Hot for Fireman by Jennifer Bernard

Author:Jennifer Bernard
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062089021
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter Sixteen

The man nursing a Guinness at the other end of the bar looked vaguely familiar, but Ryan couldn’t put his finger on where he’d seen him before. He looked like a friendly enough guy, maybe fifty or so. He wore a light gray business suit, the jacket open over a pudgy belly. He looked completely harmless, like an accountant or a dentist.

So why did he give Ryan the creeps?

For one thing, Ryan didn’t like the way the guy kept scoping out the place. He had alert, pale gray eyes behind old-school aviator glasses. He wasn’t girl-watching. His gaze scanned right past a gorgeous girl in micro shorts two stools down from him. He eyed the bar in a cold, assessing way that didn’t sit right with Ryan.

He finished making a club soda with cranberry juice and strolled toward the man.

“How about those Dodgers,” he said. “Helluva game last night.”

The man flicked an uninterested look his way. Then his gaze stopped, arrested by something in Ryan’s face. A moment later, he shrugged and went back to sipping his Guinness.

“Not much of a baseball fan.”

“Do I know you?” Ryan frowned at him. He could have sworn the man recognized him. That meant he ought to recognize the man.

“You tell me.”

“Seems to me I’ve seen you before. Is this your first time in here?”

“No.”

Not much of a talker.

A group of college-age guys came in and commandeered the stools at the other end of the bar.

“Be right back,” Ryan told the man.

The man didn’t respond. He had the personality of a dust bunny. Ryan poured out three Buds from the tap, then ambled back to Aviator-Glasses Man. It bugged him that he couldn’t place the dude. Especially because of that creepy feeling.

“My name’s Ryan Blake,” he said, holding out his hand. “Ring any bells?”

“Can’t say that it does. I’m Carson Smith.”

The name meant nothing to Ryan. “What kind of work do you do, sir?”

Carson Smith flicked him another dismissive, pale-gray look. “Financial consultant.”

Ryan frowned. He couldn’t imagine a scenario in which he would have come into contact with a financial consultant. Even though Mr. Smith clearly preferred to be left alone, he risked one more question.

“You from around here?”

But he’d pushed it too far. The man deliberately lifted his mug, ignoring Ryan’s question completely.

“I’ll let you drink in peace, then. Let me know when you’re ready for another.”

Mr. Smith nodded from behind his mug. Something about the way his face was hidden set off a warning bell in Ryan’s memory.

He made sure no one at the bar needed anything then went back into the office. Katie hunched over a calculator, glaring at it as if it were a deadly snake.

“Katie, there’s someone here I don’t like the looks of.”

She didn’t look up. “You mean they don’t have boobs?”

Ryan decided to let that one go. Ever since that fiasco of a dinner with her and Danielle, she’d been acting strange around him. Maybe “distant” was the right word. And she seemed jittery.

“I can’t put my finger on it, but I have a bad feeling about him.

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