Page 21 of Up In Smoke
A weird, uncomfortable shiver sweeps through me at the thought of starting a relationship with anyone right now. Probably because my focus has suddenly and completely shifted onto Jesse, so it would be crazy to think about dating on top of that. Why did it even spring to mind?
“You all good there, Lieutenant?”
I startle and jerk my head around. One of my guys, Lochlan Bell, is watching me where I’m standing in front of my open locker. I’m not sure how I missed him there. He’s a flaming redhead with the build of a Hemsworth. Not to mention his Dalmatian, Rocky, isn’t exactly a puppy anymore, and he’s sitting right there at Bell’s feet, wagging his long tail excitedly.
“Sorry, hey,” I say, shaking my head and looking back into my locker, not sure what I’d been searching for. I close it andoffer Bell what I hope is a convincing smile. “I’m fine. Just thinking about one of the new drills I’m planning for the team.”
Thankfully, Bell gets easily distracted by that, rolling his eyes and groaning. “The old ones are hard enough, dude. Trust me.”
I clap his back as we head out into the main belly of the station. “Come on, Beast,” I say, using the nickname others are always so comfortable calling him. Sure enough, he doesn’t bat an eyelid at me, and I remind myself that I don’t always have to keep my walls up from my colleagues just because I rank higher than them. “Don’t you know it’s my job to torture you?”
“I think you enjoy it a little too much,” he grumbles, and I laugh.
This was the right decision. As much as I want to be there for Jesse, my world had narrowed down to just him over the past few days. But being around the first watch at the One-Thirteen reminds me I’m not as alone as I like to think I am at times.
Thankfully, the third watch had an easy morning, so we haven’t walked into chaos like has been known to happen. While I’d been lost in thought back in the locker room, two of the team have situated themselves in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. We eat together whenever we can, and with the job we do, it’s important to load up the calories. I inhale the scent of pancakes and sausages, and it feels like home.
“Hungry, Lieutenant?” Lili Kwon calls out from behind the counter. She and our probationary firefighter, Teddy Foster, have put themselves in charge of food, apparently also now roping Bell in to making eggs. I notice Rocky still by his feet, eagerly awaiting any scraps that fall to the floor.
Knowing this crew, that will be far more than necessary, because they’re all soft.
If anything slips off my plate, it will beentirelyaccidental.
“Starving,” I tell Kwon honestly with a grin. Stress burns calories, I’m convinced. Plus I snuck in a five-mile run thismorning before Jesse woke up to try and get my head back in the game.
Kwon salutes at me then nods at Foster. “You heard the man, Probie. Plate him up!”
I chuckle as I take a seat at the dining table. Foster doesn’t know it yet, but so long as he passes his written exam next week, he’s not going to be on probation for much longer. He’s been desperate to qualify as a fully-fledged firefighter for the whole time he’s been with us. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when his dream comes true, especially after all the drama he and his new boyfriend have been through recently.
Our Driver-Engineer, Gene Haskell, sighs as he drops into the seat beside me. “How was your downtime?” I ask him, noting several Band-Aids on his fingers and forearms.
He holds his hand up and crooks an eyebrow at me. “It’s Sukkot. The kids made me build a damn sukkah in the back yard then insisted we sleep out there last night. My back feels like a crunched-up bag of Cheetos and I got stabbed by more thorns than I could count.”
“You loved every minute of it, didn’t you?” I say with a grin. He harrumphs but doesn’t deny it, and that warms my heart. He and his wife have five children together and I don’t know how they manage it. But as much as Haskell complains, it’s clear he loves them dearly. I don’t know much about Sukkot, other than it’s traditional to build some kind of three-sided hut, but that sounds like fun to me.
“Who’s hungry?” Kwon yells, summoning the rest of the team from wherever they’ve been lurking around the firehouse. Foster sets an overloaded plate in front of me with a flourish before serving everyone else.
“You’re not looking for special treatment are you, Probie?” I ask with a grin.
He bats his eyelids at me. “No, sir,” he says coquettishly.
“Ew, get a room,” Nelson complains as he throws his ass into a vacant seat. But his best friend snaps his fingers in front of his face and shakes his head.
“Teddy’s no longer a single man,” Quick reminds him. “No one here is competing with an NFL quarterback, so keep dreaming, Sawyer.”
“Retired quarterback,” Teddy corrects him, but there’s no hiding his beaming smile.
“Yeah,” Bell joins in as he puts down plates in front of both Nelson and Quick. “Not all of us like to hit and quit it like you, bro. Teddy understands this little thing called ‘commitment.’ You should look it up.”
Nelson pretends to look offended. “And deprive the good hotties of SoCal of all this fire?” he asks, bouncing in his seat while Quick rolls his eyes. “Nah, man. Wild horses couldn’t tie me down. But you guys enjoy all that lifelong monogamy you’ve been getting down with recently.”
It might be my imagination, but I swear I catch Quick flinching for half a second. That could just be Rocky sticking his head in his crotch looking for food, though.
“I fully intend to,” Zahir Delacroix announces smugly in response to Nelson’s suggestion.
Our lead paramedic sits down with his partner, Yara Ortiz. I’m pretty sure they were double checking the stock on the bus against the third watch’s report. Not that those guys are likely to make a mistake. Del’s just diligent like that.
And apparently a little sassy after coming back from his honeymoon last week. “And by the way,” he adds, “it’s ‘wild horses couldn’t drag me away.’ At least get it right when you’re trying to troll us happily married folks.”