Free Playing With Fire by Cathy McDavid Page A

case. Ever since the morning two weeks ago when Joey walked in on him and Lindsay, she hadn't been her usual pleasant self. Truthfully, she'd become darn near impossible to be around.
    Matt told himself to be patient that she needed time to come to terms with the idea of them being together.
    Well, she hadn't come to terms, and his patience was fast running out.
    As promised, he'd gone to see Lindsay that morning after he and Joey talked, expecting to find her distraught but glad to see him. She hadn't been home. Neither had she been home that night, or the next day. The voice mail messages and pages he left weren't returned.
    Okay. He got the hint. She didn't want to see him or talk to him.
    Their first day back at work together went badly. When he cornered her alone in the workout room, she'd fed him some line about there being too many complications. What complications? He and Lindsay were on, she and Joey were off. Simple.
    He, she'd insisted, didn't understand.
    No, he didn't. Could she please explain it to him?
    If he didn't already understand her feelings, nothing she said would make a difference.
    Failing once again to comprehend her logic, Matt left, more confused than angry.
    Not realizing Lindsay was shutting him out, Joey filled Matt in on the details. She'd taken the news of Joey's reconciliation with his ex-fiancée well, and they'd parted on good terms, agreeing to remain friends.
    Upon learning this, Matt made another totally-male-and-thereby-wrong assumption; he and Lindsay would slide into a comfortable dating relationship.
    She corrected his erroneous thinking the next day at work.
    Too stubborn for his own good, he'd stopped by Lindsay's place one evening, peace offering in hand. For thirty minutes, his hormones waged war with his brain cells, the latter winning by the slimmest of margins. They'd sat on her couch, making awkward conversation over two cups of her favorite Starbucks coffee when what he really wanted to do was push her down onto the cushions and dribble Mocha Frappuccino onto her bare nipples.
    While barely managing to keep his obvious erection under control, he'd listened to her explain why her breakup with Joey didn't automatically imply she and Matt were a couple.
    Translation: she felt guilty.
    Finally. Something Matt understood. He, too, had suffered a fleeting twinge of guilt. But seeing Joey and Karyn back together and deliriously happy pretty much alleviated it.
    Lindsay wasn't still bothered by what happened, was she?
    Yes. They'd been wrong to sleep together and should have waited.
    Reminding her that Joey had been with Karyn at the same time he and Lindsay were together only earned him an exasperated huff, followed by a that's-not-the-point argument. Three days later, he still hadn't sorted it out.
    "Callahan,” Emilio barked. “Don't you have something else to do besides stand around here taking up space?"
    "Yes,” Matt said, giving his head a quick shake to clear the cobwebs. “As a matter of fact, I do.” With a friendly salute to his captain, he strode off in search of Lindsay. There had to be something else bothering her besides the thing with him and Joey. She wasn't one to let her personal life affect her job.
    "Oh, by the way.” Emilio's sharp call brought Matt to a standstill. “Word from Fire Administration is that the test results will be posted this afternoon. Good luck."
    The test results for engineer. Of course! How could he have been so dense? That's what had Lindsay on edge. In the midst of everything else going on, the test had completely slipped his mind. He'd even forgotten to study and winged it during the final session last week.
    "Thanks, but I'm not holding my breath.” He nodded at Emilio and left.
    Actually, Matt didn't care if he made engineer or not. He'd tested only because he thought a promotion might impress his father. A mistake, he realized in retrospect. Advancing through the ranks in a career his father didn't approve of in the first place