Flirting with Fire (Men of Marietta Book 2) by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy [Hardy, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781945879982
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2017-03-27T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Emily had fun choosing a picnic. She started at the Java Café with good coffee in thermal mugs, a selection of sandwiches, and a special box for Brontë containing sliced sausages and bites of chicken. She bought some out-of-season strawberries at Monroe’s, and gingerbread and brownies at the Copper Mountain Gingerbread and Dessert Factory. And at twelve on the dot she was waiting outside the Graff when Lyle drove up in his truck.

She climbed in beside him. “Hello.”

“Hello.” He glanced at the paper bags she was carrying. “That looks interesting.”

“I hope you’ll like it. I bought something for Brontë, too.”

“If it involves chicken, he’ll be your friend for life. Though he did steal the boss’s chicken sandwich this morning and left the crusts on the floor,” Lyle warned.

“Makes a change from shoes,” she said lightly.

He drove them to River Bend Park, clipped a lead onto Brontë’s collar, and lifted the pup out of the truck. “Sit,” he said, and the pup sat nicely while Lyle fished a backpack out of the truck. “Do you want me to put the picnic in this?” he asked Emily.

“If you don’t mind, then thank you,” she said.

He put her bags in his backpack, then slung it over his shoulder.

“What’s that glinting over there?” she asked.

“Over in the foothills? That’s Miracle Lake,” he said. “It freezes in the winter and everyone in the town skates there. They have fairy lights strung through the trees and hot chocolate at the skate rental hut.”

She could just imagine it. “Is that where you skated as a kid?”

“I didn’t come into town much as a kid.” His face shuttered.

Of course not. He’d been four when his mother had died—too young to remember coming here with her, probably, and his father hadn’t done much other than drinking after that. Though Lyle hadn’t told her any of that himself, and Charlie had told her the story in strictest confidence, so Emily could hardly express sympathy without making life difficult for her sister.

“So do you get really long vacations from your job, or have you been saving up your leave all year?” he asked.

“I’m kind of taking a sabbatical at the moment,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t like your job?”

“It’s not my job that’s the problem.”

“Someone you work with?”

She sighed. “Let’s just say my boss is the type who changes the goalposts. No matter what I do, I’m never going to make him happy. We could win a pile of awards, get the best PR ever, and it still wouldn’t be enough for him.” Not much change there: her parents had been the same. Nothing she did had ever been enough to make them happy or get their attention. A hundred percent attendance, top of the class in every subject, getting distinctions in all her music exams. None of it had interested them or made them think any more of her.

“Then don’t just take a sabbatical, sugar. Walk. You don’t need to stay in a place that feels bad for you.

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