Page 80 of Knot What I Expected

“Do you fight real fires?”

“Yep.”

“Big ones?”

“Sometimes.”

Matteo’s eyes get huge.

“Do you get scared?”

The question catches Havoc off guard. I see it. His expression changes.

For a moment, he looks almost uncomfortable. Then he answers honestly.

“All the time. Fires are dangerous. They can hurt.”

Matteo considers this.

“But you do it anyway?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Why?”

Havoc glances toward me.

His golden eyes hold mine.

“To stop the fires from spreading. To keep people safe.”

Oh. Wow.

And now, my heart is doing something stupid.

I reach for the oatmeal-raisin cookie just so I have something to do with my hands.

No. Absolutely not.

I cannot start finding this male sweet.

He is absolutely not sweet.

He is an overbearing, growling pain in my ass who has spent two weeks haunting my second job and leaving obscene tips I absolutely should not be accepting.

He is also currently listening with complete seriousness while my son explains why a T. Rex would beat a grizzly bear in a fight.

This is bad. Really freaking bad.

Because Matteo likes him.

I can already tell. And worse? Havoc seems to like Matteo.

There’s no impatience in him. No fake smile adults sometimes use when they’re waiting for a child to stop talking.

He listens.

Actually listens.