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“A few times,” he said. “It was a popular destination for a group of us when we were still in high school.”
“I wonder why our paths never crossed then,” she said.
“I went to Saint Mary’s,” he said.
“Oh, okay. I went to San Pasqual. I’m older than you, too.”
“Only by a year.”
He’d gone to fire academy right out of high school and had already worked a year.
“Do you mind it?” she asked.
“That you’re a little older? No. You don’t have to be older than someone to want her.” She watched the red creep up his neck and then a slow smile take over as he put the key in the ignition. “You’ll get no secrets from me.”
“Ha! Relief,” she said. “I hate secrets. So do you date a lot?”
“Not anymore,” he said, looking over at her. “You already told me you don’t, so I’m not going to either. There’s no need for it. I have what I want sitting right here next to me.”
He took her hand again, tempted to kiss it but held off, and she knew the effort he was making.
“Can we take it slow?” she asked, confirming it.
“You mean not jump into the sack? Yes. I won’t lie and say it will be easy, but I just want to be with you.”
“And I want to be with you. We’ll just run together all the time,” she added as he moaned in despair, teasing her.
“What about work? Are you okay if we work the same shift?”
“I guess so if it can happen without any intervention.”
“I’ll have to ask Charlie.”
“Oh, please don’t,” Geri said softly. “Let’s just let it happen. It might be too distracting for us to always be working together anyway.”
“I guess the holidays will screw it up. I worked last year, all three holidays.”
“Well, there you go. Let’s just take it a day at a time. If we start looking too far in advance, I’ll get nervous.”
“Don’t get nervous, girl.” He gave in and brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, his whiskers tantalizing her so that the same thing happened with the electricity, but this time it landed between her legs.
“I can’t wait to get out for a run.”
“Gotcha,” he said, giggling and giving her her hand back.
They arrived at her apartment and prepared for the run around town. He had long athletic shorts, the kind they slept in at the firehouse, in his bag, and those with a long-sleeved T-shirt were fine for a run.
“You’re all ready,” she said.
“They’re my jammies in case I sleep over.”
“Okay, well, I can wash them for you,” she said.
“Lead the way,” Jake said, and she took off with him following behind her.
In spite of his declaration that she was in better shape than he was, he kept up just fine, and after an hour they returned to her apartment.
“Next time, we’ll go by your parents’ house and do the trails. This area is sketchy after dark, with homeless people and drug deals out in the open.”
