Lilli…

“Marco!” I called, eyes closed, lightly treading water in the warmth of my building’s pool.

“Polo!” several young, giggling voices called back. I swam in their direction and called out again.

“Marco!”

“Polo!” But this time, a familiar, warm, and rich masculine voice called out from the edge of the pool behind me. I opened my eyes and turned and a bunch of the kids were turned that way, too.

“Hi!” I called. “You’re early!”

“Yeah, well, somebody told me that for certain appointments, it was a good idea to show up an hour early just to make sure you wouldn’t be late.”

I laughed and Emilio, sounding disappointed, said, “Does this mean you have to go, Lilli?”

“Aww, no!” Backdraft said. “I’d hate to interrupt such a fun time.”

“They have loaner suits,” I called.

“You’re kidding me,” he said. I grinned and shook my head.

“Just go to the front desk and tell them you need one. Give them my apartment number, forty-four-oh-three.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a salute and walked back towards the lobby.

“Who’s that?” Rosario, Emilio’s little sister, asked.

“That’s my friend, Backdraft,” I said.

“He’s a biker?” Emilio asked.

I laughed, “And a fireman.”

“Really?” another boy from the building exclaimed. “That’s so cool!”

I smiled, laughed, and closed my eyes spinning around in the water three times and calling, “Marco!”

Three enthusiastic cries of “Polo!” met me and I surged in their direction to a bunch of squealing laughter.

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

“Annnnd gotcha!” I tagged someone and opened my eyes. The older boy, maybe thirteen or fourteen, laughed and waded a few feet away.

“Right, okay.” Backdraft came out of the locker room, running his hand back through his hair which was much darker when wet. His borrowed pair of black swim shorts were… short, and left very little to the imagination. Of course, with how he was built, the material sort of strained around his muscular thighs but my brain had gone out to dinner without me because... abs.

I’d spent a lot of time browsing through cover model photos for my covers, but Backdraft had them beat. I blushed and averted my gaze as he trotted alongside the pool to where it was deep enough, and threw himself in.

“Lilli says you’re a fireman!” Emilio said and Backdraft smoothed back his hair. He was head and shoulders above the water and my arms and legs were getting tired from treading.

I moved closer to the shallow end, bristling with jealousy, while Backdraft smiled at my young friend and said, “Yep, I am.”

“That’s way cool,” the older boy, whose name I think was Neil, said.

“How do I become a fireman, too?” Emilio asked.

Backdraft said, “Well, first off, what’s your grades look like?” and I felt my face split into a wide grin.

Rosario rolled her eyes. “Terrible,” she said. “Our tutor is so boring. Emilio falls asleep.”

He didn’t even bother to deny it, just looked sulky, and said, “Yeah.”

“You’ve got to stay awake,” I said. “I’m afraid it’s only more of the same the older you get.”

“Now, hold up, Lil,” Backdraft said, and he asked Emilio, “Why is it boring?”

“I already know all the stuff! She never tries to teach me anything new.”

“It’s true, Emilio just doesn’t do his work. He passes every test, though.”

“Have you tried talking to your father?” I asked gravely.

“Pfft! He doesn’t listen!” Emilio said bitterly.

Backdraft and I exchanged a look.

“Tell you what, you do the work anyway, even if it’s boring, and get three good report cards in a row, I’ll take you on a personal tour of the firehouse.”

“Really!? Like the whole thing. You’d show me everything?”

“Scout's Honor.” He even held up two fingers, which was absolutely adorable.

We played with the kids and swam for the better part of an hour before I declared I needed a break; that I was starving.

Watching Backdraft haul himself out of the pool was a treat, and I committed it to memory, words flowing through my brain like the water down his muscular back. Purely for research purposes, of course. I was definitely not ready to jump into another relationship after what had happened with Mark. In fact, I had made certain Veronica knew that my friendship with Backdraft was strictly platonic and that we either had to have a hotel room with two beds, or two separate hotel rooms altogether.

She’d sworn to me on a stack of Bibles that it would be so, but still asked me double that stack of times if I was sure. I was lucky to have her in my corner. She was more of a friend to me than an employee, and I wished we lived closer. Alas, she called New York home and I was here in Indigo City. I was super excited to see her next weekend, though.

I went into the women’s locker room and pressed my thumb against the scanner on the face of the locker that’d I’d put my things in. It beeped twice, flashed green, and popped open. I still got giddy and thought it was the coolest thing. The front doors to the condos had the same biometric locks. It was super convenient when my arms were loaded with groceries.

I ditched my towel in the hamper. It was another amenity of the building. They had a full laundry service, no need to bring your own towel, or even your own robe, down to the pool. They also had both a trash and a laundry chute on every floor, and even though they were clearly labeled, we’d already had several electronic notifications not to confuse the two. I think it was a lot less stupidity and a lot more carelessness on some tenant’s part.

I grabbed my key card to the turnstiles and the elevator from inside the locker, and I was ready to go. I went out into the pool area in a borrowed robe to wait for Backdraft, and watched the kids who were still splashing and playing.

“Lilli! Thank you for introducing us to your friend, he was a lot of fun!” Rosario said and I smiled.

“Yeah! You should have him come around more often,” Emilio said.

Backdraft had repeatedly ducked under the water and let the kids stand on his shoulders. He would then stand up and launch them into the deeper water of the pool, and it had looked like a ridiculous amount of fun. They’d all tried to get me to do it, but I was too shy. I mean, I weighed a lot more than skinny little nine and eleven-year-olds.

The hero of the hour came out of the men’s locker a few minutes later, running a hand back through his damp hair, his jacket with its colorful vest hanging from one hand. His heather-gray tee shirt had a faded blue Ford logo on it, and hugged his chest invitingly. The sleeves were tight around his muscular biceps and it was draped over a worn and comfortable-looking pair of jeans, the frayed cuffs over a pair of well-worn but still serviceable motorcycle boots, the kind with the buckle peeking at the outside of his ankle.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said and gave him a tight-lipped smile, trying not to flame with embarrassment at having been caught looking.

I’m just having some seriously impure thoughts and that’s not okay since I was the one to set down the ‘just friends’ rule, I thought to myself.

“You’re a shit liar,” he said, laughing, and touched my shoulder to turn me in the direction of the lobby. He steered me out of the pool area and I waved to the security and concierge at the front desk. They both smiled and waved back and I scanned my card at the turnstile, waving Backdraft through. I scanned it again and stepped through it.

“Fancy,” he said.

“That’s right, the last time you were here, the power was out.”

“Ah, yeah, skipped leg day that week.” He raised his eyebrows and stretched out his bottom lip and I laughed, scanning my card again at the reader by the elevator’s touchscreen.

“Fully locked and loaded, isn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s kind of silly, how much this building does for its tenants,” I answered, rolling my eyes. We got onto the elevator when the doors opened and he looked from me to the panel, his brows crushing down as the doors slid shut, forty-four flashed on the screen and we were whisked away.

He kind of shuddered, and I asked, “Don’t like elevators?”

“Respond to enough elevator entrapments, and you wouldn’t either,” he said and I nodded.

“No, I can’t imagine I would.”

“Trust me, you’d never want to ride an elevator again if you ever saw that movie Devil by that director guy with the name I can’t pronounce. The one that did The Sixth Sense.”

“Never seen it, I really don’t like scary movies.”

“Comedy?”

“More of a drama, thriller, action, and romance girl, just to name a few.”

“Ooo! Be still my heart.” He winked at me and I seriously felt like I glowed from it. “I think we can both agree on action.”

I smiled and the elevator opened up onto my floor. I went to my door and pressed my thumb to the little mechanism on the handle and two beeps later, you could hear the automated lock roll back and I pushed the door open.

“Okay, this place is way cool.”

I laughed and stepped inside, standing aside so he could enter and said, “Oh! I have cats, I can’t remember if I told you. Not allergic, are you?”

“Nope, and you did. It’s all good.” I shut the door and he said, “Wow; that view never gets old.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed and called out, “Alexa, turn on the lights at fifty percent, please?”

Alexa responded, “Lights, fifty percent,” and the lights came up, but not so bright as to either blind us or spoil the view.

“Thank you,” I called.

“You’re even polite to the artificial intelligence, which has no feelings,” he said and he had this charmed look in his hazel eyes.

“You can never be too polite, the world could use a lot more of it, don’t you think?”

“I agree,” he said and then shook himself as if waking from a dream. “Right, I’m going to hit the kitchen while you go do what you need to do.” He made a shooing motion with his hands and I laughed at him.

“I was just going to order a pizza,” I said and he gave me a flat look.

“Hell, naw, I’m cooking.”

I made an impressed face and said, “I have no idea what’s in there or what’s still edible.”

“I’ll make it work,” he replied looking into my fridge. “You’ve got a lot of stuff here.”

“I’m going to grab a shower and get dressed. Twenty minutes, tops,” I promised, walking backwards up the hall.

“Pajamas!” he called after me. “You’re supposed to relax, so act like it. Do comfortable!”

“I have some really embarrassing sets of PJ’s,” I said.

“Do it! Sponge Bob slippers all the way.”

I laughed all the way up the rest of the hall at the ridiculous image.

“I do not, nor will I ever, own Sponge Bob anything,” I corrected him before passing into my bedroom and he laughed, a rich, wild sound that felt like I could wear it like a lush fur. I really loved his laugh. It was the kind of laugh that inspired you to not only smile, but to live. Like, live life to its fullest, take risks and all of that.

I padded across the room toward my bathroom, completely comfortable having him in my home. I didn’t feel like everything needed to look perfect, or like I needed to rush so that I could get into the kitchen and do whatever. There was no pressure to be this immaculate hostess or anything like that.

I couldn’t ever remember a time any man had made me feel like that: completely at ease.