Chapter 7
Leo
A t the diner, she blushed when Rafe took a drink of her Diet Coke.
And again, when he reached for one of her fries.
She seemed bashful around him all of a sudden, after weeks of sprawling out over both of us on the couch or shoving him over to take a bite of his hamburger in the booth at the diner. She was acting weird around him.
I would’ve thought it was nothing, but he wasn’t exactly his normal too-serious self around her anymore either.
Mostly he looked at her like he was a starving man and she was a ten-course banquet.
The rest of the time he looked like he’d been whipped and didn’t dare look up.
When she’d yanked her plate away from him after he reached for a fry, he’d had the look of a misbehaving puppy who’d been left outside in the snow.
It was hard enough for me to be her friend and nothing else.
But watching Rafe struggle not to flirt with her, watching her avoid touching him at all costs was exhausting.
I told them about the fire call we went on the day before when some idiot dumped a whole can of lighter fluid on the grill before dropping a match in there just to try and dispel some of the awkwardness.
“Dumbass was lucky he only lost his eyebrows and burned his forehead. He could’ve been nothing but a pile of teeth after a fireball rolled over him,” I said.
“Pile of teeth? Mmm. Great dinner convo, Leo,” Lexi said.
“People do a lot of stupid crap that gets them killed. It’s like the unofficial motto of the fire department: Rescuing dumbasses who do stupid shit.”
“Aww, you should cross stitch that on a pillow for the couch,” she teased, “My job would be ‘Convincing drunks to try and get their kids back’. How about you, Rafe? ‘Making lazy people fit?’”
“Empowering people to get stronger,” he said.
“Ugh, so sincere all the time,” I groaned, “Why do we even hang out with him?”
“He makes good chili?” Lexi suggested with a shrug. Then she looked at him shyly and blushed when he met her eyes.
I wanted to throw my glass of ice water on them both. They were making googly eyes at each other, and it was ruining my chicken sandwich experience. I eased out of the booth, saying I was tired and going to head into the station a little early for my night shift.
“I’ll go too,” Rafe said, jumping up to follow me, which was weird. “I should get to bed.”
“Well, I’m going to stay here and finish my milkshake. I’ll see you when I get home,” Lexi said with an eye roll.
When we got to the house, I turned to Rafe, “What’s the deal with following me out? It looked like you two needed to be alone.”
He shook his head and rubbed at the back of his neck in exasperation.
“That’s the last thing we need. Last week when you had to cover Glen’s shift, she had a nightmare.
Woke up screaming, the whole thing. I went in there to wake her up and comfort her.
But I got carried away and I kissed her.
So, go ahead and punch me. I deserve it.
She moved in here so we could protect her and take care of her, and I put the moves on her. ”
He hung his head, clearly ashamed. “Bro, it’s nothing I haven’t wanted to do. Living with Lexi has its own set of hardships. Like when she goes to reach for something on a high shelf and her shirt rides up and you see that little sliver of stomach, damn,” I said in full commiseration.
“Yeah. It’s that or when we’re on the couch and she leans back against me or drapes her feet in my lap—God. It’s a miracle our water bill hasn’t quadrupled with the amount of cold showers I’ve been taking,” Rafe said.
“I know,” I told him. “It’s rough. But she’s worth the trouble. And if she kissed you it’s because she wanted to. I know Lexi well enough to know she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to.”
“True. We just have to believe it’ll get easier, once we’re more used to living with her. It’s only been, what, a month or so?”
“Yeah, and we’ll make a pact. We don’t make any moves on her. If she wants you—which by the way she’s stealing looks at you, she does—we let her make the first move. No harm, no jealousy. Priority one is protecting her and making her feel safe with us.”
“She has to be able to trust us. No matter how painful it is to live with that temptation,” Rafe said.
“We should both try going out, getting laid. Maybe if we weren’t both sitting her with blue balls it wouldn’t be so bad. ”
“I don’t want to go out with some woman who isn’t Lexi,” Rafe said.
“I know, bro. Well, I’m going to head into the station. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
My shift was almost done. It was six in the morning when the call came in.
I was in the fire and rescue vehicle in less than a minute, and Donny scrambled in behind me.
He had been asleep while I was eating an egg sandwich and thinking it would be nice to get some rest at home.
I’d even wondered if Lexi would still be there when I arrived.
I thought about picking her up a latte on the way.
It wasn’t a dumbass playing with lighter fluid that time.
It was a car wreck, a couple of teenagers taking a curve too fast after being out all night doing God knows what.
A woman in a bathrobe was spraying at the flames from a distance with a little kitchen fire extinguisher.
We waved her off and tried to fight the blaze but it was too late.
After half an hour it was obvious there was no way to save them.
I filed reports while Donny talked with the cops and waited around to speak to the family.
My shift had been over for an hour and a half when I left the scene.
I knew by that time it was a couple of sixteen-year-old girls, that they’d left a sleepover early to get to track practice, that they had been running late.
Instead of showering at the station like I normally would, I just dropped off my bunker gear and headed home. I needed my own shower and my own bed.
My eyes burned, and my head ached as I unlocked the door and stumbled inside. Lexi should have been long gone like Rafe was, but she was home.
“Hey, are you okay?” she said, rounding the kitchen counter and coming to me. I tried to come up with a joke or a shrug, but I didn’t have it in me.
“Tough call right at the end of my shift,” I told her, my voice sounding like gravel.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling me into her arms.
“No, I’ll get you dirty,” I said, lamely trying to push her away.
“I don’t care about that. You look like you could use a friend,” she protested.
Lexi was trying to hug me. I was trying not to hug her back.
The next thing I knew, I had my arms around her, crushing her to me like I was trying to hold onto everything that was still pure and good in the universe.
I choked out a sob, “They were just sixteen,” I managed.
She was kissing my smoky hair, my filthy, blackened face.
I turned my head, captured her mouth with mine.
She didn’t pull away. She responded to me hungrily, taking my tongue in her mouth, opening for me, her hands greedy on my shoulders and neck.
Her hands roamed down my chest, pulled my t-shirt out of my jeans and dragged it off of me, breaking the kiss only long enough to strip me bare.
“Why are you home?” I said against her soft, sweet lips.
“Waiting for you. I was going to make you breakfast and tuck you in before I went to the office, but when you were late, I called in for half a day. I thought you might need me.”
“I do need you,” I said roughly. “I need you in every way right now.”
“Then you can have me in every way, Leo,” she said. She smiled at me knowingly.
“You’re kidding,” I said stupidly.
“No, I’m not. I want to take the pain away, Leo. I want to make you feel like the hero you are. Show me how.”
“God, Lexi—you can’t mean that. Do you know how long I’ve wanted you? ”
“About as long as I’ve wanted you. When I got hurt, and you held me and kissed my hair, you were rubbing the back of my neck real slow.
It made me so wet, Leo. I was so embarrassed, because here the two of you were being the best friends I’d ever had and wanting to keep me safe and I was getting wet for you,” she sounded embarrassed.
I had my hands on her hips then, my lips seeking hers, brushing against them, clinging.
My hands were inside her blouse, the buttons on the floor somewhere and only her hot smooth skin under my palms. I held her against me, backed her into my bedroom.
I stripped the blouse off of her, then her bra.
Before I could say a word, I was on my knees like I was ready to worship.
Her hands were in my hair as my lips closed over one rosy nipple, drawing on it, making it tight and stiff.
I gathered all of her in my arms, wanting to hold everything at once.
Lexi gasped, her hands on my face, guiding me up to her lips and kissing me again.
She tasted me, the soft feel of her tongue in my mouth making me hungry for more.
We tumbled back onto my bed, my hands and mouth full of her.
This was Lexi, alive and vibrant, safe, and mine at last. I was going to make it good for her, so good she’d never forget.
I needed her, needed to bury myself inside her, remember what it meant to feel alive, to connect with someone.
I knew in her body I could find everything I needed.
All thoughts of my conversation with Rafe the night before left my head.
I rolled her onto her back, her arms still around me. I kissed her lips again and again, then her neck and her collarbone.
As if she’d read my mind, she briefly broke the kiss. “Let me say it’s because you had a bad call, you couldn’t save the people in the car. Let me say it’s that I wanted to comfort you, and we got carried away,” she says breathlessly .