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Who the hell dry-cleans tennis shoes?
But when he’d walked into her classroom, it kind of made sense. She’d traded her baseball hat and jeans for a very conservative, neutral colored shirt and skirt. The fact she could make loose-fitting clothing the dull color of leftover oatmeal sexy was impressive in itself, but finding out she was as responsive to his kiss when she was sober as when she’d been drunk…
“Interesting,” Jake said.
“Why? You get a new coloring book?”
Jake snorted. “I already have them all. You know that.”
Logan could bust his balls all he wanted, but Jake enjoyed spending time with the kids. They were fascinated by his gear and eager to learn. Especially the little ones. They were cute. He wasn’t cut out for being a dad, but getting to hang with them every now and again was fun.
Scratch that. He’d love to be a dad someday, but he refused to have kids if he wasn’t in a committed relationship with their mother. After his past, there was no way he’d bring a kid into the world without having both parents present in the home because he knew how much it sucked if they weren’t. So, as cool as it’d be to have a kid of his own, he knew it wasn’t in the cards for him.
Kids weren’t the problem. It was the serious relationship part that was never gonna happen. He’d learned that the hard way.
His sister, Jessa, had accused him of purposely avoiding relationships by dating women who’d never hold his interest longer than a night. She thought he was scared to let anyone get close because it was a risk.
That was rich. He wasn’t afraid of risk. He was a fireman, for fuck’s sake. Besides, it wasn’t a risk if you already knew the outcome.
“What was so interesting?” Logan asked.
Jake mentally shook his head to get his sister’s words out of it. “Remember the girl at Hannah’s?”
“Which girl? You’ve gotta give me more than that.”
“The one I danced with.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down, dude.”
“The one who asked me to dance.”
“Again…”
“The shy one,” Jake clarified. “In the baseball hat.”
“Oh.” Logan snickered. “You mean the one with the yellow hair who hurled on your shoes? How could I forget her?”
It’d be impossible.
Only, it had nothing to do with having to toss his shoes, and everything to do with the innocence he’d tasted in her kiss. Jake wasn’t used to that. It intrigued him… made him wonder what she didn’t know that he could teach her.
I’d kill to teach her.
“What about her?” Logan asked.
The question dragged Jake out of Laurel’s bed and dropped him back into the conversation. “She was the teacher.”
“At the school?”
“No, at the gas station, you moron.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“How’d she look? Was she wearing a tight skirt and librarian glasses?”
“She’s not a librarian. She’s a teacher.”
