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His smile fades and his playful eyes turn serious. “You’re a threat, Wilder. Don’t you worry about that.”
For a long moment there’s only silence between us and the warm air around us seems to ripple with something that I can’t quite identify. I only know that it’s enticing and a little frightening at the same time.
Somehow, I think I was more comfortable when we were enemies.
A thought tickles my mind, like there’s something else we should do.
And then I realize what it is.
I stand up quickly. “We need to talk to the Mayor!”
16
JEREMY
“Your brother?” I ask, confused. “Yeah, we agreed we’re going to email the council—”
She shakes her head. “No, Bill Mayer, who runs the Out of This World General Store.”
I think for a moment. “The old guy who looks like Santa Claus?”
I went into Out of the World once shortly after I moved here. It’s a little grocery-slash-everything shop on the main drag, but the food is overpriced, and I didn’t need any of the UFO-themed tourist stuff, so I haven’t been back.
“That’s him,” Blaze replies. “His name is Bill Mayer and he really was mayor for like, twenty years, so now everyone just calls him Mayor.”
“But he’s not mayor anymore?” I confirm. As far as I know, he’s not involved with the town council at all.
“No, but he’s still very influential. If we could get him to write an op-ed for the paper or something, people would listen, and since it would be coming from him, not from one of us, it won’t seem like we’re just whining about the competition. Best part is that he was the one who came up with the idea that all the stores in the center of town should be local. In fact, it was him who really turned the town into a tourist destination and got the economy moving again. He hates chain stores, says they’ll destroy the character of the town, and that’s what brings people here in the first place.”
“And here I thought it was the aliens,” I muse.
“Them too. He was one of the first people to spot a flying saucer.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket and checks the time, her blue eyes sparkling and her face glowing with excitement. She looks even prettier than she did a minute ago. “You want to go down there and talk to him now? It’ll be closing soon.”
Even if a flying-saucer spotting former mayor wasn’t on offer, I’d still jump at the chance to hang out with Blaze a little longer. I put the book on the side table and stand up.
“Let’s go, Miss Wilder.”
* * *
There’s something about working with Blaze, not against her, that fills up an empty space in me.
It’s kind of like working with a group of my men to put out a fire. Even in a terrible situation, there’s something exhilarating about being part of a team, especially a team that’s working toward an important goal. It’s probably why I’ve stuck with firefighting all my life, despite the stress and the danger and the mediocre pay. Yes, I love knowing that I’m helping people, but if I’m honest, it’s the working together, knowing that someone else shares your experience, that’s the real draw.
Of course, I’d love it if there was never another life-threatening fire, ever. But as long as there are fires and other emergencies, I’m thrilled to work with my team to put them out.
And that’s sort of how I feel walking down the sun-dappled street with Blaze as we head into town. Except this team is just the two of us.
Did I ever feel like this with Christine? When we got our apartment, maybe. We were excited about moving in together and starting a life, but looking back, I wonder if she was more excited about the idea than the reality. She loved decorating and throwing parties, and I sat back and let her because it made her happy, but those weren’t really my things.
I wanted a house and kids, and while Christine said she wanted those things, I realize now that we never talked about them much. We never talked about saving for a house or how many kids we wanted, or what we each really wanted out of life.
Maybe the credit cards and the lying and, I later found out, the cheating, were just the most obvious problems. Deep down, I wonder if the real issue was that we were living parallel lives that never merged, not at the deepest, most important levels, anyway.
“What’re you thinking about, Chief?” Blaze glances sideways at me as we round the corner into the shopping district.
A little heat crawls up my neck. I don’t want to tell her that I was thinking about my ex. “I was thinking it’s nice not being enemies with you, Miss Wilder—even if it’s only temporary.”
“I thought you didn’t think of me as your enemy anyway.” She sounds a little prim, and I wonder if I’ve hurt her feelings by bringing it up.
