Chapter Nine
Caitlin arrived at Shelf Indulgence a full hour after she’d planned, in no small part due to the detour and unexpected shower. But she wasn’t hating it. The cold water at the fire station had come as a shock, but she’d salvaged her coffee and her book had remained unscathed. Plus she now had Shane’s T-shirt, and she may have taken it off and inhaled through the fabric like she was a starry-eyed teenaged girl, but as there were no witnesses, there would be no admitting that. Not that it was weird. She just happened to like whatever brand of laundry detergent he used. Perfectly normal, non-stalkerish behavior.
Yeah, whatever.
Still, she hoped like hell he’d forget to take it back before he moved.
This morning, like the morning before it, the bridge gave her the good kind of shivers. Memories of clinging to a certain fiercely hot lieutenant who’d been unfazed by a kiss that had nearly dropped her to her knees. Of course, he probably had experiences like that all the time. She’d seen the admiring glances that followed almost every step he took, even lingering on him at the diner.
And the way he hadn’t returned a single one of them.
“Shut. Up,” she said aloud, then rolled her eyes. Now she was talking to herself.
She drained the last of her now-cold coffee and started a new cup. While it brewed, she assessed the inventory situation. Several boxes towered relatively untouched in the back, but she’d made decent progress on the shelved books. Getting them completely sorted and organized wasn’t a pre-launch requirement, but if she wanted anyone to be able to find anything, it would be a good idea. Not to mention, it would be much easier for her to deal with that kind of task before the store opened. With any luck, that would be within a week or two.
A week or two. Shane would be out of her life. No distractions. Just work.
Thoughts of him were still not distracting her a few minutes later when a knock sounded at the door. Caitlin opened it to find Lexi standing there, looking sheepish. “I know you’re not open yet, but I thought I’d see if you needed a hand.”
Surprised and initially speechless, Caitlin stepped back and gestured for Lexi to come in. It felt a little weird, with Lexi being Shane’s friend, but apparently she hadn’t been kidding when she said she was glad to meet Caitlin. “That would be fantastic if you’re sure you have time,” Caitlin said, “but I’m warning you, there’s enough dust in here to grow corn. If you have allergies or a general love of non-particulated air, take heed.”
“I’m in,” Lexi said with exaggerated seriousness. “But only if you have coffee.” She pulled back her hair into a long ponytail that glistened even in the low light.
Caitlin had to bite her tongue not to ask what shampoo she used to get such gorgeous hair, because that wasn’t at all creepy. Instead, she gestured toward the table at the back of the room and said, “There’s a Keurig and a K-Cup for every possible mood. Help yourself to anything you’d like.”
“You’ve just won seventy-five percent of my heart.”
Caitlin laughed. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the other twenty-five percent?”
“It’s yours as long as you don’t make fun of my cooking.”
“So I’m guessing Matt will never own that last quarter?”
Lexi gave a disgusted sigh. “Matt will never own any quarters.”
“Really?” Caitlin didn’t try to hide her surprise.
“Really. Shane and Diego and Jack have absolutely nothing better to do than imply otherwise, but that is not happening. We’re next-door neighbors, and I might starve without him, and he’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember, but those are the only tenuous threads holding us together.”
Caitlin choked back a laugh. Those were tenuous threads? She’d kill for that kind of relationship “All that and a dog?”
Lexi shook her head, a glint of humor peeking through what was obviously a long-standing point of contention. “Yeah, because apparently I’m not even capable of opening a bag of dog food.”
“Yet Matt chose you to co-parent?” Caitlin led Lexi to the coffee supplies. While Caitlin had had to read the directions on how to use the thing, Lexi didn’t flinch.
“The dog chose me,” she clarified. “Matt adopted him, yet he always goes straight to me. I cannot tell you the extent to which I find this amusing.”
Caitlin chuckled and sipped her coffee. “So you guys are staying together for the kids?” she asked with a laugh.
“More like, that’s the reason he hasn’t changed the locks.” She hesitated. “Okay, the truth is, I adore him, but we’ll never be more than friends because I don’t know what I’d do without him. No way I’d risk crossing that line and ruining things, even in a weak moment when I don’t find him completely repulsive. Which I don’t, but it’s just easier when I convince myself otherwise. But enough about me, because I have questions of my own.” Lexi extracted a K-cup from the stash. “Chocolate-glazed donut? This is a thing?”
Caitlin exhaled. She’d been prepared for an entirely different set of questions. Coffee, she could handle. “It’s a delicious thing.”
Lexi popped the cup in the machine then turned toward Caitlin. “And you and Shane?”
“Definitely not a thing,” Caitlin said. “He decided if I didn’t face my fear of bridges that I’d be a drain on city resources, so he took it upon himself to play the rescuer. That is the extent of our relationship.”
“That and a date,” Lexi said, waggling her eyebrows.
“You can call it a date. He called it public service.”
Lexi’s eyes widened. “He did not.”
God, how Caitlin had missed girl time. Her sister hadn’t had a brush with downtime in ages, and she and Caitlin’s nephew traveled in a pair. Caitlin loved her nephew, but the conversations in his presence seldom ventured beyond toddler talk.
Lexi was a godsend. Especially in this muddled new place where Caitlin hated how much she wanted a certain lieutenant. Throwing up walls when all she wanted was to be thrown against one—preferably naked—was counterintuitive, frustrating, and probably life-saving, but a second opinion couldn’t hurt.
Nor could validation. “Yes,” Caitlin said. “He did. Apparently I shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets unsupervised.”
Lexi leaned a hip against the old wood-plank counter now cluttered with coffee supplies and a fake blue floral bouquet sitting crookedly in what bore a disturbing resemblance to an urn, complete with dust in the bottom. “There’s potential for that to be adorable,” Lexi said.
Caitlin shook her head and reached past Lexi to right the flowers. “I know I’m new here, but he doesn’t seem the type to be adorable.”
Lexi shrugged. “But he’s not an ass. The women he dates don’t trash him on social media after they stop seeing him. He’s got to have a redeeming quality or two.”
Caitlin’s shoulders stiffened before she could stop them, and she hated herself for the reaction, especially when Lexi’s brow kicked up a notch. “So he does date a lot?” Caitlin asked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Actually, he really doesn’t. I think he gets bored.”
Caitlin sighed. Hell, she practically swooned. Keeping her attraction hidden from Lexi was a battle Caitlin had long lost. Resigned, she asked, “They throw themselves at him, don’t they?”
Lexi snorted and picked an invisible piece of lint off a shirt that perfectly matched her eyes. Caitlin, by comparison, could barely coordinate her shirt and pants. “Have you seen the man?” Lexi asked.
“I saw him.” Her thoughts went back to the diner, where he’d outwardly ignored an awful lot of blatant appreciation from other women. “And I think it’s disgusting when women fall at a guy’s feet because he’s attractive.”
“Attractive is the biggest understatement of all time, and if you tell me you didn’t notice, I’m walking out and leaving you alone with the dust and the books.”
Caitlin didn’t doubt that for a minute. “Yeah, I noticed,” she said. “He’s smoking hot. They all are. There must be a requirement to get in with the fire department here.”
“I’ve thought the same thing for years. And you’d think hanging out with so much eye candy would be good for a woman, but guess how many guys ask me out when I’m constantly surrounded by stupidly hot men?”
“That’s a first-world problem if I’ve ever heard one,” Caitlin said with a laugh.
“Just wait until you get to know them,” Lexi warned. She took her coffee from the machine and added creamer. Because that was exactly what chocolate donut coffee needed…a gallon of sweet milk.
“Well,” Caitlin said, “this morning Diego and Shane managed to soak me with a water hose. Does that count?”
Lexi sipped her coffee, failing to hide a smile behind the ceramic. “Am I allowed to laugh? Also, what counts is Shane has a clear interest in getting to know you, which is going to keep the others at a respectable distance.”
Caitlin left her cup on the counter and headed to the sofa with a box of books. And tried not to think of Shane camped out there, periodically tossing out sex facts. “Ugh. I don’t want to join his list of conquests.”
Rather than argue, Lexi said, “I don’t think he sees you as a conquest.”
“What would possibly make you think that?”
She looked up from where she’d begun rifling through a box of books. “He doesn’t normally bring his dates to sit with us, for one.”
That news came as a surprise, but Caitlin hoped it didn’t show on her face. She didn’t need to feel better about him. She needed to learn to keep her distance. “This would be a good time to mention him grumbling about how he should have taken me somewhere else.”
“Either he made an exception, or he was so flustered by you he managed to forget we’re always there. I win both points. Wow,” Lexi said, staring into the box Caitlin had already discovered to be full of books about sex—one of many such collections she’d found there. “Kama Sutra. This is my kind of store.”
“There are no fewer than ten boxes full of sex books here,” Caitlin said, “and for the record, they were here before I was.” She hesitated, not really wanting to further the conversation about Shane, but curiosity overtook her. “Have you considered he doesn’t see me as anything more than what he said? A public service?”
“Doubtful.” Lexi stopped flipping through the book and held it open to an illustration. “Have you ever tried this? It looks painful. Actually,” she said with a wink, “maybe you should try that with Shane. See what he’s willing to go through for you.”
Caitlin stared, horrified. Not at the suggestion, but the fact that her mind had gone straight to picturing it. She opened her mouth to speak but ended up in a coughing fit. “Dust,” she finally said through watery eyes.
“Shall I call dispatch?” Lexi asked.
Caitlin abruptly stopped coughing, even though she hadn’t been faking it.
“That’s what I thought,” Lexi said with a grin. “Either way, you were different for him.”
“And I just moved here, so maybe he’s just being nice.”
Lexi closed the book with a thud. “You’re as stubborn as he is.”
“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”
Lexi laughed. “Neither am I, but you’ve done the exact opposite of convincing me you’re not interested in him, and I’ve known him long enough to tell he’s definitely liking what he sees.” She dropped the Kama Sutra back in the box from which it came, then hauled the whole collection over to sit on the sofa with Caitlin. “I don’t know. I’m thinking you guys are perfect for each other.”
“What could possibly make you think that?”
With a knowing grin, Lexi said, “Hot librarian and gorgeous firefighter…tell me that’s not the coupling of a thousand sexual fantasies.”
Caitlin blinked. “Did you just say I was hot?”
Lexi waved a hand. “Please, girl. You’re stunning.” She leaned closer, even though they were the only two in the room. “And besides, what man can resist a woman with an entire store full of sex books?”