Page 18 of Embers of You (Amity #1)

Jameson

After two days of not hearing from Sutton I decide to reach out. I don’t want to give her more time to freak out.

Jameson: I have a question that’s been bothering me.

Sutton: No, I have not been thinking about you.

Jameson: That wasn’t my question, but I’m glad to hear you have been.

Jameson: Have you named the bear I won you?

Sutton: Why would I name something I threw in the trash?

Jameson: *Shocked emoji* You wouldn’t!

Sutton: Guess you’ll never know.

Jameson: Sounds like I need to come over and check.

Sutton: Don’t you have some fires to fight or lives to save?

Jameson: Not yet, but I like that you know my work schedule.

Sutton: I saw your truck parked at the station.

Jameson: Glad you’re watching me.

Jameson: My vote for names are Sir Snuggles or Captain Cuddles.

She doesn’t respond, and I decide to give her some more time. I also debate if I should make an excuse to go over to the grooming salon to see her.

That thought is completely derailed when the signal goes off for a call, and we have to go.

“Turner, you coming?” I hear Dave ask.

“I think he’s too busy pining,” Parker retorts.

“You both are going to make me request a shift change,” I threaten as they climb into the truck and Jo and I climb into the ambulance.

“You wouldn’t,” Jo scoffs.

“Probably not, but Parker’s one to talk about pining.”

“Dish it right back to him then, that’ll shut him up.”

“Maybe another time when we aren’t going on a call.”

We all drive to the car accident. Luckily, it’s not too bad, just a driver that veered off into the ditch. No visible injuries, but we still look the young man over as protocol and offer to take him to the hospital. He initially declines, but then another car pulls up and an irate woman jumps out.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” She rushes over to where he’s sitting on the edge of the ambulance.

“I’m fine, Mom,” he grumbles.

“Fine? No, absolutely not you need to go to the hospital! You could have whiplash or internal bleeding! Who’s in charge here?” She looks between everyone, then turns toward me, settling her narrowed gaze. “You.”

“I’m not in charge,” I inform her.

“Well, you have to take him to the hospital, don’t you? That’s what your job is? He’s my baby and I need to know that he’s okay. I want every test possible run on him. “

“Mom.” The man who can’t be less than thirty complains. “I’m fine. I just called you for a ride.”

“Don’t listen to him, he’s clearly concussed. He needs to go,” she tries again.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but he’s the patient. As an adult he has the right to refuse medical treatment if he wants and I have to honor his wishes.”

“Even if he was dying on the side of the road?” she screeches.

“At that point, he would probably not be conscious and not able to give me a verbal answer, at which point I would take him to the hospital.”

She gasps. “How dare you speak that way about him!”

I furrow my brow and look toward my coworkers for any assistance because she’s the one that brought up her son dying on the side of the road.

“Ma’am,” Jo says, drawing the woman’s attention away from me and to her, which I’m thankful for and will likely owe her after this.

“I assure you; we have looked over your son and he’s fine.

We’ve offered to take him to the hospital, and he declined.

We can’t force him to go, but if you wish to take him then that’s up to you. ”

The woman huffs and is clearly still unhappy about this, but she just shoots me a glare before stepping closer to her son.

“Thanks,” I tell Jo quietly.

“You owe me.”

I knew it.

We get back to the station, and as we are pulling into the bays, I notice Sutton leaving the salon. She’s looking over at the station as she gets to her car. I think about going over there and trying to talk to her, trying again to ask her on a date after the kiss we had the other night.

I’m nothing if not persistent, but I also know I can’t force her to want to go out with me. Even though it felt like she softened toward me that night. I wanted to take things further, and for a moment I thought maybe she did too.

But I’m a gentleman and Ma raised me right. So of course I wasn’t going to push the first chance I got.

Without giving myself more time to debate, I hop out of the ambulance and jog over to Sutton before she has the chance to drive away.

“Hey,” I say as casually as I can when I approach her Jeep.

“Hi,” she responds softly.

“Did you make a decision?”

The look she gives me has me biting back a laugh at her confusion. “A decision about what?”

“You already forgot? Sutton, you wound me. I had a very important question for you earlier that you never answered.”

She continues to look even more confused, and the way her lips purse makes me want to kiss the look right off her face.

Now that I know what she feels like pressed against me, mouths molded together while our tongues tangle, it’s almost impossible to focus on anything else.

Especially when she’s standing right in front of me because I want it to happen again.

“Must not have been that important since I can’t remember what it was.”

I press my hand to my chest and pretend to be injured. “Damn, next time you should actually hit me. It may hurt less than this.”

That earns me a small chuckle she tries to cover up with a cough.

“Don’t you need to be over there doing your job?” she asks seriously.

“They’ll yell if they need me.”

“Right, well I’m going home.”

“Wait.” I hold the top of her door. “Go out with me.”

She sighs, looking down at our feet. “Jameson...”

I go weak at how she sounds saying my name. “Just bring Bennet over again. Duke misses him.”

“I’m sure he does.” She smirks. “I’ll think about it.”

“I’ll take it. Have a good evening, Sutton.”

“You, too.” She climbs into her car, and I shut the door for her, watching as she drives away.

A hand clamps down on my shoulder, and I flinch in shock. “You got it bad, don’t you?” Dave asks.

“Where did you even come from?”

“I’m like a ninja, always around and paying attention, but you don’t always see me.”

“Should I be concerned?”

He laughs, patting me on the shoulder again. “Probably not.”

We walk back to the station, and I avoid my coworkers, especially Parker who I know will say something about me going over to Sutton. I busy myself making a quick dinner and eating so I can try to get a little bit of sleep, hoping we don’t get another call for at least a couple of hours.

As I lay down, I look at my phone and see there’s a text waiting for me. My heart races as I open it, and a smile spreads across my face. It’s a picture of the teddy bear, notably on blankets and some pillows.

Sutton: I guess I could call him Cuddles, but you only get to refer to him as Captain.