and the lights dimmed, listening to the station settle around me.

I kept hearing it. Copy, Captain Holloway. Good work.

Captain Holloway. She'd used my full title, which she'd never done before. On every call this summer, it had been "Engine 19" or "Copy, Captain." Tonight she'd said the whole name, and the formality of it landed like a door closing. I'd used her first name on a live channel and she'd put the rank back between us in two words.

My phone was on the table in front of me. I picked it up twice before I made myself keep it in my hand.

All I wanted to know was whether I'd made her uncomfortable, whether the name on the radio had put her in a position she didn't want to be in. The problem was how to ask that in a text without making it worse.

I wrote and rewrote the same message four times before I sent it.

ALEX

Hey. Wanted to say good work on the East Broadway call today.

A message that could go either way.

Three dots appeared almost immediately.

JANINE

Thanks :) It was a clean scene. Your crew is sharp.

I stared at the smiley face longer than I should have. She wasn't upset. Or if she was, she wasn't showing it.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I typed back.

ALEX

About earlier. On the radio. I should have used your dispatch number.

JANINE