Page 5 of Her Paramedic (Men in Uniforms #3)

“You want to break, Talia?” Phil asked before Slate could respond.

“Sure,” she responded, still looking at him, and Slate held one of the hundreds he’d picked up towards her.

He took the seat she vacated while Hank sat at the other end of the table with a smirk. Phil would need to play better than Hank if he wanted to win, and Slate didn’t see that happening.

She lined up her shot, rocketing the cue ball toward the cluster of balls and sinking two solids. “I guess that means those are mine,” she stated, moving to the cue ball and sinking another solid.

The look on Phil’s face was priceless, and Slate watched the realization sink in. He could feel Hank’s eyes on him, but he paid the other man no mind, drinking his Jack and Coke.

“I wish I could have seen their initial reactions,” Talia laughed as they sat across from one another.

After Phil’s defeat, the two men accused them of hustling them, to which Talia responded, “Like you were trying to do us?” It ended the conversation, and they returned to the table they were at initially.

They then played four games against one another, which ended in a tie, and instead of a tiebreaker, Talia wanted to get food.

He’d followed her to the restaurant they now sat in.

“It didn’t take them long to understand what was happening.”

Slate didn’t realize Talia hadn’t seen their reactions because she was focusing on lining up her shot. It wasn’t until they were halfway through dinner that she said something about it.

“I take it you used to hustle people?”

She smiled at him. “When I was younger, not all people, just men. I like that they underestimated me, and I especially enjoyed beating those who immediately volunteered to teach me to play when I walked in.”

“I’m sure you took great pleasure in putting them in their place.”

“Oh, I did.” She paused. “How long were you enlisted, and how long have you been a paramedic?”

“Enlisted for twelve years, and I’ve been a paramedic for almost four.”

“You enlisted right out of high school?”

“I did. How long have you owned your salon?”

“It has been almost twelve years. Starting cosmetology school, I knew I wanted to own my own salon. I didn’t want to work in someone else’s because I knew the environment I wanted. It was a graduation present to myself with the help of my parents.”

“Was it only you when you started?”

“Two women in my class, Whitney and Maya, were interested in working with me once we graduated. They still rent chairs. It was the three of us for two years, and then I started recruiting at the school. Now, I have several stylists, braiders, and a lash tech. I tried to get Aariah to work in my shop when she got her esthetician license, but she wanted to be in a makeup studio. Did you know being a paramedic is what you wanted to do before you were discharged?”

“It was. I was a combat medic while enlisted and decided I wanted to keep helping people and saving lives. Emergency calls are sometimes just as hectic as field situations, and I was used to that.”

“Was it a hard transition? Going from a combat medic to a civilian paramedic?”

“It wasn’t hard, but there isn’t a straight slide from one to the other. My experience was considered, and I was able to get the recommended training hours and complete the courses in six months.”

“How long does it normally take if you start from scratch?” Talia asked.

“About two years, depending on the program, but that includes getting an EMT certification and gaining work experience as one for about six months. Since I was already a certified EMT and had performed far more extensive procedures in the field, the program I enrolled in took that as experience.”

“They required a certification while you were enlisted?”

“Yes. Army and Navy medics are required to hold an EMT certification,” Slate responded.

“When you enlisted, did you want to be a medic, or did you fall into it?”

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been out with someone interested in his time in the military, beyond the fact that he had been, but he could tell Talia wasn’t asking him questions for the hell of it. She was genuinely curious.

“I fell into it. After basic training, you try to figure out what you want to do and where you’ll blend in. It fell into my lap. What about you? Did you always want to be a cosmetologist?”

“Always. I loved doing my dolls’ hair as a kid, and then, as I got older and better at it, I started doing Kaydence’s.

I remember being eleven, and I was in her hair again, trying a new style, and she was so tired of me because I’d probably done her hair twelve times that week.

When I finished, she told me to leave her alone until Christmas. It was January.”

Slate laughed. “Did you leave her alone?”

“Kind of. I didn’t bother her as much about it and tried to keep asking her to a minimum. Eventually, she wanted me to do it when she started middle school.”

They continued their conversation, finished their food, and he paid much to her protest. She’d suggested card roulette— let the server choose who paid. But when she handed her card to him, he kept it, gave the server his card, and only returned Talia's once the server was gone.

“This was fun,” she stated as they stood beside her car. “When’s the next time you’ll be in town?”

“The next time you want to see me.”

“Are you free next weekend?”

“I work Friday and Saturday, but I’m all yours Sunday.”

She nodded. “I can come to you. So you don’t have to make the drive after working all weekend.”

“Either way is fine with me, gorgeous.”

Slate closed the distance between them. One arm wrapped around her waist, his other hand resting on the side of her car, and his lips touched hers. The kiss was soft and brief as her hands touched his chest and nudged.

“Wait,” she stated against his lips, and he stepped back. “Can we just…can we not rush it? That doesn’t always work well for me. I had fun with you and…”

“We could do that.”

He would like to say that he had no intentions of rushing, and he didn’t, at least in other aspects with her.

But as far as making her his, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t planned on leaving that night with her knowing it.

Slate was starting to think it was something he and his friends had in common because he knew Axel took Kaydence on one date; they were pretty much exclusive at that point, and Killian had made Journee aware of what he wanted barely an hour after meeting her.

However, if she wanted to move a little slower, he could do that if it made her more comfortable. He’d already waited a couple of months. What was a little more time?

He ran his knuckles along her cheek. “I’ll see you next weekend.”

“Okay. Text me when you get home,” she requested.

Slate watched her get into her car and pull off before getting in his and heading home. He needed the week to speed by.