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“That wasn’t very nice,” Faith snapped.
“I guess I must have,” Paul answered. “Like I said, time to shop.”
“I have to go into Temecula tomorrow,” Faith said. “Want to come along?”
“Can I let you know? I’m expecting company tomorrow. The cabin at Firehouse Ranch is a big draw for city folk. When I lived in Fallbrook, no one ever came to see me.”
Drinking coffee in silence, Faith got the feeling trying to pursue Paul Saint might be a losing proposition. But then the rattle of a high-performance engine got their attention as Danny pulled into the driveway in his Corvette.
“Wow, nice car,” Karin said as they huddled at the door, waiting for him to get out.
Watching brawny Danny Ferguson unfold his body from the low car, Faith decided maybe she’d give the evening a second chance after all.
Amused watching the women vie for his buddy’s attention, Paul gave a sigh of relief. He was off the hook for the time being.
Chapter 3
Friday morning the part-time brush-clearing crew met at Fire Station #20. The crew leader for the day was firefighter Paul Saint.
“Thank you for showing up to work. We have a pretty long list of properties to clear today. We’ll start at the furthest and work our way in. We’re doing everything by hand with weed whips. So pile in and let’s head out.”
The battalion chief gave them his SUV to take so the crew didn’t have to ride in the back of the pickup truck. Seven crew members climbed into the big vehicle while Danny drove the pickup with the equipment in the payload.
The conversation on the way was interesting among the wide spectrum of workers. Paul noted that they had two retired Marines, a rancher, a retired pharmacist, a retired science teacher, a preacher, and a kindergarten teacher.
Once everyone was engaged, Danny came over to Paul to thank him. “I had a great day with your neighbors. You’re one lucky man.”
“I’ll let you know when they invite themselves again. You saved the day.”
“Buddy, you don’t know how lucky you are!”
After they labored at the first site, exhausted, hot and sweaty, the workers continued their conversation on the way to the next site.
“Everyone’s trying to make a little extra cash this summer,” the rancher said. “I don’t have to feed any livestock now that we have so much green growth. Later in the summer when that dries up, it will be a different story. But for now, I’m free to work.”
“Since I worked full time last summer, I wanted to take it easy this summer,” the schoolteacher said.
“Well, you really blew that,” they chorused, laughing. “Throwing that weed whip around isn’t exactly easy.”
“I’m Emily Porter, by the way. You’re all invited to my place to swim after this. I think we’ll need it.”
“I should have brought my suit,” they chorused.
“Plan on it for Monday,” she said.
“Aw, I don’t work next Monday,” Paul said, grinning. “I was looking forward to a dip, too. But I can’t swim while I’m working. I can just see me in the water when an alarm goes off.”
They laughed with him, imagining the firefighter trying to get to a fire in his swimming trunks.
“You’re welcome to swim on your days off. Bring your family. It will be fun.”
He looked at her in the rearview mirror, catching her big eyes. “Thank you, Emily Porter. I might take you up on that.”
They arrived at the next site and got busy right away. After Emily had gotten his interest regarding the swimming party, Paul couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was beautiful and sexy, even in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, the prescribed work uniform so their arms and legs didn’t get scratched up. Her white blond hair was long; he could see that by a few strands that had worked their way out of the knot she had on the back of her head. Huge green eyes flashed every time she smiled.
But it was her body that he had to remind himself was inappropriate upon which to stare. She was what they called full figured, but he loved that body type. Curvy was another term, the opposite of straight. Bethany wastall and thin and had had breast augmentation surgery, but she didn’t have an ounce of body fat, nothing to soften her bones, and the memory of her hips digging into his belly made him cringe.
Nope, he wanted to see Emily Porter in a bathing suit, visualizing the origin of her round thighs.Not so fast, buddy. And the only way that was going to happen was to ask her out, at least to her house to swim. When he had the chance, he joined her with his weed whip.
