Free Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 by Lila Ashe Page A

sparkling eyes—this woman could get just about any guy on a string.
    Why, then, was it that Coin couldn’t keep his eyes off Lexie? For one night, you’d think he could fake it, but no. He couldn’t.
    Lexie filled in the awkward pause that had happened while Coin had been thinking. “Her name is Serena. She’s eleven, technically, but could pass for thirty in terms of world awareness. She says she wants to be an artist or a baseball player, but I think she’s going to be a writer. Every single second she has to spare, she has her nose in a book.” Lexie smiled warmly at Coin. “She’s supremely great. And Coin is amazing with her. They’re the best pals, except that he takes care of her, too.”
    Coin got it.
    He was on the wrong date.
    Ginger and Thomas should be gazing into each other’s eyes, preferably at a restaurant far, far away. And he needed to be on a date with this woman. Lexie. Yeah, he could admit he’d always had a crush on her. Every firefighter at the station knew that and teased him for it, though he always denied it. It was time to admit it.
    He wanted to be alone with Lexie. Really alone. Man and woman alone. In his mind’s eye, he pictured Lexie leaning close to kiss him smilingly … He needed to nuke this stupid date. There had to be a way.
    He would find a way.
     
     

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
    Something was wrong with Coin, and Lexie had no idea how to fix it. It must have had to do with what she’d said about Serena because that’s when he’d gone all weird, but Lexie couldn’t figure it out. Should she not have bragged on his daughter? Shouldn’t that have been a good thing to do in front of his date?
    Instead, he’d gone all quiet. Spooky quiet. Lexie had seen him silent many times, but not like this. He put off a dark energy, a kind of pulsing, low-grade anger. Ginger, appropriately, seemed more interested now. Of course. Women always loved a brooder, right? Earlier, when Coin had been chipper, Ginger had been merely sweet and polite. Now she gazed at him between sips of her wine, as if she wanted to be the one to make him talk.
    Well, screw that. Lexie was his actual friend. It was her job to find out what was wrong with Coin. In the meantime, though, he had to pull himself together.
    She kicked his ankle, hard.
    “Hey!” said Coin.
    “What?” asked Lexie innocently. She gave him a look. Talk now or I will kill you later.
    Coin seemed to get it. He started flirting with Ginger. Lexie was amazed by the change in him. Even when Thomas asked her direct questions, she kept half her attention on what Coin was saying. She should have been happy. Instead, she just felt more irritated. She gulped wine to try to cool her temper and ended up spilling it down her front.
    If someone had been watching their table, they would have seen a perfect-looking foursome, though. Coin got almost gregarious, and Ginger got even prettier under his attention. And Thomas, it turned out, wasn’t the bore that he looked—he’d spent time in Guatemala and had hair-raising stories that kept them all entertained.
    All Lexie wanted was for them to leave.
    She stood and started clearing plates. Ginger, who was still picking at her salad—of course she was, the waif—looked surprised when Lexie swooped it away, but she didn’t protest.
    “There’s dessert,” said Lexie brightly. “You all just stay right here, and I’ll get it ready.” She wanted to be away from all of them. Maybe in the kitchen she could grab the deep breaths she so suddenly needed. Sitting next to Coin as he flirted with Ginger had done something to her, something she didn’t like.
    “Please, let me help,” said Ginger. In any other circumstance, Lexie would have claimed this funny, interesting, pretty woman as a new friend. Now? She wanted to jab her with a salad fork.
    “No, thanks. You just sit there and look pretty,” Lexie said. As if stick-thin Ginger could do anything else. She probably woke up pretty. Her eyes