Page 24 of Striking the Match (Redwood Bay Fire #3)

Rico

I like it when things run smoothly.

As soon as I get to the station, I get the feeling that today is not going to be one of those days.

“Dray, seriously?” Sawyer Nelson cries in disbelief at our temporary team member, Drayton Hendrix. “You don’t have a favorite dinosaur? Everyone has to have a favorite dinosaur!”

We’ve been on shift approximately three minutes.

Hendrix sighs and looks over at me across the locker room.

“When does Zahir get back from Japan?” he asks wearily in his lilting Australian accent.

Secretly, I think he quite likes getting ribbed on like a real team member.

In fact, I think Hendrix needs a team of his own more than he’ll ever admit, but it’s not my place to speculate.

“Del doesn’t return for another couple of weeks,” I inform him apologetically.

“Lieutenant,” Nelson shouts at me as he stuffs his duffle into his locker. “Tell me you’re not totally lame and have a favorite dinosaur.”

As much as I hate encouraging our spunky teammate when he gets in one of these moods, especially at eight in the goddamned morning, I happen to have a firm favorite.

“Triceratops,” I say as if that’s completely obvious and should in fact be everyone’s answer. “Living tank and vegan. Badass but kind.”

Nelson blows a raspberry, making me want to put him on latrine duty. “Who picks an herbivore? Anton, tell him.”

Nelson’s best friend, Anton Quick, raises his eyebrows, having only just walked into the locker room.

“Favorite dinosaur,” Hendrix supplies helpfully.

“Oh!” Quick says with a nod like this is a perfectly normal discussion topic that he hears all the time.

To be fair, he probably does.

“Stegosaurus,” he answers confidently. “They’re like living bulldozers and have these cool spines down their backs.”

I raise my hand toward him in triumph as Nelson rolls his eyes. “No, Ant! Not you, too? Where are all my predators at?”

“We talking dinosaurs again?” Lili Kwon asks as she and Yara Ortiz, our other paramedic, enter together. “Because we all know I’m Team Velociraptor, right?” She makes a hissing noise and pretends to swipe at Nelson with her middle finger.

He jumps back just a little too enthusiastically, although I wouldn’t blame anyone for being afraid of Kwon most of the time. If someone told me she had a secret retractable claw, I’d probably believe them.

“I like the cute little ones,” Ortiz joins in cheerfully as she opens her locker, waving at her temporary partner, Hendrix.

He’s a jack of all trades, so she’s technically the lead paramedic for the next couple of weeks.

But our Aussie is a mean driver and EMT trained like the rest of us, so while not a fully-fledged paramedic, I was still really glad to have him back for a longer stint than before.

Rotating several different guys during someone’s leave is a pain in the ass.

But also…he simply fit with the One-Thirteen during the couple of shifts he did with us in the spring.

It’s a vibe. Sometimes you just need to roll with vibes.

“Psittacosaurus?” Nelson says.

“Gesundheit,” Quick offers.

Nelson rolls his eyes. “No, that’s a cute little dinosaur. Has a head kinda like a parrot.”

Ortiz crinkles her nose. “Um, no, not that one. I mean the one that has a fan that appears around its neck when it gargles.”

Kwon snorts. “You mean a Dilophosaurus? The one that spits paralyzing venom before it eats your face?”

Ortiz beams. “Yes, that’s the one! They’re so funny in the movies.”

She wanders out happily as Bell comes running in with Rocky the Dalmatian on his leash. “Sorry! Sorry! Queenie got into the garbage and Dario had a meeting so I was elbow deep in vomit and…” He takes a deep breath and Rocky very sweetly sits at his feet. “I’m here now, reporting for duty, sir!”

I chuckle and shake my head. “You’re fine, Lochlan. The third watch are still cleaning out some of their gear anyway. They had a couple of nasty calls yesterday with that rain.”

When you’ve been on this job for any time at all, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that after such an arid summer, these sudden heavy downpours are going to wreak havoc.

Still, I hope the previous shift can finish up soon, and not just so we can have the peace of mind of being ready to go if the tones sound for us, which they could any second.

Those guys need sleep. They look dead on their feet.

“Beast!” Kwon shouts at Bell. “Favorite dinosaur—go!”

Bell blinks then makes a little ‘oh’ noise implying, like Quick, that this is a perfectly normal conversation. “Well it’s gotta be a T-rex, right?”

“Basic bitch,” Kwon says, shaking her head at the same time as Nelson cries, “Thank you! Someone with taste.”

I laugh in exasperation, loving every single one of these troublemakers.

It isn’t always easy for me being a different rank, and I try and give them a little space so they can breathe.

I miss the days when I could goof off more, but I’m proud to be their lieutenant.

It means I have to hang back a lot of the time now, letting everyone else leave first so we can maintain some boundaries.

So after I let Rocky sniff my fingers and give him some attention, I watch the others head out, planning on exiting the locker room in a minute or so.

Except Hendrix also lingers. “Pterodactyl,” he says casually as he saunters past me.

“Huh?” I respond elegantly.

He snickers mischievously. “My favorite. It’s a Pterodactyl by a mile.

But it’s not a dinosaur . It’s a pterosaur.

” He flaps his wings and lifts a knee, like he’s about to be shot in bullet time and makes a ‘CAW!’ noise.

Then he returns his limbs to normal and winks at me before walking out the door, leaving me alone for a moment.

“Pterosaur,” repeat and laugh to myself. “Asshole.”

Yeah, Drayton Hendrix fits in well here, whether he wants to or not.

Our driver engineer, Gene Haskell, must have arrived before all of us because I didn’t see him in the locker room and he’s already busy whipping up a mountain of eggs and pancakes in the kitchen. He’s offering breakfast to both our fresh-faced team as well as the dead-on-their feet previous shift.

I’m not sure how much longer our father-of-five, Haskell, will be able to stay with us.

He’s older than anyone else on the first watch, including Captain Valentine, who’s no doubt currently tackling admin up in his office with a bucket of coffee.

But Valentine’s fitness is still as good as the rest of us.

Haskell…not so much. He doesn’t need it when he’s behind the wheel most of the time, but the department still has regular assessments that I’m not sure Haskell is going to be able to pass for much longer.

The thought that the house dynamic could change in the not-too-distant future leaves a pang in my chest. If…when…Haskell decides to step down to a more desk-oriented role so he can spend more time with his family, I’m going to have my hands full finding someone who can drive like he can.

My thoughts drift to Hendrix again. It was Haskell who he covered for last time, and the Aussie did a mean job of tearing up the streets in and around Redwood Bay.

But his whole deal is that he’s a nomad, living out of his souped-up van with only his surfboard for company, going wherever the wind and the job take him.

I doubt he’d ever want to settle down. But if there was ever a group of ragtag misfits who could convince him, I bet it would be the One-Thirteen.

The station is going to be chaotic until the third watch have their fill of breakfast. That’s going to take even longer after Bell puts on some bacon for everyone to go with the eggs and pancakes, as well as a couple of separate ones of kosher turkey sausages for Haskell and vegan ones for Hendrix.

We’re lucky not to get a call during it all.

So while the two teams have a little rare time to mingle together, I set myself up to catch up on some paperwork on the sofa so I can at least be adjacent to the socializing.

It’s not that I’m lonely. That would be ridiculous with my wonderful friends and family, and this exasperating but adorable team I get to affectionately lord over.

But I think about when the third watch does head off, so many of them will be going home to their significant others, kids, parents, or even fur babies like Rocky.

One of the reasons I love work so much is because my apartment is always so empty and quiet.

I guess I could get a dog like Bell did…

except he pulled the Dalmatian puppy out of a burning building, defying direct orders from Captain Valentine.

So maybe that’s the not the best example.

Besides, I don’t have anyone to look after a pet when I’m here for twenty-four hours at a time.

Bell brings Rocky with him most shifts, and our administrator, Nancy, or our neighbor, Mrs. Bloom, keep an eye on the dog when we go out.

If the whole team started doing that, it would be a zoo in no time. Absolute carnage.

It would be an irresponsible example to set if I got myself a dog and brought them with me to hang with Rocky, but then turned around and told the rest of the team that two’s enough and they can’t do the same.

So for the umpteenth time, I push the empty apartment issue to the back of my mind, focusing on the house again.

It appears like the third watch are finally on their way out, thanking us for sending them off with full bellies and slightly less stress on their shoulders. Calmness washes through the building as people settle into morning chores…and I finally do a head count.

Shit.

It’s no excuse, but with twice as many bodies milling around the common area for the past half an hour, I simply didn’t notice.

But we’re down a man.

“Hey, has anyone heard from Foster?” I ask, rising to my feet and sweeping the room again with my gaze in case I somehow missed him hiding in a potted plant or something.