Chapter 5
FIVE
KALEO
There was something to be said for something sweet to make things feel better.
In his case it was the woman sitting across from him at the table.
Kandi's Cones was a color explosion when it came to decorations.
The only things that were white were the bare bones of the place.
The base counter, the tables and the structure of the chairs.
The cushions on the bench seats and the cushions of the retro diner chairs were all bright colors, just a little short of neon.
The walls were covered in Pop Artwork depicting the menu in the ice cream parlor.
It was a riot of color and Lexie was loving it. Her eyes were moving over all of the artwork and the window displays.
And he was watching her.
"If I could live off of ice cream," she put another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and mumbled around it, "I would."
He chuckled a little and looked down at his cup of ice cream wondering how he was going to work off all of the calories. He still had to find a gym to join. He was waiting to see where he was going to live first.
"Uh oh..."
He looked up to see Lexie looking at him, concerned.
"How did things go at the CCFD headquarters?"
He managed half a smile for her.
There is a forum on the internal website where we sign up for training. I looked at all of the posts in there, but they're all filled. I added my own, but there haven't been many hires since the last updated post. I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep looking."
Lexie's shoulders slumped a little and he felt bad for bringing her down.
"Don't worry about me. You're all ready for the exam, right?"
She brightened, a little impish smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Yeah. I'm ready." She scooped up another spoon of ice cream and swiftly ate it off the spoon.
"This is where I've always seen myself, you know?
Helping people?" He moved the ice cream in her bowl around, sweeping up some of the toppings along with it.
"My grandma used to watch General Hospital when I was over at her house.
And when the TV was on, we always watched medical dramas.
" She tilted her head to the side, a thoughtful look on her face.
"I wonder if they were low-key trying to condition me to be a doctor. "
Kaleo smiled at her thoughts. "Maybe. Did you ever think about becoming a doctor?"
Lexie gave it a moment of thought and then shook her head. "No. I like nursing. I like the people. The patients. The whole... kit and caboodle."
He took another bite. "I can see how excited you are about it.
I kind of feel the same way about firefighting.
When I was in school, we had a field trip to a fire station near our school.
Most of the other kids wanted to sit in the driver's seat of the rig or turn on the siren.
I wanted to operate the firehose. Then they showed us the 'jaws of life' and the power saws. "
Lexie snorted a laugh and raised a hand to cover her mouth.
"What?" He couldn't help but start to chuckle right along with her. "What's so funny?"
She coughed to clear her throat and leaned in toward him. "I can tell how excited you are about that memory. It definitely made an impression on you."
He nodded. "I still get excited when I get to take out the equipment to clean it. Some of the guys I worked with would groan and gripe about cleaning and maintenance, but anytime I get to put my hands on the equipment? I’m good.”
He saw her mouth tuning up in a smile around her spoon.
“What’s that smile for?”
She nearly choked at the question, but when she freed the spoon and put it back in the cup, she met his gaze with a sparkle in her eye.
“You said when you put your hands on the equipment…”
She smiled again, but looked down, hiding her expression.
“Sorry…”
He shook his head and laughed out loud. “I’ve never thought of it like that, but I can see how that sounds.”
Lexie’s smile brightened but she still didn’t look directly at him.
“I read a lot of romance books, and the equipment jokes abound!”
“I bet.”
He took another bite of his ice cream.
“What kind of romances do you like to read? My whole family is basically my mom, my aunt, my sister and a bunch of cousins, mostly female. They all read romance.”
Her hand slowed where it had almost been whipping her ice cream back into a liquid form.
“Really?”
He chuckled but admitted the truth. “Really. They read all kinds of romance books, but I had to say no to them reading ones about firefighters. It made their visits to the station… interesting.”
She brought up her hand to cough again but he saw her looking at him over her hand. “Did you family visit a lot?”
He laughed more. “Too much. And not to visit me. A few of the guys looked like some of the cover models. They said it was fine with them, but it made me a little…”
Kaleo shuddered at the thought and Lexie laughed again.
He joined her a moment later.
Talking with her, spending time with her, might just be the best thing about moving to Center City.
LEXIE
It was a shame that they had to leave the ice cream shop when they did, but Lexie knew she had to go back to her apartment and get some sleep.
Tomorrow was the exam and instead of going to Herald Medical College for classes, she was headed to one of the conference rooms at Cole Medical for the exam.
Students from all over the city would be there to take the exam. She was excited, but there was also an undercurrent of fear.
Sure, she knew her stuff, but there was always a chance.
"Hey."
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned.
Kaleo had stopped her. She'd been lost in her thoughts. "Sorry. I'm not good company at the moment."
He didn't nod or shake his head. He just looked at her.
His gaze was... warm. Caring.
It felt good.
She felt him rub her shoulder and she leaned into his touch. "You keep that up," she felt her cheeks heat up but where they were standing, with the streetlight behind them, he probably couldn't see her cheeks color.
"I'm not complaining." Kaleo's words were soft, but she could easily hear them.
He smiled and she felt her whole heart swell in her chest.
"I could tell you've got a lot of thoughts in your head, but I had to stop you."
She frowned a little at that.
"You would have missed your apartment."
'I would have...'
Startled, she looked up to where he was pointing and saw that they were, indeed, standing in front of her apartment building.
She laughed softly, her shoulders shaking. "I'm glad you were here with me, or I would have kept walking." Lexie looked further down the street from where they were standing. "A few more blocks and I would have been on a main street."
"I get it."
She turned back to look at him and was happy to see that the streetlamp gave her a chance to see part of his face. He was handsome in the light. In half-dark, he had an air of mystery that made her warm all over.
"You have a lot going on in your head." He looked down at the watch on his wrist. "You've got the test tomorrow. I'll walk you to your door."
Lexie reached up a hand and touched his arm. "You don't have to."
He covered her hand with his, warming it against his arm. "My mom and my aunts raised me to be a gentleman."
Lexie had mixed feelings about that.
He was definitely a gentleman.
There was no arguing about that fact.
Was it bad that she wanted him to walk her to her door for another reason?
She shook her head to clear it.
She had a test tomorrow and he'd just moved to Center City, this was not the time to worry about dating someone.
Smiling, because she meant it, she walked up the sidewalk toward the front door of her apartment building.
"Oh," she looked at him walking at her side, "what are you doing tomorrow?"
His smile deepened as they reached the light from the entryway. "I'm actually headed in to work. The floater they had is sick. So I got a call from Faust, he's the leader of the Rescue Crew at Twenty-nine. He asked if I could start. Tomorrow."
She smiled at him. "Looks like we're both busy tomorrow."
"Well," he shrugged a little, "tomorrow and overnight."
She nodded even though she felt a strange pang of disappointment.
Lexie opened her mouth to say... something, but nothing came out.
What could she say?
He had the job that he moved to Center City for, and she had a test that she'd been working toward for two years.
When they stopped at the door, Lexie reached into her pocket for her keys.
On her own, she would have had her keys in her hand, poking through between her fingers. It wasn't a foolproof way to discourage people from coming up to her, but it gave her some sense of security.
"I was wondering..."
Lexie slipped the key into the lock and turned. "Hmm?"
"I know this might not be the right time for this-"
She turned to look at him, worried at what he was about to say.
He bit into his bottom lip, and she felt her heart skip a little in her chest.
"I don't even have a stable place to live in town yet, but I'd like to take you out sometime this week."
She opened her mouth to answer but he had more to say.
"I don't know what my schedule will be like with work. Firefighters have a long schedule."
She nodded, knowing just what he meant. "I'll be shadowing at the Emergency Room for a few shifts while we wait for my test scores to be confirmed. So, it might be a little crazy schedule-wise for both of us. But, I believe there'll be a way for us to figure something out."
"Yeah?" He grinned at her. "Good. Really good."
She agreed with him, but before she could figure out what to say, he leaned in and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
He wasn't in a rush.
And he didn't hold onto her too tightly.
If she hadn't wanted him to hold her, she could have easily escaped from it.
But she didn't want to escape.
She wrapped her arms around him and leaned into his embrace.
"Get some sleep."