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they’re married?”
    “Eight months,” he confirmed.
    “Ah, newlyweds.”
    “In every sense of the word.” He laughed. “You think they’re bad now, you should’ve seen them that first month. You’d have thought they were joined at the hip.”
    “They seem like they’re really in love.”
    “Yeah, Eve’s great, but she always looks a little incomplete without him by her side.” Jeff’s whole countenance softened as the thoughts behind his eyes floated away on the wings of a dream. “She comes to the station on her lunch break just so they can be together.” He shook his head slowly. “And Dustin’s always ready to just get done so he can get back home to her. It’s like they are determined to spend every single second they possibly can together.”
    Lisa heard the wistfulness in his voice, and she turned her head from the dance floor and laid it on her hand to look at him. “What about you?”
    Instantly he looked at her as though he hadn’t realized he was having a conversation with anyone other than himself. “What about me?”
    “You got somebody special in your life? Anyone coming to see you at the fire station?”
    “My mom came once. Does that count?”
    She laughed. “It’s better than nothing.”
    “Yeah,” he said, joining her laugh. “I guess so.” Then the smile fell. “It’s hard sometimes going out with them. Craig and Bridget are just such a couple, and Dustin and Eve… well…” One of his hands slid down under the table as he straightened from sitting too long in the booth, and he stretched out his jeans. “Ramsey’s always got a dozen dates swirling around him. So, I get to sit and hold down the table a lot.”
    “Oh,” she said, nodding. “So that’s what you were doing.”
    “Yeah.” His eyes were a mixture of hesitation and thoughtfulness.
    “Well, you do a good job of it,” she said teasingly, and he looked at her with a question in his eyes. “I mean, look at it.” She laid her hands on the tabletop. “It hasn’t moved a single inch all night.” The hesitation was gone when he smiled at her as she examined the table from top to bottom. “Nope, not a single inch.”
    “Yeah, well, I’ve had good help,” he said, and his voice faded with the words.
    “Oh, you think so, huh? Well, then it’s a good thing they brought us along or this here table might have just floated right away.”
    Amusement danced through his eyes. “So you’ve got a presentation Monday?”
    “Ugh,” she said as the lightheartedness collapsed around her. “The Youth Leadership Conference. Don’t remind me.”
    “That bad?”
    “They’re wanting to do this whole speaker thing and get the all the schools in Houston in on it.”
    “Sounds great,” he said, turning as he laid a casual arm over the booth back, looking much more at ease than he had since she’d first touched his arm two hours before. “What kind of speakers are they going to have?”
    “Oh, you know, community leaders, business people, that kind of thing. We’re really at the very beginning stages of planning it. It’s not supposed to be until the fall, but they want to get going on it now. I’m supposed to have suggestions for speaker names for the meeting on Monday, but at the rate I’m going—I’ll be lucky to have them by the time the conference starts.”
    “The speakers?”
    “Yeah, a long list of Houston’s most influential business people—the real top dogs, you know. It’s just that I’ve got this dumb Kamden Foods account to worry about because Kurt and Joel can’t put a progress report together to save their lives, and we really need to be working on the new campaign for Zebra Carpets—once everyone sees the zebra, that one’s kind of pointless.” She laughed at her own joke although he didn’t seem to catch it.
    “Man, you must be going in circles.”
    “That’s what it feels like.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “And then I’ve got Haley’s wedding next weekend, so