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I found any and every excuse to get out of participating, but Henson came down with food poisoning from eating Crawford’s cooking, leaving them short a man, so I’d been called up.
And I was dreading it. The only silver lining in the whole thing was when I’d first walked into the gym, Hardin was the first person I’d seen. Sure, she was doing her level best to act like I didn’t exist, but the sight of her had helped soothe some of the tension that had been coiling my muscles into sailor’s knots.
I was about to go over and talk to her when the doors opened and a steady stream of second graders came running like a bunch of howler monkeys strung out on cocaine into the gymnasium.
My girl would have been older than all these kids if she were still around, but that didn’t stop me from seeing her face on every single kid as they climbed up the bleachers and took their seats.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye coming from the first row to my left and turned my head. Hazel was right there, her long, dark hair twisted into two long braids that hung down either side of her head, waving at me like she had just spotted Santa.
At her goofy, excited wave, more of those knots unfurled. The corner of my mouth quirked up, and I shot her a quick salute before the principal stepped forward and started introductions. I stood toward the back, letting Chief and Lydia do most of the talking when the firefighters were up, outlining the key points of fire safety.
As they talked my eyes kept shifting toward the tables along the side wall beneath one of the basketball goals. Used to be, this was an easy in and out for us. We came, we gave our presentation, answered a few questions, and after showing off our gear and the pumper, we headed back to the station. When Chief tapped me to be a part of the show, he’d also informed me that things had changed a bit. We were now required—for some reason—to stay and attend an hour-long party with the kids.
I hadn’t understood the point of that until we’d gotten here. Lydia, in her infinite wisdom, had tried to school us as to why during the ride over here, but I hadn’t believed her. Then we stepped into the gym and a bunch of the moms volunteering for the party started to look at us like we were the sandwich platter, and they were starving.
Of course, Hardin stuck out from the entire group, not just because of her beauty, but because she didn’t appear to have any interest in ogling the first responders.
“Don’t look now, brother, but I think I just saw one of the yoga moms lick her lips as she looked you up and down like you were her cheat-day snack,” Palmer leaned over to mutter from the corner of his mouth.
I let out a snort in an effort not to laugh. Sure enough, when I looked over, a tall blonde in plum-colored yoga leggings and matching jacket was making eyes at me as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger and bit seductively on her bottom lip.
“For Christ’s sake,” I grumbled back, barely suppressing an eyeroll as I looked away, but before I could turn my attention back to the front of the gym, I caught Hardin glaring at the yoga mom, her cheeks burning red and daggers shooting from her eyes.
That was an interesting development. I’d never seen Hardin get pissed at another woman for checking me out before. A tiny voice in the back of my head told me it didn’t matter if she was jealous or not, but it was becoming harder and harder to give a shit what that voice had to say.
* * *
After one of the longest hours of my life, and countless questions from kids who were worried about the safety of their pets if they were to climb a tree—fucking kill me—the safety talks were over and the party—if you could call it that—had officially started.
I’d attempted to make my way over to the table Hardin was manning on more than one occasion, but each time, something stopped me. It was either a kid with another burning question, a teacher who wanted to thank us for taking the time out of our busy schedule, or a mom.
I was only a few yards away when I was intercepted by Plum Yoga Mom. “Well, hi there,” she said, her voice low and seductive in a way you only really saw on TV and in movies.
“Hello.” I gave her a flat smile as I tried to keep an eye on Hardin in the distance.
She placed her hand on my arm, her fingers wrapping around my bicep in a not-so-subtle way of checking its size. Apparently, she was happy with it because she stepped in closer and thrust her boobs out. “You know, what you do is so brave.” Her hand slid down my arm and up again, stroking it in a way that made me uncomfortable. “You’re a hero, really. We all appreciate what you do.Iappreciate it. If there’s anything I can do to show that appreciation...” She trailed off, the innuendo so thick it was practically dripping from her words. Bold move, considering the company we were currently in.
My grin felt brittle, forced. “Thanks. We’re just doing our jobs,” I stated, making sure to put emphasis on the plural. For Christ’s sake, the gym was full of first responders, as far as I was concerned her attempt to get in my pants was an insult to the other men and women who’d come with me.
My eyes darted back to the table, colliding with Hardin’s a moment before she wrenched hers away, the angry flush on her face growing darker. Oh damn, she didnotlike this woman, which only made my desire to escape her that much stronger.
Sure, she was beautiful and put together, stylish in a way you see all over the internet lately, but she didn’t hold any appeal for me. Maybe in the past I’d have taken her and fucked her hard after making it clear it was only a one-time deal, getting us both off a couple times before sending her on her way. But even the thought of that did nothing to rev my engine.
“If you’ll excuse me—” I attempted to extricate myself from her grasp, but she held tighter, stepping so close her tits were nearly smashed against my chest.
“You know, if you don’t have any plans tonight—”
Christ, I was going to have to shoot her down in a fucking elementary school gym filled with kids and teachers. This was my nightmare.
But then a voice spoke, saving me from all the awkward that was to come. “Hi, Ford.”
My head whipped down to Hazel, my tiny little savior. Surely there was no way Plum Soccer Mom would continue being so damn inappropriate with a kid standing right there.
“Hey, Hazelnut. Good to see you. Did you get a snack yet?” She smiled big at my use of her nickname and shook her head. “Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” I reached out and waited for her to take my hand. “Come on, I’m feeling a bit hungry myself. And I saw there were juice boxes. I never pass up a juice box.”
She giggled and placed her tiny palm against mine, sending an electric shock up my arm. It was still hard, but the more time I spent in this girl’s company, the less I pictured my daughter in her place. Hazel was her own girl, and the difference between her and my Daisy were growing more pronounced.
I shot one last look at Plum Yoga Mom as I started moving away. “Nice to meet you,” I offered, then turned back to the little girl leading me to safety without even realizing.
