Page 26 of Take a Hike
“Is it wrong that I find all these surly firemen even more attractive than happy, smiling ones?” Charlie mused, lookingaround.
“Yes,” Bennett and Fifi chorused.
“Bah.” Charlie waved off their judgment. “What do you two know? You save all your googly eyes for each other. You’re completely biased.”
She spotted Kieran walking toward them, and her breath caught. Here was in-person proof that the grumpiest guys were the hottest.
He jerked his head, gesturing them toward a small office in the corner.
“Check that out,” Fifi murmured quietly. Charlie eyed Kieran as he weaved through his coworkers. He didn’t really have to weave, however, since the other firefighters drew away from him, leaving a wide path open in front of him.
“They’re acting like he stinks,” Charlie said under her breath. “And I know for a fact that the man smells like the mountains in winter.” As if they’d choreographed it, Bennett and Fifi glanced at her out of the corners of their eye before meeting each other’s gaze. “You know what I mean—cold, unpolluted, delicious air with just a hint of woodsmoke. And, oddly enough, hints of new-car smell.”
Fifi and Bennett did the same side-eye-then-silent-conversation look again—something Charlie was discovering married people did with annoying frequency. Heaving a heavy sigh and shoving away that little niggle of loneliness that she always felt when her lack of coupledom was tossed in her face, Charlie strode toward the office door, where Kieran was impatiently waiting.
“So what’s up with that?” Charlie gestured toward where Kieran had just been. His coworkers were still eyeing him—or maybe both of them—with obvious distrust.
“What?” he snapped.
“Why are they treating you like Leper Larry?”
The corners of his mouth pinched in the way she was beginning to learn meant he was holding back a smile—or at least a less-intense frown. “Leper Larry?”
“Smelly Stanley?” One of these days, she’d score an actual grin from him.
Not today, though, since his scowl settled more heavily into place as his gaze settled on Bennett and Fifi behind her. Instead of answering, he jerked open the office door and ushered them into the small space.
“Whose office is this?” Charlie asked, immediately prowling around. Despite the boxlike dimensions of the space, someone had managed to cram in an impressive amount of clutter.
“Chief’s.” He closed the door and leaned against the wall next to it, crossing his arms over his chest. The office’s contents couldn’t hold her attention when she had Kieran’s bulging biceps to ogle instead.
“We met Chief Early last time we were in Simpson,” Fifi said, settling onto one of the two guest chairs in front of the paper-strewn desk. Bennett stood behind her, like he was her bodyguard. “He was with you and your…” She cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable as Kieran’s face turned even more granite-y than usual. “Your…erm…dad.” She did manage to get the words out, although they sounded a bitstrangled.
Wanting to break the stiff, frozen silence that’d settled over the office at the mention of the militia-loving kidnapper Finn Byrne, Charlie sprawled in the second chair next to her sister. “So any word on who set the coffee shop on fire?”
Kieran narrowed his eyes at her, but his shoulders relaxed an infinitesimal amount, so Charlie considered that a win. “Why are you asking me?”
Waving a hand at the office walls surrounding them, she said, “Because the fire thing is sort of your whole deal?”
He stiffened again. “You think I had something to do with—”
“Stop. Don’t get all porcupine-y on me,” Charlie cut him off, unable to hold back an eye roll. The man truly was a prickly beast. “Of course you didn’t leave the fire station, barricade us inside the coffee shop, set it on fire, return to the fire station, go out on the call, help tear down the barricades, and perform an unnecessary rescue. You’re one of the few on our ‘Absolutely Could Not Have Participated in This Particular Arson’ list.”
Although he made some token grumbly noises, especially about the “unnecessary” bit, Charlie was pretty sure he was appeased by her reassurance that they didn’t suspect him—for the fire, at least. “So? Did the sheriff or fire chief pinpoint any people of interest?”
“Even if they did, how would I hear about it?” he asked. “Besides, aren’t you here looking for your mom? Why are you looking into the arson?”
“I heard you firefighters were the best at information-passing in the county.” Charlie answered his first question. “Maybe even the state. Case in point, how you already know the whole deal with my mom. Right now, we’re waiting for her to show up, and I need a distraction so I don’t create my own entertainment.”
“That never ends well,” Fifi interjected, and Bennett nodded.
Charlie couldn’t really argue with something that true, so she settled on giving the peanut gallery a chilly glance before turning back to Kieran. “Speaking of, don’t you have a whole ’nother distraction for us to look into?” When he just glowered at her, she clarified, “Tell us why the sheriff thinks you killed Cobra.”
“I already told you,” he grumped. “It’s because I’m not popular right now.”
Unable to hold back her amusement, Charlie laughed out loud. “If that’s all it takes, I would’ve been arrested for murder every day in high school. There’s got to be more than that. Sheriff Summers seems like a fact-loving person.”
Kieran glowered at her, but eventually gave in and grudgingly admitted, “We might’ve been seen talking.”
