They rode the creaky elevator down one level because Maresca’s knees couldn’t handle the stairs.
“Where ya staying while you’re in town?”
“My uncle’s bungalow. Thinking of making some renovations in the spring.”
If it doesn’t collapse first.
“Geez.” Maresca recoiled. “Don’t tell me you’re living in that abandoned shack on the beach, way down from the boardwalk.”
“I was. But the attorney just told me this morning the town condemned it for fungal mold. And the electrical system wasn’t up to code. Is there a decent motel around here?”
“You can try the Hideaway Hotel. They rent rooms by the hour if you catch my drift. Then there’s the Scenic View Inn overlooking the marina. That’ll run you three bills a night. Or you can check the community bulletin board.”
Tacked to the wall was an array of handwritten and professionally printed signs. Nick scanned them all. Car for sale. Babysitter wanted. Dog walker. Dog sitter. House cleaner. House sitter. Landscaper. Room for rent/Roommate wanted.
“Perfect.” Maresca plucked the last one and handed it to Nick. “Someone’s looking for you.”
“I don’t think that’ll work for me.”
“Hang on to it. You never know. Maybe you’ll change your mind. In the meantime, stay in the bunkroom as long as you want.”
Maresca pushed open a steel door labeled
Training
—by virtue of a piece of silver duct tape printed with black marker—and flipped on a wall switch. “The supply closet is back here.”
The room was a blank space, except for the perimeter of folding chairs set up like a horseshoe against pale paneled walls facing a movie screen and a plain metal desk in the corner.
“Everything you need’s in here.” Maresca led them to another door within the training room and flicked another wall switch, turning on the overhead fluorescent bulbs inside a storage closet bigger than Nick’s tiny bungalow.
“Heads up!” Maresca called, and Nick turned in time to catch the soft packages. A pale blue button-down shirt, navy blue standard-issue pants, and a one-size-fits-most clip-on tie. “We’re pillars of the community. Gotta look the part.”
Nick made a quick change in the locker room before schlepping cumbersome plastic torsos from the closet, setting them in neat rows on the industrial-carpeted floor.
“Here they come.” Maresca stepped in the hallway at the sound of footsteps clattering down the metal staircase.
Nick couldn’t avoid eavesdropping on the chief having a helluva time coaxing an unwilling female into the room.
“But I took the class last year.” Her gentle protest bordered on whining. “Why do I have to sit through it again?”
“They changed the guidelines,” Maresca said. “Plus, you’re gonna need training on how to use the AED machine. Just get in there, Lily.”
Lily! The redheaded girl with the shopping cart in the liquor store—that Lily?
Nick backed into the supply closet and peered through the crack in the door. His focus fell on the petite figure tucking red strands into a loose wind-blown braid. Every inch of him throbbed, from his heart to his hard-on. He adjusted the inseam of his stiff new pants to suppress his arousal before it raged out of control.
She will not get to me…she will not get to me…she will not get to me…
When the mantra failed to do its job, he counted backwards from a thousand…then stepped out of the closet ready for business with newfound clarity.
Although he kept Lily in his peripheral vision, he paid her no special attention, not even bothering to say hello.
She probably wouldn’t recognize me anyway.
Or would she?
A new self-imposed challenge set him off again, but Nick curtailed his runaway thoughts by counting the stack of informational material.
She will not get to me...
He handed a pamphlet to each person with a quick, generic greeting.
By the time he got to Lily, his rebellious libido was feeling frisky, and the mantra slipped his mind.
She reached for brochure blindly, not bothering to lift her head.
Nick refused to let it go, even when she tugged, forcing her to look up. “Hello again.”
She blinked hard before the startled expression faded into a wry smile and a blush bloomed on her fair skin.
Electricity rippled from his eyes to his thighs. It happened so fast no one else could have noticed the invisible energy between them.
What the hell am I doing? She’s too young for me.
Instead of feeling like a dirty old man, he felt nothing but hot and bothered.
“Hi.” Her powdery voice floated past glossy lips. A wide, million-dollar smile lit up her lovely face, brightening the entire world as far as he was concerned, making it impossible to tear his eyes away.
“What about
me
?” The woman one seat over huffed with impatience that jolted him back to reality.
What about you?
Nick glowered at the occupant in the next chair, dressed like she was going to the bar rather than here to learn CPR. “Good afternoon, ma’am,” he said with a consolation grin that seemed to satisfy her for the moment.
“I’m Britney. And you’re a new face, aren’t you?” A knock-off of his bottle-blonde ex-wife wasted no time making casual conversation. “Call me anytime if you wanna go out for a cocktail. I’ll show you ’round town.”
“Okay everybody,” Maresca said, “Settle down. Let’s get started so we’re outta here on time.”
Nick shuffled the certificates on the desk, putting Lily’s at the bottom of the pile on the clipboard. And Britney’s on top.
“I’m Chief Maresca, as most of you know. This is Captain Nick Knight, our newest member, on loan all the way from upstate New York. He’s gonna take you through CPR, which stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.” He winked at Nick. “They’re all yours. I’ll be back in a jiff.”
Nick turned on the video, giving him ten minutes to regain his composure.
Even if Lily might be into older men…
Well, he didn’t wanna think about it. Although he couldn’t forget the nineteen-year-old hottie he’d scored with on his thirtieth birthday—not the noblest of choices, but he had been still drinking heavily at the time.
Things were different now. Better. Because he was living sober. And he wasn’t looking to mislead any more little girls into thinking he was some kind of Prince Charming for the night. Although being in love with the right woman might be the answer to his prayers and problems.
When the video segment ended, he asked, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Britney raised her hand, wiggling red-tipped fingers in the air. “Where upstate are you from? ’Cause I know people up there.”
“He means questions about CPR,” a woman cackled, and the class burst into laughter just as Maresca limped back in and mouthed to Nick:
What the hell is going on in here?
Nick shrugged, grateful for the chaos that turned his rigid flesh into Jell-O.
The chief rolled his eyes, grabbed whatever he was looking for, and stepped out again.
“I’m from Star Harbor. Across the Long Island Sound, by Connecticut,” Nick said over the ruckus.
A man’s voice interjected, “Come on already. I wanna get outta here on time. You’ll probably find him at the pub, Brit. You can pick him up there.”
Britney hissed at everyone. “Oh, shut up.” Then she flashed her eyes at Nick with a coy smile. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“Look folks,” Nick shouted over the chatter, “this course doesn’t make you an automatic doctor or anything. What you learn today will help you in case your family or friends have a heart attack. Situations you might encounter at the dinner table. A wedding. Your kid’s soccer game.”
After finishing the two hours of stop-and-go videos, he did a quick CPR demonstration with the mannequins.
When it was time to let the class try, he couldn’t take his eyes off Lily, down on all fours in front of her victim, with palms in perfect nipple-alignment, arms in good form, ready to push on the chest cavity. A magnificent vibration flowed through him at the sight of her heart-shaped bottom raised high in the air. He wanted nothing more than to get behind her and rock the stiff pillar in his pants into her…
Nine-hundred-ninety-nine…Nine-hundred-ninety-eight…Nine-hundred-ninety-seven…
“Good job everyone. Let’s move onto the Heimlich maneuver…” He roved the room, eyeing the students, sizing them up, looking for a
victim
.
Squelching any guilt, he hovered over Lily with the zipper-fly of his Dickies in direct alignment to her pouty lips, making him twitch like a compass needle pointing at the North Pole. This might be his only chance to get this close to her, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “How tall are you, miss?”
“Um, five-ish.”
“Perfect. Could I use you for a minute?”
She hesitated with wide-eyes, like a proverbial deer in headlights.
“You could use me,” Britney offered, drawing a dirty look from Lily.
“Oh, fine.” With reluctant eye-roll, Lily joined him in front of the class.
“I promise it won’t hurt a bit. Okay, folks. I’m six-two. And Lily is only
five-ish
. Imagine she’s choking. I would—”
“Let her choke,” Britney mumbled under her breath; Nick ignored the crude comment.
“I would bend to her height, and put my arms under hers, and reach around level to her belly button...” As his hands skimmed Lily’s waist, he inhaled her fragrant lavender-scented hair. “Don’t worry, I’m not being fresh, it’s just for the demonstration.”
“I’m not worried. I don’t go out with firefighters anyway.” Her soft words were like a hard kick in the crotch.
“Liar—you
used
to go out with a fireman,” Britney whispered, and Lily’s body tensed in the circle of his arms. The makings of a catfight stirred the air, but Nick kept moving forward.
“I grab my fist like this…and by pushing in and up I force the air from her lungs and hopefully dislodge whatever’s in there.” He made the motion a few times.
“Any questions? No? Okay. You can relax.” He put his hands on Lily’s shoulders and pushed her stiff arms to her sides. “Now, imagine I’m the one choking. Unless she stands on a chair, she’s not gonna get her arms around me in the right spot. What would you do?” He looked down into her sparkling eyes, wishing they were alone, a million miles from here. Or at least in the privacy of the storage room where he could taste those luscious lips—he’d change her opinion about dating a fireman for sure.
Lily shrugged and moved behind him. Nick looked over his shoulder at the horrified expression on her face as she calculated her reach-around would align with the waistband of his Dickies.
“As you can see, she’d be doin’ the Heimlich on my belt buckle, which won’t work.”
“I’ll do the Heimlich on your belt buckle.” Britney laughed, followed by a wave of snickers from the class.
Maresca returned just in time to miss another razz from the audience.
Nick put his back against the wall and pulled Lily to face him. She was shaking under his fingers. “Don’t worry. It’s part of the demonstration.”
Her pretty smile was gone; in its place was a tense line. She wouldn’t look at his eyes, which worked fine for him, because he couldn’t avoid staring at the hard beads straining inside her tight shirt.
“In this position, she can lean into me, and by pressing the right spot, she could do the same job, using the wall for leverage. Also, I won’t crush her if I lose consciousness. So, there are other ways of doin’ the same job. Don’t think just because there’s a size difference it won’t work.”
“See, ladies, it’s true, size doesn’t matter.” Maresca laughed at his own joke.
Lily made beeline for her seat once the show was over.
They breezed through the AED portion during the last thirty minutes.
“Once I call your name, get your certificate, and you’re free to go. Good luck, and I hope you never have to use it.”
Nick grabbed the clipboard and started with Britney.
“I have the rest of the day off if you wanna meet me down at the inn for that drink.” She snatched the certificate with a suggestive wink.
In the past, Britney’s sultry bleached-blonde Barbie doll type might have sparked his interest, but as he matured, his tastes changed.
His sights were set on a ravishing redhead.
If it were true, and Lily didn’t date firemen, maybe he’d be the one to change her mind.
However, by the time he got to the certificate he’d saved for last, Lily Lane was nowhere in sight.
Chapter Three
Eight days dragged since Lily stood before Nick with her palms on the hard wall of his abs, while her heart hammered in her chest.
To make an awkward situation a million times more uncomfortable, Britney—that
bitch
—just happened to be there, dropping her snarky two-cents. What nerve—flirting with Nick in front of the whole class, making the rumors of her being a
call girl
even more believable.
Lily wished she could erase that whole day from her mind.
Just when she thought meeting her perfect Prince Charming had been sheer serendipity for a change, she realized it was just another one of life’s cruel jokes.
Geez, of all things, why’d he have to be a firefighter? Why couldn’t he have had a safe job? Like a librarian. Or a podiatrist. Anything but a firefighter.
The more important question now was how to forget him?
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t drive that sexy beast from her head. Whoever said
out of sight, out of mind
didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.
All the aggravation over one man wreaked havoc on her nervous system. It killed her appetite and triggered a constant dull headache. She’d been functioning on aspirin and coffee for a week, and it finally caught up to her.
Today, in the barbershop bathroom, she puked twice then rinsed her mouth out by eating the peppermint Starlight candies Sophia kept in a crystal dish on the counter beside the cash register.
The only reason she felt a teensy bit better now was because it was almost closing time. She’d be home soon enough where she could jump into bed with her dependable dildo to give her libido a workout.