Page 23 of Flash Freeze

“Nikki. Wow. It’s been a minute.” Flash slid the cheese into her basket. Catching up would be nice, but she needed to hit the bakery and produce before everything was gone. Still, she felt obligated to be polite. “How’ve you been? It’s been, what? Five years?”

“Something like that.” She batted luminous brown eyes at Flash. “I’m still tending bar, only I’m in a better establishment than the last one. Let me guess—you’re still a firefighter, probably with a promotion by now.”

“Guilty on both counts.”

A woman with a toddler in her cart and a bigger child in tow bumped Flash with her buggy. The ambient noise level had risen.

“Excuse me,” she said brusquely. “You’re blocking the cheese bin.”

Flash stepped away. The woman was rude, but clearly in crisis mode. Nikki, pushing her overloaded cart, followed. “Watch it, lady,” Nikki called over her shoulder. “It’s not the apocalypse, you know.”

Flash snickered. “Houston seems to think so.” She headed toward produce for the salad fixings.

“I mean, really,” Nikki muttered. “Someone says snow, and the whole city goes nuts.”

Flash glanced at her full cart.

“Yes, I know.” Nikki rolled her eyes. Flash had forgotten how cute she looked when she was embarrassed. “But you can see, everything is getting sold out. If I don’t load up now, there’s no telling when the shelves will be full again. Last time, it was almost two weeks before groceries were restocked. You don’t have much.”

“I eat half my meals at the firehouse,” she replied. Relieved to see the lettuce hadn’t vanished, she selected heads of iceberg and Romaine, then a few tomatoes. “This is for tonight.”

Nikki cocked her head at Flash. “Since when do you cook?”

“We all have to grow up sometime. Do you need produce while we’re here?”

“Sure.” Nikki grabbed a bag of apples and one of oranges.

Flash moved toward the bakery, having to stop and wait for Nikki’s cart to nab a clearing. “You married or something? Got kids?” Flash asked. “You’re buying enough for an army.”

“No, silly.” Nikki lightly swatted Flash’s arm. “I’m much too young to settle down. Most of this is for my grandpa. He had hip surgery and can’t get out to face this chaos, so I said I’d stock up for both of us. What about you?”

Her flirtatious smile brought back fond memories, but they were only that. Any spark that Nikki might wish to rekindle had long since burned out for Flash, drowned by the roaring inferno of emotions she held for Athena.

“Oh, yes,” she answered, unable to hide the glow. “Not married, no kids, but I’ve definitely found someone worth settling down for.”

Nikki’s enthusiasm waned. “That’s great,” she said, plastic smile in place. “I’m happy for you. Anyone I know?”

Finally arriving at the bakery department, Flash found the sandwich-bread shelves nearly bare, but a few fresh Italian loaves remained. She put one in her basket.

“I doubt it. She’s an FBI agent.”

“Wow.” Nikki looked honestly surprised. She plucked two loaves of whole wheat from a nearly bare shelf and set them atop her pile. “That’s a far cry from the old party crowd, hey?”

“Yep. I hope there’s a bottle of red left on the wine aisle,” Flash said, twisting her mouth in speculation. “I sure don’t want to go into another store today.”

“Let’s check it out.” Nikki pushed her cart out into traffic, cutting off a woman with enough Kleenex and cold remedies to open her own clinic.

“Excuse us,” Flash said as she slipped through the opening. The woman scowled and jabbered something in Spanish.

“The important thing is that we’re both happy,” Nikki said as they turned onto the spirits aisle. “You with your agent and me with my footloose, carefree life.”

Flash smiled. She was happy—happier than she’d been since … She selected a label Athena had mentioned liking.

“So, FYI, I haven’t changed my phone number,” Nikki said, “in case you still have it.”

“Mine’s been the same since I moved to Houston.”

“Good!” Nikki’s smile spread wide. “I might have to call it if I get trapped by the ice storm, so you can save me from freezing to death.”