He scowled. “Flashpoint?”
“Uh huh. It’s the temperature at which a particular organic compound gives off sufficient vapor to just ignite in the air.”
“And that pertains to us how?”
“This situation is like an organic compound for us. It hit the air and boom!” She made an exploding gesture with her fingers. “Flashpoint.”
“I might have known you’d use firefighter terms.”
“Why not?” she snapped. “You’re plenty damn hot under the collar.”
“Ditto,” he threw back at her.
They stood there facing each other for a long, heated moment. Finally Noah reached for her but she took a step backward.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Randi, if we can just discuss this rationally I’m sure you’ll come to the same conclusion I did.”
If only he didn’t sound so damn condescending, she thought. At first she’d been hurt that he gave so little thought to her career goals, but now she was getting mad. And madder by the minute. Flashpoint didn’t begin to describe this situation.
“Don’t patronized me,” she snapped. “I’ve wanted to become a firefighter for years. That’s nothing new to you. It was on the table from our first date. Did you think I’d just change my mind?”
“I thought you’d be able to see reason,” he snapped back.
“Reason? Reason? Is it reasonable for you to be able to follow your dream but not for me to follow mine? What the fuck is reasonable about that?”
Noah raked his fingers through his hair again then turned back into the room. He grabbed his boxer briefs and jeans from the chair where he’d tossed them in the heat of sexual frenzy and yanked them on.
“Oh. Running away?” she taunted. “That’s right. Just get the fuck out of here. I don’t agree with you so all bets are off, right?”
“It isn’t a matter of agreeing,” he growled. “It’s a matter of being sensible. When you’re ready to be sensible, you have my cell number. I don’t plan to change it.”
“You might as well. I won’t be using it.” She grabbed the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around herself, unwilling to stand there any longer naked while he was now fully clothed. Somehow it made her feel vulnerable and that was the last thing she wanted to feel right now.”
“Fine.” He shoved his wallet and his cell in his pockets.
“Fine,” she shot back at him. Clutching the sheet to her like an oversized sarong, she walked back to the other side of the room, determined to stay as far away from him as she could.
Looking around to make sure he’d picked up all his things, he turned and started across the room to her.
Randi held up her hand. “Stop. Don’t come any closer. I mean it, Noah.”
He blew out a breath. “Randi, I can’t walk out and leave things like this.”
She scowled, holding onto her anger so she didn’t fall apart. “This is how you created them so this is how you leave them. No go on. Get out of here. Have a nice life.
He stared at her, those rich brown eyes filled with a mixture of confusion, desire, emotion and, yes, even pain. Too bad. It was of his own making. He stopped and stared at her for a long time.
“I’ll call you,” he said at last.
“Don’t bother. And I mean that, Noah, We have nothing left to say each other. Don’t make this any harder than it is.”
Finally, when she was sure her self-control had been stretched to its limit, he walked out of the room and through her apartment. When she finally heard the front door open and closer, she threw herself on the bed and let the tears come, scalding her eyes and her cheeks. She didn’t even make any attempt to mop then with the sheet.
How had it come to this? They had been so happy. She’d had such great hopes for them.
They had met at a party thrown by the EMT she worked with at the firehouse. Noah was a close friend of her partner’s brother and they had clicked from the minute they laid eyes on each other. They were so good together in bed she had hardly dared hope they would click in any other area. She’d had other disappointments so she’d learned not to get her hopes up. They’re relationship had taken on such a magical quality she’d allowed herself to believe she’d finally found The One for her.
She should have known things were too good to be true. Reality quickly set in. He was so excited because when he got the job with the news agency he’d been after for a long time. He’d be relocating to New York, he told her, and it would mean a lot of traveling. However, he’d be home for long stretches in between assignments so they’d still have plenty of time together. Anyway, she’d be busy, too. Right?
She told him how glad she was for him, how terrific it would be fore him. But she’d just learned about an opening at the station house for a firefighter. She’d already applied and been accepted, and— That was when the shit hit the fan. Too dangerous. Too demanding. Not a job for a woman. She’d never before thought of Noah as chauvinistic but she guessed that maybe she’d somehow missed that. Maybe he was just afraid for her, but that wasn’t his choice to make. Things had just escalated from there.
I love him, but I have to love myself, too.
If she gave up this dream she knew she’d lose part of herself. Somehow she’d just have to get past this.
When all the tears had finally dried up she hauled herself into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Time to get her shit together. Firemen didn’t cry, right? At least not in self-pity.
