Free Flirting With Fire (Hometown Heroes) by Kyra Jacobs Page B

small saucers. “What?”
    I put the glass
in its new home and turned back to face Sarah. “Sweetheart, I’ve known you my
whole life. Hiding something like this is rather pointless, don’t you think?”
    Her gaze lasered
to Mitch, who’d just twisted the cap off a fresh bottle of beer and had frozen
in mid-sip at the mention of ‘trimester’. “And you? Did you know, too?”
    He lowered his
beer with a grimace. “Well…”
    “God, is it that
obvious?” Her shoulders slumped. “Ron doesn’t have a clue. And honestly? I’m scared
to even tell him. I know how stressed he gets when the kids are acting up.”
    “Three kids’ll
do that to ya,” Mitch said, then took a long drink.
    I shot him a
dirty look as I crossed the room and came to stand behind Sarah’s chair.
“Stressed or not, he loves each and every one of them.” I planted a kiss on the
top of her head, and brought my hands up to try and knead the tension out of
her shoulders. “And he loves you.”
    “We weren’t even
trying this time,” she whispered. “I just don’t know. What if it gets to be too
much?”
    My hands stilled
and I leaned down to wrap my best friend in a gentle embrace. “Are you kidding
me? You’ve got Ron, and your parents, and his parents, and me.”
    “And me.”
    “Yes, and Mitch,”
I added. “Why, there’s plenty of help to go around.”
    Her hands
reached up and stilled mine. “You promise you’ll be here to help?”
    And just like
that, the hope I had of convincing her it’d be good for me to move to Fort Wayne faded. In her panicked state, the last thing I wanted to do was throw her a
curve ball like that. So I did what I always do—I told her what she wanted to
hear.
    “Of course I
will.”

     
    CHAPTER
8
     
    “You look like
someone just ran over your puppy, Liz. Everything okay?”
    I looked up from
the handwritten note I held in my hand to meet Tony’s gaze. “Uh, yeah. Just an unexpected
change in my schedule today. No big deal.”
    Unexpected and disappointing.
And that I found Torrunn’s rescheduled appointment disappointing worried me. Sure,
I’d enjoyed the replay in my head all weekend of him and his drool-worthy body.
But for me to stand here and be all bummed out that he wasn’t coming in today
had me wondering about Sarah’s accusation from the weekend. Was I
crushing on him?
    No. No way. That
wasn’t like me. I was far too professional to go and do something as stupid as
that. Look, touch, but don’t think beyond the walls of the massage room—so goes
the life of a massage therapist.
    Probably it was
just the frowny face Brittany put at the end of the note that Torrunn had
swapped today’s appointment for one on Wednesday. And PMS. Yeah, it was getting
to be about that time, right?
    “Hmm, what time
just opened up?”
    “My three
o’clock.” I stuffed the note into my schedule book and set it down.
    A smile reached
Tony’s eyes. “Well, I might be able to help you pass the time.”
    “Oh?”
    “Mmm, hmm. See,
I happen to know a certain someone whose back is absolutely, ” he put a
hand to his mid-back and grimaced, “ killing them. And I also know a
certain massage therapist who could use a little pampering in exchange for her
services.”
    “I’d be happy to
work on your back, Tony. But you don’t have to give me anything in return.
Really.”
    “Nonsense! I
don’t take handouts.” He winked, then stepped closer and ran both his hands
through my hair. “And if you can get these kinks out of my back, I just might
be ready to take on this project.”
    Insecurity
reared its ugly head. Yep, had to be PMS. “You think I need a change?”
    “I wouldn’t call
it a change, so much as a reveal. You really sell your appearance short, dear.”
    I rolled my eyes
and exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Well, yeah, at work .
I’m a massage therapist. Half of my clients don’t even lay eyes on me.”
    Tony tut-tutted
me. “Just because you think people