Faking It with the Firefighter (Small Town Sizzle #2)

1. Abigail

ONE

ABIGAIL

When Rex Montgomery pulled up next to me in that beat-up blue pickup truck, I was mulling over every divorcée’s biggest dilemma: Was it time to finally get a cat? I was two for three on the “crazy cat lady” front, but “crazy lady” just didn’t have the same ring to it. Or maybe I wanted to pour all my love and affection into a creature that didn’t give a crap about me. My ex-husband apparently hadn’t cured me of the desire.

Basically, I was feeling lonely and more than a little sorry for myself when my brother’s best friend pulled up, looking muscle-bound and clean-cut, with that wide smile and combed-back hair. Rex would’ve been hot if he’d had a bit of edge to him, but he was just so damn good . He was the fire marshal and part of the volunteer firefighting force in town, which meant that he spent his spare time literally saving kittens from trees. I, on the other hand, spent my spare time trying to fix my many screwups.

I bristled as he rolled down his window and leaned an elbow on the frame. He flashed those pearly whites at me like he was actually happy to see me.

He was a dog person, for sure.

“Where are you off to with that frown?”

Scratch that. He wasn’t just a dog person. He was a golden retriever person. A big, goofy, happy golden retriever that shed hair and drooled all over the place.

Ugh.

“I’m not frowning.”

“Uh-huh. C’mon, get in, you demolition devil.” He nodded toward his passenger seat.

I’d just spent the afternoon taking a sledgehammer to my BFF Charlie’s old bedroom, which she was renovating with the love of her life, Sebastian. Walls had come crashing down (not the walls they’d been hoping). It had been a good way to get out the whole I’ll-probably-die-alone-but-I’m-still-happy-you’re-happy aggression that had been plaguing me all day.

And now my brother’s happy-go-lucky, golden retriever of a childhood best friend was looking at me like he wanted to actually be nice to me and give me a ride home. Ugh!

My eyes narrowed. “What for?”

Rex’s smile tilted, and it looked almost— almost —the tiniest bit wicked. “Remember that favor you owe me?”

Yeah, I remembered. I owed him a favor for getting me out of jail. It was a whole thing. I didn’t want to talk about it.

Rex’s smile was definitely a little wicked now. I couldn’t see his eyes behind his aviator shades, but I could’ve sworn they had a glint in them. “Well, I’m calling it in.”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I pretended his words didn’t send the tiniest thrill shooting straight down my middle. He’d said that in a decidedly un-Rex kind of way. Like he was enjoying himself a little. Enjoying the sight of me squirming.

I slid inside the truck next to Rex. He took off his sunglasses and stared at me with his deep brown eyes. I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. The cab of his truck smelled like him. That in itself wasn’t a surprise. What surprised me was that he smelled good .

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, concern drawing lines on his forehead.

No, I wasn’t okay. First of all, Rex Montgomery was turning me on a little. That in itself should’ve been a red alert to get my head checked. Second of all, spending the day basking in Charlie and Sebastian’s loved-up company had made me realize just how lonely I really was. The only silver lining of getting divorced was getting to be single again with my single girlfriends. But now that Charlie was engaged to Sebastian, I felt less like a free single girl and more like a sad spinster.

And Rex was being nice to me, damn it! How dare he! He already saw me as Gabe’s kid sister. I’d rather he not also view me as a lonely, desperate-for-love girl too. So I offered a slight smile and changed the subject. “I’m fine. What’s this favor you’re calling in?”

Rex sucked his teeth and slid his shades back on. “You might want to buckle up.”

My stomach clenched. Uh-oh. I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. He put the car in gear, propping his hands on top of the steering wheel before glancing at me.

I glanced right back, arching my brows.

“Seatbelt, Abigail,” he reminded me .

Ignore everything I said about him being wicked and hot earlier. Rex didn’t have a wicked bone in his body.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m getting there.” I strapped myself in, scowling.

“Safety first.” Spoken like a true fire marshal Boy Scout. “You staying out of trouble?”

I gave him a side-eye glance. “Yes.” I’d been on my best(ish) behavior since the night of the gala at the Monticello.

All right. So we were going there. The whole bailing-me-out-of-jail thing.

So what if I’d slashed Sebastard’s tires in the parking lot after he broke Charlie’s heart? He’d deserved it.

I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for stupid Bryce Lawson being on duty. That guy had had it out for me ever since I turned down his invitation to the homecoming dance in eleventh grade. What was I supposed to do? Go on a date with the school’s most annoying hall monitor narc and pretend to like him just so he wouldn’t report me to the principal every time he caught me skipping school?

That wasn’t the way I did things. For better or worse, with me, what you saw was what you got. The good, the bad, and the locked-up-in-jail-overnight-again. Up until the most recent incident, I’d thought those days were behind me. I wasn’t exactly a well-adjusted adult, but I was (mostly) fully functional. I had a job and a house and everything.

“Scout’s honor,” I said, giving Rex a three-finger salute, which earned me an arched brow in response. “I promise I’m on my best behavior.”

“Good,” Rex said. “Because I can’t afford to bail you out of jail again.”

I folded my arms and looked out the window. A tidal wave of mortification rose up and tried to choke me, and it took me a few seconds to swallow it down. I could handle being handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser, but being bailed out by Rex? No one else could make me feel like as much of a screwup as the town’s scoutiest Boy Scout could. Well, no one other than my ex, Travis. He’d taken great pleasure in telling me how perfect I’d be if only I changed every little thing about myself.

But it could’ve been worse. Had my brother Gabe been the one to get me out of the clink, he would’ve had a complete meltdown. He already treated me like I should go through life wrapped up in bubble wrap. The divorce and my subsequent descent into…whatever this was that I was going through…had only made him more protective. I was grateful Rex never said a word to him.

It was a surprise that Rex had kept things quiet, to be honest. But I guessed his silence wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. He’d said there would come a day where I’d need to return the favor. I hadn’t taken it seriously, because Rex was Rex. I figured he meant he needed help moving, or something.

I threw him another sideways glance, tracing the line of his jaw and the way the setting sunlight bounced off his corded forearms. Was he capable of being bad?

Rex Montgomery?

I bit back a scoff. Not likely.

“I paid you back for the bail money,” I said. “You should have plenty of cash.”

“I do. And I’m saving it up to buy a new house.”

New house? That was my department. My bread and butter. Unless… “Wait. Is that the favor? You want me to sell yo ur house and waive my commission?” God, I hoped not. Single girl meant single income, not that I was complaining. Last week I’d closed two houses in one day and my phone hadn’t stopped ringing since, so my single income was keeping me pretty happy.

He huffed a laugh. “No, I’d never ask you to do anything that outrageous.”

“Outrageous” to Rex was “middle of the road” to everyone else. I couldn’t count the number of times a potential client had asked me to work for free. But not Rex. I glanced over at him, wondering how the hell he ended up being such a stand-up guy. Must’ve been in the Montgomery blood.

Years ago, I’d been in love with Rex—as much as a sixteen-year-old could be in love. It was more of an obsession, complete with “Mrs. Abigail Montgomery” written in cursive in the margins of every notebook. Then I realized that every time I got in trouble—detention at school, a ride home in the back of a police car, you know, every teenage girl’s typical Tuesday afternoon—Rex looked at me like I was from another planet. I realized that scar on his eyebrow said “bad boy,” but Rex himself was good through-and-through. Other than being my brother’s best friend, there was absolutely nothing dangerous or risky about him. The crush faded, and finally winked out completely. I would never be the type of woman that Rex needed or wanted. Even if I tried, I’d end up messing it up somehow. I always did.

Which reminded me. “So, what is it? What’s the damn favor?”

“Language, Abigail,” Rex joked, and I playfully shoved his shoulder. It was hard in that way only a carefully sculpted muscle could be. Someone had been going to the gym. He flashed a smile at me, definitely a little wicked, and that teeny-tiny thrill went through my middle again. All this reminiscing was getting to me, and I was actually kind of, sort of, maybe a little attracted to him.

Maybe I’d inhaled too much drywall dust and it had affected my brain.

“Are you going to ask me a favor or not?” I demanded, trying to cover up the flush I could feel spreading over my cheeks.

“All right, all right.” Rex shifted his eyes to the road. He hesitated for a beat, then said, “You know how Donny’s getting married next week?” Donny was Rex’s younger brother. He was New Elwood’s golden boy football player who left our little town to play at a big college and was subsequently drafted by the NFL. See my earlier comment about Montgomery blood. That family couldn’t help but live and breathe success.

Donny had recently injured his knee again, but from what I saw on social media, it hadn’t seemed to dampen his spirits.

“Yeah. Not that I ever got an invitation.” Nor did I care to attend. If there were two people who could make me feel like even more of a loser than I already did, it was Donny Montgomery, quarterback extraordinaire, and his beautiful, blond fiancée with two million followers on social media. New Elwood, Virginia’s very own power couple, not that they spent any time here. From what I could tell, their life was as perfect as mine was not.

Word was, the wedding was happening at the local botanical gardens, which backed up to my house. If I really wanted to see little Donny Montgomery get married, I could do so from the comfort of my own home through the back window. Who wanted to eat dry chicken breasts wearing a tight, synthetic dress when I could make a fresh batch of microwave popcorn and wear my bathrobe?

We stopped at a red light, and Rex glanced over, flashing his megawatt smile. “Well, you’ve got an invite now!”

I shot him a look. “Excuse me?”

The light changed. Rex gripped the steering wheel as he turned onto the next street. “Simple, Abigail. I need you to come to the wedding with me.”

“Go to the wedding with you…as your date?” I clarified. Sixteen-year-old me’s heart exploded. Thirty-two-year-old me considered the proposition. I could put on a tight dress for that. If it would clear this pesky favor I owed Rex and make me forget about my latest slip-up with the law, I could put on whatever dress he wanted me to wear. No problem.

“Not just as my date but as my…um”—he cleared his throat—“…you know. My girlfriend.”

I blinked. “I’m not following.”

“So Donny’s fiancée, Blair,” he started, then stopped. “You know Blair?”

Me and two million other people, yeah. “Social media darling Blair Hollins?”

“Yeah. So you might not know this, but before she dated Donny, she was my girlfriend.”

It took me a second to process that information. Blair Hollis was a blond bombshell. Rex and her…?

“We got together when I came back to town after college, before she got big on the internet. ”

Wow. I glanced over at him. What else didn’t I know about him? After my teenage crush died, I’d put Rex in a box in my mind and taped it up tight. But apparently I’d missed a few things about him these past few years, like the fact that he was willing to lie to my brother to cover for me, or that he dated women who were built like Barbie dolls.

“How’d she end up dating your brother?”

A sharp exhale and a flick of his fingers. “You know,” he said.

“Um. No, I don’t know.”

“Just one of those things.”

That explained precisely nothing. Was he still caught up on her? Why did that make me feel slightly weird? “So, what? You want to make her jealous or something by bringing me as your date?” I gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I don’t know how well that’ll work out for you, Rex. I’m not exactly jealousy-inducing.”

We turned onto my street, and Rex gave me an odd look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I waved at myself. “Town’s hottest hot mess? Hello?”

He tilted his head slightly, brow twitching. “Well, can’t argue with that,” he mumbled, and instead of feeling offended, I felt a flush of heat. It kind of sounded like he was calling me hot. But that was crazy.

Seriously, who was this guy?

Rex went on. “It’s not that I wanted to make anyone jealous,” he explained. “I didn’t want them to think I was salty about the whole thing or that I still had feelings for Blair, so I told them I was dating someone. It just kind of…came out.”

“‘It just kind of came out,’” I repeated dryly .

Rex stopped in front of my house and leaned an elbow on his window frame. Even through his aviators, I knew he wasn’t impressed with me. “You owe me, Abigail,” he said, and his voice was dark and dangerous and not at all Rex-like. “I bailed you out of jail, now you’ve got to get me through this wedding.”

Suddenly, I felt really hot. But that was just a remnant of a teenage crush. I wasn’t actually attracted to Rex freaking Montgomery right now.

I needed to get back on solid ground. This was my brother’s best friend. Good-guy Rex, who saved kittens from trees. Way too square and strait-laced for troublemaking me. I’d already tried marrying the good guy, and how had that turned out? I wasn’t going to let myself get burned again.

“Does that mean you lied to your brother?” I teased.

“Yeah, you know something about that, don’t you?” he jabbed right back. There was a bite in his tone that…

Oh, hell. I liked it. A lot.

That was bad. When I liked something, it was almost guaranteed to turn to shit.

But Rex had kept my latest run-in with the law quiet, which meant that Gabe hadn’t freaked out and gone all overprotective on me. Whatever was going on with me feeling a spark of attraction toward Rex Montgomery (of all people), it would definitely fade by the time Donny and Blair tied the knot.

“So I agree to be your girlfriend for the duration of this wedding, and then we forget about the whole bailing-me-out-of-jail thing.”

“Think you can handle it?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t be a dick about it, Montgomery. You need me right now, remember?”

He flashed a smile at me, looking cool and unbothered in his aviators and black tee, with that old scar on his brow arching above his shades. He looked exactly like the kind of guy who loved ruining a girl’s life. And by “a girl,” of course, I meant me.

My stomach tightened. Uh-oh.