Fire at Sunset: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 4 by Lila Ashe

very much wanted to know.  
    “I look at my super-overgrown lawn. My old lawnmower cost me twenty-five bucks at a yard sale, and it takes two hundred pulls to get it started. I don’t always have the patience.”  
    “Two hundred?” Was her penchant for exaggeration alarming or cute? He couldn’t decide.
    She nodded firmly. “At least . Also from my window, I get to look at Mr. Cavanaugh’s old tighty-whities as he goes outside to get the paper. The good news is they’re not tight anymore. The bad news is they’re not white, either.”  
    “Your neighbor goes outside in his underwear?”  
    She nodded again, and then he watched the way the western sun lit the top of her blond hair till it shone gold. “I have this working theory that he’s a nudist, but he’s also very shy. I think when he’s inside his house he never wears any clothes at all. His underpants are just the bare minimum to stay legal outside.”  
    “What does he wear when he goes to the grocery store?”  
    “He gets Amazon deliveries. For everything. He might be eating cheap dog food for all I know. I’ve only ever seen him leave the house to get the paper off the lawn.”  
    Caz wanted to listen to her talk all night. About anything. Just as long as she kept smiling at him like that. “What about taking out the trash?”  
    “Done in the dead of night. I’ve never seen him roll a can in or out. They almost seem to move by themselves.” She dropped a cheeky wink at him, and Caz realized that he’d do just about anything for another one of those.  
    He cleared his throat. “So, I made steak.”  
    “You did? Already?”  
    “I haven’t cooked it yet.” Caz felt awkward again.  
    “Ah.”  
    “But I’m going to,” he clarified.
    “I’d like that. While I’ll eat a steak pretty rare, it has to at least kiss the fire once.”  
    Kiss the fire. Instantly, he was distracted again. Yep, her lips were still the same, still full and sweet-looking, exactly the kind of lips any man would want to taste. And Caz would lay good money that if he kissed them again, he’d be the one on fire.  
    Why had he asked her here? Just so he could kiss her again?  
    “So.” Caz felt stupid and slow. Something about Bonnie made his blood feel thick. This date was doomed.  
    “So,” Bonnie said, turning so that she faced him. “When do I get to meet your dad?”  
    An alert shot through him like an electric buzzer wired to his spine. “How about never?”  
    “What? No way. That’s why I’m here.”  
    Caz thought she was here because when they kissed, the whole world went up in flames that neither of them could seem to put out. “You’re here for my good cooking.”  
    “I can get that at my mom’s house. I want to meet your dad.”  
    “Your own dad isn’t a cranky enough bastard for you?”  
    Bonnie’s smile was like sunshine breaking through clouds. “My dad? He’s the eternal optimist. Never has a bad thing to say about anyone. Ever. If you want cranky, you need to see my mother before her first three cups of coffee.”  
    “So that’s where you get that from.”  
    “What are you talking about?”  
    “You can’t even see straight before you have your coffee.”  
    “ Moi? ” Bonnie stuck her thumb into her chest. “You must be joking. I’m Mary Sunshine when I wake up.”  
    “If Mary Sunshine is stuck in a thunderstorm.”  
    “I’m sweetness and light.”  
    “You’re bitter and dark, just the way you like your coffee.”  
    Bonnie looked surprised. “You know how I take my coffee?”  
    “Yeah,” he said. Whoops .
    “I don’t know how you drink yours.”  
    “That’s because you’re a jerk,” he said lightly.
    Bonnie laughed. “Wait. You don’t drink it.”  
    “Why do you say that?”  
    “I know how everyone takes theirs. Guy takes three million spoons of sugar and little to no coffee. Hank is milk, no sugar. Tox is a splash of cream. You don’t drink coffee at