Chapter Six
If Shane wanted to introduce Caitlin to the heartbeat of Dry Rock, there was no better place than his favorite diner. But now he second-guessed that decision. The number of patrons crammed in the joint pointed to the fact it was everyone’s favorite. Hell, they were probably over capacity. He could just imagine the scene when the chief showed up and threw them all out for breaking the fire code. Caitlin would love that.
“Maybe we should have headed somewhere a bit less crowded,” he said, after the tenth meet-and-greet in as many steps. “I didn’t realize how often I stopped to talk to people until now. Everyone knows everyone around here.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I worried about moving to a big city,” she said wistfully. “I thought I’d miss knowing all of my neighbors, but you’ve given me hope for that feeling of community.”
“You’re slipping,” he told her. “That almost sounded sincere.” He couldn’t imagine anyone considering this a big city, but he hadn’t ridden in from the plains of Wyoming.
She smiled, and the warmth of the simple gesture made him want to be somewhere else, all right. Somewhere private. But he’d fumbled that already back in the woods. He’d wanted to kiss her, thought he was going to do it—then he’d thought better of it and spit out the dumbest possible thing he could have said.
It had worked, at least. The appreciation on her face as the sun disappeared behind the jagged horizon had put a knot in his chest. A knot he couldn’t afford. The schmuckiness had lingered after he’d shut things down, but fortunately so had the awkwardness of what he’d blurted out. At least he didn’t have to worry about kissing her at the diner, not with half the town casting curious glances their way.
She shifted closer to avoid upending a tray of drinks, and his synapses misfired. If she turned to face him, she’d be indecently close. The thought made him want to spin her around. Embrace indecent. Instead, he diverted his attention to the back of the room, where his friends occupied their usual table. Somewhat relieved, he steered her in that direction. It was their only hope of being able to sit, but also finding it a great time to introduce her to a few people who, unlike him, planned on sticking around.
“I am sincere,” she said, dragging his thoughts out of dangerous territory. “But that still doesn’t mean I’m going to worship you.”
The tail end of her proclamation hit the air just as they walked up on the table, leaving all four of its occupants staring at them in varying amounts of interest and amusement. “Guys,” Shane said, his words rumbling his chest against her back. “You remember Ms. Tyler.”
Caitlin not-so-subtly elbowed him in the stomach. “Caitlin,” she said.
Shane slid into the three-quarter circle booth and gestured for Caitlin to follow. The group bunched to make room while he doled out introductions. “Matt, Diego, Jack, Lexi. Everyone but Lex is on shift with me.”
Matt’s grin suggested Shane was going to have to punch him later. “So, in other words,” Matt said to Caitlin, “we’ve met. Nice to see you without the sirens.”
Lexi shot Matt a sideways look, but he didn’t immediately elaborate, and Caitlin had already turned a solid shade of pink. Either Lexi noticed or defaulted to her habit of ignoring Matt, because she turned her attention to Caitlin, offering her a sympathetic smile. “It’s great to meet you, Caitlin. And you have no idea how much I mean that, because being the only woman in this group of guys is only good when I set the kitchen on fire, trying to fix dinner, and only then because they put it out. Being reminded of it for months after the fact pretty much negates the benefits.”
Caitlin’s eyes widened. “You set fire to your kitchen?”
Shane hoped he kept his amusement from showing. Lexi had probably just found a friend for life with that confession. Though he wasn’t sure the two of them belonged in a room together. Maybe they’d survive it if Caitlin manned the fire extinguisher when Lexi gave in to the inclination to cook.
Before Lexi could respond, Matt gave her a sidelong look. “How do you negate the benefits of not having your house burn down?”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Hey, I didn’t see you there throwing buckets of water.”
Matt smirked. “That’s because we have hoses for that kind of work.”
Diego leaned back against the bright-red vinyl booth cushion, steepling his fingers across his abdomen. “Yeah, we’re all packing enormous hoses.”
Jack gave Caitlin a crooked smile and tipped his head toward Matt. “Well, when the fire happened, Matt here was at home in bed with his hose.”
Shane would have given anything for a picture of Caitlin’s expression in that moment. It teetered between amusement and alarm, though there was no mistaking the way she’d relaxed next to him, her body softening rather than stiffening when his arm brushed hers. He could see her there with them, long-term. Without him. Which had been precisely his hope when he’d brought her over, but he hadn’t expected the stab of emptiness that accompanied it.
Matt had turned his own shade of red, as he did every time Lexi’s house fire was brought up. Shane figured it killed Matt not to have been among the Calvary swooping in to save Lex, but his friend had never come close to admitting that. “I was at home with the flu,” he said. “And unlike yours,” he added, giving Lexi a pointed look, “my hose doesn’t detach. Where else would it be?”
Shane blinked. This was a new accusation. “You have a detachable hose?” he asked Lexi.
She blushed, diverting her attention to the chrome-edged table top, which was scattered with four nearly empty baskets of food and a matching number of cups. In the background, decades-old music played from what looked like a working jukebox. “It was a gag gift.”
Across the table, Diego lost the battle to choke back laughter. “Gag gift.”
“I still don’t think Matt had the flu,” Jack said. “He’d probably eaten her cooking.”
“I can cook,” Lexi said, a stubborn set to her jaw.
“The dog won’t even eat your cooking,” Matt said.
Despite the limited span of Shane’s interactions with Caitlin, he had growing sympathy for Matt. Lexi was giving him the same look Caitlin had worn in almost all of their previous conversations, though Shane understood that her time thus far in Dry Rock had been…stressful. But tonight…tonight, something had begun to change between him and Caitlin.
Just not the fact that he was leaving, which meant nothing should change at all. At least not beyond her getting past a couple of her fears, because the thought of Jack or Diego swaggering in to save her made Shane want to preemptively put both men on the ground.
Caitlin, who had been watching Matt and Lexi go back and forth like they were on the courts of Wimbledon, asked, “Are you guys…dating?”
Shane understood her confusion. They acted more like an old married couple than anyone he knew, including old married couples.
“No,” they responded in unison. “Neighbors,” Lexi added.
“They share a dog,” Shane said. The so-called explanation had persisted for years, and no one bought it. He wasn’t even sure Matt or Lexi did, but they sure loved to repeat the excuse.
Matt sighed heavily. “We have to or it would starve.”
“You could just open a bag of dog food sometime,” Diego suggested.
“You would think, wouldn’t you?” Matt said, giving Lexi a pointed look.
The table erupted into laughter, drawing attention from other patrons and finally, the waitress, who gave a look of surprise and hurried over. “You slipped in here when I wasn’t looking.”
Shane smiled. “I knew you’d find us when you had time.” She had to be seventy if she was a day, and she was as much a fixture of the place as the chrome, red vinyl, and checkerboard floor.
“You, I found. Time, I’m still looking for,” she said, giving him the same look his grandma had laid on him years ago when he’d eaten an entire apple pie she’d left out to cool. “What can I get you?”
He glanced at Caitlin. “Burger and a shake? You’ll never have one better.”
“Sounds great,” she said.
“My usual times two,” he said, a little too pleased that they liked the same food, because it didn’t matter. At least, it shouldn’t. And it wouldn’t in a few days, because he’d be gone.
“I can open dog food,” he heard Lexi say. Were they still on that?
“He just won’t eat it,” Matt said. “He doesn’t trust anything she puts out for him.”
Despite the jab, Lexi laughed, and Shane wondered why those two couldn’t see what was right in front of them.
His gaze skated to Caitlin and back. “But,” he said, “the dog will cross a bridge with her, which is more than I can say for Caitlin.”
She stiffened next to him, suggesting he probably shouldn’t have brought that up again.
Lexi confirmed as much when her eyes widened. Incredulous, she asked. “You’re the woman from the bridge?”
…
And there it went. Anonymity busted. Reputation established.
“You have no idea how much I want to say no to that,” Caitlin responded, almost certain her face flamed neon. Despite her dedicated status as an introvert, she’d immediately liked Shane’s friends. Apparently button-pushing was a thing between them, and a heck of a lot more entertaining when she wasn’t the target.
“Don’t give it a second thought,” Lexi said. “I hate that bridge. It shakes when you walk over it, which in no way convinces me it’s safe.”
Relief wedged through the embarrassment. “It actually moves?” Caitlin asked Lexi. “I thought that was me being terrified.”
Lexi shook her head. “I’m not kidding. I will not walk over that bridge.”
“Seems you’re in good company then,” Jack said. He followed with a warm smile toward Caitlin.
Lexi shot him a glare anyway. “But she met Shane, so it’s all good.”
Caitlin rolled her eyes. “Yes. Trying to get away from him was exactly how I got off the bridge.”
The group fell silent for a long, unnerving moment. Long enough for her to realize they couldn’t possibly know she was joking, before Diego said “daaaaaaamn” under his breath and they started laughing again.
“That was a prime example of my exemplary skill as a first responder,” Shane said. “Do you have any idea how much it takes to get a woman to voluntarily walk away from me?”
“Caitlin looks unimpressed,” Jack said, “so I’m guessing not much.”
Lexi pressed splayed fingertips to her chest, like she couldn’t believe her ears. “You mean you didn’t swoon and fall at his feet?”
Caitlin shook her head and brushed a crumb off the table. “No, but I can tell I’m an exception.”
“Smart woman,” Matt said. “Especially considering he’s bailing on us for a more prestigious gig in another city.”
He was leaving? Was that why he wasn’t interested in her? She blinked. “That’s good to know. I’m not sure how much longer I would have been able to hold out. Hard to resist a guy who spends hours reading books about the history of childbirth while drinking cinnamon roll coffee out of a mug that professes the difficulties in getting a man.”
“I will pay you a thousand dollars for a picture of that,” Diego said while Jack choked on his drink.
“If that had happened,” Shane said, “and I’m not saying it did, I can assure you there would be no photos.”
“However, the security footage…” Caitlin added, biting back a grin when Shane gave her a look of alarm. Good. He deserved to be thrown off-balance. She just wished she knew why she had been. So what if he was leaving? She’d asked him to do so a dozen times, and now she couldn’t even bring herself to ask for details.
The waitress arrived with their food in paper-lined plastic baskets, which momentarily drew everyone’s attention back to their meals while Caitlin gawked. The burger looked amazing, but what she couldn’t get past was the fluted, frosty mug piled high with thick swirls of whipped cream topped with a cherry. A candy-striped straw added the finishing touch.
Though he didn’t say anything, Shane’s gaze rested on her when she tried it, and had most likely remained when her eyes rolled back in her head.
Heaven.
This, she’d cross ten bridges for.
Shane grinned at whatever expression she’d just made, and despite the crowded room, the gesture felt intimate.
“How are things going at the bookstore?” Diego asked, dragging her from the spell she was under.
“Warm without an air conditioner,” Caitlin managed to say with a sheepish grin. She only vaguely recognized Diego from the air conditioner episode—he’d been in his full gear when he’d given them a hand with the fans—but she figured they’d all been there if they were on Shane’s shift. “Thanks for not hosing the place down.”
“I’m glad we didn’t have to,” Jack said. “Pretty cool to have an independent bookstore in town, so I’m glad to see you here to rescue that old place. When are you going to open it up?”
“If I can keep the fire department away”—she shot a pointed look at Shane—“then as soon as I get through enough of the inventory.”
“Forget that,” Matt said. “I want to know how you’re getting to work. Or did I sleep through the excitement on the scanner?”
Yep, she wouldn’t live this down any time soon. “The guy in the shop next door told me about Uber. I’m not sure why Shane couldn’t have mentioned that option.”
“Some men have to be creative to get that second date,” Lexi said.
“Third,” Shane tossed back. “She couldn’t get through a single day without me.”
“But wouldn’t I like the chance,” she threw out, not bothering this time to correct the not-a-date thing.
Noticing that Shane didn’t, either.
“You’ll get it,” Lexi said. “Apparently Denver holds an appeal we just can’t match here. Greener pastures and all.”
“More like grayer pastures,” Matt said.
“Concrete, even,” Diego added.
“None of us want him to go,” Lexi told Caitlin, shooting a scowl at Shane.
Matt titled his head in Jack’s direction. “Except him. I think he’s up for promotion.”
Jack held out his hands in defense. “I don’t want his job. Besides, that happens and I have to stay out of trouble. Instead of helping them TP his truck, I’m going to be the victim.”
“Damn straight,” Diego said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matt said at the same time.
Shane shook his head. “All three of you need a good run-in with karma.”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t park next to the sprinklers.”
“A fire hose is not a sprinkler,” Shane argued.
“Annnnd we’re back to men and their hoses,” Lexi said, rolling her eyes. To Caitlin, she said, “I’m glad you’re here. Don’t abandon me.”
Lexi didn’t have other friends who would kill to hang out with these guys? No non-awkward way to ask that question, but Caitlin’s surprise must have shown.
“Matt and I hang out a lot, though most of the time I’m not sure why, because I’m never going to get a date with him following me around, and these men travel in a pack. No woman wants to put up with them,” Lexi explained.
“Except you,” Shane reminded her.
“We are mutually and completely friend-zoned. I haven’t seen another woman come within twenty feet of you guys without someone trying to hook up, and frankly it’s just too much to keep up with.”
Jack snort-laughed. “Way to keep Caitlin from abandoning you.”
“Well, no, there’s hope,” Lexi argued. “Because none of you are going to mess with the lieutenant’s girl, and he’s leaving in two weeks, and not even he can screw up so badly in two weeks that she won’t want to look at us again.”
The lieutenant’s girl? “Um, I’m not his…” Anything. “We’re just friends.” If they were even that.
“Doesn’t matter. He saw you first,” Lexi said, toying with the straw in her glass. “Bro code. They’d never break it.”
The group shot assessing stares at Shane, which was fantastic, because that meant none of them noticed how flaming red Caitlin’s face must be.
Almost none. Because Shane was too close to miss it.
And there wasn’t a chocolate shake in the world that could make her forget the look in his eyes when he noticed and grinned.