Chapter 6
It was closing time at the Sand Bucket and Maeve had already pushed Chloe out the door a little early so she could lock up by herself.
The clean-up hour after they closed was a welcome break when they were swamped throughout the day.
It allowed her to get rid of whatever stress the day had caused.
She hated going home in a bundle of nerves.
Today however, her bundle of nerves would probably stick around since she was having her first date with Cole.
It was only ice cream, nothing major but being in such proximity with him for any length of time and she won’t be calm the rest of the night.
She’d had a huge infatuation with him from a far for a long time but now it was worse.
There was something about Cole, she couldn’t put her finger on it but it made her crazy.
Each time she’d been close, her nose caught an unbelievable aroma.
Probably sweat from him working out in the heat all day or maybe smoke from the fires had permeated his skin but whatever the scent, it made her hormones jump through the ceiling.
She’d never felt so disheveled about a guy before. It was kind of confusing.
Speaking of Cole, it was odd how she could sense him before she even turned toward the door. She knew when he was close and then she heard the bell ring. Maeve tried to be light-hearted however she was anything but. Her nerves were taking over.
“Hi Cole.”
“Hey Maeve, you changed clothes?”
“Oh yeah, I spilled meatball sauce on me after you left. I didn’t want to smell it all night. I always keep a change of clothes in the back office.” Boy but he was observant.
“Are you ready for some ice cream?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. I didn’t eat today so I’d have room for it”
“You didn’t eat? You’re gonna blow away woman.”
“Now don’t you start on me Cole; I am perfectly healthy and normal weight for my age and height.”
Who does he think he is to scold me on what I should and shouldn’t eat?
Cole held up his hands in mock surrender when he knew he’d been out of line.
“Okay, okay I give, I’m sorry. You’re an adult, and a pretty fine one at that. I’m no mother. I’ll stop.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I usually do eat, so don’t worry. Ice cream isn’t really on my daily meal plan though and sometimes I get tired of the food we serve.”
“Yeah, I didn’t really think about that. I bet it does get old day after day. I know I’ve only had the one sandwich but it was amazing so I’m sure the rest of your food is as well, just not something you want to eat after you’ve cooked all day.”
“Sometimes it does get old, but I usually make myself something that’s not on the menu when I need a change.”
“Well maybe you can cook something for me sometime, something not on the menu.” Then Cole motioned down the sidewalk toward the ice cream shop with a swing of his arm and a grin wide enough to skin a cat.
***
While walking along the beach, Cole and Maeve talked about all kinds of things while they tried to finish their cones before they melted.
Who knew they had so many similar interests and they’d laughed so hard when Cole dropped his cone in the sand.
After a while they stopped to relax on a park bench.
The discussion covered pretty much every inch of their childhood memories, surprised at the things they had in common.
He was from south Texas while she haled from the north and both of them had been raised on cattle ranches.
They sympathized equally about being only children as well.
Her parents were still working full time and living in the house she’d grown up in, but Cole’s father passed away a few years ago, and his mother moved to Florida to be with her sister. He said it’d been almost a year since he saw her.
“You should probably try to get over there to visit sometime, I bet she misses you.”
“I really need to. Work has been so crazy but maybe I’ll make a point to take some time off soon. I miss her.”
Several hours and a good portion of daylight had passed as they’d worked their way back toward the shop. When Cole’s cell rang, the tone let him know it was the fire station. Just as he answered, the station siren sounded, drowning out who was on the line.
“Hold on a second” he literally screamed into the phone.
They knew it was his night off so why the hell would they be calling him? It also wasn’t his night to be on call. They gathered their shoes and headed right to the station when they noticed discolored smoke coming from the same direction.
“Cole, look!” Maeve pointed in the direction of the station but the closer they got the worse it looked.
“Chief, what’s going on up there?” Cole was talking really fast in between the siren blasts. He was concerned; they didn’t usually call him for a fire on his off hours unless it was a big one and they needed all their manpower.
“Shit, you’re kidding, right? We’ll be right there.” Cole slammed his phone shut and stuffed it in his front pocket then grabbed Maeve’s hand and started to run.
“We need to hurry, now!”