Chapter Twelve
Jake shuffled the deck of cards and stared at the men sitting around the table in the break room. It felt good to be back on duty after five days away. If there was one thing Jake loved, besides his daughter, it was his job. Nothing beat a good shift, and every day was a new challenge. They’d just finished checking the gear on the truck, placing their turnouts near the apparatus, and had spent the last thirty minutes brushing up on a page out of the EMT protocol book.
“Twos and sevens are wild. Pennets count as eighty points today.” A Pennet, which was a four of a kind named after the highest honored firefighter at Station 11 in the past sixty years, was the most sought-after card hand in their morning game of rummy. A hand of cards served as a chore divider. Specifically, whoever had the worst cards got stuck with duties such as cooking dinner and cleaning toilets. Jake had managed to avoid bathroom duty for the past three shifts.
“I got a question for you,” Reece said.
“That’s a statement, dipshit,” said Hollywood, staring at his cards.
“If you’d let me finish, I’d get to my question,” Reece said.
“Well, go on.” Hollywood waved his hand dramatically. “Don’t let me get in the way.”
“You know Yanni?”
“The keyboardist?” Hollywood asked.
“Jesus, dude, you’re like twelve. How do you even know who that is?”
Hollywood just chuckled. “I’m a cultured man, asshole.”
“Sure you are. Maybe once you graduate from a pacifier.” Reece shook his head and smiled. “Anyway, I’m talking about Yanni who used to work at the district office. The one who chewed through toothpicks like he was a damn beaver.”
“Oh yeah, I remember him.”
“He sold his Jeep.” Reece’s brows furrowed. If the man was serious about one thing, it was cars.
Reece had been obsessed with Jeeps ever since they were kids. Even had a pic of one in his locker in high school. Jake bet if he peeked into this locker at the station, he’d see one pasted there, too.
“Let me guess—he didn’t sell it to you,” Jake said. Yanni didn’t come across as the type that valued camaraderie. He was a mopey dude who liked to keep to himself. Jake was starting to understand how the guy felt. After the way Erin’s homecoming party had gone, his mood was somewhere between general annoyance and wanting to punch himself in the face. Instead of telling her the truth about how he couldn’t keep her out of his mind, he had let her believe that he thought that weekend was a mistake.
“No. The asshole sold it to a stranger. Who probably won’t give the proper attention to that gorgeous specimen,” Reece said.
Hollywood let out a snort. “We are talking about a car, right?”
“It’s a lifestyle, Hollywood.”
“Right.” He laid out a three of a kind and four hearts. “Can’t you just buy your own Jeep?”
Jake tried to focus on the conversation, but his mind kept wandering back to Erin. Her laugh. The way her lips pulled over that mouth he so desperately wanted to kiss last weekend. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t get her out of his head. And with Bailey gone at camp, and the house too empty, he prowled around it like a caged tiger, willing thoughts of Erin to vanish from his mind. Instead, he’d used his hand in the shower, needing release like he was a goddamn teenager again.
“That’s not the point. He knew I wanted it. Aw, shit.” Reece threw down a crap pair of twos.
“Should know better than to trust a guy who hangs tiny air fresheners in his cubicle,” Jake added, realizing he hadn’t been interacting at all with his men.
“He speaks! And here I thought you’d gone mute today. What’s up with you?” Hollywood asked.
“Nothing.” But Jake couldn’t stop thinking about the frown that had cut across Erin’s face yesterday, the instant stab to his gut when he realized he was the one who put it there. This was a mistake. Let’s pretend it never happened.
What was wrong with him? On most days, he claimed to be a smart guy. He’d done a bang-up job fighting the attraction all weekend. He was the first to admit that. But he had somehow managed to get through it mostly unscathed. And yet, he couldn’t let it go. The damn blood humming in his veins pulsed at the very thought of when he’d get to see her again. Which, if he was smart, would be never.
“Here, take a brownie. Lexi made them.” Hollywood shoved the plate of baked goods across the table.
Lexi was Hollywood’s sister. She was a nursing student at the university in town and loved to bring over baked goods for the guys. He glanced at the plate full of brownies, GOODIES FROM YOUR FAVORITE NURSE scrawled in her curly handwriting in Sharpie.
“Your sister is too good to us.”
“Sure as shit, she is.”
He snagged one and took a bite, then took a card from the top of the pile. He’d throw down his cards in the death round.
The guys gave him a funny look when he didn’t throw down his cards but continued playing, the turn going to Reece.
He threw down a Pennet and two hearts. “Looks like Jake is on bathroom duty today.”
“What? We have the death round still.”
Both of them gawked at him. Reece said, “Brother. We were just in the death round. Where’s your head today?”
Not here, apparently. No, it had been on Erin’s lips. The way her dress hugged every curve. How he was going out of his goddamn mind.
“Well, hell.” He slammed his cards on the table and shoved another piece of brownie in his mouth. He needed to cool it, especially since he was at work.
The other guys laughed. “Looks like you’re on dinner duty, Hollywood.”
“Again?” he groaned.
Reece slid his cards across the table toward him. “Remember, we put out fires, not start them. No more grill use for you.”
“It was one time.”
Just then, the tones went off. They all shoved back from the table, their good-natured joking sliding off them like a discarded shirt as they made their way to the apparatus and into their boots and pants. This one was a medical call, so they wouldn’t need to put on their full turnout gear, just their Class Bs. Jake hopped into the passenger seat in the engine and scanned the computer mounted to the dash.
Medical call. Thirty-two-year-old man who needed immediate attention. The dispatcher couldn’t get a reason out of him of what exactly was hurt, which either meant the guy was on some type of drugs or hiding something. Nothing good ever came from a patient refusing to divulge information.
They parked the engine in front of the dilapidated apartment complex, and Jake took a quick scan of his surroundings. A few people roamed down the sidewalk toward the far end of the complex. Nothing suspicious. He hopped out of the engine and grabbed the monitor and med box, while Hollywood grabbed the air kit.
They ran up the three flights to apartment 341. There was no need to knock on the door because it was already wide open.
Normally, if there was any form of threat, they’d wait for the police to clear the area and then proceed. Jake guessed he and Reece had come to the same conclusion that there was no immediate threat.
“Hello?” Jake called out.
A faint “Help me” echoed back at him.
They looked at each other and nodded in silent deliberation, all three moving forward.
Stale pizza boxes, takeout containers, and trash littered the floor. Hollywood was the paramedic on their shift, even though they were all technically EMT trained. He moved forward first, his boots shuffling through the deluge of discarded items.
“In here,” cried the person.
They waded through the hallway and into the equally trashed living room. Some sort of racing game was on the big screen, and a guy was sunken into the couch, wielding a controller.
“What’s your name, sir?” Hollywood asked. He may have been a jokester at the station and prone to being a big flirt at public events, but he was a damn good firefighter and took his job seriously. Someone Jake would want by his side fighting a box alarm fire.
Jake scanned the room. No potential threats. If the guy pulled a knife or a gun, he had two choices. Either he was taking his crew out the sliding glass door on this third-story balcony or he was tackling the guy. As of right now, the guy looked drugged out of his mind, so he didn’t look like he posed too much of a threat.
“Anthony.”
“Anthony, I’m going to take your vitals and see how you’re doing, man,” Hollywood said, setting his gear on the ground next to Anthony’s feet.
“Can I just finish this up real quick?” He jutted his chin toward the TV.
Jake exchanged a “Are you fucking kidding me?” glance with Reece.
“You take anything lately?” Hollywood asked, ignoring Anthony and digging into his gear.
“Just some hash and a few beers.” It was nice when people were honest about what they’d smoked. Better than twenty minutes beating around the bush until they were hauled off in an ambulance.
Hollywood nodded, grabbing the blood-pressure cuff from the med kit and securing it around Anthony’s rail-thin arm.
“Blood pressure one twenty over seventy.” He procured a flashlight and continued to check his eyes. “Slight nystagmus in the pupils, which would be consistent with alcohol and drug use.”
Jake’s adrenaline began to fade as he realized this call was a waste of their time. Working with the public was great, but he actually wanted to help people.
“Sir, why did you call us?” Reece asked.
They saw a lot of calls like this—people too high to function, people out of their minds from a bad trip. But this guy just looked . . . comfortable.
The sports car on the screen crashed into a lake, and Anthony glanced up at them for the first time since they’d arrived. “I ordered Chinese food.”
“What kind?” Reece asked.
“Chow mein, lo mein. Every type of mein, man.” The guy chuckled to himself. “But I realized I don’t have any money to pay the guy. But then I thought,” he said, slurring and pointing a finger to his forehead. “Figured firefighters like to eat.” He shrugged.
“Sir, you called us to pay for your food?” Jake asked.
“Didn’t want it to go to waste,” Anthony said.
Christ. This man was the same age as he was. Except this guy’s life was held together by four paper-thin walls and takeout food. “You know who loves food more than us?” Jake said.
“Who?” he asked.
“The police,” Jake said.
“I’m sure whichever officer that shows up would love to eat your Chinese food,” Reece added.
Anthony threw up his arms. “Man, you are so smart. That’s a great idea.”
Jake chuckled under his breath. The guy was too high to realize he was going to be booked. It’d almost be worth it to stick around long enough for the cops to show up. They all grabbed their gear, and just as they were passing into the kitchen, the guy shouted, “Can one of you throw me the remote?”
“Sure, man.” Jake grabbed it off the counter and tossed it onto the couch next to the guy. “Have a nice day.”
Jake shook off his annoyance as he walked out of the apartment. Sure, he was happy the guy was fine, but this wasn’t the best way to start his shift. The adrenaline that kicked in at the start of every call hardened into a solid brick in his stomach.
Once they got out to the engine and deposited their gear, Reece said, “I could have gone for lo mein.”
“Same.” Jake cracked a smile and chuckled. With these types of situations, they had two choices: get pissed or laugh it off. For the sake of Jake’s sanity, he chose the latter.
They made it back to the station, everything just the way they’d left it. While Reece and Hollywood made their way to the weight room, Jake headed to the bathroom to get his cleaning duties out of the way. He was busy scrubbing the toilet bowl when Reece walked in.
He leaned against the door frame, watching.
Jake kept his gaze trained to the task at hand, but he could feel Reece’s stare burning into the back of his head.
“You know, if you’re just going to stand there and watch, by all means make use of the extra scrubber.” Jake jutted his chin toward the cleaning kit.
“You gonna tell me what’s up with my sister?”
Jake scrubbed harder, focusing on a spot in the center of the bowl. “What are you talking about?”
“She got weird at the party. And you left like your ass was on fire.”
“Didn’t notice.” Hell, someone without eyes and ears could probably feel the awkwardness at that party.
“Bullshit. Did something happen between you two?”
“Aw, man. I’m thirty-two, not senile. I know how you feel about me even looking at your sister wrong.” He didn’t like omitting some facts, but it was better this way.
Jake’s cheeks burned, and he cleared his throat, keeping his eyes on the toilet. He liked that about Reece. No bullshitting. They said what they meant and put it all out there. No guesswork. Nothing like how he’d felt this past weekend with Erin.
“You’re a grown-ass man. You can do what you want.”
“Well, you don’t have anything to worry about. Nothing’s going to happen.” Again.
He could still feel the weight of her palm slicking across the top of his dress pants. The way her red nails bit into the fabric, driving him wild.
“You know, Jake, you are allowed to have fun once in a while.” He sighed and tapped his hand against the door frame. “I don’t know the first thing about parenting, but I’m sure there’s something in the handbook that says you don’t need to take a vow to priesthood or anything.” He lifted a finger. “I’m not saying to break that vow with my sister, though.”
“I have fun.”
Reece raised a brow. “When was the last time you went out?”
He shook out the toilet brush and chucked it back into the container. “We barbecued the other week.”
“I’m not talking about with the guys.”
Jake shook his head. “I don’t know. And since when are you so interested in my love life?”
“When you look like you’re so wound up you’re going to burst a vessel in that pretty face of yours.”
“Don’t let Hollywood hear you say that. He might get jealous.” He was wound tight. Enough that just the damn thought of Erin got him hard.
“Just saying, it’d do you some good to get out there. Bailey’s gone for a few weeks. Take advantage.” He shrugged.
There were a lot of factors keeping him from dating. His job, mainly. He worked crazy hours nonconducive to relationships. He worked holidays, weekends, you name it. The only reason his family put up with it was because they had to. He’d never ask that of anyone else. And then there was Bailey. He’d been down this road before and wouldn’t let her get hurt.
“Just go out and have some fun. Something other than barbecues with us.”
Jake nodded. Maybe Reece was right.
He hadn’t wanted someone so bad in a long time, not like the way he throbbed for Erin. His daughter was gone for three weeks. What would one date hurt? He’d use this opportunity to get her out of his system. For good.
Before he had more time to think about it, the tones went off again. And like everything else, he dropped everything to do his job.