The Problem with Fire - M.E. Clayton Page 0,7

I liked the woman well enough, I knew she wanted more with me, and I just wasn’t interested. Plus, I was so determined to have Monroe, I limited the amount of time I spent socializing with Kerry because I didn’t want there to be any hint of gossip where she and I were concerned. And I certainly didn’t want to lead her on or give her any false hope.

“Well, that was odd,” Kerry remarked. “But then, I supposed working as hard as she does, and trying to raise a teenage girl, would make anyone have strange days, every now and again.”

I didn’t want to gossip about Monroe, but Kerry wasn’t exactly gossiping about her or being mean. She was just remarking on Monroe’s quirky personality. “We all have tough days,” I agreed.

Kerry leaned forward enough to make me lean back and get back to fake washing my car, but that didn’t deter her. “You know, next month is our annual neighborhood barbecue to kick off the summer,” she said. “It would be great if you could join.”

I twisted the nozzle on the water hose to, you know, conserve water and save the planet, while we spoke. “Thanks for the invite,” I replied. “Summer’s kind of hard for us, though. With all the fires that pop off during the hot months, we’re usually pretty busy. Even if it falls on my days off, we’re always on call during the summer.”

“That’s a shame,” she hummed. “It would have been a nice way for you to meet everyone.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” I told her. “No promises, though.”

She grinned, pleased with herself, but then, she giggled a bit. “Don’t say anything, but I’m actually going to invite a distributor I work with to the barbecue.” Oh, that’s nice. She’s finally got a man. “I think he’d be perfect for Monroe.” What?! “He’s forty-five with these beautiful bedroom eyes,” she went on. “He owns his own brand manufacturing business, and he’s single.”

“When’s the barbecue, exactly?” No fucking way was I not going to be there.

“June twelfth,” she supplied. “We always strive for the week after graduations.”

I quickly counted the days in my head. Having a rotating schedule the way we did, we all pretty much knew our days off in advance. It was the only way to plan a life around what we did. And after my rapid mind count, I knew I was going to have that Saturday off.

Thank you, Jesus.

“You know, I think I might have that day off,” I said, then quickly realized she might think I was going for her. “You’re right that I should probably use this opportunity to meet all the other neighbors.”

“Well, it’s always a good time,” she replied. “Hopefully, we’ll get to see you.”

I smiled. “Hopefully.” Hell yeah, you’re going to see me. If I haven’t sewn up Monroe by then, there’s no way some desperate, loser asshole was going to be rubbing up against Monroe.

But I suppose, to be fair, he probably wasn’t desperate just because he was single. And he couldn’t be much of a loser if he owned his own business. And even if he was just a hard-working stiff, he’d be far from a loser. And, granted, I didn’t know the guy, so it was possible he was a decent guy and not a total asshole. He might be cool as hell.

Fuck, she was making me crazy.

But before I could ask Kerry if she knew of a reputable psychiatrist, my phone started ringing. Because I had been playing with water, I had set it over on the porch railing, but I had made sure the ringer was on high, so I could hear it.

I jerked my head towards the porch. “I probably need to get that,” I told her.

Her face registered with a bit of disappointment. “Oh,” she mumbled. “Sure.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” I said before turning from her and heading to my porch. I grabbed the phone and walked over to the faucet to turn off the water hose altogether.

I glanced at the name flashing across the screen, I slid the icon over and answered. “Shouldn’t you be at practice or making stadiums go crazy or something?”

“You would think,” Nathan replied. “But nothing is more important than my mother’s happiness.”

I laughed. “Gideon?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “What’s up with that? I just talked to Mom when we landed in Chicago two days ago.”

“Mother’s Day is in a couple of weeks,” I said. “Maybe he’s feeling the pressure because we’ll both