A Firefighter in the Family. Trish Milburn
She raised her eyebrows.
“Doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’re here to ask if I saw anything suspicious, not to ask for a martini,” he said. “The bar closes at one. The fire started after that.”
“The call came in at one-seventeen, to be exact.”
Zac stiffened. He scanned the few patrons at the outer edge of the bar. They apparently hadn’t heard her. “You’d better not be accusing me of anything.” Been down that road with her family, didn’t want to revisit.
Surprise widened her eyes for a moment. “I don’t recall doing so. Is there a reason I should?” she asked, a coolness seeping into her words.
“Runs in the family,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Well, gotta go,” Adam said as he grabbed his beer and fled.
Zac barely noticed Adam leaving. Instead, he stared at Randi. Damn her for standing so close while being so distant, as if they’d never met, while he wanted to crush something with his bare hand at the thought that suspicion might touch him again. What irked him even more was that in the midst of the chilly reunion, he couldn’t help noticing she was even prettier now than when he’d seen her last. Her bright eyes seemed wiser, her body more toned, her hair even more blond and silky. Every aspect of her physical appearance made it more difficult to deal with her.
He broke eye contact. “Listen, Oldham tried to buy me out. I said no. He was ticked. End of story.”
“Just how bad was this disagreement?”
There she was doing it again, acting as if he were a stranger, as if they hadn’t once worked side by side. As if they hadn’t once been more than co-workers. Still a Cooke through and through—despite everything that had happened.
Zac moved to the edge of the oak bar and leaned down so his voice didn’t carry. “Bad enough to think tossing the jackass in the Gulf might be amusing—yes. Bad enough to burn his eyesore to the ground—no. Now you know and can move on to the next person on your list.”
“You’re a bit belligerent for an innocent man, aren’t you?”
Yeah, he was belligerent. It felt like déjà vu all over again. “Anyone would be if unfounded accusations were being cast at him.”
She caught and held his gaze, and for a second he thought he glimpsed a sliver of the old Randi. He couldn’t help the yearning for what they’d once shared, what might have been, however ill-advised that might be.
“I’m not accusing you, Zac,” she said. “I’m just asking questions. Looking for the truth.”
Zac’s stomach knotted. The last time someone had questioned him about a fire and he’d told the truth, they’d rewarded him with handcuffs and a trip to jail.
He wouldn’t be falsely accused again.
Chapter Two
Zac huffed and turned away as he shoved individual wine bottles into a glass-fronted cooler to chill.
“You don’t seem to like me very much anymore,” Randi said, trying to sound as if she didn’t care one way or the other.
“I’m busy. I have a business to run.”
“Yeah, about that—what’s with the whole bartender shtick?” Not that he didn’t look yummier than any cold, fruity drink he could serve up.
Randi leaned one arm against the edge of the bar and stared at Zac’s back, a very nice, muscled back from what she remembered, and his tanned forearms. When he glanced to the side, she eyed his profile. Short, dark hair. Strong jawline. Stubborn. Why, of all the people in Horizon Beach, had she crossed paths with Zac Parker? And why did the mere sight of him still make her pulse race as if it were trying to break free of her veins?
A blonde in a pink bikini with a flowered wrap around her hips wandered up to the bar and asked for two beers. Randi waited while Zac turned, pulled the bottles from the cooler and took the girl’s money. He didn’t ogle the eye candy, and Randi was annoyed by how much that pleased her. Which made no sense, considering the circumstances the last time they’d seen each other.
He looked up, his expression casual. “You’re still here?”
“Let’s leave past animosity in the past, shall we?” She was here in her professional capacity, and what they’d once meant to each other wasn’t relevant to the task at hand.
“Fine.” He bit out the word as if it was anything but fine. As if to contradict his tone, he placed a lemonade in front of her. He glanced up, caught her gaze for a moment before breaking eye contact. “I have a good memory.”
She didn’t let it show, but she was shocked he’d remembered.
Zac leaned against a metal cooler and crossed his arms.
Why was he so hostile? She was the one with that right, not him. “I have to investigate every angle. You know that.”
“Dig to my birth certificate if it makes you happy, but don’t jump to conclusions before you know what you’re talking about,” he said.
Those words sliced at her. She didn’t rush headlong into things anymore. She’d learned her painful lesson.
“Nice to see you’ve matured since I saw you last.” She couldn’t help it. The bitterness just tumbled out. Better to sound bitter than brokenhearted, though.
Four lobster-human hybrids stepped into the bar and eased their sunburned selves into the chairs surrounding a nearby table. A surfer type approached the opposite end of the long bar, and Zac moved away without another word or glance in her direction.
Fine. She knew where to find him.
She noticed his liquor license on the wall. Why on earth was he tending bar instead of fighting fires? Oldham would have her believe Zac had started setting them instead. But no matter how much he’d hurt her, she couldn’t picture him as an arsonist.
Zac’s deep voice drew her attention. He was even sexier than she remembered—and what she’d remembered had been plenty sexy. Alone in her mind, she could admit she was still attracted to him, even if she couldn’t forgive him.
ZAC WATCHED Randi Cooke retrace her steps toward the burned-out condos, her wake sucking him back almost three years.
“Dude, you’re about to pop a blood vessel.”
Zac redirected his gaze to find Adam had sauntered back to the bar and was tapping his temple. “I’m fine.”
“Then I’d hate to see a man on the verge of a stroke.”
Zac turned to throw some empty cartons in the trash so he wouldn’t bite off Adam’s head. His friend had been a beach staple for barely two years, hadn’t been there when all hell broke loose in Zac’s life.
Adam took a drink of his beer as he watched Randi disappear over the dunes. “What’s the story with the babe?”
“No story.”
“Right.”
“We went out a few times, that’s all.” He wasn’t willing to recount all the details, but he’d give Adam enough to get him off his case.
“So, how bad was your argument with Oldham?” Adam asked.
“If you’re going to play cop, you can just go back to the pier.”
Adam raised his hands. “Chill. I’m on your side.”
Zac braced his palms against the top of the cooler. “Sorry. She just raised my hackles.”
Adam nodded but looked like he suspected there was more behind Zac’s reaction. “Understandable. Having the ex interrogate