Page 5 of Burning Love
“Yeah, sure. I’ll just have to spend it spraying Lysol or whatever else I can find to get rid of this stench.”
“There has to be a bakery around here. DoorDash could get you your cookies while you’re doing that.”
She smiled, her eyes lighting up. “Good thought, Jace.”
The way his name rolled off her tongue had him racing for his truck as if the fire had been lit at his feet.
There might not have been flames in the house, but an idiot could see the heat of attraction between them.
He was betting Talia wasn’t an idiot so he hightailed it out of there and reminded himself he wasn’t good enough for someone that lived in this area.
2
TYPICAL OF YOU
“The house stinks. What did you burn?”
Talia swirled around to look at her mother when she walked into the kitchen. “Nothing.Youburned something.”
“I did no such thing,” her mother argued. “Ohhh, cookies. If I knew you had a sweet tooth for some, I would have made them for you.”
Her mother walked over and picked up a chocolate chip cookie that she’d had delivered. Jace, the sexy fireman, had the right idea. DoorDash it was.
“It might have saved the fire department from showing up if I had told you,” she said. There was enough sarcasm in her voice to trigger the alarms again.
“Fire department?” her mother screeched. “Are you okay?” Her mother was frantically looking around the kitchen. “What happened?”
Talia marched over to the sink and picked up the scorched package of chicken, then dropped it down on the counter with a thunk a rock would carry. More like lava because that was what it looked like.
“Dinner that you were thawing in the oven. I had no idea. I came in from a long miserable flight dying for gooey melted chocolate chip cookies and turned the oven on to preheat it while I went downstairs to shower.”
“Oh,” her mother said. “Well, Talia. That’s on you for not checking the oven first.”
Her lips twisted in frustration at being told the same thing Jace had said. He was Jace in her eyes. Hot, you know, like a fireman had to be. Tall, over six feet easily. Clean-shaven, which he most likely had to be for his job. Everything else was covered by his fire gear.
That was fine. She’d dream up the rest in her mind later tonight.
As long as she didn’t have nightmares over her mortification to rush into a room full of strange men wearing only a towel.
What could she have been thinking?!
“Whatever.” She waved her hand and dropped the ruined package of chicken in the trash. She’d only held onto it so she could show her mother proof of what happened. “I was downstairs showering, the music is blaring.”
“Like you always do when you’re home alone,” her mother interrupted.
“I learned not to do it when you’re home.” Or she put headsets on. “I must have lost track of time in the shower, I don’t know. I’ve been dying for a long hot shower with decent water pressure. The next thing I know, I’m drying off and the music sounded odd to me. At first I thought the sirens were part of the song.”
Her mother’s bugged out eyes and tight lips said more than words could. “Really, Talia? How can you be that naïve?”
She hated when her mother talked to her as if she were fourteen instead of twenty-four. “We don’t listen to the samemusic. Once I realized it was the smoke alarms, I wrapped a towel around me and ran up the stairs. I knew the oven was on.”
“You tried to take care of it yourself?” her mother asked, throwing her hands in the air. “There was a fire in the oven and you pulled that out?”
“No. I ran into a room full of firemen. Which was even stupider. The alarms had been going long enough while I was in the shower that the fire department arrived, the security company unlocked the door for them, and they were in the house looking for the flames.”
“In your towel only?” her mother asked, her eyebrows damn close to her hairline.
“Don’t you dare laugh.” She pointed her finger at her mother. Too late. Her mother and her warped sense of humor let loose. “It’s not funny.”
