Oxygen Deprived (Kilgore Fire Book 3) Read Free Page B

I’d cooked dinner for and let borrow my best dress to go out on a date with a man whose name she refused to tell me.
    “God,” I moaned. “My life sucks.”
    Downy had done the best that he could under the circumstances.
    Danny was well liked throughout the department, and I’d gone and beaten the crap out of his truck.
    I’d brought it all upon myself, and I didn’t have anyone to complain to.
    Even Naomi, his sister, had been a little appalled at my behavior, and she’d done some pretty sketchy stuff in her time.
    “He’s gone!” My neighbor yelled through my closed door. “The turkey’s out in the trashcan behind your house, and I’m going to lock the door, okay?”
    “Thank you,” I yelled back, then promptly burst into tears.

Chapter 3
    14,000 people are having sex right now. 156,000 are kissing. Then there’s you. You’re reading this instead of getting some.
    -Coffee Cup
    Drew
    I was walking my trashcan out to the trash the next night when the little imp next door came out into her yard, and started wiggling her bare toes in the grass.
    “Evening,” I said to her almost out of habit.
    She snapped her head up.
    “Uhh, hi,” she smiled slightly.
    Jesus, that just did it for me.
    I was forty-two years old, and never once in my life had I had a woman affect me like this woman did.
    A woman that’d somehow gotten on house arrest and was probably her own special brand of crazy.
    “Can you get your trash all the way out?” I asked her.
    She nodded, pointing to the trashcan that was barely at the side of the road. Mostly, it was behind her shrubs that lined her mailbox, and I could just see the garbage man missing it.
    So, like a nice guy, I walked over and pulled the trashcan down until it sat where it belonged.
    “Thanks,” she smiled. “I debated whether to even put it out.”
    I looked down in the trashcan and saw the whole thing filled to the brim with pictures and…clothes?
    “You don’t need these clothes anymore?” I asked her.
    She shook her head.
    “You remember that ex-boyfriend I was talking about?” She turned her head.
    I nodded, looking up at her and studying her face.
    How anyone could leave her was beyond me. She was a freakin’ vision.
    Although she was really short, I would guess no more than five feet two inches or so, she had long, curly brown hair that fell down to her waist. The biggest blue eyes in Texas, and a beautiful mouth that just begged for kissing.
    Her breasts were full and round, just perfect. Not too big, not too small.
    They’d probably fit perfectly in my mouth…
    Shit!
    I tore my eyes away from her breasts, turning them to gaze at the shrub behind her house, and immediately winced.
    “You need to get that tree/shrub thing trimmed,” I said off handedly.
    I wasn’t able to turn off the firefighter in me. It was always there in the background, pulsing like a living thing deep inside me.
    She turned to study the tree where it was brushing the power line above it and shrugged indifferently.
    “I don’t have the money to pay for that right now,” she admitted. “It’s taking almost my whole month’s paycheck just to cover my rent, my car—which, might I add, I’m not allowed to use—and the costs to pay for my house arrest.”
    I could tell that she really didn’t want to admit that.
    “Get your brother to take care of it,” I told her.
    She shook her head.
    “If I had my way, I wouldn’t ever have to talk to him again,” she admitted. “Thanks for putting my trash out. If you have a chance after they empty it, could you push it back into my yard?”
    I nodded.
    “I can,” I said, knowing when to shut up.
    She smiled sadly at me and then turned to go to the side of her house.
    I stayed watching her for way too long and ended up seeing her again about a minute later when she came out on the other side of her house next to the offending shrub I’d told her to trim.
    She didn’t lift her gaze from the ground as she walked, turned the