“Atta girl,” he praises, bringing a finger just under my jaw, closing my mouth for me—because I’m incapable at the moment.His eyes have a sparkle to them that brightens when he glances at Evee, his smirk deepening slightly. “I’ll see you two tomorrow with your new door.” He breaks his gaze from us, maneuvering the door until it shuts.
The moment it closes, an exhale escapes me, and I feel dizzy.
But not in a bad way.
I turn around, leaning back on the door to get my bearings.
What the hell is happening to me?
It feels like I was just dropped off at home after a first date.
And why does that thought not scare as much as it should?
There’s a quiet knock next to my ear that startles me out of my thoughts, and I feel my phone vibrate in my hand. Looking down, I see an unknown number, but I have a feeling I know who it is.
“Forget something, firefighter?” Maybe it’s the door between us and the fact I can’t feel his eyes locked on mine, but there’s a confidence brewing inside of me—one I felt last night at Lennys; one I don’t want to let go of.
“I’m not leaving until you lock the door.” Jack’s voice is low and gruff in my ear, causing goosebumps to pebble on my skin.
A giggle escapes me, and I’m thankful he can’t see the embarrassingly big grin on my face. Still balancing Evee against me and holding my phone between my ear and my shoulder, I turn toward the door, locking the doorknob and deadbolt.
“Thank you,” I say into the phone, knowing he’s still just on the other side of the door. I can’t see him, but I know he’s there.
I can’t explain the feeling—I just know.
“No need, pretty girl.” The term of endearment heals a crack in my heart I thought would be one of many permanent scars, and I don’t remember the last time someone other than Evee or Ava made me smile this big. “Sleep tight.”
CHAPTER 15
JACK
I knewI wasn’t going to get too good of sleep at the station last night—I don’t remember the last time I slept more than three or four hours or wasn’t woken up by a fit of nightmares that left me breathing heavily, a sheen of sweat over my skin.
Plus, I was on call.
But last night was the first night my lack of sleep wasn’t because of the past that seems to be haunting me no matter how much I try to forget it. Instead, it was because I was stuck thinking about two sets of pretty blue eyes, the smell of vanilla and orange, and a blushing smile.
My new friend is dangerous—I knew that from the second I found her behind the counter at Hey Honey’s and again at the bar at Lenny’s.
But it was further confirmed last night when pure chance brought us together.
Or, more accurately, a burnt tray of cookies.
I think Bennett would be laughing his ass off if I told him I was up all night thinking about a girl when I’m as emotionally available as rock, but I think he’d agree with me that there was nothing wrong with aharmlessfriendship.
A harmless friendship with a woman whose life was in my hands almost a year ago, the same woman I thought about almost every day as a way to keep my mind off my best friend, the same woman whose scream made me rush into a potential fire without a second thought—something I never thought I’d be able to do again.
But thinking that Bennett would be on my side of this masochistic decision doesn’t help my case in the least bit. Not when he was as dumb as me when it came to this shit.
My 24-hour shift ended a few minutes ago—we just finished our briefing with the crew coming on for the next shift—and I’m walking out to my truck to head to the hardware store and then over Rumi’s.
I wasn’t kidding when I told her that I didn’t want to leave her with a fucked up door longer than necessary—and I can’t lie and say my lack of sleep was also from not wanting to miss if she called me.
I unlock my truck, reaching for the passenger side door to throw my stuff in, but my name rings in the air.
“Hasting!” The loud, assertive voice causes my arm to freeze midair, ripping me from my thoughts of which hardware store is the closest and needing to stop at my mom’s and grab my old toolkit from the basement.
I thought I’d get lucky and make it through my shift without running into Chief Sanders, but I should’ve known it was too good to be true.
