Taking the Heat (Jackson: Girls' Night Out 3)

Gabe offered a crisp nod. “Yes, sir.”

Jake stared at him for a moment longer, then grunted again and disappeared into an office. The door slammed behind him.

Gabe felt William’s hand land hard on his back. “Close one, my man.”

“What the hell was that? Is he a relative?”

“To the blonde? I don’t think so, but the captain is old-fashioned. No shit-talking about women around here. I mentioned once what I wanted to do to a certain little librarian, and he put me on toilet duty for a month.”

“He caught you talking about Lauren?” Gabe asked in horror.

“No, not Lauren! I’m not an idiot. It was her friend. The one you replaced. I asked that girl out a dozen times. Anyway, just try to avoid him for a few days. He’ll cool down.”

“But I didn’t say anything!”

William shrugged and tipped his chin toward the door. “Come on. A little one-on-one.”

Gabe shook off the encounter and followed William outside to the court. It was only 9:00 a.m., but the sun had already started to warm up the day and it melted the new tension from his muscles.

Forty-five intense minutes later, Gabe had forgotten all about the interaction with Jake, and he was ready to get to work. Hair still damp from the shower, he slung his bag over his shoulder and crossed the ten feet between the fire station door and the library.

He was supposed to get the last of the bid numbers on the digital lending system today, and once that was resolved with Jean-Marie, he could start getting down to the nitty-gritty of it. They could strike an agreement with a lending company, get the software loaded onto a test server and then start integrating it into the existing library system. Once the bare bones were in place, Gabe would work on the collection with the other librarians.

Granted, actual lending was probably months away, but engineering it all would be fun as hell.

A half hour later, he was deep into a comparison spreadsheet he planned to present to Jean-Marie at the end of the day when Lauren burst into the tiny office that was tucked behind the circulation desk.

“Oh, my God, you sneaky little bastard.”

“What?” he snapped, whipping around.

“You totally pretended not to like Veronica when I introduced you!”

Gabe winced. Damn. Of course Jake had passed that information on to Lauren. Or maybe Veronica had told her? “Ah. Veronica.”

For a moment, he couldn’t read her narrowed eyes, but then she smiled and kept smiling unt

il he cleared his throat.

“How many times have you gone out?” she asked.

“A couple. But you’ll have to ask her anything else.”

“Oh, you don’t kiss and tell?” she crowed.

“No, I do not.”

She shoved his shoulder, sending the chair spinning back toward the computer. “I can’t believe she didn’t say anything to me! You were the one texting on her birthday! Why didn’t she tell me?”

He shook his head. “Maybe because you and I work together?”

She nodded. Then her face fell. “Wait a minute. Does that mean I don’t get details? That’s not fair.”

Gabe hoped it was true. Lauren already felt like yet another big sister, as if Gabe didn’t have enough of those.

“So...you like her, Gabe?” Lauren pressed.

“Yes,” he answered, starting work on his spreadsheet again in an effort to stave off more questions.