Page 12 of Aspen Heat
"Hi, Mel. You ready?"
"I am. Vivian, I might be late tonight."
"I'll wait up for you."
"You don't…"
She shuts the door in my face and I turn to a smiling Aspen.
"That lady is a menace."
"I can hear you! You better watch it, young lady."
We both giggle and Aspen takes my hand, pulling me towards the passenger side of his truck. He opens the door for me and waits until I get inside, then he leans over me and buckles my seatbelt. I would have minded the gesture if it didn't mean I could get a sniff of his masculine and musky scent, mixed in with some aftershave.
We go to The Starry Night Cafe and I'm surprised because I didn't know they served breakfast. My firefighter –-when did he become mine?-– suggests the huevos rancheros, so I order that and some coffee. I like my coffee sweet and when I put in the fourth packet of sugar his eyes open up in amazement.
"You know there's something called diabetes. You can get it as an adult if you're not careful."
I blush, but don't let his words annoy me.
"I have a sweet tooth."
"I can see that."
"Do we have a plan for today?"
"Not really. Phoenix just gave me another long list of places to check out. I think he's doing it on purpose to distract me."
"You want to be in the thick of it."
He looks me straight in the eyes and I feel like he wants to deny it, but I guess his sense of honor wins out with what he blurts out next.
"I need it so bad, but I screwed up last year and I'm still paying for it, obviously."
"I don't know that I could keep facing fire after fire and still want to go back."
"It's a never-ending battle, but our team is the best and I'm proud to be a part of it and proud of the job that we do here."
I nod to tell him that I understand his eagerness, but I don't really. What he does is really dangerous and now that I fancy him, I'm going to start worrying. I drop the subject instead and we have a nice chat during our breakfast.
Our first stop is an elderly couple. The Hannigan’s and the husband is outside tinkering with his car. He hears us approach and calls out to his wife who I imagine is inside their home. He gives us a smile and shakes Aspen's hand heartily as if he knows and loves him. Which is probably true because when his wife comes out she takes Aspen into her arms and hugs and kisses him.
I smile and am a bit jealous of how easy their friendship seems to be, even before anyone has said a word.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hannigan, this is Melissa Stone. She's a teacher at the school but has been helping me do the welfare checks around the mountain and the areas nearby."
"How lovely to meet you, Melissa. I'm Harriet and this is my husband of sixty years, Hector."
"It's so nice to meet you. Are you guys prepared in case you have to be evacuated?"
"Sort of." Hector says with a frown in his face.
"What's wrong?" Aspen asks.
"My car is giving me trouble and if I can't fix it, we'll have to depend on someone else to help us leave if it becomes necessary. I'm not comfortable with that since the neighbors are so far away from us."
"Oh, I can take a look, but I don't know that much about cars."
