Page 9

CHAPTER FIVE

Rumor has it she’s banging an old dude.

Ainsley

“ Y ou threw food on him?”

The horror in Boss’s eyes doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. I’d just about had myself convinced in the car that it was no big deal, accidents with plates happen all the time. For all the hot guy knew, I was a new waitress with butterfingers.

I look down at Bostic’s feet, his black combat-style boots, shiny and clean, unlike my scuffed ballet flats. “Technically, I didn’t throw it,” I say hesitantly, raising my gaze to meet his. It’s not as aghast as it was a few seconds ago. Maybe the killer cup of sweet tea I made is helping.

“So, it was an accident, then?” The one arched brow he raises dares me to lie.

“Uhh . . . I wouldn’t say an accident. More like . . . his fault.”

The other eyebrow rises just a fraction. “His fault?” I’m starting to believe that coming back to the firehouse after my shift was a bad idea.

I blow out a breath that makes my lips vibrate with a funny noise. “Fine, okay. I did it on purpose.” Hair falls across my shoulder, blocking Bostic’s and Luke’s—who’s pretending not to listen as he stirs the pot of spaghetti noodles for the ten thousandth time—view of my reddened cheeks .

“Did he do something to upset you?”

Yes! This is precisely the question Bostic should be asking. Except, how can I admit the truth without sounding like a hateful ass that needs to be shamed? I bite my lip and flash a look of help to Luke, who quickly turns back around and stirs. Traitor.

“He did.” I nod several times, hoping Bostic will jump in with another question. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.

Okay.

No big deal. Women lose their shit all the time. If they didn’t, men would act like they ran the world. A little bit of crazy never hurt anyone.

Except for the dick-ish dude’s shirt—that’s for sure ruined. He can kiss wearing that sexy as sin, dark button-down goodbye.

“What did he do to deserve his dinner on his lap?”

Okay, now Boss’s tone seems like he’s trying to make me feel bad. It’s working.

I stand from the table, grab his empty tea glass, and go to the refrigerator and pour him some more. He’s going to need it after this story.

“Taylor was giving me a hard time,” I admit with a soft shrug. “She had Tucker take all the good tipping tables and left me with the high school kids and some of the frat guys. You know those guys never leave a tip.”

Luke flashes me a sad look, but Bostic’s stare never wavers.

“I know that wasn’t a good reason to take out my frustrations on a customer.” It was supposed to be my table, but Tucker changed my zone at the last minute. “But Tucker had warned me off their tables, and I had enough drama already, but the guy kept insisting I take his food back and heat it.”

If I hadn’t been in such a pissy mood, I would have stopped to appreciate his glacier blue eyes—and I’m not talking about the pretty, light, icy color like you find above the water’s surface, warning you of impending doom.

No. I’m talking about the dark menacing glacier that sits just below the surface, waiting to destroy the next unsuspecting victim.

He was frighteningly beautiful, the slight twitch of his lips luring you in as his next breath destroyed you. And I fell epically for his bait.

“Why couldn’t you have just taken his food and heated it? Would it have been that bad?”

I finish pouring Bostic’s tea and make my way back to the table, setting it down harder than necessary.

“Don’t start making sense, Boss. I can’t take it.

” I suck in a deep breath and take a seat.

“All I’m saying is I didn’t want any more trouble.

I simply wanted to get Tucker, but he started doing this thing with his mouth. ”

Luke makes a noise, turning around. “What kind of thing? Like something kinky?”

It’s the first time I’ve smiled all night.

I turn, touching my finger to the corner of my lip.

“No. It was like this twitch. Like he was mocking me or something.” I think back to the man with the thick head of hair that looked mussed and wild as if he got out of the shower and dried it with a towel and didn’t bother taking a comb to it.

Right. His lip thing. “It was as if he was trying to get a reaction out of me.”

Luke cocks his head to the side. “Like he wanted to piss you off?”

I nod. “Yes. Exactly. I’m telling you, he wanted me to be mean to him.”

The groan that comes out of Bostic is low enough that I can ignore. “I’m sure that wasn’t the case.”

I shrug. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see this guy. He wanted a reaction, so I gave it to him.”

“What did Tucker say afterward?”

Eh. That’s where the night went even more downhill.

“He screamed that I had lost my mind, and I had no idea who I was fucking with.” I shrug. “Apparently, the guy is someone Tucker likes to kiss ass to because he comped their meal and spent a while talking to them before they left.”

“Did the guy look upset when he left?” This was from nosy Luke .

“Not really. His friend passed Tucker a card as they were leaving.” I shrug. “He didn’t even eat his new steak.” Not that I can blame him, but why not take it home?

“Are you going to lose your job?”

I make a face. “I hope not. All Tucker said when he returned was that I better be grateful he still cared about me.”

I pretend to gag.

My no-nonsense fire-savior doesn’t let me down. “So, you aren’t fired?”

“No, Boss.” I smile. “Not yet. Your girl will get to see another payday.”

“What do you think he meant by?—”

I can’t discuss this anymore. “I don’t know, Boss Hog, but let’s just call it a win and move on.”

He frowns at my new nickname. “Were you able to find anywhere to stay tonight?”

Lie. Just lie. It’s for his own good.

“Ye—”

Those dark, beady eyes narrow at my fidgeting hands.

“Yeeeaaah,” I drawl. “That would be a negative, Captain. I tried really hard, but no one had any available space.” And they are all twattastic, but I don’t need to tell Bostic that.

He probably already knows, being the closest fire station to the college.

“You’ll stay here tonight. You’ll take my room,” he says, sounding all hero-y.

“You have a room?” Do all firehouses have rooms?

“Yes. The others share sleeping quarters.”

I feel a grin slide onto my face as I cut Luke a look that clearly shows my amusement with this whole firemen hierarchy.

“But, where will you sleep?”

Boss nods to Luke. “In one of the other beds.”

Luke looks like he tasted something gross.

Guess nothing sucks worse than sleeping with your boss.

I make myself laugh, thinking of the two huge dudes tucked into their twin-sized beds while one probably nods off promptly at 9:00 p.m. while the other probably has ample amounts of phone sex until he passes out from exhaustion.

“One night,” says Luke, draining the noodles and giving me the side-eye. “One night is all you get. The captain snores.”

I’m sure that’s the issue, but nevertheless, their kindness is unnecessary. “Look, you guys are so sweet with feeding me and not reporting me to the authorities, but really, my car is quite comfortable.”

“No.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” I say to the angry-looking man. “All I need is possibly a pillow, and the floodlight left on. Simple.” I dust my hands off like my solution is done. “No one needs to give up their bed. Besides, I bet you’d be breaking like a ton of rules.”

Bostic grunts. “You’ll stay here. End of discussion.”

“Come on, Boss H?—”

His chair scrapes along the floor as his big body folds out. “I’m going to take a shower.”

He walks off, leaving me with my mouth hanging open. “Did he just cut me off?”

Luke grins, mixing the noodles with the sauce. “You don’t argue with Cap. His word is law around here.”

“I wasn’t arguing.” Okay, I was, but really, they don’t need to break any more rules for me. “I was just suggesting you be like a Motel 6 and leave the light on for me.”

Luke snorts. “I think that slogan means they will leave the interior lights on for you. Not toss you a pillow and flip on the bug light.”

“The floodlights, not the bug light. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if that thing was zapping poor little bugs all night.”

Luke and I both laugh.

“Fine,” I say after a minute. “But I want to slide down the fire pole before bed.”

The thing about sleeping in a firehouse is that you don’t really sleep.

It’s more like that movie Groundhog Day , where you repeat the same day over and over.

Except instead of repeating the same day, you repeat the same fifteen minutes of sleep before the fire alarm thingy goes off.

It was worse than sleeping in my car. I assured Boss that I would find somewhere to crash from here on out.

I appreciate their kindness, but there is no way I will make it another night in the firehouse. Sliding down the pole was cool, though.

“I don’t know, Mom,” I mumble into the phone, scanning the corkboard outside of Westminster Hall. “Maybe he was removing the stick up her vagina and fell in.”

My mom, who had been ready to drive up here and cut a bitch when I finally told her about Tucker and Taylor, laughs on the phone.

The sound is soothing and almost convinces me to take her offer of coming home this weekend.

I could use a hug and someone stuffing me full of food and doing all my laundry.

“I just don’t know what happened to that boy. He’s always adored you.”

He adored me all right. He loved me and the spare key to my apartment so he could fuck my roommate.

I know, I know. Jesus take the wheel and all that.

But it burns, right down to my little heartbroken soul.

These couple of days have not lessened the burn.

Tucker and I had plans. Legit plans of being a family and traveling the country.

How am I just supposed to move on from those plans?

Hell, I don’t even know if those were my plans or his plans. Is that still what I want? Why is all of this so confusing?