enough space.”
“It’s nice, Hannah.”
“Thank you.” Standing this close to him in the small washing area was sending her pulse racing. Especially since her mind had to go to that place where she remembered kissing him the other night. Clearly a huge mistake.
“Anyway, I came by to ask what you’re doing tomorrow.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“It’s Friday. I’m off shift. I thought maybe you might want to go out.”
“I promised Oliver I’d take him to the new movie.”
“The one with the fire truck? Come on, I’m dying to see that one.”
She cocked her head to the side. “It’s an animated movie, Kal.”
“And?”
She walked out of the laundry area, and Kal followed.
“You want to see a kid movie. With a seven-year-old.”
“Well, yeah. Doesn’t everyone love animated movies?”
“I do.”
Hannah swiveled toward Delilah, who shrugged. “Well, I do.”
“So do I,” Delilah’s client said. “My husband and I don’t even have kids and we love animated movies.”
“See?” Kal said. “Let’s go see the movie.”
She shook her head. “Fine.”
“Great. We’ll go get pizza first. I assume you have no objection to pizza.”
“Oliver loves pizza.”
“Who doesn’t?” Marguerite said, grinning.
“Great,” Kal said. “I gotta go. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Kal,” Delilah said.
Kal grinned and waved, and Hannah waved as well.
Once he left, Delilah said, “He is so damn hot.”
“I didn’t tell you I was seeing him.”
“I know that, but it was kinda obvious the minute he walked in the door. And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there’s nothing going on. We’re just friends from high school, and we reconnected at the reunion. Nothing’s going on between us.”
“She lies,” Marguerite said. “Tension was thick in here.”
“So thick,” Marguerite’s client said. “Like, we-need-to-turn-the-AC-down-in-here thick.”
Delilah laughed. “They’re right. He’s hot for you. And you’re hot for him. Face it, girl, there’s some boiling chemistry going on between the two of you.”
Delilah wasn’t lying about that. The whole salon had gotten steamy when he’d walked in. The man took up space with his presence. And that space ignited whenever he walked into the salon.
Whew. She was perspiring now.
The problem was, how was she going to keep her very astute seven-year-old son from noticing her interest in Kal?
Because just being next to Kal had a polarizing effect on her. Which meant she was going to have to work very hard to mentally and physically put Kal in the friend zone tomorrow night to avoid confusing Oliver. The last thing her son needed was to see her reaction whenever she was around Kal. And right now that reaction was chemical.
Baby steps. She liked Kal, and if she wanted things to progress with him, she had to take it slow.
With Kal. And with her son.
CHAPTER 8
KAL BROUGHT THE SUPPLIES BACK TO THE STATION, dodging the rain that was coming down harder now. He didn’t even mind. Not after his successful visit to see Hannah.
She’d looked so pretty with her hair piled on top of her head, that businesslike focus she’d given him as she showed him around her shop. She was so obviously proud of what she’d created there, as she should be. He’d been impressed.
She had a nice shop, and she worked with good people. He could see she was happy.
And, he had a date with her and with Oliver tomorrow night. It had all worked out, and he couldn’t wait to meet her son.
But now it was back to work, so he had to focus.
As one of the junior firefighters on the roster, it often fell to him to do the drudge work like supply runs and inventory. He put the supplies away, updated the inventory and took the report in to his lieutenant. Then he headed to the kitchen to grab some lunch—or what was left of lunch, anyway. They’d had tacos, and it looked as if a plague of locusts had run over the kitchen. Irish was just about to put the leftovers away when Kal walked in.
“You’re lucky anything is left,” Irish said. “But I managed to set a few aside for you.”
“Thanks, Irish.”
“Also, you’re on dishes.”
He shook his head. “Of course I am.”
He shoveled the tacos and rice into his mouth, then cleaned the kitchen, listening to the wind and rain pelt against the windows.
It had been pouring outside since he showed up for duty this morning, and it hadn’t let up yet. Station 38 had already been on three calls for car wrecks since shift started, one with some fairly bad injuries. It was going to be a hot mess today.
He’d checked in with Jackson and Rafe, and they said