you’ve managed to stay single, but I can only guess it’s because you’re a player, and that is the last type of person I need in my life.”
To her surprise, Roark looked contrite. “All right. I’ll try to behave myself.”
“You can’t touch me.”
“Aren’t you trying to convince people we’re an item?”
“All I need is a warm, suitably male body at my side. If you give me besotted looks every now and then, so much the better, but no further acting is required.”
“You mean like this?” And he did a pretty good imitation of a basset hound yearning for a bone.
Somehow he made her laugh, and her anxiety receded. “Maybe not quite that besotted.” They worked out a few more details, and the deal was struck. Roark would provide the services of one fake boyfriend. But Priscilla couldn’t help wondering what she would end up giving in return.
IT WAS LUNCHTIME ON the C shift at Fire Station 59, and Priscilla was in charge. She had practiced the vegetable lasagna at home and it had come out tasting really good. So she’d asked Captain Campeon to give her another chance in the kitchen.
She wasn’t sure why it was so important to her, except that her previous gastronomical disasters were just one more thing that set her apart from the guys—all of whom seemed to know their way around a kitchen. Even Ethan and Tony, who hadn’t started out particularly gifted, had caught on.
As the guys ambled in to the large eat-in kitchen, grumbling about the possible culinary torture Priscilla would subject them to, she pulled a large casserole dish out of the oven and set it down on the long table.
“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” The comment came from Otis.
“What is that stuff?” Tony asked suspiciously. “It looks weird.” Ethan elbowed him, and Tony quickly added, “But it smells good and I’m sure it’s delicious.”
She gave him a smile for his loyalty. Tony and Ethan had often been the only ones to take her side during training and those first few weeks here at Station 59, when she was subject to attack from guys who objected to women firefighters in general and her in particular.
“It’s vegetable lasagna,” Priscilla announced with a flourish.
For her trouble, she got groans all around.
“God save us from women trying to make us eat healthy,” said Bing Tate, who was one of the most annoying men Priscilla had ever known. Though most of the other guys grudgingly had come to accept the rookies, Bing continued to make caustic comments at every opportunity—especially if the captain wasn’t within earshot. And he wasn’t at the moment.
“Where’s the captain?” Priscilla asked as she cut the lasagna into large squares so it would cool faster.
“He’s got someone in his office.”
Priscilla hoped whoever it was wouldn’t keep the captain so long that he missed a hot lunch. She liked Captain Campeon. He was stern and humorless, but he kept strict order, and she approved of that. She didn’t function well in a chaotic environment.
Priscilla noticed no one was touching the salad she’d put out. “You can eat the salad while the lasagna cools.”
She served some salad for herself. The mixture of field greens topped with fresh garden tomatoes tasted pretty good as far as she was concerned. But her fellow firefighters seemed to thrive on red meat and a variety of breaded, fried foods—along with a steady diet of action movies on TV, twangy country music on the radio and off-color jokes just about everywhere.
She was adjusting.
The guys went for the whole-wheat rolls and butter she’d put out. Only Bing tried a little bit of the salad, making faces as he chewed.
“Hey, Priscilla,” Bing said. “Where’d you get these leafy things? Did you pick ’em from that weedy patch out back?”
She just shook her head. The only lettuce most of these guys had ever seen was the soggy iceberg they put on their hamburgers. She started to say something to that effect, but the captain chose that moment to appear with his guest in tow.
Roark.
Priscilla’s heart thundered so loud she was sure everyone would hear it. Tony and Ethan knew of the deal she’d struck with Roark, but no one else did. She hoped he wouldn’t say anything. If he did, there would be no end to the teasing she would get, and any credibility she’d built up would disintegrate.
The others greeted Roark like an old friend—which he was by now. Since the men who’d died in the warehouse fire had come from this company, Roark’s investigation had brought him to their station quite a few times.
“Captain Epperson is gonna have some lunch with us,” Campeon said. “Then he wants to talk to you—all of you, one on one.”
The solemn note in the captain’s voice was troubling. Everyone was wondering what this was about. Since this station responded first to the warehouse fire, Roark had no doubt interviewed everyone already, probably more than once. Why do it again?
But Roark reassured them with his easy smile. “You guys don’t mind if I mooch some lunch, do you?” He didn’t make eye contact with Priscilla, which was a relief. Perhaps he didn’t want to be ribbed any more than she did.
“Join us at your own risk,” Bing said. “Priscilla made lunch.” He nodded toward the lasagna pan. “We think it might still be moving.” A couple of the other guys couldn’t help laughing. Even Tony cracked a smile.
She couldn’t really blame them. Her previous meals had been pretty awful. But she was sure this would be different. Yes, it was a vegetarian dish, but her father loved it. Even Cory had loved it when Lorraine had served it at a Garner family dinner, and he was a meat-and-potatoes guy all the way.
Still, she didn’t like Roark witnessing the guys making fun of her. She didn’t like appearing incompetent in front of him—or anyone.
Priscilla quickly served the squares of lasagna, oozing with cheese and fragrant with fresh herbs. The men stared at their plates, but no one seemed willing to take that first bite.
Finally Roark took a leap of faith. “This looks good.” He put a big forkful in his mouth. Others followed suit.
Priscilla took a bite, too—and almost spit it out. Her mouth was on fire. It tasted as if the sauce contained a quart of jalapeño pepper sauce, though she’d used only a drop or two.
Horrified, Priscilla looked around the table to see faces turning red, eyes watering, hands grabbing for glasses of tea or milk to try to wash down the offending substance.
“Um, interesting,” Tony said, barely managing to swallow. “Where did you get the recipe, Pris? The Cataclysmic Heartburn Cookbook?”
“It’s my mother’s recipe,” she said, bewildered. She’d followed the recipe exactly. There was no way….
Then she saw that one man at the table hadn’t taken a bite. Bing Tate was trying to hide his mirth—and not doing a good job of it.
Suspecting she’d been sabotaged, she got up and stalked over to the cabinet were they kept spices and found the bottle of jalapeño sauce she’d bought recently. It was nearly empty.
She marched back to the table. “Bing Tate, did you dump a whole bottle of jalapeño sauce in my sauce when I wasn’t looking?” She remembered he’d been in the kitchen that morning, getting a refill on his coffee and taking a little too long to do it.
“Who, me?” he said with feigned innocence. Obviously she’d found her culprit. Though what Bing had done was mean, she was relieved the disaster wasn’t her fault this time.
She struggled not to react with anger. Practical jokes were a part of life around here, a natural product of boredom and too much testosterone, and anyone who wasn’t