A Firefighter in the Family. Trish Milburn
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so silky he wanted to touch it. Man, he had no right to make fun of Adam’s hormones with the way his reacted to Randi—despite their past and the reason she was back in Horizon Beach. She appeared oblivious to the reveling going on around her. Rather, she stared toward the Gulf, her forehead creased.
“Trying to figure out how to bust me?”
She turned her head to look at him. A moment passed before her look of concentration faded. “No.”
The simple answer, combined with her more casual attire and the appearance that her thoughts had been elsewhere, alleviated some of the tension knotted in his shoulders. She looked like just another bar customer, though normally such a beautiful woman wouldn’t be sitting alone.
“You’re not staking me out?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“So you are?”
“I didn’t say that either.” She raised her eyebrows, and the barest hint of a suppressed smile curved her lips.
Very nice, intensely kissable lips.
Snap out of it, Parker. You destroyed that path a long time ago.
“I don’t want you harassing my customers.”
“Have you seen me talking to any of them?” The semismile was gone, as if she’d remembered who he was and what he’d done to her.
He stared at her, trying to figure her out.
She pointed at the chair opposite her. “Have a seat.”
“I’m working.”
“And yet you had enough time to come over to talk to me.”
She didn’t miss a beat, damn it. He looked back toward the front of the bar. Suz did seem to have the flow of business under control. Maybe he could do some questioning of his own. He pulled out the chair and sank into it.
Randi scanned the crowd. “Looks like you’ve got a good business here.”
He examined her face, her eyes, looking for the hidden meaning. “Can’t complain.”
She turned back toward him and leaned forward, propping her forearms on the table. “Listen, whatever you might think, I’m not in the business of railroading people—no matter who they are. And I’m pretty good at figuring out who the real culprit is.”
Had she just insinuated she thought he was innocent?
“Are you always right?”
“As an investigator, so far, so good.”
He noted her qualifier but chose to ignore it. Instead, he glanced toward the water and saw Thor snoozing in the sand. “Guard dog or accelerant detection?”
“Both.”
“He find anything in the rubble?”
“Maybe. We’ll know for sure when I get the lab report.” She paused so long, Zac looked back toward her. “Why’d you give up being a firefighter?”
Hot anger hit him in the gut, as if his career—one he loved—had been stolen from him only yesterday instead of two years ago.
He snorted at her question. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No. Why would I be?” She leaned back in her chair and gave him a look of challenge. “I seem to remember being a firefighter meant more than anything to you.”
More than her. She didn’t say the words. She didn’t have to.
No matter what he’d done though, did she have to pretend?
“I wasn’t hot on the idea of working with people who didn’t have my back.”
She scrunched her forehead.
“You seriously don’t know?”
“Would I have asked you if I knew?” Irritation laced her words.
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear it from your brothers.”
She looked down, but not before he saw a shadow cloud her pale blue eyes. Only a moment passed before she raised her gaze and stared straight at him. “Must have slipped their minds.”
Were they still estranged, even after all this time? Why did he find that surprising? He knew how unyielding the Cooke men were.
He glanced out toward the tide and let the familiar story flow out like the waves, curious how she’d react. “You’d been gone about six months when we got a call to a house fire. Turned out it was the house of a woman I’d just broken up with. Hell, it wasn’t really even a breakup. We’d only gone out three or four times.”
“And it was arson and the finger pointed at you?”
Zac noticed the sound of disbelief in her voice.
“Yeah. Easy target. The ex. A firefighter who understands how to make a house burn quickly. Not a native.”
“All circumstantial evidence. What about the woman? What did she say?”
He snorted a mirthless half laugh. “Swore up and down I was trying to kill her. Only she wasn’t at home. Though she normally would have been asleep at that time. She worked nights.”
“Did the investigators have any actual hard evidence on their side?” she asked, all business.
The conversation wasn’t going how Zac had expected. Where was the finger-pointing? The animosity?
“At first. They found a can of gasoline and matches in my truck, and a ‘witness’ said she’d heard me threaten my ex.”
“Pretty damning evidence, and yet here you sit.” Randi looked down at her empty water bottle. “Why did your ex-girlfriend think you tried to kill her?”
“She was psychotic.”
“Really?” Her voice rose slightly in surprise.
“I don’t know if she’s been diagnosed, but it’s there. You don’t notice at first, but that’s why I broke it off.” That, and the fact it had just never felt right. Not like his time with Randi had.
“And she didn’t take it well.”
Damn, it was odd talking to Randi about another woman.
“Obviously not. She burned her own place and tried to pin it on me.”
She tilted her head a fraction. “They proved that?”
“Yeah.” He watched her face, trying to figure out if she thought someone had made a mistake and he really was guilty after all. Hell, he’d strap himself to a damn lie detector machine if it’d erase this new suspicion.
“How?” She didn’t sound accusatory, simply curious.
“She told a friend how she got the idea after reading about an unsolved arson in the newspaper, how she planted the evidence and got her coked-up neighbor to claim to be a witness to me threatening her. The friend told the police.”
“And you didn’t go back to the department after you were cleared?”
“My innocence didn’t matter to a lot of people, including your family.”
She crossed her arms and shifted in her seat. “They thought you did it?”
“They sure didn’t back me up. Can’t say I wanted to be best buddies after that.”
“Why did you stay in Horizon Beach?” She stared, unwavering, at him, her captivating blue eyes making his breath catch. How could he still be attracted to her after all this time? When she could put him through the hell of suspicion again? They weren’t even the same people they used to be. They didn’t know each other anymore. But his body didn’t seem to mind.
Randi was listening to him, wasn’t