“That one woman did,” Isaac said. “I forgot her name.”
“There’s a difference between a burned hot dog and a hot dog that wasin a fire.”
“Nuh-uh,” her brother argued. “That’s how you burn them. With a fire.”
The bickering continued for a good part of the ride, and at one point Derek gave her an apologetic look. But Olivia didn’t mind. She’d much prefer listening to them discuss charred food than spend the ride in an awkward silence.
The area around the house Isaac told her was Aidan and Lydia’s was so surrounded by vehicles, it looked like a commercial parking lot, but Derek managed to find a spot to squeeze his car into. As soon as he cut the engine, the kids were unbuckled and gone, and Derek chuckled.
“Come on,” Isaac yelled over his shoulder, but he didn’t stop and wait for them.
That was fine with Olivia because Derek leaned across the car and kissed her. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She laughed. “Most of the time I’m sorry I’m an only child but sometimes...do all siblings bicker like that?”
“Yup. And some are worse. One time, my mom had to pull the car over because my brother and I got into a fistfight in the back seat and because we were wearing seat belts, neither of us could run away or fall down. It was going the distance.”
“Okay, so being an only child isn’t all bad.”
He nodded his head toward the house. “You ready for this?”
A minute later, Olivia decided it wasn’t possible to be ready for the scene in the backyard. It was a crowd, and Derek hadn’t been kidding about it being loud. But once she relaxed and looked around, she was able to pick out faces she recognized. Jess and Rick, of course, who waved from across the room. The firefighters Derek worked with. And Lydia, who’d been tending the bar with her sister the night of the fundraiser.
They were all very friendly and it wasn’t long before she found herself separated from Derek, who was involved in a very heated debate about cooking chicken and foil-wrapped potatoes on the same grill.
“Olivia, right?”
She turned to see one of the guys she recognized as working with Derek. “Yes. Olivia McGovern.”
“I’m Grant.” He stuck out his hand, which she shook. “And this is my girlfriend, Wren. We were at the fundraiser at Kincaid’s, but I don’t think we technically met.”
She shook hands with the pretty blonde woman she had a vague memory of seeing. “There are alotof people in Derek’s life.”
“Cutter!”
Grant turned toward the shout. “Sorry, but I’ll be back in a minute. They probably want my opinion on grill temps or something. I don’t know how many years these guys are going to barbecue before they figure it out.”
“You’re right about there being a lot of people in their lives,” Wren said after Grant walked away. “It can be very overwhelming at times.”
“I’m not sure they realize it because they’re so much like a family. It’s just the way it is for them, so they don’t really get what it’s like walking into it without knowing anybody. Have you and Grant been dating long?”
“Yeah, it’s been a while. I wasn’t really looking for a relationship but then I met him and he made it hard to remember why.”
“Funny, that’s exactly how I ended up here with Derek.”
Wren laughed. “Have you ever dated a firefighter before?”
“No.” Olivia shook her head. “To be perfectly honest, I never dated a guy who didn’t wear a business suit to work before I met Derek. I thought I had a type, but he proved me wrong, I guess.”
“It’s hard sometimes, because their job is so dangerous. They tell me it doesn’t really get easier, but you get better at dealing with it so it seems easier.”
Olivia spent a lot of time trying not to think about Derek’s job too much. She knew it was dangerous. But she also knew they were trained well and they always had orders and a plan of attack to follow. She took comfort in that.
“What do you do?” she asked Wren when the conversation lagged.
“I was working in a coffee shop and a small bookstore, but the bookstore was finally able to give me enough hours to quit the coffee shop. I love books, so even though the money’s not great, I love my job.”
“I love bookstores. I need to make more time for them in my life. It’s so easy to click a button on the computer and have a book show up in the mail or on my phone that I forget how much I love browsing the shelves and finding books I didn’t know I wanted to read until I saw them.”
