Page 20 of Dangerous Obsession

Beside me, Richard was also staring at the shop across the street. He rubbed his chin, blowing out a big cloud of breath. “I didn’t realize there was a big demand for tarot readings in the middle of the night.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Great minds and all that.”

Next to us, the big firefighter didn’t seem to be as wowed by the tacky spectacle as we were. Then again, I didn’t think he’d noticed it yet.

He was pacing with his phone to his ear. I couldn’t help overhearing his conversation because he was close and the street was relatively quiet. Relatively quiet, except for the throb of the bass from inside the bar, of course.

Also, I decided to eavesdrop. Yes, I’m a bad person.

“Where are you guys?” the firefighter said, sounding irritated. He had a deep voice, a lower register baritone.

Mmm. I liked deep male voices. The way they rumbled and vibrated against you. Maybe that was an odd thing to focus on instead of his broad chest and what I suspected was a washboard stomach.

Mr. Firefighter wasn’t as handsome as Richard, but he was good-looking in a solid, football player way.

In a my-face-was-chiseled-out-of-rock way that wasn’t necessarily pretty but sure was striking.

It suited him. He was clean-shaven too, with short, light-brown hair and light-colored eyes—I couldn’t tell the exact color from this distance in this lighting.

Whatever answer the firefighter got to his question didn’t seem to please him. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose as he paced, his head down as he stared at the sidewalk. All his concentration seemed to be on what he was hearing.

He looked so upset that I couldn’t help but be curious.

It seemed like yet another distraction after the fortune teller place suddenly came to life.

It was strange. Being outside the bar was turning out to be far more interesting than when I’d been inside, where I’d only had creeps hitting on me with some really boring pickup lines.

They weren’t even trying, and that was insulting.

“Yeah, that’s funny. I can hear Derek laughing his ass off,” the firefighter snapped. “I appreciate you guys busting my balls.”

Now Richard and I were both watching the firefighter.

I felt bad for the guy. Apparently, his mates had sent him here to Mr. Nixie’s Cocktails and they’d all met up somewhere else without him.

Was it some kind of firefighter hazing? If so, it helped remind me that men were still morons.

Nothing had changed. Gravity still worked, and men were still great big sexy idiots who did the dumbest things.

Like surfing on top of moving cars or jumping off roofs into the pool or anything to do with freehand rock climbing.

The firefighter disconnected the call with a grunt of disgust and shoved the phone back in his jeans pocket. I glanced away quickly, but he still noticed the two of us watching him.

“Sorry if I was loud,” he said.

Okay, he was a sweetheart, I decided. Anyone who caught two strangers eavesdropping and then apologized for being too loud was some kind of gentleman hero in my book. I was embarrassed to be caught listening in, but I couldn’t help but respond anyway.

“Sorry for eavesdropping,” I said, giving him the warmest smile I could.

I actually had a good smile, thanks to lots of dental work.

I also found that smiles helped put everyone at ease, and I really did feel bad for him.

After all, I knew what it was liked to be ditched.

Again, I brushed a stray strand of my dark hair back behind my ear.

“I was stood up too. Well, I mean, I came with a friend, and she dropped me like a ton of bricks. I was just going to ask if you saw that weird shop light up across the street a second ago and couldn’t help but overhear you. ”

“Looks like we’re both out of luck on New Year’s,” the firefighter said. He glanced across the street at the newly lit up psychic shop. “Huh. Weird.” He met my eyes again and gave me a half-smile that was a little cocky and a lot sexy. “I’m James, by the way. James Reed. A pleasure.”

“I’m Chelsea Davidson.” I pointed to Richard. “This is Richard Morello. We just met too. We’re forming a club out here in front of the bar. Where the really cool people hang out…at least until we can get a cab.”

James nodded to Richard. But Richard stepped forward and held out his hand. They both shook while I told myself not to check out their butts. I didn’t want to get caught staring, and they were probably really cute butts, judging from the rest of them.

Okay. I admit it. I peeked. They were really cute butts.

“So you came to the wrong place?” Richard asked him gently.

James rubbed the back of his neck and snorted. “Only because the rest of the crew sent me here. They’re all at McAlister’s together, laughing their asses off at me.”

“I heard firefighters like to prank each other,” I said, trying to make him feel better. One of my uncles was a firefighter, and he had all kinds of stories. Also, they were all obsessed with grilling things on the barbecue for some reason. “I guess it was your turn this time.”

He shook his head. “They’re just busting my balls because I’m new. I’m not a probie, but I’m new to Station Three, so I get all the crap.” He jerked his thumb at the shop across the street. “Guess I should’ve seen a psychic before showing up tonight.”

The three of us stood there silently in the cold air, staring across the street at the shop with all its signs, lighting, and neon.

Traffic had thinned out to nearly nothing.

An ambulance siren sounded in the distance.

I blew on my hands to warm them. It might be warmer inside the club, but I was having a better time out here, present company definitely included.

“I kind of admire Madame Wanda or whoever it is,” I said.

“Who doesn’t want to know your fortune for the brand-new year?

Will it be a great, exciting year, or a boring, trash year?

” I waved my hands around and said in a dramatic voice, “Only Madame Wanda knows!” Then I smiled and shrugged.

“She’s either an insomniac or a hard worker. ”

“I never believed in all that woo-woo crap,” James replied.

Richard chuckled. “Come on. It’s all harmless fun.”

“Have you ever done it?” I asked Richard. “Gone to a psychic?”

His grin widened. “Twice.”

“Was anything they told you true?” James asked.

“Not one bit. But it was fun.”

An idea hit me. I wheeled on them, grinning. “Let’s do it! The three of us. What do you think?”

“Waste of money,” James said.

Richard nodded. “He’s right, but count me in anyway. I could use a little distraction tonight.”

We both turned to look at James. I don’t know why it was suddenly important to me that we include him, but it was. I pleaded at him with my eyes.

Finally, he chuckled and shook his head. “I guess we could see if she’s the real deal. Let’s see if she can tell we’re all strangers.” The idea seemed to grow on him. “Yeah, why not? I’m not doing anything right now anyway.”

Richard was watching him closely. “You sure you don’t want to head over to McAlister’s with the rest of your crew?”

“Nah. Those jerks can kiss my ass.” He glanced at me. “Excuse my firefighter mouth.”

I snorted. “Please. I use fouler language every morning in rush hour traffic. You aren’t going to fucking shock me.”

That made both men laugh out loud. I guess it wasn’t very ladylike, but sometimes ladylike was boring.

“Now that we know Chelsea can cuss with the best of them,” Richard said, sweeping a hand at the psychic shop across the street, “shall we head over and try out her idea?”

James still looked amused. “Three strangers ambushing a psychic on New Year’s Eve.”

“Right,” I said brightly. “What could go wrong?”

“Never say that. That’s the first thing they teach a firefighter.”

“How was I supposed to know that?” I shot back, matching his smirk. “What am I, psychic?”

“Ha. Ha.”

We were having a good time, and I’d mostly forgotten about Karen ditching me.

I didn’t know these two men, but I felt safe enough with them.

I felt safe because we were all strangers, as odd as that sounded.

Well, safe enough to cross the street and enter a fortune teller with them.

I might not be good at telling when people were lying, but I liked to believe I could sense when people were good people deep down.

So maybe I was a little psychic after all because right now I had that feeling about Richard and James.

But there was more. I wanted to take a chance and do something exciting.

This had been an awful New Year’s Eve for me so far, but things had suddenly turned interesting.

I needed some kind of change. My life was in a rut, and I knew it. I needed to shake things up.

I wasn’t going to get crazy, but maybe I’d get an interesting story out of this.

Something to throw back at Karen next time I saw her.

Oh, after you abandoned me at the bar and left with your New Year’s boy toy, I met two gorgeous guys.

One of them was a firefighter with big muscles.

And then something really crazy happened…

After that, there were no second thoughts for me. I needed to find out if Madame Wanda was up to giving an interesting fortune to three strangers an hour before midnight.