Page 50 of Her Paramedic (Men in Uniforms #3)

S late leaned back in the passenger seat as he stifled a yawn.

He’d driven directly to Colorado Springs when he’d gotten off that morning at seven.

He’d slept for a few hours when he’d made it to Talia’s house, but he knew she wanted to take him somewhere for his birthday and didn’t want to throw off her plans if they were on a schedule.

“You could sleep on the way, baby,” Talia said, pulling out of the driveway.

“Does that mean we’re in for a long ride?”

“Maybe.”

Slate chuckled. “You know the road signs will give it away,” he parroted from their last trip.

“Well, then wait for them to tell you.”

He assumed that wherever they were going wasn’t far. They hadn’t packed anything, which meant they weren’t staying. From that, he gathered their destination was a couple of hours away at most.

“We’ll have a late lunch when we get there. Is that okay with you?” she asked.

“Whatever you have planned is fine, baby. I’m following your lead,” Slate replied.

They were soon pulling onto the highway, and Slate felt a bit odd being in the passenger seat. He always drove when they went somewhere together, having no problem with Talia playing the role of passenger princess. He supposed that would be his role for the day.

It was quiet between them for several minutes, even the radio was turned down low. He was sure it was because she thought he might go back to sleep, but he had no intention of doing so. If he were at home, he would have gotten up in a couple of hours, anyway.

“Kaydence told me last night that she and Axel have dwindled their short list down to two homes. I think they might put an offer in on one soon,” Talia said.

“Yeah, I know Axel got an offer on his house, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to take it. I think he wants them to find one, so they only have to move things once,” Slate replied.

“That makes sense. Kaydence got an offer on hers a few weeks ago, but they were trying to lowball her and she passed.”

They continued their conversation, and Slate knew they were going to Denver or Boulder halfway through the drive, but kept it to himself. He’d let her surprise him with whatever she had in store.

S late said he was content to let her surprise him, and she’d done a damn good job of it when she pulled into a car show.

He’d forgotten there was one happening that weekend.

The parking area was crowded, and had she not told him she’d reserved a space ahead of time, he didn’t think there would have been one.

They exited the car, and Slate took her hand as they approached the entrance.

“There’s supposed to be quite a few cars and parts vendors here, along with other vendors and food trucks. I thought you’d enjoy it since you told me you hadn’t been to one since the last car you finished.”

He remembered telling her that, but it was when they first started dating.

Hell, it was technically before they were dating officially.

They’d been discussing his hobby, and she asked the last time he’d gone to a car show.

It was something they spoke of in passing, but he shouldn’t have been surprised that she remembered it.

The show they were at was one of the largest in Colorado, but he hadn’t been in a couple of years.

It always drew a large crowd. Even those who weren’t big into antique or sports cars visited for the other vendors that came out.

While the primary focus was on the cars for most in attendance, there were several other things to take part in.

It was the perfect place to spend his birthday.

Slate pulled Talia around to stand in front of him. He captured her lips with his, kissing her slowly, and he didn’t care who saw them or who they might have been holding up.

“Thank you, gorgeous.”

“You don’t have to thank me, but I can’t promise you might not get annoyed with the questions I ask. I know enough about cars to drive one and take it to the mechanic,” she responded with a cute smile.

Slate chuckled. “Ask away, baby.”

They continued into the event and decided to first stop at one of the nearby food trucks. He’d stopped and gotten something after his shift on the way to her house, but that had been almost eight hours ago. They ordered their food, and when he reached for his wallet, Talia stopped him.

“Not a chance, birthday boy,” she told him, pulling out her debit card and handing it to the attendant.

“As a matter of fact, put it in here,” she instructed, opening her purse.

He dropped his wallet inside, and she took her card back from the giggling young woman.

They stepped off to the side as they waited for their order.

“What do you want to do first after we eat?”

“We can check out some vendors on the way to the cars,” he responded, and she nodded.

“I thought you might find a part from one of the vendors. You’re still looking for two, right?” she asked.

“I am. Finding them here would help me finish it faster.”

He’d been at a standstill for a few weeks because he couldn’t find the original parts, and he didn’t want to substitute them. It would bring down the value of the car, but he was close to doing it since he couldn’t find them. Maybe he’d get lucky and a parts vendor there would have what he needed.

They retrieved their food when it was ready and found a nearby table.

“Do the people showing their cars win anything?” Talia asked halfway through their meal.

“It depends on the event, but sometimes. Usually, half of the people only want to show off their possessions, and the other half want to get eyes on it because they’re interested in selling it. It’s an easy way to find someone looking to buy. For buyers, it’s an easy way to spot what they want.”

“And you fall into the latter of the two.”

“I’d say I’m in the middle. I want to show it off because I rebuilt it, but I’m also looking to sell it.”

Talia nodded. “There are websites to sell through too, aren’t there?”

“Yes, but you get more genuine interest from people in front of you. You can feel if they’re serious or only wasting time. That’s harder to figure out through messages on a website.”

He’d gone through it a couple of times and preferred it when he met an interested buyer at a show. People online had too much time on their hands, and he was fine with them wasting it as long as he didn’t have to be a part of how they did it.

When they finished eating, they headed to check out a few vendors before venturing to the cars.

? ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ ?

T alia recognized a few of the car parts at the vendor they were currently at, but the rest were foreign to her.

They saw all the cars in attendance, and she’d asked Slate so many questions she was sure she might have gotten on his nerves, but if she had, her boyfriend had said nothing and answered her each time.

She looked around for a bathroom that she was sure they passed when they first arrived. She spotted the sign for it, and she placed her hand on Slate’s arm, drawing his attention.

“I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going? You need me to go with you?”

Talia shook her head. She knew he was asking because he didn’t want to lose her in the crowd. “To the bathroom. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He nodded, and she left him to keep looking.

Several minutes later, she was exiting the bathroom when she heard her name called. The voice was familiar, but with the sea of people and other noise around, she couldn’t place it until they called her again.

“Talia? Hey, I thought that was you,” Charlie said, grabbing her wrist. She pulled it free and kept from groaning.

She thought she’d seen the last of him when he’d shown up unannounced at her house, and she couldn’t believe she’d run into him in a different city.

“I didn’t know you liked cars. Are you here with your sister or that mean ass friend of yours? ”

Talia didn’t owe him an explanation, but she couldn’t stop herself from answering. “Neither. I’m here with my man.”

“Really?” he asked. “Wow, that’s funny.”

“Why is that?” she inquired, crossing her arms.

“Because you can come with some other man, but not me, while we were dating.”

Talia wondered if he was serious. “I didn’t even know you liked cars like that.

” And because she couldn’t help herself, she continued.

“It’s hard to learn anything about a person when every time you try or ask them something, they give you surface-level ass answers, and are more interested in what you have between your legs. ”

He scoffed. “Here you go with this shit. You act like we both didn’t get what we wanted, that we didn’t have fun together. Don’t act like you weren’t interested in what was between my legs, too. I’m sure you still think about it.”

Talia had not given that man a thought until he’d shown up at her door, and then until now.

She did not think about him. If anything, she’d forgotten he existed since she started dating Slate, but it wasn’t just him.

It was any man she’d dated before her boyfriend.

They paled in comparison and were nonexistent.

“It was nothing special, but you’re a great eater,” she shot back.

Charlie’s jaw ticked as his eyes narrowed, and she could tell that she’d hit a nerve and pissed him off. She didn’t care. He could have left her alone and gone about his day like he didn’t see her. But since he hadn’t, here they were.

“I hate your fucking guts,” he spat through clenched teeth.

“I’m sure you do. Since you never could reach them.”

Slate’s chuckling pulled her attention as he joined them. Talia didn’t notice he’d approached them. “I was going to ask if you were good, but I can see that you are,” he said. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.

“I’m fine,” she responded.

“As wine, I’m aware, but I asked if you were good.”

“Corny,” Charlie mumbled under his breath, and Talia rolled her eyes at him.

“Maybe,” her boyfriend responded with a shrug. “But I prefer to be corny while I rearrange her guts, then never to have reached them.”

She couldn’t help but laugh, which was only compounded by the shocked look on Charlie’s face before Slate led her away. Sometimes she forgot how petty her man could be. When she sobered up a minute later, she noticed a bag in his hand.

“What’s in the bag?” she asked.

“I found one of the parts I needed.”

After they’d stopped at other vendors and saw all the cars, she’d handed his wallet back to him when he started looking for parts. Talia had volunteered to pay for them if he found them, but he’d declined, telling her original parts were pricey.

They weaved through the throngs of people. The crowd seemed to almost double in size, but she assumed it was because there was a local band playing at seven. She’d contemplated them staying for it, but knew the genre wasn’t one she or Slate enjoyed.

She checked that there wasn’t anything else he wanted to do before they headed to the parking lot. They would have dinner in Denver, and when they returned to her house, she’d give him his birthday gifts.

I t was almost ten o’clock when they walked through her front door. She paused long enough to let Slate lock it behind them before pulling him into her bedroom and asking him to sit on the bed. Talia removed his gifts from the closet, giving him the gift bag first.

It was a wrist brace that could hold small parts: screws, lug nuts, and Allen wrenches.

She thought it would come in handy and help him save time when working on cars.

When he thanked her, putting it aside, she handed him the small wrapped box that housed a simple platinum chain.

When they’d gone on vacation a few weeks ago, she’d seen him look at something similar in one of the stores they’d stopped in.

Slate pulled her to stand between his legs after putting the box on the nightstand. “Thank you, baby.”

He kissed her, hands going to the button of her shorts, and he made quick work of it and the zipper. “I’m requesting one more gift,” he stated against her lips.

Talia hummed, pulling him up and into the en suite. “I can accommodate that. After all, you have some rearranging to do.”

Her boyfriend chuckled in that way he did when he planned on having his way with her and leaving her incapacitated for a few hours. She knew by the time he was done with her, it would feel like it was her birthday.