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‘Fine. They’re being seen now.’ Jack reached into his pocket and took out her car keys. ‘Blue.’
‘Blue?’
‘When Sylvie was called in I nipped out and put your car through the car wash around the corner. Just in case you happened to be looking for it, it’s blue.’
She gave him a sweet smile, refusing to rise to the bait. ‘I’ll bear that in mind. Thanks.’
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Cass took off her coat and dropped it on the chair next to her.
‘You could at least ask.’
Jack smirked. He’d been determined that she would be the first
to break. ‘All right. How did you get here?’
‘I walked for about a mile and then I hitched a lift. On the mobility bus.’
Jack snorted with laughter. ‘The mobility bus? Didn’t they want to see your pensioner’s card before they let you on?’
‘No, they did not. I showed the firefighter’s ID card I have for home safety checks and cadged a lift.’
‘And said you were on your way to a fire?’ This was the first opportunity he’d had to sit and talk alone with Cass since they’d kissed. It felt almost as if he’d been holding his breath, waiting for this moment.
‘Very funny. Next time you have a fire, don’t expect me to put it out.’ She turned her head away from him and Jack saw that she was blushing furiously at her own gaffe.
‘I can put out my own fires, thank you.’ Something about the delicate pink of her pale skin just wouldn’t allow him to let this go. That, and the thought of letting her put out the delicious fire that her kiss had ignited.
She turned, grinning at him, and Jack suddenly wondered what he’d just got himself into. ‘You’re no fun, are you?’
* * *
That smile. Those dark eyes, full of all the things that might have been last night. She hadn’t stopped thinking about it. It had been running at the back of her mind, like a piece of music playing over and over on the radio. Unnoticed for most of the time, but still there.
Maybe she should just get a grip. Put Jack away in a box, lined with tissue paper, ready to take back out again when she was old and grey and wanted to remind herself of what it was like to be young.
‘That was a nice lift. Good technique.’ He spoke quietly, almost daring her to rise to the challenge.
‘Thanks. One of those things that firefighters do.’ She shot him a smile, daring him back.
‘Better than paramedics, you mean?’
‘Much better.’
He was unashamedly sizing her up. Cass returned the compliment. Jack was a good deal heavier than her, but she’d lifted men before. It was all a matter of technique. And the stubborness to give it a go. Right now she’d do practically anything to avoid thinking about the responsibilities waiting for her back at the village.
He heaved a sigh, as if his next question had already been asked and answered. ‘Car park?’
Cass nodded. ‘Car park.’
Jack popped his head into the treatment area, checking that the family weren’t ready to go yet, and they walked silently out of A and E.
‘You’re sure about this, now?’ He was strolling next to her, his hands in his pockets.
No, she wasn’t sure at all. Not about any of it. Cass stopped between two cars and stood in close, putting her right leg in between his, trying to imagine that he was a practice dummy. It wasn’t working.
‘Mind your back.’ He chose this moment to grin at her and offer advice. Cass ignored it.
Grabbing his right arm, she positioned it over her left shoulder. Then, in one fluid movement, she bent her knees, wound her left arm around the back of his leg and lifted him off his feet.
