Chapter 31
ALEX
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Two days after the random fucking fire inspection—which had honestly become even more of a pain in my ass than the dental cleaning that came right after it—one of my beer taps broke and sprayed expensive IPA all over me.
I headed to Sullivan Hardware in hopes of finding what I needed to fix it without having to call the equipment company up in Billings.
As the bell over the hardware store door tinkled, I spotted Maddox’s sister chatting with the usual contingent of Legacy gossips…
which apparently now included Adrian Hayes, the influencer I’d skipped out on “dating.” We’d met finally, and I had to admit I liked the guy.
But not like that. He was nice, but a little too fancy for me.
“Maya,” I pleaded, throwing myself on her mercy, “please tell me you have something that can fix a broken beer tap.”
“O-rings and gaskets are right over there, plumbing section,” she said, pointing toward an aisle.
Adrian threw out a friendly smile. “Alex, what’s your favorite Christmas movie?”
I paused. “Uh… Die Hard? What about you?”
“Never seen it,” he said. “But I remember liking the Snoopy one.”
Maya and I, along with Mrs. Hoffman, gasped.
Adrian blinked at us in mock confusion. “You guys don’t like Snoopy?”
I stared at him. “You’ve never seen Die Hard?”
I shook my head and headed to the plumbing section, remembering I had a restaurant full of people waiting for me. “It’s true what they say about people from LA,” I teased over my shoulder.
Maya laughed and said. “You’re from Napa. Don’t go acting all local on us just yet. You’ve been here five minutes.”
I found what I was looking for quickly and returned to the counter. “I’ve been here full-time for three years, and that’s after a decade of summers in Legacy, little lady.”
As I pulled out my debit card, Mrs. Hoffman asked Adrian something I didn’t hear.
“Oh, uh… Actually, I’m going to a holiday bonfire and s’mores tonight with, um…” Adrian frowned. “The fire marshal? I can’t remember his name.”
Hot rage flooded my system. I could have sworn Maddox had counted Kincaid out of the mix when he was putting together all of these video dates… or so Rosie had led me to believe.
“Oh my god, Maddox set you up with Kincaid after all? For real?” I shook my head in disgust. “Good luck, I guess. He’s the grumpiest human you’ve ever met. Makes Maddox look like a happy ray of sunshine in comparison.”
Adrian shrugged. “My business manager hooked me up with a small sponsorship to create fire safety content and just sent me the information this morning. He arranged it with the people at the search and rescue training program who are putting on the bonfire—”
“SERA,” Maya supplied with a nod.
“Right,” Adrian agreed. “So we’re going to film out there tonight.”
I headed toward the door, waving a hand over my shoulder. “Like I said, good luck. Chief Kincaid’s an ass and ten times more stubborn than one. Enjoy!”
I stormed back to Timber in an even worse mood than before. The fire chief was ruining my life. And now he’d accepted a date with the town’s prettiest newcomer.
Great.
No problem.
It was fine.
But like… I obviously needed to go to that bonfire.
I had spent quite a bit of time in the past year being schooled on proper fire safety technique, so it only made sense for me to attend the town’s holiday bonfire, where there would necessarily be quite a bit of fire danger.
I also liked s’mores, and it wasn’t like Timber would ever get a permit to make them.
So I had to go to the SERA bonfire.
It was downright obligatory, honestly.
Later that night, I turned up at SERA and watched as Judd Kincaid stood up in front of everyone and lectured them on fire safety rules.
It seemed to be part of whatever Adrian was filming, and I had to admit it was a little bit of a relief to see Judd more interested in fire safety than in the model-pretty influencer beside him.
I quickly learned from the excited chatter surrounding me that the two of them were filming public safety for the forest service or something. It seemed like our grumpy fire chief was taking his job way too seriously, as usual.
In fact, only a short time later, he seemed to become annoyed at his “date” when Adrian accidentally set his marshmallow on fire.
“What the hell is going on over here?” Judd asked, moving swiftly to remove the flailing marshmallow skewer from Adrian’s hand and stick it in an empty tin can on the ground. “Did you even listen to a word I said? Are you demonstrating what not to do?”
Adrian didn’t look sorry, but he apologized anyway in his charming way. “Sorry, Chief. I got carried away.”
Kincaid narrowed his eyes at the guy like he was ready to string him up for improper marshmallow-toasting safety behavior. “You’re putting people at risk because you can’t put your phone down.”
This was unusually grumpy, even for Kincaid.
I stepped forward and grabbed Judd’s arm, trying to pull him away. No one needed the local fire chief to ruin the mood of a holiday gathering. “Hey! He was just trying to film content like you asked him to. Take it easy on the guy. It’s not his fault you’re impossible to please.”
The chief’s eyes snapped to me and narrowed, causing my heart to flicker with more heat than the flames in the giant bonfire nearby. “Not sure you’re the one who should be giving safety advice, Firebug,” he growled.
“You need to calm down,” I said, mentally owing Ella a shot of alcohol for the inadvertent Taylor Swift lyrics. “You need to just stop.” Dammit. Two shots.
I let out a breath and regrouped. “Listen. It was a flaming marshmallow. We all get them from time to time. Do you want all these little kids so scared of you that they run away from the helpers during a fire? Think about it.”
He folded his arms over his broad chest and glared. “This helpful advice coming from the same man who—”
I couldn’t help interrupting him. The words had been waiting hours to spill out.
At least I had the decency to lower my voice.
“Also? Why the hell are you on a date with Adrian fucking Hayes? And did you know that he asked me out first and I said no? I said no because I thought it wouldn’t be very nice to you!
And I worried that if you saw me out with him, it might cause you pain. Ha! I guess not! Because here you are—”
Judd clamped a large hand over my mouth to stop my rant and then grabbed my hand and yanked me away from the fire and deep into the shadows behind a nearby building. As soon as I opened my mouth to say, “And another thing,” he slammed his mouth down on mine.
The little baby-bird-like noise that came out of my nose wasn’t attractive, but I couldn’t help but melt into him. The commanding kiss was feral but also familiar. Controlling but also caressing.
Judd’s hands moved into my hair to clasp my head as if I would ever for any reason want to pull away or stop.
I didn’t. I wouldn’t.
Instead, I let him kiss me for as long as he wanted. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very long. He pulled back and glared at me. “Stop coming to my house if you’re not going to treat me like someone who deserves more than just your body. Now, go home.”
Before I could say anything—rage or complain or beg him for more kisses—he was gone. Back to the bonfire and back to his supposed date.
I blew out a breath and put my fingers to my lips.
I was never getting over Judd Kincaid, was I?
“Fuck that,” I said into the freezing cold night. “There’s nothing to get over! I stopped that in its tracks before it could get started. I am perfectly capable of enjoying my life without him. Watch me.”
I spent the following week forcing myself to put the chief out of my mind and have fun. I worked hard, but I also played hard. Rosie invited me to the town snowball fight, and I agreed on the condition we wouldn’t talk about “other” subjects.
And it was fun. Honestly.
Things were good.
Until three days after that, when Timber had another random fire inspection. And I lost my fucking mind.