Chapter 9 Running Into Each Other
RUNNING INTO EACH OTHER
Chance was at the table in the far corner setting everything up for the training tonight.
It wasn’t something he did often anymore. Not since he’d bought the pub, but the guy scheduled to do it had an emergency and he could get someone to cover his shift behind the bar.
He heard noise behind him and saw someone walking in for the course.
“Just find a place behind the manikins.”
There were ten people scheduled for training tonight. He’d had bigger groups in the past, but this should be fast. Maybe. Depended on how many questions were asked.
One by one, people walked into the room, some talking to him, others to the people next to them.
The last two came in together. Two women. One of them invaded his dreams more than he cared to admit.
Jocelyn’s eyes locked with his, her grin spreading slowly and he matched it without hesitation.
“What do you know,” he said. “Grab the last two spots.”
“We won’t be near each other, Jocelyn,” her friend said.
“You’re just in front of me. What’s the big deal?” Jocelyn said.
“I don’t want to be in front. You do it.”
Jocelyn rolled her eyes and moved to the front row. Closer to him.
“Now that we are all here, I’m Chance Drummond. I’m a firefighter with the Durham Fire Department and also a certified CPR and first aid trainer. How many people here have taken a CPR course before?”
There were two hands that went up. “Years ago,” one man said. “I need it for my job now.”
“People need it for many reasons. Their jobs are normally the most common. Some others just like to have that knowledge for friends and family members.”
He wondered why Jocelyn was taking it. Probably work.
“We’ll start with CPR, then move on to first aid. You’ll leave here with two certificates good for two years. In front of you is a manikin. Or as I like to call it, ‘Manni’.”
“So it’s a guy?” a young woman asked. “They don’t have women manikins?”
“It’s gender neutral,” he said. “Spell it any way you want. Gender means nothing when you’re saving a life.”
He continued and talked more about the signs of when someone was in distress, watching how many were paying attention.
Jocelyn was actually taking notes on the papers in front of her. He wasn’t surprised.
“Remember, the first thing you do is call nine-one-one. Or have someone else do it.”
He went through the steps of checking for blocked airways, chest compressions, and rescue breaths.
He watched the entire room, but his gaze returned to Jocelyn more than anyone else.
“Like this,” he said, getting next to her and putting his hands over hers to push down. “You can break a rib easily even if you’re careful.”
“Jocelyn is pretty tough. She can take anyone down in self-defense courses too,” her friend said.
He turned to look at her, caught her brown eyes laughing. “I’ve been known to. Got to stay on my game.”
“Something tells me you’re never off of it. Show it to me now,” he said.
He watched her hands pressing down, the muscles in her upper arms flashing. Not big, but a subtle definition that caught his eye.
She’d had workout clothes on the day he made his presence known at the fire call. Guess it wasn’t just for comfort.
He got up and moved around the room some more. When they were done with the CPR, he went through basic first aid. Wound care, burns, cuts, and lastly choking.
“We are going to take turns on the Heimlich maneuver. I’m going to do it to you, you’re going to do it to me. Where to put your hand placement. Unless of course you’re not comfortable with that.”
He’d had some in the past not be.
He put his hand out for Jocelyn to go first. Why not? He had to do it with her anyway, might as well start his night out right.
She stood up, he got behind her, trying not to inhale the floral scent that he hoped would follow him into the night.
Not strong, but intoxicating just the same.
“Make a fist with your hand; thumb side goes on the abdomen, above the belly button, but below the ribcage.” He made a fist with his right hand, put it on her belly like he described.
“Grab your fist with your other hand and give an upward thrust. Here, we are doing it gently. No reason to hurt anyone, just get the action down.”
He did the movement slightly. He’d had people do it to him before and lift him up. A woman once tried to flirt with him. She’d knocked the breath right out of him.
Major turnoff there trying to show off.
Not that he was interested to begin with, but still. He stressed not to do that.
He looked down at Jocelyn. “Okay?” he asked.
She turned her head, their faces just inches apart. Closer than he’d do with anyone else. “Yeah,” she said, her grin spreading. “My turn.”
He let go of her and stepped back. She moved behind him. She was a good foot shorter than him, her face against his back, but she could reach around and execute it, then returned in front of him.
“Very good,” he said.
He went around the room to everyone else, his ear half listening to Jocelyn’s friend laughing and whispering loudly.
He saw the pink hue on Jocelyn’s face but ignored it.
When the class was done, he sent the paper around.
“Make sure your name and email address are correct and clearly written. You’ll get an email in the next twenty-four hours, so check your spam if you don’t see it.
Just fill out the prompts, and we will send your certificate electronically or physically, depending on your choice. ”
“I’ll talk to you later, Jocelyn.”
He expected her to leave with her friend, not linger around as the last person.
“You know,” she said when the two of them were alone, “I’m wondering if all you do is work. Fireman, code enforcer, bar owner, CPR instructor. Do you even have a personal life?”
He leaned against the table, his ankles crossed in front of him.
“It’s all built over the years,” he said. “I haven’t done the training in a while but filled in for a guy last minute.”
“When my friend asked me to come with her, I looked it up online and what do I see? Your name as the instructor for the night,” she said.
“So you only came to see me again?”
“That was the driving force. Problem with it?”
“It’d be stupid for me to say that I did.”
“And we know you’re smarter than you want people to believe.”
“That’s right. And on Friday, you sought me out.”
He wanted her to admit that too.
“I did.”
“What was your reason?”
“Do I need one to get another look at you?”
“Is Jocelyn McCarthy flirting with me?”
“Obviously not that well if you need to ask,” she said drily.
“Just never thought I’d see the day.”
“Could be you didn’t open your eyes enough.”
He closed one at her now. She’d always been in your face with her words and he was glad to know not much had changed.
“No way you’d have wanted any part of me years ago. I’m trying to figure out why you do now. Or maybe I’m not the lowlife troublemaker that I was back then.”
Her smile dropped. “I never thought you were a lowlife, Chance.”
“Just a troublemaker.”
She laughed. “Considering the time you spent in the principal’s office, detention and suspended, I think it was a fair assessment.”
“People see what they want. The minute you get in trouble once, you’re always being pulled into the lineup.”
He’d taken the blame—and the punishment—for a lot of things in his life, stuff anyone with a better name or a little more privilege would’ve fought back on.
“Doesn’t seem to me you’re in that lineup much now,” she said.
“Perception.”
He moved to pack up and bring everything to his car. He’d return it to the fire department in the morning when he went in for his shift.
“Do you ever get any time off?”
“Yes,” he said. “If I make the time.”
She nodded and walked around to pick up the manikins with him. He could tell her no, but she’d do her own thing like she always did.
He didn’t mind the company either.
“How often are you at the fire department?”
“Every other day for a twenty-four-hour shift for nine days. Then I get six days off.”
“And those six days you’re working at the bar?”
“Usually,” he said. “Unless I’ve got a reason to take a night off. What about you?”
“I get nights and weekends off,” she said. “But I go in early and stay late. Depends what is going on.”
He didn’t think she’d be the type to take shortcuts or the easy way out of work just because it was a family-owned business.
She was putting the manikins in the bag with him, then gathering the rest of the stuff.
He picked the bag up over his shoulder to carry. It wasn’t heavy, just awkward.
“Is there a reason you wanted to know?”
She shrugged. “Just curious.”
“Oh,” he said. “I thought maybe you were hinting at me to ask you out.”
“Boy, you’re a smart one.”
He laughed. “You really want to go out with me on a date?”
“Do you need me to ask you so you believe it?”
“Sure,” he said. He didn’t remember the last time a woman had asked him for a date.
To her bed? A night of fun? Yeah, that happened. But not an actual date.
Been a while since he’d had one himself.
She snorted. “Chance, would you like to go to dinner sometime?”
“I’d like that,” he said. “Do you want to be seen in public with me?”
She frowned. “Don’t do that. It’s a major turnoff.”
He leaned down close to her like he’d been earlier when they were practicing the Heimlich maneuver.
“Nothing you can do will turn me off,” he whispered against her cheek.
“But in this case, I meant it more like you’re well known and I feel you don’t like to be seen out with a man until you’re ready. ”
Her head went side to side, telling him he was right on that call.
Showing up at his bar for a drink wasn’t anything. Talking to him here was not either.
But a dinner with the two of them at a table alone, she could be noticed.
“You’re not wrong,” she said. “Since you know where I live and have been in my building—maybe even at my door—how about I cook you dinner one night? We can talk. Catch up on our lives.”
“You know just about everything in my life,” he said.
“I doubt anyone knows it all,” she said. “Give me your phone.”
He dropped the bag by the door, pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over after he unlocked it.
He heard her phone buzz in her purse and assumed she’d sent herself a text from his.
“Did you put it in my contacts?”
“Nope. You can do that. Maybe you’ll want to call me something other than my name. You know, like Princess.”
He stared at her for a minute, then it hit him. “Damn. You remember that?”
“I don’t forget much,” she said.
He flipped the light and walked out with her. No way was he letting her go with that statement like she’d done the other night.
“You like to have the last word, don’t you?”
Someone else would lock the community center where the training was held.
“Comes from having two brothers,” she said.
Which reminded him, he knew her brother Gabe and her father, Jim. He’d known them for a few years. Even knew the situation behind the buildings her family owned with the Fierces, Kennedys, and Olsons.
He’d met them all at one point or another.
She had deep roots in this area. Or was connected to many that did.
All the more reason she might not be one of those people who liked to be seen out on a random date.
It’s not as if he was going to assume it was anything more than that.
“Then the next step is in your hands since you seem to make more of them. Or don’t you like that?”
Her eyes glazed over as if she was in deep thought. Or troubled thoughts.
“This one is yours. You’ve got a tighter schedule than I do. I’ll make myself available if you can.”
He smiled. “I like a woman who is flexible.”
“In more ways than one. Got it,” she said, laughing.
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“But you were thinking it,” she said, her eyes looking him over. Beneath the bright parking lot lights, her every move sent a rush of heat through him, lighting him up from the inside out.
“Nothing wrong with a thought.”
“No,” she said. “There isn’t. As long as it’s not harmful. Have a good night, Chance.”
“Where are you parked?” he asked. He wasn’t going to let her go out there alone.
“Right there,” she said, pointing to the black Mercedes sedan. No surprise there. A fancy car for a fancy woman. Modern and classy, even if she was looking casual. No one would ever say he was classy.
“Go on then. Have a good night too.”
“It can go both ways. Where are you parked?”
He laughed. “The black mustang.” He was only a few away from her, so they both walked in the same direction.
“Damn, how old is that?”
“1970 Mustang Cobra. Rebuilt it myself.”
She threw her hands in the air. “I give up. You can do it all.”
He brought his lips inches from her ear. “And that is what you’re banking on.”
Her eyes got wide, she gulped, then got in her car without a word.
Finally, a round to him.