Free The Firefighter's Appeal (Harlequin Superromance) by Elizabeth Otto Page B

She’d been thinking about that a lot lately, wondering how she’d handle it—whether Doug would acknowledge it or ignore it. For once, Lily hoped he’d face the tragedy they’d been through, maybe talk about it— something.
    Lily pushed her thoughts away as she tried the front door, frowning when she found the lobby completely dark. The building was eerily quiet and a little calming in its emptiness. She wandered through the main room of shadowy tables with upturned chairs, drawn to a soft glow coming from behind the bar.
    Her excitement started to fade and apprehension about being alone in the deserted bar with Garrett crept in. She frowned. There was no reason to feel nervous. Sheesh. It was a business meeting, not a date.
    “Hello?” Lily paused at the bar, running her fingers along the silky wood as she moved toward the door that led to the back. The door was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of light through. Then it suddenly swung open, startling her and revealing a smiling Garrett, wiping his hands on a towel. Lily jerked back, nearly dropping her canvas workbag. The impact of Garrett’s smile was nearly as intoxicating as the savory scent wafting out from the kitchen.
    “Hello yourself.” He whipped the towel over his shoulder.
    Her lips did that tingly thing so she clamped them to make it stop. It didn’t help. “Mind if we turn on some lights?”
    He nodded and moved behind the bar. Two clicks later and the place was flooded with light. “There you go.”
    Lily placed her bag on the bar and leaned against it. The smell filling her senses was incredible, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten yet.
    “What are you cooking?” She looked up, her words trailing off as Garrett went through the swinging door and disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned, he had a steaming coffee mug in each hand.
    “Freshly ground, black, and of the thought that weak coffee is for weakhearted losers, which clearly you are not. Did I get it right?”
    A slow grin tugged at her mouth as she accepted a mug. He was delicious and adorable. And a mind reader. And completely correct. Off-limits.
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    Garrett leaned a hip on the bar and gripped his mug in both hands. She looked away, then was compelled to turn back again. The appreciative smile on his lips warmed her to her toes.
    “To answer your question, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
    The tanned perfection of his face made her brain dance in a slow fog, prompting her to forget what she’d asked. Luckily it came rushing back before she made a fool of herself. She leaned back against the bar and took a small sip from her mug.
    “I forgot something. Excuse me a sec?”
    Garrett set his mug down and went back through the kitchen door. Lily took out a notepad, pen and tape measure from her bag, trying to keep her hands busy.
    Being nervous was ridiculous. Maybe it wasn’t so much a case of nerves as it was a sense of shyness from being with a man she’d kissed and then run away from, and the knee-jerk distaste that welled up in her when she remembered that Garrett was a fireman.
    Irritated with her train of thought, Lily reached for her mug, and her elbow pushed her nearly empty bag off the bar and onto the floor on the other side.
    “Dammit,” she muttered, moving to the end of the bar and going inside to where the bag lay. Lily reached for it, her eyes drawn to Garrett’s name written on the side of an ice-cream tub. It was filled with pieces of paper, some folded, some not. It only took a second to recognize that the slips contained phone numbers and women’s names. A few lay open on the very top—one from Stacy, another from Ivy and one that just said “Call me.”
    Lily scoffed as she straightened and smoothed the front of her shirt with one hand. Typical. He’d asked for her phone number, too, hadn’t he?
    Seemed her instincts had been dead-on. Garrett was right up there on the playboy firefighter list. If her discomfort because of