Free Once Burned (Task Force Eagle) by Susan Vaughan Page B

really
wanted.
     
    *****
     
    Shifting from foot to foot in the mud room, Jake felt
as if he’d stuck his finger—no, his whole body—in an electric socket. He stared
at the pizza carton in his hands but saw only Lani’s face, blank with shock and
ashen. And now he’d hurt her, when all he meant to do was... What had he meant,
saying Gail’s name?
    He cared for Lani, wanted her, but maybe he confused
his feelings for her with his past feelings for her twin. Desire for her and
surprise she seemed to feel the same for him. Growing respect for her
determination and protective urges he thought he’d quashed for good. A growing
fear she needed protecting from a murderer. For damn sure, his emotions were
too jumbled to sort out now. When he could delay facing her no longer, he
entered the kitchen. He had to say something, had to fix this.
    Lani sat slumped at the table, her eyes cast down. Her
slim shoulders heaved with furious breaths.
    He set the pizza on the table and thrust fingers
through his hair. He wanted to punch the wall, the pizza, something. “Lani, I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I don’t know why I did.”
    She turned away, hiding her bandaged hands under her
arms and hugging herself.
    “I was kissing you , not Gail.”
    “Maybe.” She pushed to her feet and turned toward the
hallway. “Take the pizza and go. I’m not hungry any more.”
    “This situation has us all churned up,” he gritted
out. “The hit and run. The fire investigator’s death. True confessions. Chalk
it up to emotional overload. But you need to eat. I’m not leaving until you do.
Pizza’s getting cold. Where are the plates?”
    With tight motions, she stalked to the cabinet. China
clattered and she deposited blue-flowered plates on the table. “Another beer?”
    He saw the wince as she handled the china. “Let me.
You sit.” After delivering bottles, two glasses, and a basket of napkins, he
sat opposite her.
    They ate the spicy pie in silence, tense and awkward
at first, then companionable as they settled into their food. His gaze slid to
the dollop of pizza sauce at the corner of her mouth. His mouth watered as her
pink tongue flicked out to lick it away. He lowered his eyes to his plate. Two
slices remained in the box when their appetites were sated. One kind of
appetite, anyway. The only one likely to be sated anytime soon. Hell of a
thing.
    “What?” Lani cocked her head and shot him a wary gaze.
Still suspicious. He couldn’t blame her.
    Temporizing, he rose and poured a glass of water.
Enough beer. “Just realized the true confessions are on my side. You know my
history. What about you? After you recovered.”
    Her eyes flashed. “No need to tiptoe around me, Jake. I’m not afraid to speak my mind.”
    “No kidding. Tell all then.”
    Her lips curved in an oddly shy smile. “I needed a
couple years of therapy and skin grafts before I felt recovered and presentable
enough to face the world.”
    Pain flitted across her features. Picking apart a
discarded pizza crust, she appeared to shake off the emotion. “I took online
college courses at first, then finished up at UNH. For the last six years, I’ve
taught special education students in a Concord middle school.”
    He could see how Lani could coax challenged kids to
stick up for themselves and to achieve. “Why special ed?”
    “It started with kids I saw in the burn center. One
girl in particular who’d been burned over most of her body. A candle started a
curtain fire that spread to her baby crib. Roni was five when I met her—back
for more skin grafts—and so eager to read she memorized every book I read to
her. She could barely hold a book because most of her fingers were gone.” Her
mouth thinned and she blinked rapidly before continuing.
    “As I took courses, I did internships in schools. The
kids asked about my scars matter-of-factly. They accepted me as one of them. I
guess I was. I knew the challenges they faced in everyday life and I