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

all.”  
    Caz looked out the window. A low beam of late sunlight was warming the barn’s roof. “Never needed it.”  
    “You just wake up elated with life? With that cheerful disposition we all know and love?”  
    The last word fell from her lips into the room as if she’d dropped a book flat to the floor. Love . Her cheeks went pink. Caz felt all logic leave his head. There was one thing, and one thing only, that he wanted to do at that moment, and it involved a lot of his skin on hers, and very little to do with cooking steak on the back grill.  
    “Your dad,” she said, finally breaking the sudden electric tension between them.  
    “Yeah. Okay.” Caz shook his head. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

    Caz’s dad Tony was pretty bad off. Bonnie wasn’t shocked—by the way Caz had prepped her, she’d only have been shocked if they’d gone in the room and found a dead man—but she was taken aback by the blankness of Tony’s stare.  
    “Hey, Joyce,” said Caz to the small woman who was reading a book in the chair next to the window. “This is Bonnie.”  
    “Oh, goodness,” said Joyce, standing. Her hands fluttered to her short hair, patting it down. “Caz said someone was coming by, but I just assumed… Oh, it’s so nice to meet you.”  
    Bonnie wondered what Joyce had assumed. Did Caz often have women over? Was there a certain one Joyce was expecting? No one had ever said Caz was single—she’d just assumed that he was by the fact that he kissed like a man who was born to kiss her. Maybe she shouldn’t have put so much stock in that assumption.  
    “Is he going to cook for you?”
    Caz nodded. “Just steak.”  
    “Oh, you’re in for a treat. His grilling is the best in the whole world.”  
    Bonnie had the feeling Joyce would have said that if he were making her twice-warmed concrete for dinner.  
    “But you want to visit with Tony. I’ll just go and put the washing in…it was nice meeting you, dear.” Joyce drifted tactfully out the door. Then she popped her head back around, as if she couldn’t help it. “Oh, it is so nice to meet you. So nice. Caz finally bringing a girl to the house. Oh!”  
    Caz made a noise that could only be called a groan. Bonnie swallowed her amusement and focused on the man in the bed.  
    He was tiny. Bonnie could tell he’d been a big man—his legs and arms were long under the light sheet, like Caz’s were, and the skin at the sides of his face, near his ears, was loose, as if it had once fit around a larger person. His eyes were open, staring at the ceiling, and he hadn’t looked at them since they’d entered the room. He made a chewing motion with his mouth, and when he smacked his lips open and closed, Bonnie could see that he’d lost his teeth.  
    “He can’t wear his dentures anymore,” was all Caz said.  
    “Will you introduce me?”  
    Caz’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her, as if to weigh whether or not she was serious. “He’s not very with it. As you can see.”  
    Bonnie raised her eyebrows. She waited. Politely.  
    Caz moved forward and touched his father on the shoulder. “Dad, this is Bonnie Maddern. She’s here to meet you.” His voice was gruffer than the voice he normally used on patients at work, but Bonnie could see his touch was gentle. Carefully, Caz straightened the collar of his father’s pajamas. “He was always vain about his appearance. I know he’d hate this…” His voice trailed off.  
    Bonnie stepped forward and put her hand over Tony’s wrinkled one. His hand had been plucking at the sheet fitfully, but it stilled as she touched him. “Mr. Lloyd, it’s such a pleasure to meet you.”  
    Caz pulled up the sheet a little higher and then moved to take the blanket from the foot of the bed. Bonnie helped, unfolding it on her side, bringing it up so they could tuck it under his arms.
    “It’s okay,” said Caz, as if she’d complained. “He doesn’t know