Page 116 of Firecracker

He took the mug from her hands and gulped down some of her coffee. “Sure?”

“I’m sure.”

He eyed her as if he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He swallowed another mouthful of coffee and handed the mug back. He leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Good luck, Arden. It’ll be great. See you tomorrow.”

Last night he’d totally busted her for being a nervous wreck. He’d calmly talked her down, making her go through her preparations to reassure herself that she’d thought of everything and had a solid plan.

In her bedroom, she paused. Seeing him dressed in his uniform made her anxieties about this job seem trivial. He was about to go to work, where he could be called out at any time to a dangerous situation, a situation where he wouldn’t hesitate to put his own life on the line to save someone else.

The uniform was sexy because it was a symbol of the courage and integrity Tyler possessed…his commitment to his career, his valor and strength. He was a superhero.

And she was serving people breakfast.

She wasn’t demeaning herself. All kinds of work were important. And she was proud of what she was doing. But it did help put things in perspective. What was the worst thing that could go wrong, for heaven’s sake?

Well, she could kill someone with food poisoning…

No! She was not going to think like that.

She tugged her tank top off over her head and tossed it onto the bed, then shimmied out of her panties, smiling. It was all going to be fine.

She dressed in narrow black pants and a white shirt, similar to what she wore to work at Shenanigans. It was boring, but she wasn’t being judged on her fashion sense for this job.

It took several trips to load everything into Jamie’s car, and she had to crank the air conditioning up full blast as she drove to his office building to cool the perspiration that dampened her skin. Luckily she’d pulled her hair up into a bun.

It was a bit of a drive to the building where Jamie’s offices were, off South Michigan and Van Buren. She had to make one stop on the way there, and that was at Screamin’ Beans, the micro-roaster she’d discovered at the farmers’ market. They imported fair trade coffee beans, roasted them in small batches, and ground them, and she wanted to show off the local business’s delicious coffee.

She texted Jamie when she parked in the loading zone, and he and a few other people came down to help her carry the food and beverages up to the meeting room. The building was old, with scarred hardwood floors and exposed ducts in the ceiling, but had newly renovated offices with lots of glass and dark metal, and funky furnishings. The meeting room was bright and airy, with a wooden trestle table and black leather chairs, trendy suspended lights and big framed black-and-white photographs of Chicago architecture on the old brick wall. A credenza along another wall was ready for her to set up.

“Hey, Arden.” Mila appeared. “This looks great!”

“Thanks.”

“Jamie,” Mila said. “We need to talk. BMN is on the phone again.”

Jamie scowled. “Again? Jesus.”

Arden’s eyebrows rose.

“They’re persistent,” Mila said. “I think you need to meet with them.”

“I’m not interested,” Jamie said. “We’ve talked about this.”

“You haven’t heard their pitch.”

Arden had no idea who BMN was and what they were pitching, but this was obviously a source of tension between Jamie and Mila. Come to think of it, Jamie had seemed stressed lately, which was unusual. Was he having some kind of problem with the business?

Jamie blew out a breath and shoved a hand into his dark curls. “Fine, let me talk to them.”

He and Mila disappeared out of the meeting room.

“What can I do to help?” Jamie’s assistant Destiny asked.

Happy to have extra hands, Arden gave Destiny directions about unwrapping and setting out food, coffee, and juices.

“This looks fantastic,” Destiny said as she helped. “And smells great too. I’m dying here.”

“Take a muffin,” Arden urged her. “Or whatever. There are lots.”

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