Page 19 of Tasting Fire
6
As Emmy stashedmilk and her other perishables in the new stainless steel fridge that Grif had delivered the day after she moved in, Cash was wandering around the apartment. He avoided the Rainbow-Brite-exploded-here upholstered couch that was rumored to have been acquired secondhand from the Martins, who were known swingers.
But he had no such reluctance about touching her things.
Touchingthings,Em, not your body. So ix-nay the shivery, shuddery feeling.
But every time he handled one of her personal items, she reacted.
A five-by-seven photo of Kris and her at the Homewood House Museum at Johns Hopkins.
A small trinket box from her mom that played “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
A shadowbox backed in green velvet that held her dad’s badge.
Her shelf of medical texts, including Nancy Caroline’sEmergency Care in the Streets.
“This is a classic.” Cash carefully tipped the book away from the others and opened it. “Whoa, it’s signed.”
“A gift from last year’s graduating paramedic class at University of Maryland. I taught med math.”
The open expression on his face closed—just a little, but she caught it. “They must’ve thought a lot of you,” he said.
Emmy carefully folded the paper sacks, running her hands over the creases to control their tendency to flip up and fly open. When she let go, they unfolded like unruly origami animals. If she couldn’t control her grocery bags, how did she expect to manage her feelings? Feelings that seemed to be bouncing between desire to impress the people who’d hired her to hopefulness about being back in her hometown to uncertainty about how to act around Cash.
She slid the sacks into a cabinet and closed the door so she didn’t have to see them. But that meant she ended up looking at Cash—appreciating the breadth of his shoulders, the strength of his back under the soft fabric of his shirt, the gentle grip of his hands on her book.
The possibility of rekindling the past had been on Emmy’s mind before she left Baltimore, but she hadn’t expected to react to Cash’s physical presence so quickly. So acutely.
In the past, she’d had reasons for not allowing desire and longing to overcome her. But wasn’t she here to help change the pulse of her life?
Yes, but this is too soon. For both of us.
When he slid the book back onto the shelf and traced a finger down the spine, it felt as if he was touching the same place on Emmy’s body. A ripple worked its way down her back, waking the needs hovering just below her skin. She shuddered against the sensation, but it didn’t go away. It simply settled in her breasts, making them tight and achy.
She suddenly blurted out, “I know you wanted to lead the TMT, but you shouldn’t quit the team.”
“Who said I was quitting?”
“You… You said you had a change of heart and wanted to talk about it over drinks.”
He turned toward her, a smile hovering on his lips. Finally, finally the delicious dimple in his cheek made an appearance.
Having a drink with Cash at the Triple B was a dangerous idea.
Having Cash in her apartment was even more dangerous.
“I’m suddenly starving. How about you?” Emmy grabbed her purse and clutched it to her chest, hoping to hide that her body reacted to Cash fondling a book in a way it never had when Oliver had fondledher.
Cash said nothing, just looked at her, his gaze touching her hair, her face, her throat, and lower where she was using a leather bag to keep her secrets. “Em, tell me the truth about something. Do you miss him?”
Her awareness transformed from physical to emotional. She didn’t need to seek out the shadowbox on the wall to answer Cash’s question. “Every single day.”
Don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to.Cash couldn’t have heard his brother Way’s voice more clearly if he’d been striding down the sidewalk between Emmy and him. His brother always said that if a guy couldn’t handle the brutal truth, he had no business using a question mark.
Fuck you, Way.
But he had asked a question he didn’t really want the answer to, and now he knew Emmy was totally committed to the doctor in Baltimore. The reality of it made Cash feel like a gutted largemouth bass.
