Page 10 of Give Me a Reason

“Is that all you got, Nam?” Joe yelled in Frederick’s face, his voice echoing in the otherwise unoccupied fire station gym.

“Yes, it is,” Frederick gritted through his teeth, even as he pushed himself to do one more bench press. His lieutenant was a great workout partner, but he was also irritating as fuck.

“Come on, Captain. I know you have one last rep in you. Do it for the team.” Joe clapped so loudly that Frederick’s ears rang. “You got this.”

Frederick dropped the barbell on the rack after finishing the one last rep and sat up on the bench. Panting from the brutal workout, he glared at his grinning friend. “Seriously? Do it for the team ?”

“Sure. Why not? You love us.” Joe shrugged unrepentantly. “I got that last rep out of you, didn’t I?”

“Aren’t you afraid of reprisal when it’s your turn?” Frederick grabbed his towel and made a big show of wiping down the bench. “Your turn, Lieutenant.”

“You know today’s my leg day,” Joe said with a self-satisfied smirk. “Besides, we should hit the shower and get ready for dinner. Everyone will be here soon.”

Frederick smiled despite himself. He loved having Thanksgiving dinner at the fire station. His parents were long gone, and his older sister, Shannon, and her husband, Chris, were out of the country more often than not.

Chris was a sought-after film composer who recorded most of his scores in Europe, and Shannon accompanied him whenever possible. Frederick missed them, but his crew was his family, too. He couldn’t wait to go into a food coma with them.

“Bethany insisted on bringing the turkey and some homemade pies,” Joe said meaningfully as they headed out of the station gym and down the hallway leading to the offices. “You’re in for a treat. She’s an amazing cook.”

“Uh…” Frederick wasn’t sure what meaning his friend was trying to convey. He nodded at Tanner, a senior firefighter, who sat in a shared office with the door open. “That’s great. Does Coraline cook well, too?”

“Nah, but she likes everything I cook, so we’re good. Anyway, what did you think of Bethany?” Joe’s expression conveyed wiggling eyebrows without actually wiggling them.

“She was busy with her students. I hardly spoke to her.” All Frederick remembered from that day was Anne. But at his friend’s crestfallen expression, he floundered for something nice to say about Coraline’s sister. “But she seemed… sweet?”

“Isn’t she, though?” Joe clapped him on the back, stopping at the door to the apparatus bay.

Frederick’s office and attached room were a few doors down.

The dormitory and showers for the rest of the team were on the opposite side of the bay.

“And you’ll have plenty of time to get to know her tonight. ”

“That’s great,” Frederick repeated in a slightly choked voice, finally understanding his friend’s meaning . He gulped and glanced longingly at his office.

Frederick didn’t date much, which might have prompted this unfortunate bout of matchmaking.

He was far from a womanizer, but he also was no monk.

He just never talked to his friends about the women he “dated,” mostly because he rarely went on more than three dates with them, and partly because there was nothing to say.

They met, shared a meal, and had sex—sometimes skipping the meal part altogether.

After two to three such “dates,” he started twitching with a sense of wrongness.

He didn’t fit with these women. Most of them let him bow out with a shrug, but some thought he was an asshole.

He tended to agree with the latter, which was why he didn’t date much.

For the hundredth time, he wondered if he should talk to his therapist about his aversion to romantic relationships, then swiftly decided against it.

There was nothing to talk about. Not everyone needed romance in their lives.

He blew out a long breath and raked his fingers through his sweaty hair.

He caught Joe watching him with furrowed brows. Shit.

“Time for that shower.” Frederick gave his friend an embarrassingly awkward salute and dashed for his office.

He was touched that Joe wanted to set him up with his future sister-in-law—it was a sign of trust and affection. But Frederick wasn’t about to have a fling with Bethany Hong, which was all he had to offer. So he had to derail his friend’s misguided kindness as swiftly and effectively as possible.

Frederick brooded under the steaming water and lost track of time. When he walked out of his office, there was no one in the hallway. He hurried across the empty bay.

As he neared the kitchen in the back corner of the station, he heard the ruckus of his crew shouting over each other and hooting with laughter. Nothing excited those heathens more than food.

When he walked into the large open kitchen, the huge dining table was already laden with enough food to feed his entire team for days.

Not that it would last that long. The next shift would finish any leftovers before his team came back on duty twenty-four hours later.

It was a matter of principle and jackassery between the shifts.

Well, they had to do their utmost to leave slim pickings for C Shift. Joe could probably get everyone pumped up enough to eat their weight in food. One more bite. Do it for the team. Frederick chuckled under his breath and glanced around the kitchen.

Michelle, the driver operator, chatted with Tanner as they grabbed pitchers of iced tea from the refrigerator.

Sandy and Nick stood next to the cabinets by the sink, bickering over which dinner plates to use.

Pete and his wife, Katie, were setting out even more platters of food on the kitchen island, and Frederick sauntered over to them.

“Chief.” He slapped his friend on the back and leaned down to kiss Katie’s cheek. “Hey, gorgeous. Did you miss me?”

Katie trapped his face between her hands with uncanny speed and studied him with narrow-eyed focus. For a wisp of a woman who was an inch shy of five feet tall, she was ridiculously strong and fast. After a moment, she declared, “You’ve lost weight.”

“No, I haven’t,” Frederick protested through puckered lips.

“It’s a good thing we have plenty to eat.” She released him and patted his cheek. “You can drown your sorrows in food.”

“What sorrows?” Frederick frowned in confusion, but understanding and mortification soon dawned on him. Someone had blabbed about his run-in with Anne. He glared at Pete, who assiduously avoided his eyes.

“If I ever meet that woman, I’m going to give her a piece of my mind,” Katie fumed, removing aluminum foil from a platter of her famous beef rolls.

“I thought you and Pete loved her.” Frederick couldn’t hold back a huff of affectionate laughter.

“We can separate the art from the artist,” Katie growled, ripping open a bag of King’s Hawaiian Rolls instead of taking off the plastic clip. Her husband gently took the bag from her hands before she flattened the sweet, fluffy rolls.

“Sorry about Katie,” Pete said when she went in search of more plates. “You know how fiercely loyal she is to her friends.”

“Don’t worry about it. Katie is awesome,” Frederick said with a wry smile as he swiped a beef roll off the platter. “Even when she wants to throw down with my ex.”

He couldn’t stay annoyed at his friends.

They were looking out for him like they always did.

Besides, who could stay annoyed while eating one of Katie’s beef rolls?

The tender spiced beef melded beautifully with the fresh cilantro and spring onion, all wrapped to perfection in a chewy flour pancake.

He could stand there and eat the entire platter of them.

“She is awesome, isn’t she?” Pete sighed, making moon eyes at his wife.

“You guys are pretty disgusting, you know that?” Frederick smirked. “You’ve been married for… what? Five years? Isn’t the honeymoon supposed to be over by now?”

“Not yet, but soon,” his friend said enigmatically.

“I have something to tell you guys.” Joe joined them at the kitchen island before Frederick could grill Pete about what he meant.

His lieutenant inhaled a Hawaiian roll before he continued.

“I didn’t tell you earlier because she’s family, and I didn’t want to gossip about my family.

But I also don’t want you guys acting weird around her. So…”

“Come out with it already,” Pete groused.

“Remember I told you Coraline is bringing her cousin tonight? One of her bridesmaids?” Joe pulled them away from the island and herded them to a relatively quiet corner of the kitchen. “Well, she’s kind of famous. In fact, Pete’s a big fan of hers. She’s… Anne Lee.”

Frederick casually leaned a shoulder against the wall, because his ears were ringing and his head spun like he was riding one of those death-trap carnival rides. He closed his eyes against the rising nausea, then he opened them again because it didn’t help. Nothing helped.

Pete’s high-pitched squeak definitely did not help. His friend clapped a hand over his mouth, and the piercing sound thankfully ceased. After a moment, he removed his hand and revealed a giant, toothy grin. “Shut the front door.”

“No, I’m serious.” Joe chuckled. “She is so down-to-earth and chill. You would never guess she’s someone famous.”

This could not be happening. Anne was Coraline’s cousin. She was one of the bridesmaids. They—she and he—were going to be in a wedding together. She would be his lieutenant’s cousin soon. Holy shit.

He swallowed with great difficulty. Then he panicked for a second, thinking he’d swallowed his tongue. But it was still there, sitting thick and clumsy in his dry mouth. So much for never seeing her again. He coughed to cover the hysterical laughter bubbling up his throat.

“Oh. My. God. ” Pete theatrically clutched at his chest, oblivious to Frederick’s near meltdown. “Do you know what she’s doing in the States?”