Page 73 of Embers of You
“Hello, Margaret, how can we help you today?”
Her eyes lock on me, but I stand back as close to the truck as possible. When she speaks it seems like it’s only to me. “I’m worried that I have a gas leak.”
“Why do you think that?” Jo asks, but Margaret still won’t look at anyone else besides me.
“Because I can smell it, why do you think?” she snaps, side eyeing Jo.
“Alright, we’ll take a look. Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm?” Dave asks her.
“No, why would I have one of those? They’re ugly.” She grimaces.
“You don’t have an alarm because it’s…ugly?” Parker chimes in. “Do you have fire alarms?”
“If there’s a fire in my house, I’m going to know it,” she says deadpan and I just shake my head.
Parker won’t let it go. “What about if you’re sleeping or?—”
“Jameson, are you going to check if I have a gas leak or not?” she cuts him off.
“My team and I will check,” I tell her, emotionless.
We all head inside, and to the surprise of no one, there’s no gas leak. As we leave, she attempts to get me to stay as she usually does.
On our way back to the station everyone wants to stop and get lunch, though I want to get back and talk to Sutton. I’m unable to argue since everyone else is on the same page and I have no choice but to go along.
Once we finally get back, I walk over to the grooming salon to fix whatever I may have just messed up with Sutton. I’m instantly greeted by my best friend, the bird, as usual.
“Hot guy, Jameson.”
“Hey there.”
I hear a muffled, “fuck,” and I would know my girl’s voice anywhere. I follow it, only to find her in the middle of grooming a large dog on the table in front of her.
“Not happy to see me?” I tease.
“How was seeingMargaret?”I hear the disdain in her tone and realize instantly she didn’t take that entire interaction as the joke it was intended to be.
“Hold on.” I step around to the other side of the table so I’m standing next to her. “You didn’t think we were serious about me having a date did you?”
She shrugs. “You’ve dated her before, haven’t you? It’s not like we’re serious. You’re free to do whatever you want.”
I narrow my eyes at her, and gently place my hand on top of hers so she pauses what she’s doing and guides her full attention to me.
“I’ve never dated Margaret. I don’t know what makes you think we aren’t serious, because I’ve been serious about you since the moment I laid my eyes on you in that parking lot.”
Her breath hitches and she finally looks up at me.
“She said you dated, though.” She doesn’t acknowledge the other part of what I said, which doesn’t surprise me.
“When have you met her?”
“She brought her dog in when I first moved here and made sure to…stake her claim on you.”
I rack my brain trying to figure out what she could mean, Margaret doesn’t have a dog. Then who she’s really talking about hits me.
“You’re talking aboutMallory.Not Margaret.” I can’t help but chuckle softly at her mix up, but I can’t blame her.
“Oh.” Her cheeks flame and she tries to look away from me again, but I don’t let her, guiding her gaze back to mine with a finger under her chin instead.
