Worst of all, she was more aroused than she should be by a great-looking firefighter in surfer clothes.
Silently, they drove down the hill, parked, and walked into the crowded restaurant. Logan hadn't been back in the place since Eddie had sold it to a couple of guys from Las Vegas about a month after Maya'd come in for a drink and blown his mind.
Logan wasn't sure he liked the changes. It had always been a neighborhood hangout, somewhere his crew would go when they were streaked with dirt and sweat, to shoot some pool and forget about staring death in the face for a couple of hours. The new owners had glossed it up, making it look more like a big national chain than a neighborhood bar and grill.
Posed pictures of people having a good time on the lake studded the walls, along with new paint and windows. Even the crowd was different. Flashier, richer.
“Man, this place has sure changed,” he said as they grabbed a free table by the window.
She looked around. “Has it?”
What was he thinking? She'd been so full of grief over her brother six months ago that she probably hadn't noticed anything about the place. Besides, he'd shoved her into the wall of bottles and had been all over her so fast she couldn't have seen much of anything.
“I hate to break it to you,” he said, intent on changing the subject, “but you're no longer in the running for Miss Lake Tahoe. Looks like Kelly's stuff fits pretty good.”
A gorgeous flush worked itself onto her cheeks. “She's a little smaller than I am.”
Logan dropped his eyes to her br**sts for a brief moment. “A little. But trust me, it works on you.”
Dennis's girlfriend, Jenny, came around the corner carrying a heavy tray of drinks. He'd forgotten that she worked lunch and dinner all summer. She smiled widely when she saw him, but when she noticed who he was sitting with, her smile turned to confusion.
“Logan, what are you doing here?” She didn't add with her to the end of her sentence, but he could read her mind.
“Time for lunch,” he said. “What's good today?”
She looked down at her pad. “Everyone's been ordering the grilled chicken and avocado sandwich on a French roll. We're almost out.”
Logan looked at Maya and she nodded. “We'll take two if you've got 'em. And two Cokes.”
Jenny wrote down their order, but didn't get the picture that now wasn't a good time to talk. Especially considering Maya's new suspicions regarding Jenny's boyfriend. Logan knew Jenny wouldn't much like hearing that. Not any more than he did.
“I went by Joseph's cabin after breakfast,” she said with a frown. “I had no idea things were getting so bad. He barely seemed to know who I was. You should have asked for my help earlier.”
Up until now, Maya hadn't made the possible connection between Joseph's illness and the trails heading up from his backyard into Desolation, and Logan didn't want to give her any reason to turn her suspicions that way. Even though she'd been in Joseph's house and had talked with him, the less said about the extent of Joseph's situation, the better.
Logan's conscience knocked at him. Maya had treated him with honesty from the get-go, she'd told him precisely why she'd thought he was guilty and then admitted she was wrong as soon as she'd decided he was innocent.
He wanted to be just as straight with her, but he didn't know her well enough yet to be absolutely certain how she'd respond to his concerns about Joseph. And he couldn't let anything happen to Joseph because he'd said too much to the wrong person.
“Thanks for going by, Jenny. I really appreciate it.” He didn't bother with subtlety. “I'll give you a call later and we can talk more about the situation.”
Jenny shot another glance at Maya before saying “Sure thing, Logan. I'll go put your order in.”
Maya gave him an amused look when Jenny rounded the corner. “Boy, does that girl have a crush on you.”
“Jealous?”
She watched Jenny giggle while whispering something to a cute busboy before walking into the kitchen. “I take it back. She flirts with everyone.”
He noted that Maya didn't go anywhere near his jealous question and he grinned. She didn't need to answer. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.
Now all he needed was for her to figure it out too.
Still looking at Jenny, she suddenly frowned. “Hey, wasn't she with you at the airstrip this morning?”
“She was meeting Dennis for breakfast. They've been dating for a while.”
“Dating Dennis, huh?” She looked pensive. “How does he feel about his girlfriend flirting with you?”
He'd wondered the same thing and had come to only one conclusion: “He's not the jealous type.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Sure he isn't.”
A couple of firefighters from the urban station walked in and headed to the bar, probably to pick up some drinks for the road, and her face fell. He knew she was thinking about Tony.
“I was serious last night when I offered to help with your brother's case.”
She turned back to him, her eyes wide with surprise. “I don't get it. Why would you want to help me?”
“Why wouldn't I?”
It was clear that she didn't know how to respond. Probably for the very same reason he wasn't comfortable coming clean about Joseph yet. Despite their physical connection, she was as unsure of him as he was of her.
“Thank you,” she said in a soft voice. “I really appreciate your offer. Maybe when this case is done …”
Her words fell away and he wanted to press her further, make her commit to seeing him again when they were on the other side of this craziness.
Right then, he saw David walk in and search through the crowd for them.
“David's here,” he said, and Maya's expression became all business again.
As glad as Logan was that they were going to know what had caused the explosion, the interruption had come too soon. At last, he'd felt as if he was getting at the real Maya Jackson, the flesh-and-blood woman with insecurities and hopes and softness, not just the hard-as-nails fire investigator that she forced herself to be every minute of every day.
David pulled up a chair. His happy-go-lucky friend looked as solemn as Logan had ever seen him. “I've got it.”