AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was so glad I wasn’t like him. In fact, I’d done all I could to make sure I didn’t end up like him. It had taken some doing since I had so many of the same natural inclinations. We were both stubborn as hell and could not handle other people taking up our precious time. It just felt like time was always in short supply even if we had nothing busy really going on.
It had been a nice evening with Kat. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She’d enjoyed the stadium. How could she not? I’d loved the stadium the first time I went there when I was a kid. When I had stepped onto the field, I felt like I was home. I could have joined few minor league clubs and seen if my abilities ever really took off from there, but I didn’t really like the idea of trying to go that route. I wanted to start right where I felt I belonged, and not where other people thought I should. If I can’t be the best at something, then I don’t want to do it at all.
I finished up in the Jacuzzi and went to bed. I didn’t have any dreams. Before I knew it, I was wide awake with my alarm going off right beside me. I hurried out of bed, got my workout in, and then headed for work. Today would be a long shift. I was lucky enough to get the last half of it off so that I could have dinner with my father. It was supposed to be a twenty-four hour shift, but I had enough seniority I was able to swing it.
“How’s it going?” Beth Myers asked me as I walked into the station.
Beth was one of the new girls. She was a natural leader, great at what she did. The girl had a cool head under pressure, but she was also very flirty, conceited, and was always looking to make trouble with people for her own amusement. Guys tolerated her because she was sexy as hell, and some of the women liked her only because she knew who to kiss up to and she pretended to be their friend. I saw right through her immediately. I figured it was only a matter of time before she ran the gamut at our fire house and all of the women wanted her gone. She would eventually go through all of them and manipulate them into hating each other. Then they would see her for the bitch she really was and tell her to hit the road.
I wasn’t buying anything she was selling. I barely looked at her. “Hey.” Then I walked towards the locker room where I sat my stuff down and changed. I could feel the evil look that Beth had sent my way as I passed by her. She wanted me and it was obvious. The girl did not care about getting herself fired or whether she got anyone else canned either. That much was obvious.
“You aren’t being very friendly today,” Beth said when I passed her on the way to the lounge.
“Are we friends?” I asked.
“Oh, I’d like to be,” she purred.
I chuckled and said, “Well, it appears my friend card is full.”
I walked away from her and entered the breakroom. I poured some coffee and then sat down at the lounge table. No one was there yet, but I had a few moments before my shift actually started. So, I pulled out my phone and decided that I would send a text to Kat. It couldn’t hurt, right? Just a little something to let her know that I was thinking about her.
“Hey, hope I didn’t wear you out last night,” I texted. I laughed at the play on words. I wondered if it might be too forward, but by the time I thought of that, I’d already sent the thing.
I sat back and read a few emails, checked my social media, and enjoyed my coffee.
Then my phone dinged a second later with an incoming message. I laughed as I opened it up and it was from Kat.
“Oh, yeah baby. I can barely walk today…”
I tried to stifle the laughter, but it was too much. Damn, this woman liked to play, didn’t she?
“I’ll be gentler next time,” I replied.
A moment later, another reply. “Maybe I won’t…”
I shook my head. I was getting hot, just through texts. I had to cool it off before I had to go to the bathroom and take care of myself at work. I couldn’t be
walking around my whole shift with a boner. I replied with a hysterically laughing smiley face and then I went to start my shift.
The entire day I was thinking about the way she was playing with me through text. I wished I could have seen how much fun she was having with it in person, just as I was. I wanted to see Kat again and soon. I wanted to take her out on a proper date. We could have some dinner, dancing maybe, or perhaps just do something wild and fun like a concert or a rodeo. Hell, why not a Reds game or an MMA fight? That would be exciting. I’d never met a woman I was this attracted to and had so much in common with. It was like I could see her soul when I spoke with her and it was a reflection of my own.
I sighed as I sat down and looked around the fire station. It was going to be a long day. And that night I had to meet with my father to see what was so damn important. It was possible that he didn’t have anything to tell me about, that we wouldn’t be discussing his will or the inheritance. It might have been something goofy and totally stupid, something I didn’t care about in the slightest.
At this point, I didn’t really care. I was so over it. I’d grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle afforded by my father’s money and deep down it had grown into extreme shame and resentment. I was tired of that. I wanted to be my own man, even if that meant I might have to live off my firefighter’s salary.
But at the same time, that money was my birthright. There was something noble about being entrusted with a family fortune. Even if I had no desires to run the business, I would still protect and use the family fortune wisely. Maybe one day I would pass it on to someone else deserving of it. I did not see myself ever having children. That was something that just didn’t appeal to me at all.
But right now, I was focused more on the excitement of the new woman in my life. Was she actually, in my life though? I wasn’t sure. It was too early to tell what was going on with the two of us.
And I was dying to find out where I stood.
Chapter Eight
Kat
“For the last time, I did not hook up with Lance,” I said. “Give it a rest.”
Kayley sighed as she shoved some pancakes into her mouth. “Why the hell not?”
