Night Heat (Forged of Steele 2)

“Jocelyn?”

Snatched out of her reverie, she lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders. “No, there aren’t any more fires you need to put out. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” He glanced around. “Where’s Reese?”

“Doing a pickup.”

He blew out a breath and frowned. “When do you expect him back?”

She lifted a brow. “Not sure. Is anything wrong?”

“No, just have him call the office when he returns.”

For some reason Jocelyn felt he wasn’t telling her everything. Why did he want to talk to Reese? He was just the foreman. She was the one in charge of things. Maybe she needed to remind him of that.

“Look,” she said, leaning closer and looking intently at him.

“Yes?” he said, and she felt the force of his own gaze back.

“You do remember who’s in charge, don’t you?”

He smiled. “Yeah, I think so, but do you want to remind me again?”

She frowned, and suddenly wanted to find the hammer and clobber him. “I’m trying to be nice.”

“You shouldn’t have to try so hard. It should come naturally,” he said and reached out and tweaked her nose. “I’ll see you later.”

She was ready to throw out an angry retort when she saw that Harry had reappeared and the two of them were talking with obvious familiarity. Evidently they remembered each other from that summer Bas had worked with her father. Jocelyn decided what she had to say to Bas could wait. There was no need to put him in his place in front of Harry. She would have enough time to read him later.

She was pulled away from those thoughts when her cell phone rang. “Yes?”

“Is Reese there?”

She recognized Leah’s voice immediately. “No. Why?”

“Because I saw him this morning.”

She could tell from the tone of her sister’s voice that there was more. “And?”

“And we had words.”

Jocelyn felt her throat tighten. “Not so nice ones, I gather.”

“You gathered right.”

Jocelyn nodded. No wonder Reese was in a bad mood. Now she understood why the men thought he was angry about something. “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

“Yes, but barely. And you were right. He hates me.”

“I never said he hated you. I said he was still hurting.”

“Same difference, since I’m the one who hurt him.”

There was a pause because Jocelyn didn’t know what to say. No, that wasn’t true. She did know what to say, but she also knew Leah wouldn’t want to hear it. She trailed a finger along the fine craftsmanship of the wooden banister Reese had completed last week. “I still think you should tell him the truth.”

“I can’t.”

She decided not to press when she heard the trembling in Leah’s voice. She didn’t have to see her sister’s face to know she’d been crying and probably still was. “Hey, how about the two of us doing something tonight?”

“Like what?”

“Going to a movie.”

“A movie?”

“Yes, a movie. When was the last time we went to a movie together?” She could just imagine Leah bunching up her forehead trying to remember.

“Um, I think it was when Aunt Susan took us to see Titanic.”

“Hey, you’re right,” Jocelyn said smiling as she remembered. “She really liked that picture, didn’t she?”

“Yes, she did. We sat through it twice. After that I didn’t care if I ever saw the ocean again.”

“I felt the same way.” Jocelyn laughed.

“You know,” Leah then said in a quiet voice, “I wish she had been around five years ago. I would have gone to Florida instead of California. For all her proper ways, Aunt Susan was pretty special, wasn’t she?”

Jocelyn nodded. “Yes, she was.” After a brief pause she said, “So how about it? Do you want to do a movie?”

She heard Leah chuckle and liked the sound. “Will going to a movie help you sleep better tonight?” Leah asked with a hint of teasing in her voice.

Jocelyn glanced across the room to Bas. He was still talking to Harry. And as if he felt her eyes on him, he tilted his head and looked at her. The deep intensity of his dark gaze was pinning her to the spot, heating her even more.