Page 15 of Wild Fires

“No, I'm afraid not. At least not yet. I haven't even made it into the office yet today.”

It was the truth, and he didn't need to know why. I wasn't ready for the whole town to be put on high alert thinking we had an arsonist on the loose. We needed more concrete evidence on that first.

My mind shifted to Gracie, and I was pretty sure just thinking about her somehow conjured her up out of thin air.

“Hey Gracie. Take a seat anywhere you'd like. I'll be over in a minute,” Gia yelled out.

I couldn't help it. I turned to see her for myself as she purposefully sat at the opposite end of the restaurant.

Our eyes caught and her chin lifted just slightly in utter defiance.

I scowled back at her.

“Okay then. Maybe I should check back tomorrow then?” Ed asked like everything was perfectly fine and the woman I'd been ogling all morning hadn’t just blatantly shut down even my simplest of gestures.

I sighed. “Honestly, I'm working on something with Clarence this week, so I may not even get to it until Monday. But I promise you I will, and I'll be in touch the second I do.”

I gave him a reassuring smile.

“Oh, well, okay then. Thanks for letting me know that. I won't keep you. The misses and I were just on our way out.”

People around here were used to me being a yes man. I struggled with the boundaries between my job and my personal life. Hell, the lines were so blurred these days that I didn't even have a personal life to speak of anymore.

I think a part of me feared that if I stopped being so accommodating that things would start to crumble or the people would lose faith in me, but Ed hadn't been put out in the least. He just needed to know the expectations.

Maybe I didn't always have to go out of my way to please people.

I was still irritated with Gracie, but this certainly gave me something new to consider. Though I would never admit to her that the only reason I'd just brushed Ed off was because I planned to be spending a lot more time with her this week, even if she wasn't going to be happy about it—maybe even because she wasn't going to be happy about it.

With a smirk, I turned back to Eli. He was eyeing me curiously, and Kim had disappeared into the kitchen to retrieve my order.

I took a moment to pull out my phone and send a note to Jennifer, letting her know to schedule me time to go over Ed's proposal on Monday but also to have her wipe my calendar clear of anything not pressing for the remainder of the week.

There was something going on between me and Gracie. It felt like more than just an interest in the case with her being the one stuck working with me on it. I was excited about the case, that much was true, but this was something entirely different. Neither of us may like it or even want to acknowledge it, but it was something. And I’m damn well going to figure it out or do whatever it took to get her out of my system.

“What?” I asked, noticing him staring at me.

“Something's up with you.”

“Drop it. There's nothing going on with me.”

“You do know you just dismissed Ed. I've never seen you do that with anyone. At least not when it comes to work stuff.”

“It's just not pressing.”

“So what's up with Clarence? Or was that just bullshit?”

I shook my head and looked around the room again. I couldn't help how my eyes lingered on Gracie. The fact that she didn't want me only made me want her more. That seemed so opposite from my nature, yet I couldn't deny it as truth.

“Not here. We'll talk later.”

His face changed into concern, but he nodded and didn't press me for more.

When Kim brought my food out, she had Eli’s regular order for him too.

“We're a bit busier than usual, so just holler if you two need anything else.”

With another quick kiss for her mate, she walked off to attend to her other customers.

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