Page 29 of AJ’s Fire

I don’t recall ever seeing Jackson blush before, but I watched as color traveled from his neck up his cheeks. It made him look even more amazing than he had walking toward me. He was bright, vibrant, alive.

“Thanks, man. And you look …” Jackson stopped himself, and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Amazing? Hot. Like I could have any girl in this place.”

Jackson pointed to the bartender, the male bartender, and said, “And some of the guys too.” And yeah, the bartender was definitely checking one of us out.

I let out an awkward laugh as Casey asked how things were at the station, and we ended up talking about a charity event we were planning for the spring.

“Christmas is hardly over, and we’re already thinking about Easter!” Ruth chimed in.

“Yeah.” Jackson was animated, and it was the most relaxed I’d seen him all night. “There’s a home for LGBT+ youth on our block, the Burcus Center. Some people from the station volunteer there, but we all get to know some of the kids just from hanging around the neighborhood, you know? So our captain thought we should hold a fundraiser for them. We’re having a family day in the park. Food, arts and crafts, games. An Easter egg hunt.”

I looked at him. “I think Chief wants either you or me on the planning committee.”

Jackson shrugged. “Maybe we could do it together.” But then he tightened up again, his shoulders practically reaching his ears as if he’d said the wrong thing or something outrageous. I had the strangest instinct to reach out for him, like he needed to be held. Instead, I grabbed my drink, took a big sip, and spun the flute on the table to keep my hands occupied.

Ruth had pulled her phone out and kept up the conversation. “Well, it sounds wonderful.” She flashed her phone for all to see. “This place looks amazing. I’m thinking we might be able to drum up a few contributions, don’t you think, Em? Jax? And maybe help out as well. It sounds like fun!”

“That’s a really awesome thing for you guys to support.” Casey looked serious. “It can be really hard coming out, feeling you have nowhere to go. No one who supports you. Kids definitely need a place to go where someone will tell them it gets better.”

Emily grasped Casey’s hand.” You’re so right, Case. That was beautiful.”

We were interrupted by our food arriving, but I was distracted by the fact that Jackson was rubbing his hands on his thighs nervously. I bumped him in the shoulder again and nodded to Casey.

“You remember that time we closed the bar with her?”

That got a smile out of him. “She was so annoyed with us, crashing chairs onto the tables, offering to mop.”

“We were so drunk.”

“You know, that can really sum up many of our nights out together. A pissed-off bartender shoving our drunk asses into a cab.” He paused before asking, “Have you … Are you still going out?”

“Nah, been busy.”

“Hey, did you hear Jordan got promoted over at the Eighty-Six?”

I couldn’t tell you what else was going on around the table, because all of a sudden Jax and I were chatting and bullshitting like old times, and it felt so right. I could have spent all night joking with him, talking about work or my weekly stint as a dance mom or whatever. But then his phone buzzed again, and whatever, or whoever it was had him distracted, tense, and nervous again.

I nodded toward his hand on the table, which at that moment was squeezing his phone so tightly I thought it would shatter. “Everything okay?”

He nodded without responding.

“I’m not convinced, dude.”

He plastered on a fake smile then and made me promise not to worry about him.

Since he was lying to me about being okay, I had no compunction about lying to him that I wasn’t going to worry.

I tuned back into the conversation to hear Emily squeal, “Oooh, the Lava Floor! Let’s go there.”

“I don’t know,” Casey started. “Can we get in? There’s probably a line around the block. It’s New Year’s Eve!” To emphasize the point, Casey pulled up a social media app and started playing videos of people standing in line outside the trendy night club even though it was freezing out, and the night was young.

Emily was also tapping on her phone and after a minute simply said, “We’re in,” without explanation.

We got up to leave the restaurant a while later, and thanks to my location, all I could do was watch while Jamie and Jax helped the women into their coats. As our group worked its way to the front door, I noticed that Jackson had left his coat hanging off his chair. I snatched it up and ended up behind another party as I followed our crew out of the restaurant.

As I exited the door, Jackson turned around to re-enter, muttering, “My coat.” We were both startled as we bumped into each other, chest to chest, and stumbled backward, Jackson dropping his phone in the process and losing his balance. I grasped him by the waist with one hand and pulled him to me. My other arm was in front of me, his coat draped over it, but the move put us face-to-face again, those hazel eyes wide in surprise and so close I could see the flecks of darker green and light brown that made them sparkle. He huffed a breath that caressed my cheek, and it wasn’t just my stomach that swooped at the sensation. I may have gasped as my dick began to tighten in my already-too-tight jeans.