The Heat Is On (Boston Five Book 1) (9 page)

Hayden nodded and smiled softly. “Well, as soon as that vein on his temple starts throbbing, you should watch out. And take away his gun.”

Alec guffawed at that. “I’ll make sure to remember that.”

Shane had constantly been at loggerheads with his old partner, so Hayden hoped he would get along better with Alec. So far, the friendly blond man seemed much more affable than the older detective Shane had been partnered with for the last year and a half. He also seemed much more sympathetic to Shane’s Irish temper. She was still studying him with a smile on her face when she asked, with the polite curiosity of a true Bostonian, “You still haven’t told me where you’re from.”

“I guess there wasn’t much time to properly introduce myself when we invaded your house and demolished your casserole and apple pie. I hope you weren’t too appalled by our intrusion.”

“You must not know Shane that well then.” Hayden shrugged. “He comes to raid my fridge on a regular basis.”

Alec grinned apologetically. “That may be the case, but I don’t normally go looting other people’s fridges, especially if I don’t even know their pretty owners yet.”

“That’s good to know.”

When his eyes stared briefly at her mouth, she felt herself become nervous. It wasn’t the tingling excitement you’d feel right before someone kissed you, or even the kind you feel when you discover a pair of really classy shoes on sale. It was more like the blank anxiety that would wash over you when the teacher caught you cheating on a test, or when you had to explain to your mother why you were hiding a box of condoms in your underwear drawer.

Thankfully, his eyes wandered back up to meet hers, as he asked, “Did you get that faucet fixed? If not, I could take a look at it now.”

She felt the heat rise in her face as she shook her head. “No,” she hastened to say. “No, the faucet is working just fine again. But thanks for the offer.”

He shrugged. “If there’s anything else I can help you with, just let me know.”

Hayden forced a noncommittal smile and hoped her pizza would be ready soon. Alec was a very nice guy, with a handsome face, but his unmistakable attempts at flirting were a little too much for a woman who had only ever kissed one man. A woman who was still grieving her broken engagement.

“But to get back to your initial question,” Alec went on, “I grew up in Kentucky. But I spent the last five years in the Seattle police force.”

She suppressed the tremor she could feel rising in her voice and asked in a neutral tone, “And what brought a Seattle cop to Boston?”

“Seattle lost its appeal when my girlfriend went to bed with half the squad,” he replied in a surprisingly calm voice.

“Oh.” Hayden blinked in embarrassment. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be.” He sounded amused. “After all, I’m not the one who no longer owns a non-shattered television.”

“If you say so,” she murmured, lowering her eyes.

“Listen, Hayden, I have no idea why Shane was behaving quite so territorial at your house before, but I’d really like to ask you out … for dinner, maybe?”

She swallowed, noticing the pizza chef’s too-tense stare at his computer screen. Was he merely interested in Alec’s story, or was he getting a kick out of the guy flirting with her? She couldn’t tell, but she didn’t want every resident of Charlestown talking about this encounter by tomorrow. Or worse—for Heath to hear about it. Even though they’d fought when she last saw him, it would make her deeply uncomfortable if he believed she’d immediately gone out with another man.

“That’s really very nice of you,” she began haltingly, not sure what to say next. Behind her, someone entered the restaurant, setting the bell over the door tinkling. A brief glance told her that the person who’d just come in to indulge an appetite for fattening food was none other than Father Brady. Closing her eyes, she sighed. Father Brady was easily the biggest gossip in all of Boston.

When she didn’t go on, Alec prodded her. “That’s very nice of me, but …?”

“But I’m not ready for a date or anything like that.”

“Oh.” He furrowed his brow. “May I ask why? Is it me, or …?”

Hayden’s shoulders drooped. “It isn’t you. I just don’t think it’d be a good idea. Shane is your partner and … and I was engaged to his brother.”

“But you aren’t engaged anymore?”

She shook her head silently.

“Good … I mean, good for me.” Alec gave her a sympathetic smile. “I wasn’t sure, after Shane’s theatrics. Tell you what, why don’t we meet for coffee instead? You shouldn’t see it as a date, just a good deed on your part.” He winked.

“A good deed?” she echoed with a quizzical smile.

“Yep. Because I hardly know a soul in Boston, apart from my bullheaded partner and dear Tony here,” he nodded at the observant pizza chef, “so you could tell me a little more about my new town over a cup of coffee. What do you say?”

She squirmed, fully aware of the curious glances both Tony and Father Brady had directed her way. The inquisitive eyes of the friendly detective were also still staring at her, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know …”

“Come on, Hayden.” Alec let out an exaggeratedly tortured sigh. “If you turn me down now, Tony’s pizza is going to taste like ash in my mouth, and then I’ll never be able to return to this place because of the awful memories involved. Next thing you know, I’ll starve to death in my kitchenless apartment. Is that what you want?”

Sure, he was funny, but she was in a quandary. She bit her lip as the priest chuckled behind her. The damage was already done, so she might as well have coffee with Alec.

She nodded. “Okay. One cup of coffee.”

He laughed excitedly. “Let’s make it two cups, so it’ll be worth it, once Shane gets wind of it.”

She didn’t care what
that
Fitzpatrick brother thought, but she didn’t say that aloud.

Thankfully her pizza was ready only a minute later, so she gave Alec her number and left. Back at the house, she still felt a little uncomfortable about her coffee date, but she forced herself to focus on getting things ready for a relaxed pizza dinner with Kayleigh. Just as she was about to turn on the TV, her friend barged into the house, throwing her bag into a corner.

“I had to shower three times! Three freaking times!” Kayleigh cried. “The first time, I was just about to leave, when a critically injured man was brought in. Arterial hemorrhage, and our chief resident was nowhere to be found, so I had to assist. Afterwards, I showered and changed, but as I was standing at the admissions desk signing a medical file, a little kid puked on me! As if that wasn’t enough for one day, I was then peed on. Someone
peed
on me! A homeless guy just couldn’t hold back any longer. God, what a day!” She flopped down on the couch and stretched her legs out. “Why didn’t I specialize in plastic surgery? I could be making new tits for frustrated rich ladies, right now or performing liposuction. Instead of wallowing in diarrhea and peeing hoboes. I could be making a shitload of money creating pretty new pussies …”

Hayden promptly choked on her wine. Sputtering and coughing, she choked out, “Dammit, Kayleigh!” The slightly sour wine burned her throat and sent the same sensation up her nose.

Kayleigh blinked at her in confusion, then shrugged, and slipped out of her shoes, before crossing her legs under her on the couch. “What do you think women want corrected these days?” She took the second wineglass, which Hayden handed her, still coughing. “Ironing out the wrinkles around your eyelids is so last season. Now everyone wants to look good down there, too.”

“Please,” Hayden pleaded, sinking onto the couch next to her friend. “No more details. You know I get sick when you talk about something as mundane as taking someone’s blood pressure.”

“You’re such a sissy.” Kayleigh grabbed a piece of pizza dripping melted cheese all over, with no consideration of either Hayden’s pretty couch or her own clothes. She devoured the slice in record time.

Hayden rolled her eyes, set her glass on the coffee table, and took a piece for herself. She placed it on a plate, however, which she balanced in her lap. Her friend was a cautionary tale: This was what happened when a girl had four brothers. Granted, Kayleigh could be a girly girl when she wanted to, painting her toenails pink and scouring the entire town for the perfect peep-toe shoes, but most of the time, that was not what Kayleigh wanted. Her job as a resident in the ER did nothing to alleviate her tendency to run her mouth like a truck driver, and hit like a bouncer.

“Just refrain from telling me about the abscess on the butt of that runaway grandpa again,” Hayden pleaded. “I’m starving, and I want to keep my appetite.”

“No worries,” Kayleigh mumbled around her mouthful of pizza. “I’m glad to be out of there. I don’t want to think about hospitals at all for … well, until my next shift.”

“That’s good to hear.” Hayden sighed and finally dug into her own piece. She uttered a soft, happy moan. “God, that is so good!”

“No need for blasphemy, girl. You know I grew up in a Catholic household.”

Hayden leaned back and relaxed, studying her best friend’s dark brown hair. “You’re about as Catholic as a pack of birth control pills, my dear.”

“Never say that to mom’s face.”

“Ellen knows full well what kind of rascal she raised.” Hayden laughed, thinking of the summer Kayleigh had volunteered on the campaign of a homosexual politician. The Fitzpatricks were anything but parochial, but her mom had drawn the line at taking her daughter to Sunday Mass in a t-shirt that said:
Jesus was single, had no kids, and lived with his parents. Today, that would be called gay
. Joe, on the other hand, had merely laughed loudly and treated his daughter to a beer.

The thought of Joe made the pizza suddenly taste like cardboard.

Hayden put the half-eaten piece back on her plate and set it down on the coffee table, before grabbing her wineglass and taking a large sip. Sometimes she asked herself what would have happened if Joe hadn’t died that day. It was clear that Heath was suffering over his father’s death, and she could guess that his breaking up with her was a consequence of that suffering and guilt. But because Heath was so abrasive and cold towards her, she had no chance of helping him see things in a different light. Her eyes were on the TV screen, but she didn’t register any of the stories on the news.

If Joe were still alive, she could have asked him for advice, instead of just racking her brain as she lay alone in bed.

“How was your day?” Kayleigh asked. “Did that bad kid do anything crazy?”

“He wasn’t even there today.” Hayden wet her lips.

Kayleigh chuckled around a mouthful and propped her feet up on the coffee table. She looked at Hayden, who was reminded of a hamster, looking at her stuffed cheeks. It was hard to understand what she was saying, and Hayden was waiting for crumbs to fall from her mouth. “Maybe he was kidnapped.”

“That isn’t funny.” Shaking her head, she handed her friend a napkin. “Nobody in their right mind would kidnap the little brat anyway.”

Kayleigh wiped her mouth and nodded merrily. “True. Same goes for the kid who puked on me today.”

“With your level of empathy, you should’ve taken a job in the morgue.”

“A very tempting idea sometimes.” Kayleigh nodded at her. “Have you heard from Heath?”

Hayden shook her head and picked up her plate again. That would at least give her something to do, so she didn’t have to answer any more questions.

“When I saw him at O’Reary’s, he was a total asshole.”

Hayden swallowed hastily and asked, “When did you see him there?”

“Three days ago. Didn’t I tell you?”

“No.” She frowned in annoyance. Three days ago, she’d faced him at the fire department, and she hadn’t heard anything since, neither about selling the house, nor about what to do with the car. She refused to chase after him, but she hated waiting for an answer. “What did he say?”

“The usual crap.” Kayleigh waved her hand dismissively. “When I asked him directly about the other women, he evaded the question. I don’t believe he really screwed anyone else, Hayden.”

She gasped in disbelief. “You marched into the pub and asked him whether he’d slept with other women?”

“Of course I did.” Kayleigh nodded as if that was the natural thing to do. “What is far more interesting, though, is that his right eyebrow was twitching like crazy when I suggested you could be seeing other men. You know what that means.”

It meant a warmth spread through her stomach, but she admonished herself immediately. She had to remain sensible and realistic. The familiar token of his jealousy probably didn’t mean anything. Maybe it had been a reflex, a matter of habit, or Kayleigh had imagined something that wasn’t even there.

“Maybe you should make him jealous on purpose.”

Hayden snorted. “We’re not in high school anymore. Your brother broke up with me, and no amount of flowers I send to my own address will change that.”

“Nonsense!” Suddenly excited, Kayleigh shifted on the couch to face Hayden directly. “Forget the damn flowers! We’re going to find a really hot dude and have you flirt with him right under Heath’s nose. Maybe a few wild make-out sessions are in order, too …”