you ever wanted to do? Well, not me! It seems like I just stumbled into this job.”
“Tell me about it.”
Rolling her eyes, she said, “Honestly, it’s not very interesting.”
His voice was deep as he held her gaze. “If it’s your story, then it’ll be interesting to me.”
A blush teased her cheeks. Her lips curved into a delicate smile, and she glanced down at the table. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to study when I was in college. I’m one of those people who like a lot of things, but I’m not necessarily brilliant in any one thing.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she jumped in. “I’m not saying that to be falsely modest. I really do like lots of things, but no one thing had ever truly been my forte. I ended up majoring in marketing, quite frankly because I was going out with a guy at that time who was in marketing, and he made it sound interesting. But,” she shrugged, “my grades were higher than his and he didn’t seem to deal well with that. We broke up, but I finished my degree.”
Sean had no problem imagining that her grades were high in college. “And the insurance business?”
“Going from Military Police to city policeman probably was a logical choice for you. With marketing, I could have had a job in a lot of different areas. But fresh out of college, I started applying and interviewing and desperately needed a job to pay bills. The last thing I wanted was to move back home. There was no chance for a good job or advancement there. I applied for a position with Eastern Mutual Insurance and began with them as an insurance salesperson. Again, the work was not interesting, but it paid the bills. I was able to move up to claims adjuster, and that was a lot more interesting. I got to look at police and hospital records and inspect property. Several years ago, there was a fire that destroyed a house, and while the family escaped unharmed, the pets were killed. It was horrible.”
He watched a visible shudder move over her body at the memory and reached across the table, resting his hand on hers, the feel of her scars rough against his fingers. He did not think she realized what she was doing, but she linked her fingers with his, clutching as she continued.
“The kids were screaming, and the dad just kept telling them to be quiet. Something just didn’t seem right to me. That’s all it was… a gut instinct. I followed the detective around, watching as he looked at the evidence and then collected some in glass jars. I didn’t want to bother him, but he allowed me to ask questions and was really patient and explained things to me. As it turned out, the dad had set the garage on fire hoping to get insurance money, and instead, the whole house had gone up in flames.”
Sean shook his head, having seen the same thing happen multiple times. “Is that why you went into fire examination?”
Giving his hand a little squeeze, she nodded. “I talked to my boss and found out about becoming certified as an evidence collection technician. It didn’t take very long for me to obtain that and then I took more classes on fire investigation and now I’m almost finished. I was never very good at chemistry but thank goodness for the lab technician I use because he’s explained a lot to me.”
She glanced down as though just realizing their hands were held together on the tabletop and blushed deeper as she released his fingers. In the process, his fingertips glided over the scars on the back of her hand and she caught his heavy gaze. “You’re probably wondering if this injury has something to do with my chosen career.” She shook her head, saying, “This was from years ago. When I was in high school I worked part-time in a small restaurant. There was a grease fire that destroyed the whole building. I was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I can’t imagine how painful that was. Or the rehab. I have a few former buddies who were burned while serving, and I know rehab is a bitch.”
“It wasn’t easy, but once I gained finger mobility again, I knew it would be okay.” She licked her lips, gazing down at her hand and wiggling her fingers. “I know people look at my burn scars and assume