Page 4 of Hot for the Fire Chief
Her light brown brow arches and she grins at me. “That’s an awful big jump from I’m hungry to I need mouth to mouth. You saying you want to kiss me, Lance?”
“Ugh.” I hold my hand up. “If I agree to let you sit at my table can you please not say anything?”
She twists her fingers in front of her lips like she’s locking a key and I roll my eyes.
Like I’m really buying that.
I huff out a breath. “Fine, Mandy. We’ll sit at my table then. But separate checks please.” I turn and glare at her. “This is not a date.”
Her soft green eyes light up with fire. “I’m pretty sure I’m not that desperate for a date, dude.”
“Ugh. Dude. What’s wrong with people anymore?”
Mandy snickers under her breath and Jenny giggles. “I’m sorry, grandpa. It must suck to be as old as you are and have to deal with all us young whippersnappers.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I glare at her and then turn to Mandy slowly, growling when her smile slips and she grabs two menus quickly. “Let me show you to your table, Mr. McGuire.”
Jenny snickers behind my back and I limp behind Mandy, trying not to feel as old as I feel right now.
Jenny’s so full of life. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her soft green eyes and that wild caramel hair. Tonight it’s pulled up on top of her head in a messy bun that’s escaping with little tendrils that dance around her pretty face. Her lightly tanned cheeks are flushed pink and when I glance back at her out of the corner of my eye I see her pearly white teeth biting into her bottom lip.
I can also see the ties of her red bikini up around her delicate throat.
I turn back and Mandy’s standing there waiting for us at the table. I go to sit but then I wait and hold onto the back of the chair, nodding at it when Jenny just stands there, staring at me.
When she finally gets a clue and sits, I push it in and then limp around to the other chair and sit down heavily, sighing. My damn knee is aching tonight like a throbbing toothache.
I refuse to take any more painkillers though. I have no intention of getting hooked on painkillers. So if I have to struggle a little that’s too bad.
I grab my menu and avoid the woman across from me. She grabs her own menu and hums under her breath. The soft, husky sound makes my dick jump in my jeans. Grunting, I shift in my seat.
“You know what you wanna eat?” I snap.
She glances at me over her menu and smiles cheekily. “You’re grumpy tonight, aren’t you? What’s the matter? Someone try to talk to you tonight other than me? Ooh. Maybe you found a hundred dollars on the beach.”
“Why would that make me grumpy?” Grumbling under my breath, I drop the menu down and take a damn deep breath.
I need to get a grip. I don’t know why this damn woman makes me so crazy.
Her green eyes sparkle and she grins at me again, setting her menu down. “I don’t know. You seem like the kind of guy that if he won the lottery, he’d complain about the taxes even though he’d be set for life. You’re just grumpy.”
“Doesn’t seem to bother you,” I growl. She just keeps smiling, If anything it’s like she smiles bigger. My breath catches in my throat. She’s so fucking pretty. She literally glows she’s so damn full of life.
She sits her arms on the table and leans on them, her chin in her hands. “You know what? I don’t think it does. It actually kind of makes me laugh.”
I rear back, not sure what the hell is wrong with this woman. “You’re a weird woman. I’m not really sure what’s wrong with you but there’s something wrong with you for sure.”
She tosses her head back and laughs, a soft curl falling out of her messy bun and resting on her flushed cheek. “I think that you’re insulting me somehow but I don’t care. It sounds like a compliment to me.”
The waiter shows up at the table and smiles at Jenny like she’s on the menu and I clear my throat, glaring at the little asshole. He jumps and when he looks over at me, I think he turns two shades paler. “Do you know what you’d like to eat?”
He doesn’t look at her at all after my glare and I smirk at her when she stares me down haughtily. “I’d like the shrimp platter,” I say, my eyes drifting down her body. Instead of glowing with sun-kissed skin, she’s just….alive somehow.
After the waiter leaves and takes our menus, I study her quietly. That doesn’t seem to bother her either. I’m staring at her like she’s some strange new animal and she just gazes around the room like it’s the most interesting thing she’s ever seen. She doesn’t even flinch.
“Is this the first time you’ve been out since you got here?” This is my favorite restaurant. Mainly because it’s the closest and if you tip the hostess right she makes sure that you always have the table you want. This is my table. It’s back in the corner and nowhere near the restroom so fifty people an hour smack into your table going to the bathroom. I’m in a dark corner of the room and there are only a few people anywhere near me and they’re all at small tables. No big, loud, obnoxious groups of people reeking of suntan spray and peeling sunburns that laugh too loud and talk too much.
It’s my own little corner of paradise.
