Page 82 of Rekindle My Heart

“And the times if you could, please,” Ryan added as he patted his pockets, no doubt looking for his notepad.

“Let’s see. It was 4:00 a.m. when I got the call from Mother Nature…”

Ten minutes later, she had brought them up to the current time. Erica had no idea that an elderly person needed to use the bathroom that many times in three hours.

Five more minutes for her to add she had missed which way the vehicle had turned because her toast had popped up. Erica now knew exactly how both Mrs. White and Annabeth liked their breakfast. Before she could start on her morning television routine, they thanked her and walked back to the car.

“What do you think?” Erica asked.

“I think she’s blind as a bat. She thought the SUV was black, not blue, and she thought the driver had long hair this time. Last time, she thought it was a short-haired guy.”

“It could be two different vehicles?”

Ryan paused as he opened the door for her. “Could be, but the only vehicle matching the description we saw was the blue one.”

He rounded the car and got in. “I need to go home and shower before I do some digging.”

With a tight U-turn, he headed toward the station.

“I’m going to head into the fire barn and do some more digging into incident reports.”

“Sounds good.”

They drove in silence for a few minutes, then he pulled up next to his rental car. Thoughts of reports, SUVs, and the smell of Ryan circled in her brain. She was a muddled mess.

He slipped a hand around her neck and kissed her. “I’ll pick you up at quarter to six.”

“What?” By the time what he said had sunk in, he was out of the vehicle. She jumped out. “Ryan?”

“Dinner. Or do you want to tell my mother you aren’t coming to Sunday dinner?”

Doris Daniels was a saint of a woman, but it was a sin to refuse her dinner invite if you didn’t have a solid excuse, like… you died.

Erica exhaled. “Fine. Should I bring something?”

“No, you know she’ll have it all ready.” With a wave over his shoulder, he unlocked the car and slid inside.

She watched him drive away before putting her car in gear and making the short drive to the fire station.

Dinner? No, space. That’s what she needed, not to be sitting across from him watching this throat muscles working up and down, up and down. She swallowed. If she didn’t distance herself from him, she’d fall right back in love with him.

It took years after Sarah’s death to get over him.

If she ever truly did.