Page 6 of Her Paramedic (Men in Uniforms #3)

S late sat in the driver’s seat of the ambulance in their assigned district, reading a book, and his partner played some handheld game as they waited for the next call or their shift to end.

They had an hour left, but he knew better than to assume they’d get through it without another call or to say so aloud.

Doing so was almost always a definite jinx.

“Damn it,” Jonah cursed, and he knew the other man had lost whatever he was playing. With what he was playing, he was having a streak of bad luck tonight. Slate heard more muttered curses than the usual excited, “Fuck yeah!”

He didn’t ask, wanting to avoid getting caught up in another conversation about Minecraft or Animal Crossing , where he had no idea what was being discussed.

“Tonight has been—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Slate cut him off. The last thing they needed was for Jonah to speak those doomed words and for something crazy to happen.

Jonah laughed. “Fine. You have plans for tomorrow?”

“I do,” he responded, flipping the page.

“That’s right. You spend your weekends working on that pile of metal in your garage.”

Slate turned his attention to him. “Careful, kid. That’s a classic you’re talking about.”

“Sure, sure. It was the best car back when you were in your prime. Was that before or after color television was invented?”

Slate snorted. “That joke wasn’t funny the first time; it doesn’t grow in humor the more you use it.”

Jonah enjoyed ribbing Slate about their age difference.

From the moment they were paired together a year ago, he took whatever chance he could to joke about the decade between them.

Slate didn’t mind the jokes. They spent too much time together for something like that to bother him, and he knew it was in good fun.

He didn’t feel the need to correct him. Typically, he would have worked on the car he was restoring, but he was taking Talia out. She was coming to town at one, and if he were lucky, he’d get her to agree to spend the rest of the day with him.

“What are your plans for tomorrow?” Slate asked.

“A few friends and I are getting together to watch a new season of that show I was telling you about. It drops at midnight.”

“Dispatch to unit seventeen.” Broke through the radio.

Slate picked up the radio. “Seventeen, go ahead.”

“We have a bravo code ten at 543 Whitaker. Occupant requesting assistance.”

Slate refrained from rolling his eyes as Jonah groaned. They were familiar with the address. There wasn’t a week that went by without a call from the occupant, Mr. Mormont, that something was wrong with him. Ninety-five percent of the time, he was fine.

“Copy that dispatch; we’re en route.”

He tossed his book onto the dashboard, turned on the lights, and pulled out of the parking lot in the center of their district, which they liked to sit in.

“What’s the chances of him actually needing assistance and not just looking for someone to talk to?” Jonah asked when they stopped in front of Mr. Mormont’s residence.

Slim, Slate thought, but didn’t voice. Mr. Mormont was one of the healthiest people he’d met.

Even at eighty years old, he seemed to take good care of himself.

Except for the occasional cold or flu, the man was as healthy as an ox.

Mr. Mormont suffered from loneliness. From what they’d learned over the last year of treating him, his wife had died a little over a year ago. They had no kids, so now he was alone.

They grabbed their bags from the back, opting to leave the stretcher. Dispatch stated it was a code bravo, and unless he’d substantially worsened in the four minutes it took them to get to him, Slate didn’t see them needing it. He strongly suspected they wouldn’t be taking him to the hospital.

“Mr. Mormont,” Slate called as he knocked on the door. “Emergency services.”

“It’s open!”

They found Mr. Mormont sitting in his overstuffed, easy chair. The man almost perked up when he saw them.

“If it isn’t my favorite paramedics.”

“Hey, Mr. Mormont. Dispatch said you called complaining of tightness in the chest,” Slate said.

“I did, but it subsided. I think it was a severe case of heartburn.”

Slate nodded. “We’re still going to check you out, okay?”

They went through a routine check. Everything sounded, looked, and felt normal as Mr. Mormont told them about a bridge tournament at the senior hall he planned to attend on Monday.

When they were satisfied he was fine, they packed up.

Mr. Mormont asked if they had anything exciting planned for the weekend or if they had done anything over the previous one.

They indulged him as Slate filled out the report paperwork.

“I’ll see you boys later,” Mr. Mormont stated as they exited his house.

“He meant that literally,” Jonah said when they slid into the ambulance. “On the plus side, we can return to the station.”

They only had fifteen minutes left of their shift, and Slate headed toward the ambulance station. They pulled in a minute before the end of their shift without another call and turned in their reports while an oscar restocked the ambulance for the next shift.

Ten minutes later, Slate said bye to Jonah as they went their separate ways. He was ready to get home and laze the evening away.

It was after seven-thirty when he pulled into his driveway and headed straight for the kitchen when he entered the house.

He tossed his phone on the counter, pulled out some leftovers from the night before, and popped them into the microwave.

He left it to warm while he rid himself of his uniform, leaving him in his boxers and T-shirt.

His phone rang several minutes later as he pulled the food from the microwave.

“What’s up, Ace?”

“Are you still at work?”

“No, but you asking means you want to talk about work.”

Ace chuckled. “Something like that.”

“What is it?”

“With the new training needed for the expansion, we’ll need more than the two of us doing it.

Killian proposed group training, which I agree is the best option.

But I want to keep them small, four at most per group.

I think we need at least three other trainers.

Five is a good number to have, and we can make it work with four on the days you’re unavailable. ”

Slate didn’t recall them discussing him becoming a trainer, but he said he would take on a more active role when Ace needed him to. He supposed that time was now.

“I agree. Big groups make it too easy to overlook someone who needs additional training. It would be more beneficial to promote tier-one bodyguards to trainers. They’re former military personnel licensed to carry, and I’m sure several of them will want to take on the new assignments.

Let’s train them first and then transition to training the others. ”

“That’s my exact thought. I know you work tomorrow, but do you have plans for Monday or Tuesday? I want us to run through the training to see where to break it down.”

Slate didn’t have to work Sunday since he and Jonah agreed to switch shifts with another unit a couple of weeks ago.

“I don’t work tomorrow, but I have plans. I’ll come by the facility Monday afternoon, and we can work on it.”

“That works. I’ll see you then.”

They ended the call, and Slate turned on the television as he continued his dinner.

? ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ · ─ ?

“I t’s open,” Talia called to the knock on her door.

She’d only been home an hour and was in the middle of making dinner. Instead of going out on the town, she and Alivia were spending their Saturday night in since she was going on her second date with Slate tomorrow afternoon.

“Hey,” Alivia greeted, entering the kitchen.

“Hey,” she responded, looking over her shoulder.

“I brought dessert and a couple of movies.” She placed a bag on the countertop. “Do you need some help?”

“No, everything should be done soon. You can take out the dinnerware.”

“How many clients did you see today?” Alivia asked, doing as requested.

“Six. I only had five on the books, but a wash and haircut walked in. I had some free time, so I took them.”

They continued the conversation as Talia finished making dinner. Once they were seated with the first movie on, their conversation teetered off, and they enjoyed a comfortable silence as they ate.

The movie Alivia put in was a comedy Talia had never heard of, with actors she’d never heard of, but it was good so far. Her friend had a keen eye for choosing B and C movies with decent storylines. There had only been two so far that were major misses.

“How was the wedding?” Alivia asked as they were cleaning the kitchen together after the first movie.

Talia passed her the last dish to dry. It was the first time Alivia had asked about the wedding since she’d called Talia the morning after.

She’d found out about it from a post on social media by someone they were casually acquainted with.

While Talia didn’t want her sister’s big day clouded with resentment or made about someone else, she didn’t want Alivia to find out about it from someone else or a social media post, which is what happened.

She’d had every intention of calling her friend when she got home after the wedding, but she’d been so tired that she sat on her couch and didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep until the call had woken her.

Alivia had only asked her if the post was correct, and when Talia told her it was, all her friend said was that she would be late for work before hanging up.

She knew they would talk about it at some point.

She hadn’t thought it would be almost two weeks later.

“It was good. It was intimate because we planned it in such a short time.”

Alivia hummed. “Why was it planned so quickly?”

Talia paused, debating how to answer. She was sure being truthful would unintentionally hurt Alivia, regardless of what her friend said. She could read her like a book, but didn’t want to lie.

“They didn’t see a reason to wait,” she opted to reply.

“By they, you mean Axel.”

Talia made a noncommittal noise as she dried her hands.

She wasn’t wrong, but she would not confirm that.

She knew that coddling Alivia’s feelings on the subject was likely the wrong thing to do.

It wouldn’t aid in her friend getting over whatever lingering feelings she still harbored for Axel.

However, Talia also didn’t want to say anything that would hurt her and rub it in.

She knew it was something Alivia would have to get over on her own, and while, in her opinion, she’d had plenty of time, everyone was different and processed things at different rates.

“Is he also the reason my invitation seemed to be lost?”

“It was a small wedding that could accommodate only a specific number, and they invited the people they were closest to.”

It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but that wasn’t why Alivia wasn’t invited, and it wasn’t Kaydence or Axel who left her off Kaydence’s list. When Alivia didn’t respond, Talia nudged her with her hip before looping their arms.

“Come on. Let’s watch the other movie you brought.”

They returned to the living room and settled on the couch; the next movie queued up to watch. It was a horror, and aside from a few odd graphic moments, the storyline and the acting were good.

It was after eleven when she walked Alivia to the door.

“You want to get lunch tomorrow?” she asked.

“I have plans tomorrow, but we can do Monday if that suits you.”

“Yeah. Monday works.”

They hugged, and Talia said, “Get home safe. Text me when you make it.” Alivia agreed, and Talia watched her get into her car and back out before closing and locking the door.

She grabbed her phone, which she’d set aside when she got home, and checked it.

There was a text from Slate with his address.

She was meeting him at his house since she would spend a few hours in town.

She didn’t know what they were doing. He’d asked her to allow him to plan it, and Talia had no problem with that.

She replied even though it was late, and headed into her bathroom.

She planned on leaving at eleven tomorrow morning.

Since he worked the weekend, she didn’t want to take up too much of his day when he could be relaxing.

Talia also planned to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

The holiday was around the corner, and she still had a few people to purchase for.

After her shower, she turned on her white noise machine and settled into bed.