Firefighter's Virgin

“My other neighbor, Diane, told me. I have met her.”

“Well.” My mother picked up the paper napkin and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. She stood up. “No time like the present.”

“Mom—” I started, but it was too late, she was already pushing out the side door, striding across the yard, her blue Jimmy Choos stabbing the lawn as she went.

“Shit,” I muttered as I stood up to follow. It would be easy to hide in here, but I wanted to make sure she didn’t say something ridiculous.

By the time I caught up to her, my mother was already shaking his hand, laughing.

“Allie,” she said. “This is Cole.”

“Hey,” he said, extending a hand to me. Up close, he was extremely good-looking—almost uncomfortably so—but I just pasted a smile on my face and shook his hand. My stepfather was good-looking too, and the majority of my childhood I’d watched the way women had fallen over themselves around him. I imagined that people did the same for Cole, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to be one of them.

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

My mother beamed. “Allie just moved in.”

“Yeah, we noticed that the For Rent sign had been taken down,” Cole said. “Sorry that we haven’t been over to introduce ourselves yet, but things have been kind of crazy this past week.” He smiled, exposing a row of perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’ve been pretty busy, too.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mother’s smile faltering—he had said we—but before she could inquire about a wife or a girlfriend, a little boy was suddenly there, weaving around us like an overexcited puppy.

“Oh!” my mother said, stepping back. “What—I mean, who is this?”

“This is Declan.” Cole squatted down so he was at Declan’s level. “Declan, these are our new neighbors. This is Allie and...” He looked at my mom. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?”

“Jen.”

“And her mom, Jen.”

Declan, with big blue eyes and shaggy, light brown hair, grinned up at us. “Hi,” he said.

“I’m not a new neighbor,” my mother said. They both looked at her in confusion. “Just Allie is. I’m only

visiting. I’ll be returning to the city later today.”

“I go to preschool,” Declan said.

“You do?” I asked. “How old are you?”

“Four.”

“What preschool do you go to?” I was going to be starting my new job on Monday at the Learning Center, which was a preschool the next town over.

“The Learning Center,” Declan said proudly.

“Well, isn’t that something!” my mother said. “That’s where Allie is going to be working. That’s the whole reason she moved to this town to begin with—because they offered her a job! Not that there aren’t plenty of teaching opportunities in Boston, either.”

“They’re not really interested in hearing about that, Mom,” I said. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you both, and it sounds like I’ll be seeing you soon, Declan.”

“Yeah, great meeting you,” Cole said. “Sorry to rush off like this, but I’ve got to get Declan to school, and I’ve got a full day of patients.”

“So, you are a doctor,” my mother said.

Cole smiled. “Have you been inquiring about me?”

I winced inwardly. This whole first meeting was really going great.

“Diane had mentioned it,” I said quickly.