The Anti-Social Season (First Responders #2)

Chapter Six

Six

S imon blinked, feeling like the world had shifted sideways under his feet. “You need a book?” For what? Light reading? They were working. What had made her want to browse the fiction section now, of all times?

She nodded. “Yeah. Like, I’ve never worked an office job and I have no idea how to behave. When firefighters aren’t actively fighting fires or doing things that require concentration like taking inventory of supplies, w—they’re kind of a goofy bunch.” Simon didn’t miss the slip, the fact that she’d started to say we , not they . Not for the first time, he wondered why she’d made the career shift. With the way she apparently missed it, it was a pretty extreme change. But he shouldn’t pry.

A reference interview, though? That he could do. “Okay, so you don’t necessarily need a book for that,” he said.

“Check out the librarian steering me away from books,” she said, her dark eyes shining with humor.

“Not steering you away from anything. Steering you toward a resource that’s a little more responsive. More dynamic and up to date.” He opened up a browser window and typed, then swiveled his laptop to face her. “This is a website that talks about workplace stuff. Answers questions, has a bunch of other resources. Its archive is organized really well too.” She scooted her chair closer, and suddenly he could smell her. Inexplicably, it reminded him of a day at the beach. Her shampoo, maybe. Sunshine and clean air and maybe a little hint of coconut.

Sexy.

He swallowed hard and held himself rigidly back, not leaning in for a deeper sniff like he wanted to. She nodded, and the fragrance seemed to waft toward him. Okay, shampoo, then. She didn’t seem like a cologne or perfume type of person, anyway.

Okay, now even his inner monologue was babbling.

Seeming oblivious to his turmoil, she wrote the name of the website in her notebook. Without looking up, she said, “I remember you now, you know.”

He swallowed hard. “You do?”

She tried a pen spin. Bonk. A noise emitted from her throat.

“Did you just growl ?” he asked, trying hard not to laugh and not quite succeeding.

She shot him a narrow-eyed look. “This is frustrating,” she said, picking up the pen.

“Let’s get back to you remembering me.” His buoyant mood took a dip as he realized that she might not actually have the best memories of him. If he was rigid and grumpy now, he was way worse as a teen, because he’d been a smug little know-it-all then.

She balanced the pen, finding the center of gravity like he’d shown her. It seemed like a ploy so that she didn’t look at him. “We butted heads pretty hard in Speech and Debate,” she finally said.

His eyes widened. “We did.” But just the one time. After that, it was like they were on different planets. Like she’d exiled him to the dark side of the moon. “And you ended up scoring way better than I did.”

She shrugged, tried the spin again. Bonked again. “Maybe you should have tried out for Drama club, rather than doing all the behind the scenes stuff.”

Oh wow. She remembered that too? “I liked being behind the scenes.” He’d loved watching her act with total confidence and zero inhibition. If he tried to sing and dance, he would end up in the fetal position, but for her it was like the very air that she breathed. “But you looked like you could have gone all the way to Broadway.”

She snorted, still concentrating on her pen. “Not hardly. I just had fun.” Then her chin lifted and her gaze swept over his face, his hair. He felt it like a touch. “Your hair was redder then.”

His skin went hot. “Yeah. Got teased a lot for it.”

“That’s too bad. You were cute.”

Later, Thea couldn’t have said how they got off high school and her embarrassing revelations and reminiscences and back to actual work stuff. They did, though, planning out a month’s worth of posts ending on New Year’s. After which she would be judged and either kicked to the curb or have a real job.

She sat back and stretched, feeling a crackle in her neck. “Man, I never sat still like this before. How do you do it?”

Simon chuckled. “I try to get up at regular intervals.” He pointed at his smartwatch. “This thing usually tells me to get up and walk around at least once an hour, but sometimes it gets fooled.”

“By what?” They’d been utterly sedentary the entire last two hours and she hadn’t noticed him futzing with his watch.

His face reddened. “By typing, believe it or not.”

“Seriously?” She laughed outright, then stood, stretching. It had been a week since she worked out, which also wasn’t normal for her. But she’d always used the weights and other equipment at the firehouse. She could join a gym, but the idea of dealing with her new job with all its new rules and protocol and dealing with a new workout place with a whole other set of rules and protocol seemed overwhelming. “Can we take a walk around the building or something? I am not built to take root like this.”

Simon nodded and stood, gesturing toward the door. He locked it behind them like last time, and they headed for the exit, but this time Simon didn’t outpace her, walking by her side and holding the door to the sidewalk for her with steady politeness. The weather was mild, but a brisk breeze was blowing, making Thea want to move at an equally brisk pace to keep warm. Stretching her legs and swinging her arms felt really good. The sunshine on her face did too. Swags of lights that would soon twinkle when it got dark hung over the street, and the shop windows were bursting with tinsel and red and green merchandise. A children’s bookshop advertised that Santa would be making an appearance on Saturday for pictures.

“You’ll be happy to know that a lot of the job entails more moving around and participating in stuff,” he said after they blew off a few of the library cobwebs. “It’s kinda like journalism—both written and photo. That’s my favorite part of it, to be honest.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Yeah. You don’t look like you sit around all that much, to be honest.”

His pale skin got gratifyingly red at that. Even the tips of his ears went pink, and Thea suppressed the urge to tease him about it. But she held back. He wasn’t one of her buddies on the squad. He cleared his throat and said, “Actually, we have something going on here this afternoon if you want to see.”

“What’s going on?”

He shot her a sidelong grin. “Drag queen story hour with a costume parade.”

“ Shut up. That sounds adorable.”

“It is. The kids are really cute. We realized after one Halloween that they’re still raring to dress up in costumes year-round, and this is a way to incorporate that into our programming. It’s kind of a pain in the ass in one way, because we have to get photographic releases from the parents in order to use any kid photos, but it’s worth it because the costumes are really creative and the kids are the most photogenic thing you’ll see all year.” His eyes were bright with enthusiasm and his hands moved enough that she could have made him an honorary Italian. It was infectious, that passion. Also, if she was being totally honest, really attractive.

“I could help with that,” she said without thinking.

His eyebrows went up. “You really want to? I was just thinking you could observe.”

“It’s time for me to get some skin in the game. I feel like I’ve been observing for weeks.”

“You’ve literally been observing for a day and a half.”

“Oooh. You literally used literally as a non-intensifier? That’s hot.” Then, when she realized what had rocketed out of her mouth, her face went equally fiery.

That’s hot. Thea had been joking, but the words went directly to the dirtiest part of Simon’s brain. His heart kicked like a frightened rabbit and his breath froze in his lungs.

Focus , he told himself. Steer the conversation back to safe ground. “Um. Yeah. If you want to help with the release forms, making sure they get signed, that’ll give me the go-ahead to take pictures of any particular kid. I usually handle all of that on my own, and that results in getting only a few photos because it’s a lot to keep track of for one person.”

“Makes sense,” she said in a matter-of-fact way, as if she hadn’t just detonated a land mine in his brain. But...was the golden-tan skin of her face a little flushed? They were moving through a patch of shade and it was hard to tell.

“I set up one of our iPads with blank copies of the release form. It’s pretty simple, and the idea is to rename each signed copy with the last name of the family. Then if you can note down at the bottom of each form what the kid’s costume is, that would make it easy to keep track. I won’t take any pictures that aren’t pre-authorized.”

“You really have thought this through.” Was that admiration in her voice, or was he just indulging in wishful thinking?

He shrugged. “I was trying to streamline it for one person—me—doing all of it. It will still help a whole lot if you’re willing to help.”

A light touch on his arm made him stop. They’d completed their circuit of the block and were now mere yards from the front entrance of the library. “Hey. Do you really want me to help? Because I offered and you keep talking as if I need convincing or as if I haven’t said I’d do it. If I say I am going to do a thing, I do it. All in.” Her expression was almost sad in that moment, and it felt like what she was saying wasn’t just about getting photographic release forms filled out for kids in cute costumes.

He swallowed, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I’d really appreciate the help.”

“And I’ll probably learn a lot from the experience,” she said with a wry little twist to her mouth that made him think he should have thought about inviting her to at least shadow him on this event from the beginning. “I don’t think I would have considered getting permissions for photographs, but that makes total sense, especially with kids.” She sighed and scrubbed her fingertips through her short hair, making strands of it stand on end before flopping back down. Simon tried not to find this adorable. “It feels like there’s so much to learn, you know?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but there’s always a learning curve with a new job. It’s okay.”

“Is it, though? I haven’t been new to a job in ten years. I feel like an old lady at the ripe age of thirty-two. And I can’t afford to screw this up.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

She shrugged. “No plan B. I have no idea what I’ll do if I can’t do this. And there are a lot of eyes on me.”

That he understood, but he tried to take a page out of her book and said, “But you’re so used to having eyes on you. Weren’t you voted class clown?”

She grimaced. “Yeah. And I’m trying to keep a lid on that. Professionalism, remember?”

Well, so much for trying to lighten the mood. That wasn’t really his strong suit, anyway. When he thought about it, he was on the absolute other end of the spectrum. Nobody ever had to worry about his professionalism because he was so cautious. Maybe she should talk to Chloe—their personalities were far more similar, and Chloe never got in trouble, so she must know where the lines were. He had no idea because he’d never gotten close enough to find out. But the idea of fobbing her off on Chloe felt like cheating, somehow. Or at least wrong. Thea was his responsibility.

“Well, I’m here to help you get everything figured out,” he said. And dammit, he meant it.

Thea looked around the room full of excited kids and their parents. These freaking children were adorable . A toddler in a spider suit ran across the floor of the children’s area, all four fake legs bouncing in a way that made her want to howl with laughter. She approached the kid and his mother and asked if Simon could photograph the child for the library social media and newsletter. The mother agreed and signed the brief release, and Thea noted the name and costume, pulling up a fresh copy for her next victim to sign as Simon snapped away on a small digital camera.

“You don’t use your phone?” she’d asked when they were getting their gear organized for the event.

“Nah. I started that way, but it’s a nightmare. You have to offload the pictures, segregate them from your personal stuff. There’s just too much blurring of personal stuff and work. Not to mention the fact that data storage becomes an absolute nightmare.”

“Oh, good point.” She had that swamped feeling again, like there was just too much to learn and too much to think about, and she’d end up failing.

But now, circulating around the event, asking—and mostly getting—permission for Simon to photograph adorable moppets in creative costumes, she started to feel a little bit of confidence creeping back. Some of it had to do with Simon’s declaration on the sidewalk outside the library. I’m here to help you get everything figured out . Were there eyes on high looking at him and judging his performance too?

She approached a little girl dressed as a robot and her dad and got another release signed. The event was starting to wind down, with Miss Lita Rarity in her sparkly dress and perfect makeup waving a final goodbye to the kids, but Thea kind of wished it would go on longer. She and Simon had gotten into a rhythm. There was an almost dance-like way they moved through the small crowd as she picked their targets and he photographed. It was sweet of him to let her take the lead, even in this small way.

Simon stepped away from photographing robot-girl and approached Thea. “I think we’re pretty much done for the day,” he said while he rolled his shoulders.

“You okay?”

He dug the fingers of one hand into the opposite shoulder. “Yeah. Just crouching a lot for an hour seems to make me stiffen up. Nothing a hot shower won’t fix.”

Sudden images of Simon in a hot, steamy shower invaded her brain. Water cascading over his skin, darkening his auburn hair, sluicing down toward— shit. Shut that right down , she told herself sternly.

No perving on the guy who was helping her embark on a new career. That had to be a rule, right? She’d never slept with anyone on the fire squad because the best way to absolutely tank her reputation as a serious first responder would be to become the target of sexualized gossip.

Well, that and most of those guys felt like brothers to her. While she could look at them and think, Yes, from an abstract perspective, this guy is hot , the idea of getting naked with them was a combination of hilarious and revolting. She was pretty sure that having naked thoughts about Simon should fall into the same bucket.

Her libido wasn’t getting the message though. Those shower thoughts about Simon remained in their own very special, very hot bucket.

“You okay?” Great. Now he was staring at her. Fair enough—she had probably been looking at him funny.

“Yeah.” She scrambled for something—anything—to say. “You were really cute with the kids,” she blurted. Damn. That wasn’t as risqué as telling him she’d imagined him in the shower, but it was still all too revealing of how much she was attracted to him.

His cheeks reddened in that way she was rapidly becoming addicted to. “Um. Thanks. I think the kids themselves are the cute ones though.”

“It’s not a zero sum game, dude. The way you got down on their level to photograph them? The way you talked to them like little humans, not puppies? Their reactions to you? All very cute.”

“As cute as I allegedly was in high school?” His cheeks were pink again, but his eyes met hers boldly.

She choked. Cuter, she thought. But she could only nod.

“Okay, then. How about hitting happy hour for a drink?”