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“I’ll go find Gamble, Kellan, and Shae. See you at roll call.”
Sam took a deep breath. Looked at the three men he’d considered brothers ever since they’d all landed on rescue squad together. And exhaled on a great bigfuck it.
“Well look what the cat dragged in!” Hawkins said, his hazel eyes glinting in the fluorescent kitchen lights as he caught sight of Sam heading over to the group. The firefighters on engine were almost certainly all in the locker room, with Quinn and Luke probably doing ambo inventory before shift change. The firefighters from C shift were technically still on the hook for any calls that came in before 0700, but they were all either asleep in their bunks or doing end-of-shift equipment checks. With fifteen minutes to go, the four of them had the kitchen to themselves.
“Admit it,” Sam drawled, grabbing a mug from one of the shelves over the coffeepot and filling it to the brim. “You missed me.”
Tyler rolled his eyes, but his laughter erased any attitude the gesture would’ve carried. “I see your time off has made you humble.”
Dempsey’s snort landed in his coffee mug. “No force on earth could make Faurier humble.”
“First of all, don’t be a hater,” Sam said to Dempsey, who had no shortage of his own cocky bravado when the occasion called for it. “Second of all…there, uh, might be just one.”
Hawkins, the intuitive bastard, caught on fast. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with how much time you and de Costa have been spendin’ together, would it?”
“It would,” Sam said. “Lucy and I are—”
“Oh, hell. You can stop right there,” Dempsey groaned. “The minute I started calling Addison by her first name, it was all over.”
“You and de Costa?” Tyler asked, his blond brows nearly disappearing into his perfectly tousled hairline. “Lucy de Costa?Ourde Costa?”
“Myde Costa.”
The words had vaulted past Sam’s lips before he could even think about them, let alone drag them back, and Hawkins let out a low whistle.
“Okay, boys. Go easy on him. He’s clearly got it bad.” Shifting his gaze to the common room doorway, Hawk added, “Does Cap know?”
Sam nodded. “We told him just now. I know it’s a surprise—believe me, it was for me, too, at first. But we obviously already knew each other really well from the house, and this case we’ve been working has been pretty intense. Things just kind of happened.”
“Been there,” Dempsey said, and he really wasn’t kidding. His relationship with Addison had started when she and the Intelligence Unit had taken on a murderous stalker who’d had his sights set on Dempsey’s sister, Chloe. “So, this thing with you and de Costa isn’t casual, then?”
“No,” Sam said. “I mean, we’re not moving in together and getting all engaged or anything”—he paused to give Dempsey a look, because if you couldn’t give your family at least a little bit of shit, then honestly, what was the point.
Of course,thatsentiment came back to bite him square on the ass before he could even finish. “Except that you kind of are living together,” Tyler pointed out. “Or, were, anyway, when you were working on the case. Right?”
While all of the case details had been kept within the Intelligence Unit as the investigation had unfolded, Engine Seventeen had responded to Lucy’s SUV fire. Neither he nor Lucy had had much choice but to update their fellow first responders after that (they were pushy as hell, and Shae had even threatened to camp out on Lucy’s doorstep with her fists full of Mace until Lucy had finally caved and told her that she and Sam were staying together “on the advice of the Intelligence Unit” for “safety purposes”). Even though Sam hadn’t made the same disclosure to his squad-mates, he should’ve realized they’d have heard about it.
“Well, yeah,” he said slowly, then shook his head. It had taken a lot for Lucy to be okay with simply telling everyone they were involved. He’d be more than happy to have her in his bed every night and stand by her side every day, but he wasn’t going to push his fucking luck. “But that was for the case.”
Hawkins chuckled. “Gotta admit, you had me with that one. I thought y’all were hunkering down together to have each other’s backs as part of the job. God only knows what de Costa sees in you, Faurier, but I’m glad she’s gonna make an honest man out of ya.”
Sam laughed, taking the hand Hawk had extended and letting the guy clap him on the back. “Thanks. I think we all know I don’t deserve her.”
“Now that is the truth,” Dempsey said, grinning. “Take it from a fellow man who doesn’t deserve his partner, either.”
Hawkins looked at Tyler and lifted his chin. “Now we’ve just gotta find you the love of a good woman, Hollywood.”
Tyler rolled his eyes at the nickname, which Sam had always suspected Tyler hated, but that the guy had earned for his movie-star good looks.
“What about that cute brunette who was flirting with you at the Crooked Angel the other night?” Dempsey asked, but Tyler just shrugged.
“She was nice, but I wasn’t really feeling a spark.”
Hawkins slid Tyler a look. “You said that about the blonde who gave you her number a couple of weeks ago, too.”
“What can I say?” Tyler lifted his hands with an easygoing smile. “I guess redheads are more my type.”
A strangled noise came out of Dempsey’s throat. “Argh! Come on, dude. My sister is a redhead.”
