Page 1 of Calling a Cease-Fire

Chapter One

ZACK

“The Donut Dudgers?” I stared at the typo on the T-shirt in shock. “It was supposed to say Dodgers.”

I laughed even though I wanted to scream. Six months of work had gone into organizing our small town’s FD vs. PD Volleyball game, and with the recent death of one of our own, it was even more important that everything go smoothly. Everyone was still grieving, and I’d hoped this would bring the town a little bit of closure and comfort.

“What do you want to do, hot stuff?” Savannah arched an eyebrow with a flirty grin.

That was nothing new. I was used to the youngest Williams sister and her flirtatiousness. I’d known her since we were kids, and we’d dated during our senior year of high school. But two Peter Pans together would have never worked out. Although some might disagree, I could argue I had grown up—I just wasn’t sure Savannah had any intention of ever doing that.

I studied the T-shirt for the local police department’s team again, trying to figure out what I could do to solve the issue. “Grab a black Sharpie and have Violet and Hattie help you turn that ‘U’ into an ‘O’.”

Savannah nodded. “That’s easy enough.” She spun and skipped away.

I let out a breath, hoping nothing else would go wrong. Approaching the team for the Half Moon Lake Fire Department, I smiled as my best friend and fellow firefighter, Adam Ricktor, gave the group a pep talk. He cared about winning and had a strategy all laid out. Which was fine, even though I would prefer to just wing it. But I also didn’t need to win to enjoy the challenge of a game. I'd much rather be in the moment and play hard than map out a path to victory. Even if that meant losing.

Seth grunted at Adam as he implied losing wasn’t an option. Seth and our driver, Logan, had been the hardest ones to convince to play. But in the end, they knew what this game meant, and what I was trying to do. And even though they weren’t excited about the game itself, they would never purposely let any of us down.

I looked around, checking off my to-do list in my head and humming the tune to “Oops I Did It Again”—the earworm of the day. The teams had their T-shirts and typos were being fixed. Volunteers were ready at the front door to start taking tickets and letting people in. High schoolers were set up in the lobby selling snacks. What else was I missing?

“I don't know where I'm at, I'm lost in the gym,” I sang softly to the tune I was just humming.

People sometimes looked at me odd when I made up my own lyrics, but whatever. It was fun for me, and kept them guessing. They never knew what I'd come up with. Some of the best spit-takes had been courtesy of my lyrical creativity.

Our Lieutenant, Owen McKinley, appeared with a look on his face that said I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “The Chief is stuck at that fire on the other side of town.”

Yup. Definitely didn’t like that, but I was prepared for it. “You good to give the speech honoring Daniel?”

Owen nodded. “Of course.”

Daniel was one of our volunteers. A young kid who was only twenty-one, he’d succumbed to injuries from a large fire last month. It was right before Christmas, and having to attend his funeral on Christmas Eve sucked ass. He should have been home celebrating, surrounded by family and friends. Yes, it was the life we all chose, but seeing one end so early was never easy. Ever.

At least I could do something for his family, bring the community together to support them. Hopefully they found this comforting. I even got the ok to place a boot out to collect more money to support them financially. We had passed it around the station collecting what we could, but with almost the whole town in attendance today, we could collect even more.

Owen patted my shoulder before turning and walking away.

Giggling pulled my attention from the solemn reminder, and I looked over at the bleachers as Logan’s fiancée Izzy and her friend Nicole sat down. Nicole met my eyes and smiled with a flirty wave. I sent her a nod back. She was pretty and I enjoyed talking to her, but I got the impression that Izzy and Nicole wanted something to happen between us. At some point, I needed to figure out how to let both of them know I just wasn’t interested.

Adam had voiced his opinion a million times about why he thought she didn’t do it for me. Something about me only liking women who challenged me and kept me on my toes. Ones who played hard to get and called me out on my bullshit.

But, fuck, that sounded exhausting. Plus, I didn’t think I even had bullshit. I was honest and straightforward. Never sugarcoated shit or held back. My biggest weakness in relationships so far was my inability to stew in difficult emotions. I’d been accused of being flippant and insensitive. Was it so wrong that I saw emotions as something to deal with, not wallow in? If I was sad, I did something fun. If I was angry, I did something to burn off frustration. Problem solved.

I turned away from Nicole, who continued to smile at me. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but there were some women who, even though they checked all the boxes, just didn’t do anything for me. Nicole just happened to be one of them.

My phone rang and I pulled it from my pocket. Jay’s name flashed across the screen. He was the only team member we were waiting on. Hopefully, he was only calling to say he was running late.

“Hey, I’m not making it. I—” Muffled sounds of gagging filled the line.

I pinched my eyes closed, knowing that his daughter Nora had been sick the day before.

“Sorry, man. I guess I caught Nora’s bug.”

I cringed as more repulsive noises came from the other end of the connection. “Get better,” I said and hung up.

Now I had less than half an hour to find another team member. Technically, we only needed six to play, but Adam was insistent on having extras to sub out when he needed to. Hopefully, no one else came down with the stomach bug in the next thirty minutes. I glanced around as I contemplated who I could possibly recruit on the fly.

Like fate had planned it, Lyla—one of our EMTs—walked into the gym. I smiled. She had already turned me down multiple times, reminding me that she was a magnet for chaos and balls coming at her never turned out well. She was also Adam’s girlfriend, and he seemed to be on the same page about keeping her off the team. But now we were desperate.