Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

for you. By the time you’re sixty, you will have caught up with your old man.”
    An eye-roll. “So what were you going to say about Lexie? Are you two dating or something?”
    The question caught Coin flat footed. “Why do you ask that?”
    Serena just stared at him. She had a smudge of black under her right eye. Coin reached out and tried to wipe it off. “What is this? You look like someone punched you.”
    She perked up. “Really? Does it look like a black eye?”
    “No. Like you were trying on mascara or something.”
    Serena deflated, poking a finger at the remaining half of her sandwich.
    Coin felt he barely had control of this conversation, something he felt more and more often these days. “You were trying on mascara?”
    “Sophie made me. But then she stuck the wand in her eye and then her mom had to wash it out and she cried for like half an hour.” She scrubbed at her eye with the back of her hand.
    “You’re only making it worse. Cut that out.” Coin got up and wetted a piece of paper towel. He held her chin still and rubbed under her eye with his other hand. “What is this stuff made out of? Tar?”
    “Quit it, I’ll get it off in the bath. So, you and Lexie are dating?”
    “No, we’re not.”
    “Okay. I didn’t think so, anyway.”
    “Why not?”
    “Dad.”
    “What?”
    “You’re kind of …”
    “What?” Now Coin really wanted to know.
    “You’re kind of not that cool.”
    “You’re my kid,” Coin said as easily as he could. It still stung a bit. Strangely. “You’re supposed to be embarrassed of me.”
    Serena shook her head. “I’m not embarrassed. You’re a fireman. That gives you automatic cred.”
    Cred ?
    She went on, “But you’re not exactly outgoing enough for her.”
    “You sound like you’re twenty. You scare me.”
    “What can I say? I’m mature for my age. Can I have a tattoo when I’m sixteen?”
    “No. What if I dated someone else?”
    “Who?”
    “No one you know.”
    “Who?” Serena didn’t even look bothered. She looked genuinely interested.
    “Someone online.”
    “ You’re going to do online dating?”
    “Oh, come on, Serena. Like I’m the very last one in the whole world who would go on the internet to find a date.”
    She raised one eyebrow archly. She looked like Janice when she did that. Pretty. And calculating. “I think you are. There’s that guy you work with, the one I call Lurch?”
    “Devo.”
    “He would be the last. But you would be the second-to-last.”
    “So I’m right at the back of the pack with a guy who eats rocks for breakfast.”
    In front of his eyes, she changed back into a little girl, all giggles. “He does not.”
    “I’ve seen it. Rocks. Like cereal, but rocky.”
    Delightedly, she said, “Gross!”
    “He pours sand on top, instead of sugar.”
    “What does he use for milk?”
    Coin leaned forward and whispered, “Tide pool water. The scummy kind, where it’s been sitting for days in the sun. He likes it warm.”
    Serena almost fell off her chair laughing.
    When she’d calmed a bit and had finished her sandwich, he said, “So you wouldn’t mind? If I dated?”
    “You don’t want to just date Mom?” she asked hopefully.
    “Baby. You know she’s happy with Tom. And you like him, too.”
    A shrug was his only answer.
    They’d been clear when they’d separated five years ago. It had been as amicable as a woman leaving one man for another ever could be. “And I’m happy, too.”
    “Then why do you want to change that?”
    Coin thought. “You ask good questions, you know that?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
    “I don’t know the answer to that.” For a moment, Lexie’s big brown eyes and messy red curls flashed in front of him. “Because it’s time, I think.”
    “Fine,” she said, lowering her head to her book again.
    “Serena.”
    “Really, Dad.” She reached out and patted the back of his hand without looking up. “It’s fine by me. This time, though, try to date someone who