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I snicker. “I’m busy with work, and he’s got some stuff going on too. Next week was the best we could wrangle. But that’s cool. It gives us time to text some more. Now let’s talk about you.” I sip my drink and glance to my right with a sly grin. “Who are you talking to? When is dinner?”
“No one. Never. All the good chicks are already taken, and my work keeps me too busy to drive into the city to woo those ladies.” He knocks his knee against mine and smirks. “Where are you going to dinner?”
He’s the master of diversion. Raul has always been odd about his dating life. I know he has one, but he doesn’t share the details as openly as I do.
Which is fine, of course. Everyone has a right to privacy. So I go back to watch Otis and Enrico wrestle around and provide every female viewer the very thing she tuned in tonight to see. “We’re going to Pinocchio’s,” I tell him. “Seven o’clock on Wednesday, which was the only night I had open. Then Thursday and Friday, I’m busy prepping for Nicole’s thing.”
“And Saturday’s the big day.” He brings his drink up and takes a sip. “I’ll be there in my best shirt.”
“Notthatone, I hope.” I look to the stain his pork left behind, only to burst out laughing when he side-eyes me and frowns. “You’ve ruined it!”
Axel
PURGATORY
One week later
“Track two klicks south!” Ruiz shouts above the roar of a wildfire. He wields a chainsaw in one hand, and waves the other in the direction he wants me to go. “Topographical maps says we have a water source near here, but we must’ve missed it.”
“You want me to walk?” Instead of moving away, I step closer to the reason I sport two black eyes today. Though it’s not all bad; his face is puffy and fucked up too. “You’re ordering me to leave you here,alone, and walk through a fucking blaze,alone, in search of water we did not findtogether?”
“You scared?” He repositions his chainsaw in both hands and revs it between us in threat. “You seriously afraid to dance with the dragon all on your own, kid?”
“It’s not fear, Lieutenant, it’s a healthy respect not only for the dragon, but for firefighter safety processes. Training says we don’t split up!”
“This isn’t your run-of-the-mill townhouse fire, kid! We’re in the wild now. And for as long as O’Toole is still on the plane, you’ll do as I fucking tell you. Follow the line, no more than two klicks south. Search for that water source, because without it, she eats us up anyway.”
“So come with me!” I grab his jacket and tug him a step my way. “Leave the line and walk with me. Two sets of eyes are better than one.”
“One set of hands and a chainsaw creating a wall to slow the fire is better than two dudes on a romantic stroll in the fuckin’ wilderness! I said go. Keep me updated on the radio. You have fifteen minutes to get there and back.”
Sweat trickles down my spine and into the shorts I wear beneath my turnouts as fire rages just far enough from us that our skin doesn’t melt. “Fifteen?”
“Fourteen!” he shouts. “Thirteen. If you can’t run that distance in under five, I’m gonna put you out to pasture anyway!”
“It’s not about the distance!” I shout to compete with the fire. And the chainsaw. And the plane above. And whatever else wants to be heard. “It’s searching for a hidden water source, in a forest I don’t know, in five percent visibility. You’re setting me up to fail.”
“Twelve!” he says instead, then approaching a massive pine, he zips his chainsaw through and fells another tree. “Eleven.”
“Fuck.” I turn on my heels and picture the maps I’ve spent months studying, then I take off while the rest of my crew remains behind to curtail the sneaky dragon who wants to eat another hundred acres before lunch.
I jog along the line we’ve already walked, heavy gear weighing me down. The radio crackles in my ear, and though my cellphone is in my pocket, it’s nothing more than a paperweight out here in the middle of nowhere.
I’m going home in three days. To see my sister. My beautiful niece.
To visit with Preston Danes, who we all kinda acknowledge will someday be my brother-in-law. This party will include the guys down at Checkmate Security, who are less than legit when it comes to the law. But that’s all cool, because cops will be at the party too.
One big, happy family.
Worst of all, Hannah will be there.
Will she bring a date?
I don’t care.
Will she be more beautiful than I remember?
No doubt in my mind.
