Chapter 5
FIVE
MELISSA
I woke up to a message from Aspen on my cellphone. I never gave him my number, but he does have that list with all of people's information when he went to evacuate everyone off my side of the mountain.
Aspen: Good morning. Did you have a good night's sleep? I have to do more grunt work today and was wondering if you wanted to go with me. It's boring work, just checking on some folks again and maybe we can stop by your cabin and I can fix that door for you.
That makes me perk up and I rush to text him my response.
Me: I'm totally in! I can be ready in thirty minutes.
Aspen: That's great. Don't have breakfast, we can have it before we head out.
Me: Perfect.
I jump off the bed, eager to get showered and dressed. When I catch myself in the mirror, I remind myself that I've only known this hot firefighter for one day and I spent half of it mad at him. Boy am I in trouble. I like him way too much and I promise myself to play it cool when I'm with him.
With that decision made, I run through my morning routine, though a little bit rushed because I said thirty minutes so he wouldn't think I was a diva. When I leave my room I find Vivian having her morning breakfast in the dining room.
"Hi Vivian. Aspen is going to pick me up so we can go do some welfare checks again. Do you need anything?"
"Nothing for me. Don't you want to eat something before you leave?"
"Aspen and I are getting something before we head out."
"Aspen, is it?"
I have the decency to blush profusely as a result of her tone. She's implying there's more going on between us and I can't really deny it.
"Do you know much about him?"
"I mostly mingle with his grandparents. They think the world of him, as grandparents tend to do."
"Any good bits that might give me the upper hand?"
She laughs at that as if it was the funniest thing she had heard of in ages.
"You'll have to discover those things yourself, dear."
"Okay, I'm going to wait for him outside."
"You'll do no such thing. Wait until he gets here and comes to get you."
"This isn't the fifties, Vivian."
"Trust me. You will thank me later."
So I spend the next ten minutes accompanying Vivian as she has her coffee and eggs. She starts trying to get me to agree to play gin with her and her sisters, but I've heard rumors that they cheat, so I'm not falling for that.
When I hear Aspen's truck arrive, I'm edgy and want to go outside, but Vivian puts her hand over mine.
"Let him be a man, dear."
Soon after, there's a knock on the door and I watch as Vivian gets up slowly from her seat while signaling for me to wait. I find it comforting that someone is interested in my well-being and relax a little. Then I hear her questioning Aspen at the door.
When I look their way, I catch Aspen trying to get a look at the inside of the house, as Vivian is barring the entrance. We lock gazes and he waves at me. Finally, Vivian turns and calls me and I take my cue and move towards the entrance.
"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."
We walk as a group towards the car, and I let the men lean over the engine.
I can see what they're doing from where I'm standing.
I'm almost sure I know what the problem is but am unsure about speaking up.
After ten minutes of the men discussing this and that –-none of which is close to what is going on-– I decide to chime in.
"Mr. Hannigan, I think you have a leak in your fuel line."
"How can you tell, lass?"
"The smell of gasoline, but also that humming noise the car made when you turned it on. Do you maybe have a clamp we can use to stop the leak?"
"I have some in my workshop. Let me go get them."
All this time Aspen is looking at me, interest in his features.
I try to ignore him as best as I can and get closer to check the rest of the engine.
When Mr. Hannigan brings out the clamps I find one that will do the trick and install it.
I have him turn on the engine and find that there's no more hissing sound and the car is not threatening to misfire.
Mrs. Hannigan hands me a towel so I can clean my hands and gives me a bag of what look like to be blueberry scones. I take it, mouth watering and wait while Aspen and his friend finish their conversation. We soon get back on the road and visit a couple more cabins.
As we're driving to the next cabin, I ask Aspen to pull over so we can have some of the scones.
"Thank you for stopping."
"You've been eyeing those ever since Harriet handed them to you, haven't you?"
"Guilty. I just hope they are as good as they look."
"They are, trust me. I've had Harriet's cooking."
"You guys seem close."
"They're like my second grandparents."
I open the container Harriet gave me and offer Aspen the goodies. He takes one and I take another. When I take a bite there's an explosion of flavor inside my mouth. These aren't just scones, they're little pieces of heaven.
Naturally, I start moaning with how good the scones are, and how happy I am to be eating them. I don't notice Aspen staring at me intently until I'm around my third bite.
"I'm sorry, these are really good." I say with my mouth half full of scone bits.
"I can tell."
He's incredibly still, like a predator waiting for his prey. I chastise myself for thinking like that and keep eating my scone. I secretly hope I can take the rest of them home with me. A pang goes through me as I realize my home is inaccessible to me right now.
"You said we could stop at my house? What happened to the fire?"
"Changed directions. We can go now if you'd like."
"Yes, thanks."
I finish the rest of my scone and close the lid of the container. I don't trust myself with such delicious goodies and I've already made a fool of myself in front of this hot devil. Suddenly, Aspen turns to me and leans my way.
"You've got something…"
His thumb brushes something near my mouth and the shock of his touch is electric.
I manage not to pull back because in reality I really want him to kiss me.
I gaze into his eyes and see the need there for a connection with me.
I want that connection too, so when he starts to pull back I lean forward and place a kiss on his lips.
His lips are soft and warm and they seem to fit perfectly against mine. He takes over the kiss easily and I let him, nervous that he'd think I'm too brazen. After a minute I realize I want to be brazen and start teasing his tongue with mine.
He growls at this and it makes my body respond with a shiver. Heat pools in my lower body and I press my legs together to have a little friction. Aspen is a gentleman, through and through and his hands don't veer from my face and my waist.
I don't know what comes over me but I maneuver myself so close to him that at the end I'm straddling him like he was mine to do with whatever I want. The kiss gets heated, and I can feel him growing hard beneath me.
My hands slide up and down his chest and I find that I'm purring with the pleasure such a simple task gives me. I'm about to take my top off when somewhere out there there's a car honking at us. I jump back into my seat and try to put myself back together again.
The man Aspen calls Phoenix knocks into the car's window and Aspen lowers it. They have a few words, which I did not pay attention too as I'm trying to look everywhere else but at him. After a moment he leaves and there's just me and my hot as hell firefighter.
"Jesus, Mel. You purr like a kitten when you're turned on."
I blush and give him a shy smile. That kiss was something else and I want more.
"Maybe we should go ahead to my cabin."
"Maybe we should."
I take a look at him and realize he looks really rattled and that excites me. It seems as if our kiss affected him as much as it did me and I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't been interrupted.