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3
Luca
Friday morning, I swing by Gio’s place to pick him up.I watch as he makes out with Alex on the front doorstep.When they finally stop mauling each other, he moves toward my car and hops in.
“Goodmorning,brother,” I say.
“It is, isn’t it?”he replies, looking like a Cheshire cat who got the sexy cream.
I throw my elbow into his ribs, muttering “bragger” under my breath and earning a laugh for my troubles as I pull out into his street and start driving.
“Hey, there’s nothing stopping you from finding what we’ve all got.I guess you’ve just got to be open to it.”He shrugs.“You never know.Maybe there’s some amazing miracle of a woman out there who’d be willing to put up with your shit.”
“Yeah, right.Anyway, enough about my lack of a love life.How was work?”I ask.
Gio is a cop.He didn’t follow Marco and me into the fire department like Skye did.So, as you can imagine, there’s always a lot of brothers-in-blue-versus-hose-monkeys ribbing that goes on between us.
“Good.Busy as always, and there are always those funny drunk call-outs, and they always make for an entertaining night,” he says with a chuckle.“How about you?”
“Just a quiet one.We stayed home, had dinner, watched another one of London’s rom-coms.Nothing exciting.”I flick the indicator and drive onto the freeway.
Gio eyes me suspiciously.
“What?”I ask.
“That sounds very ...domestic.”
I sigh and roll my eyes so hard I almost pull a muscle.“G ...”I growl, trying to ward off yet another talk about me and London.“Are you about to hop back on the ‘there’s more going on there’ bandwagon like almost everyone else?”
“Nope.My girlfriend keeps me up to date with the Firehouse 101 gossip, and you’ve told me more times than necessary that you’re just friends.I think it’s cool.Probably smart too.Especially if you’re going for lieutenant.”
I glance his way.“News travels fast.”
“It’s been four days, Luc.You didn’t think one of our two siblings you work withorour brother-in-law, who you also work with, wouldn’t tell me?Are you going for it?”
“I don’t know.It would mean a lot of changes.”
“And?”
My head jerks.“And?And it would mean moving stations to wherever I’m needed.They don’t just let you take the test, get the stripes, and say, ‘Off you go back to work.’It doesn’t go like that.”
“Ahh,” Gio replies, as if that one word explains everything.
“What?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“What did that ‘ahh’ mean?”
“It meant ‘ahh.’Nothing more, nothing less,” he states matter-of-factly.
“No, no.That ‘ahh’ meant something.Just spit it out.”
“You really want to hear this?”
I roll my eyes as I watch the road.“When have you ever held back when it came to me, G?You may be the younger brother but you’ve always been the one who acts older and wiser.”
His chest puffs up.“Okay, then.I think you’re scared of change.You’re stuck in a rut.”
