Fan The Flames (Man Of The Month Book 3) by Michele Dunaway

charmed her so thoroughly. “Good, because after that, I’m a bit busy. I’ve got this charity stuff I have to do.”
    “What stuff?” Scarlett asked, curious.
    “Stuff for the calendar.”
    She frowned. She hated feeling stupid. “What calendar?”
    His eyebrow arched. “You mean you haven’t seen it? Heard about it?”
    She felt even more clueless. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
    “He’s talking about the Sexy Public Servants of St. Louis calendar,” her mom said. “It’s pretty hot.”
    “Bernadette.” Scarlett heard the resigned sigh in her father’s voice, as if he’d been saying her name for years.
    “You have to be the only one in the city who hasn’t seen or heard about it,” Brad added, clearly awed.
    Scarlett knew exactly the frustration Colleen had experience earlier. “I have no idea what either of you is talking about. I haven’t been here. San Diego, remember?”
    “He’s Mr. July,” her mom called.
    Scarlett snapped her head around. Her jaw dropped. “July? You’re in the calendar? How could you not have told me once in all the time we were on the phone?”
    “Because it’s awful. The STLFD picked me and I’m wearing nothing but swim trunks and a smile and standing in front of the river and Eads Bridge. It’s embarrassing.”
    The thought of seeing him in nothing but swim trunks sent her libido into a tailspin. She failed to keep the incredulity out of her voice. “You posed in front of the bridge? For a calendar?”
    He exhaled a fast breath. “No. Yes. I was in a studio. They Photoshopped the background. Still, I look ridiculous.”
    “He looks hot,” her mother mouthed behind Brad. She fanned her face.
    “Mr. July, huh,” Scarlett said. “I’m going to have to find it. Google will help.”
    “Don’t you dare,” he warned.
    “Oh, but I must,” she teased, because like Colleen, her earlier frustration had been abated. “Makes me wonder what else you haven’t told me. Do you moonlight at Chippendales?”
    “The simple fact is I didn’t have much choice. I’m already way over it, and I’ve had to attend all these charity-related events ever since. Like the upcoming Mayor’s Ball two weekends from now, on Friday the thirteenth. Black tie at the City Hall rotunda. Then there was the calendar ball before that, and the thing at New Year’s I managed to get out of because I was working. And thankfully I’m working Valentine’s Day, or I’d be stuck on the Mardi Gras float tossing out beads like some of the other guys are.” He shuddered and a piece of dark hair swooped down. He brushed it back.
    “Sounds terrible,” Scarlett chided, still imagining him wearing only swim trunks. “You and your poor celebrity.”
    Brad frowned. Shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “I never signed up to be a celebrity. The only thing I want to do is my job and now women come up to me.”
    “Women have always come up to you. You were a girl magnet.”
    “Not like this. They’re aggressive. Suggestive. It’s like I need a bodyguard to fend them off.”
    “Todd told me you liked the attention.”
    “Maybe ten years ago when I was twenty,” Brad shot back. “We all grow up sometime.”
    “Perhaps you should take Scarlett with you next Friday?” her mother suggested, ever the peacekeeper. The dinner plates gave an extra clatter as she took them from a cabinet. “She could fend them off. It would also give you some time away from the house to discuss things. James and I will babysit. Would you like that, Colleen? If Granny babysat?”
    Colleen had been watching the exchange the entire time, and Scarlett’s stomach dropped. Only back in St. Louis one day and all her good parenting went out the window. “Granny babysit,” Colleen confirmed and she clambered down out of her mom’s arms, all better now that the picture was on the wall. “Whatcha doing?” she asked her grandmother.
    “I’m about to get the mashed potatoes and microwave them. Want