Page 11 of Faking It with the Firefighter

“I can’t reveal my sources,” I said, grinning. “So is it true?”

“If it is, he deserved it,” Minnie interjected.

“The rat bastard,” Ida agreed in a low mumble.

Evelyn gave a casual shrug. “I don’t like to speak ill of the dead. All I’ll say is that he was a wonderful lover.”

“Half the women in town can attest to that,” Minnie grumbled.

“Oh?” I said, not even having to feign interest. This was good. Sophie and Charlie had put their crochet projects down,and even Ida was eyeing us with a speculative look on her face. No one was thinking about Rex or why he was blowing up my phone.

Well. No one apart from me.

Then there was a knock at the door.

“Who could that be? It’s after dark,” Evelyn asked with that ready-for-anything look in her eye.

“There’s the pizza guy,” Charlie said, practically bouncing out of her seat.

“You ordered pizza?” I asked, more relieved than offended. Charlie shrugged as she scooted around Ida’s knees.

“Oh, thank God,” Minnie chimed in.

“What? Chips and booze ain’t good enough for you ladies?” I joked.

Charlie playfully swatted my shoulder as she passed by. “I’m just saying. A little pepperoni never hurt anyone.”

A dirty joke danced on the tip of my tongue, but then Rex’s face popped into my head. Seriously, something was wrong with me. Rex was not hot! Rex was anti-hot. He was the “very nice boy” your mother tried to set you up with. The guy who sparked nothing, no heat, no excitement, nada. Rex and pepperoni-penis jokes did not exist in the same realm. How my brain had connected them, I had no idea, but it had to stop.

As far as I was concerned, Rex had no pepperoni in his pants. And if he did, it wasn’t the kind I liked. I was a spicy salami kind of gal. I didn’t like no mild sausage. No thank you.

But there’d been that glint in his eyes. That little coy smile. The way he’d made my heart speed up by being a lying, scheming, fake-date-needing kind ofguy.

Mercifully saving me from my own raving thoughts, Charlie’s footsteps returned to the living room a moment later.

But it didn’t smell like pizza.

“Uh…Abigail,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “Someone’s here to see you.”

My stomach dropped. I turned.

Charlie stood with her arms crossed and a knowing expression. Rex stepped into the light behind her, his dark hair and slashed brow coming into view. I supposed those calls weren’t from his butt, after all.

In the low light of the sconces in my hall, he didn’t look like a Boy Scout. He arched a brow at me, then dipped his chin and said, “Ladies,” in a smooth, buttery voice, and I swear my panties got a little wet.

I squeezed my thighs together like it would help me regain my sanity.

“Why, Rex Montgomery,” Minnie said with a playful smirk. Her gaze flicked to me. “Fancy seeing you here.”

The bloodhound had scented some gossip. There was no escape. I wanted to die.

Rex, the fool, didn’t know a trap when it was right under the soles of his feet. He flashed a smile at the older woman and said, “Yeah. Hi, Minnie.”

“Oh, Rex was just leaving,” I interjected, jumping up. The yarn in my lap tumbled to the ground.

Not one single person reacted to my outburst.

“You didn’t happen to bring a pizza with you, did you?” Evelyn spoke up.

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