Fanning the Flames (Romance Firemen Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

could hardly believe it had been three years since they’d moved in together, newly graduated, and thrilled to have found jobs near each other. For Cassie, living with other people was going to be strange.
    Then, with less than a week to go before the move, Cassie got a call from her new landlord. A pipe had burst in the apartment above hers, bringing the ceiling of what would soon be her room crashing down. The damage was extensive, and the repair would take at least a couple of weeks. All the landlord could do was apologize for the trouble and offer her a discount on the rent.
    Cassie hung up the phone and sat staring blankly at her packed boxes. Crap , she thought. What am I gonna do? The new tenants are due to move in here the day after we move out . Her cell rang again. She scrambled to answer it, hoping it would be the landlord with a solution.
    “Hello?”
    “Hi, Cassie. It’s Nick. I just thought I’d call and see how you are. I hope that’s ok.”
    “Hi. How’s England?”
    “Great! I’m always happy to be in London. Have I caught you at a bad time? You sound rather stressed.”
    “I’m fine. Ugh, no, I’m not fine. I just got a call from my landlord – well, the landlord of the place I was supposed to be moving into on Monday. A water pipe burst and the ceiling collapsed, so now I can’t move in. And I can't stay here past Monday because there are people moving in."
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” Nick said. “Do you have someone you can stay with?”
    “I can't think of anyone. All my teacher friends are out of town and my parents moved to Fort Lauderdale last year. I guess I’m gonna have to put my things in storage and go down to Florida for a while.”
    “I may have a solution. My family has a summer home on Louisburg Drive. I’m the only one using it this summer, so you’d be welcome to stay there for as long as you need to.”
    “Nick, I don’t know, that’s very generous, but-”
    “Look, think about it. You don’t have to make a decision right now. Actually, I was calling to ask if you’re free tomorrow night. I’ll be back in town and I’d like to take you to dinner. We could talk about it more then.”
    Cassie thought about it for a moment. She felt overwhelmed. On the one hand, she was feeling stressed and unable to face Nick’s particular brand of intensity. On the other, she had promised that she’d go to dinner with him when he came back. And she did have to eat.
    “Sure,” she replied. “Let’s have dinner.”
    “Great. I’ll pick you up at eight. Text me the address.”
    Just as they hung up, the doorbell rang. Cassie dived to answer it, suddenly remembering that she was expecting Brendan to stop by.
    “Hey Cassie,” he greeted her with a hug. “What’s wrong?”              
    “Is it that obvious?”
    “It is. You look like you’ve been hang gliding over hell. Let’s get the coffee started and you can tell me about it.”
    Grateful for Brendan’s comforting presence, Cassie poured out the whole story, including Nick’s offer of a room in his family’s summer home. Brendan gave it careful thought while eating an apple fritter.
    “Louisburg Drive?" he said. "That’s a fancy address.”
    “It's a fancy area," Cassie said, already feeling better by talking with Brendan. “When I was a kid, we used to play on the private beaches. But we always got chased away."
    “Are you...considering it?”
    “I don’t know." Cassie paused. "I'm not sure I have any other options.”
    Brendan looked pensive. “Is Nick the guy you’ve been sort of seeing? In all the times we’ve talked, you’ve never mentioned him by name.”
    “Does that matter?”
    “Well, you told me that you’d talked to him about taking things slowly. Don’t you think that moving into his family’s house might be a bit…contradictory?”
    Cassie slammed her coffee cup down. “Are you jealous?”
    “What?” Brendan laughed. “It’s just a thought, Cassie.”
    “Well,