Chapter 2Luke
CHAPTER 2
LUKE
The same dang paragraph I’ve been reading the last fifteen minutes stares back at me. Mocking me. Laughing that I haven’t retained a single sentence, let alone a word.
My concentration is zero, and I need to get through this manual that Irene, the receptionist at the station, provided me on behalf of my new lieutenant, plus another one, before I can be considered fit for duty on the truck. My plan was to get through it today on shift, which I didn’t think was going to be a problem, but that was before I saw her.
Hailey Wagner. The prettiest girl I’d ever seen when I was eighteen and spent my summer in Santa Rosé.
Still the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen, even ten years later.
She looked good. Really good. Curvier than the last time I saw her, in ways that make my dick sing. Hailey was never what society would have considered small, and I loved that about her.
Her gorgeous copper hair isn’t as long as it used to be, now hanging just past her shoulders, with side swept bangs. The only thing that didn’t change was how straight it was, the same as the summer we met.
But it’s her eyes that my mind keeps coming back to every time I try to focus on a word in the manual. I spent hours that summer gazing into the identical murky green eyes that looked at me in confusion today. Confusion I know reflected back to her in my eyes.
She looked different, but she was also the same. I took comfort in the fact I could see the smattering of freckles that I’d adored, albeit lighter than the last time I’d seen her, as she walked by me.
Dang it. Stop. I need to stop.
I have to focus on this procedural book and get through the dry stuff so I can get back to doing what I love. Firefighting. I’ve been a firefighter for six years, and I will not let some girl from my past derail my train of thought so badly that I can’t get through a couple of manuals.
The heavy lifting getting a job with the Santa Rosé fire department has already been done; challenging the exams – both theoretical and physical – so I could transfer over from Waco, Texas where my life went to shit a few months ago. With the hoops jumped, I just need to get through the house procedures, and another safety manual for the truck, and I’m home free.
If I could just get a certain redhead out of my mind…
Why is she even here? How? This wasn’t her life trajectory. She was supposed to be a doctor at a hospital somewhere. Not a paramedic. Especially not one that I would meet on my first day, in my new firehouse, where everyone was watching and clearly curious how we knew each other.
Groaning, I lean back in my seat and raise a hand to run it through my hair, coming up with a handful of air. Still not used to that. I had a flow going on for a long while—nothing crazy, but my blond hair hung as long as regulation would allow—and I always used to push it back when I was feeling frustrated. But a new city meant a new, clean slate, and buzzing it off seemed appropriate.
Focusing is a nightmare. My mind drifts again, this time to thoughts of stretching and getting a coffee, when movement catches my eye. Walking through the conference room door are two guys from this morning—my new brothers.
The shorter one is carrying a mug that’s steaming, a smile for days plastered to his face. Immediately, I feel suspicious. The gesture looks nice, but firehouses are notorious for new guy dramatics and considering the scene between Hailey and me this morning, I’m worried about an ambush.
“Thought you could use some nectar of the Gods,” the man with the mug says. His name starts with an L like mine, I’m sure of it. Logan? Louie? Lee? Liam? Liam, that’s it.
“Thanks man.” Taking the mug from him, I give a nod of thanks, glancing warily between the two men.
Liam moves around the table, pulling a chair out beside me. In an act that I’m sure is meant to intimidate me, but doesn’t, he turns it around, sitting on it backwards.
The other man, the giant with hair whose length I envy, and whose name escapes me, pulls the chair out on my other side, giving me a nod before sitting on it properly without a word. He drops a couple packets of sugar and a stir stick on my open binder.
I get the impression that the mouth and the muscle have just sat down on either side of me, and the grilling is about to commence.
Liam raps his knuckles on the table. “How’s your first shift going?”
“Slow,” I drawl with a casual roll of my eyes.
Lifting the mug to my lips, I take a sip of the piping hot coffee and nearly spit it out again. The shit is loaded with salt. Somehow, I manage not to spit it all over myself, the binder, or the table. Instead, I swallow it down with little more than a bit of a cough. They’re testing me. I can handle that. I expected it. I may not have predicted salt in my coffee, but I anticipated some good-natured pranks since I’m the new kid on the block.
Taking the packets of sugar, I rip them open and casually dump them into the coffee, stirring it with the hope it’ll make the stuff taste better.
“Brody here makes a mean cup of coffee, doesn’t he?” Liam asks with a smirk.
Right, that’s it. The giant is Brody.
Lifting the mug, I give a nod and tip the cup to them before taking as big a gulp as the hot liquid will allow. Less salt and more sugar doesn’t help much, and it takes everything in me to drink it like a champ. This is not like one of those sweet and salty granola bars I like.
“Fantastic,” I respond, desperately trying not to choke on the words. “You should open a coffee shop and call it Salty Brews. It’ll be a hit.”
Brody snickers, and I feel a sense of triumph. Maybe it won’t be so hard to win these guys over. Even Liam gives a slight chuckle before he coughs and crosses his arms over the back of his seat. Leaning forward a bit, he looks at me intently.
There it is. The inquisition is about to start.
To my surprise, he taps the binder in front of me. “How’s this going?”
Needing this interrogation over sooner rather than later so I can get back to focusing, I decide to nudge him in that direction. “The opposite of how I like my women.” When they both just stare at me, I smirk. “Dry.”
Brody shifts his weight forward, a move that’s meant to be threatening. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the snarl on Liam’s face. I’ve struck pay dirt with my comment. I’m sure they’re both thinking about Hailey, and neither of them likes it.
That’s the thing about a firehouse. The good ones are like family. Within five minutes of my original meeting with my new lieutenant, and Captain Bernard, I could tell this was one of those. It was confirmed when I started shift this morning. The way these two are reacting now tells me the same. They’re protective of their own, and I’m not one of them. Nor am I doing myself any favors toward becoming one.
Liam’s lip is curled in a snarl, though his tone belies his expression. “You know Hailey.”
This guy is like an easy lay, giving me exactly what I want without making me work for it. I take another sip of the coffee, now used to the salty taste, and casually shrug my shoulder. “That what she told you?”
His eyes narrow at me. “I’m not talking to her; I’m talking to you.”
Which means he hasn’t spoken to her, or she told him to go to hell. “Maybe you should ask her.”
“And maybe we should just leave her out of this, and you can tell us whether we need to kick your ass,” Liam says, making a show of cracking his knuckles. “I saw the look on her face. She didn’t look happy to see you.”
There was nothing but shock on that pretty face of hers. I know that for a fact because I didn’t take my eyes off her until she was out of this very room. It’s not like it was a warm and fuzzy reunion, but Liam is putting the bait out there for me to take, trying to gain information. I’m a smart guy. I can read this play from miles away.
Besides, why should I bother telling them anything? It’s not like either of them will believe me. No one ever does.
“Look, bro ,” I say, placing emphasis on the word ‘bro’ because Liam seems like the type to hate that coming from a guy he doesn’t know in this situation. I’m rewarded when his jaw grinds together. “You want to know something about Hailey, you need to ask her. If she doesn’t offer anything then there’s nothing to know."
Pushing back from the table, I stand, closing the binder. Taking it, and the salty coffee, I nod at them both. “Good chat, fellas. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some dry material to finish. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll be sure to return the favor in due time.”
“This discussion isn’t over,” Liam says as I walk towards the door.
The only response I give him is lifting my cup above my shoulder in acknowledgement. If the discussion was over, this wouldn’t be the place I think it is. But I should probably tread carefully because I have zero doubt that the two of them will be watching me like a hawk, especially when Hailey is in the vicinity.
“Should” might be a big ask, though. It doesn’t seem like anything that “should” have happened today has happened.
Minus the coffee.
After the meeting this morning, it’s obvious Hailey and I know each other. Two people who have never met don’t say each other’s names before any introduction. But if either of those fools thinks I’m going to be the one spilling our history, they’re dumber than they look. I’m not the type to kiss and tell under normal circumstances, there’s no chance I’m telling two strangers what happened between Hailey and me.
It’s also been ten years. Ten long years.
While I had silently hoped for an encounter with her, this isn’t what I had in mind. I envisioned running into her, having an awkward moment. Maybe I would have gotten her to laugh and blush. Then we’d catch up over coffee to see what life looked like for each of us. It wouldn’t be a date, just two people who knew each other years ago, who had an incredible summer together.
And if she were single, well, thinking about that would be getting ahead of myself.
Dang. I am not romantic by nature. I’ve always had ladies throwing themselves at me. Being an athlete in high school and college, and then a firefighter, it naturally happened, and I’ve always been more than happy with that. I love everything about the ladies, and they love me. The more, the merrier.
Hailey would have been my one exception. I would have married that girl at eighteen years old.
Speaking of Hailey, the pretty little redhead walks out of the bathroom down the hall ahead of me. She doesn’t turn in my direction, instead heading the other way towards the kitchen and rec area of the firehall. For a moment, I just stare at that ass. They don’t make the uniforms so you look sexy in them, at least in my opinion, but her ass looks dang fine in it. Rounder and fuller than when we were younger, but I’ll never complain about that.
Focus Luke.
“Hailey!” I call, picking up my pace to catch up with her. She doesn’t stop, or turn around. There’s not a chance she didn’t hear me, but I try again anyway. “Hailey!”
This time she stops abruptly. A little too abruptly. With my quick pace, I’m damn near on top of her and I have to pull up suddenly, causing my coffee to slosh. Not on me. On her. Just as she’s spinning around on me.
“Oh shit,” I mutter.
The good news is her top is dark blue, and the coffee stain won’t show up horribly. The bad news is I’m now staring at where it landed on her left boob. Again, the uniform isn’t sexy, but I’ve been under that uniform, even if it was ten years ago. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not thinking about those perky, more-than-a-handful, tits.
Until a growl forces my eyes up.
“That wasn’t how I wanted to start this conversation,” I tell her with a wince.
The ire in her green eyes would make most men shrink. Hailey never intimidated me though. I saw through the toughness and sass she projected, zeroing in on a girl that wanted so much more for herself, but was too scared to go after it. She had a plan for her life, and coloring outside those lines was unacceptable to her. Until I came along.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, enunciating every word.
I really wish I could help myself, but I can’t. I know I’m antagonizing her when I hold the manual up. “Trying to get through this thing.”
There’s a tic in her jaw. “I don’t mean right this second. What the hell are you doing here? In Santa Rosé. In my firehouse.”
Despite being a smart guy, I don’t always make the smartest decisions. There’s something about the hard road I’ve always enjoyed—not counting the last few months of torment. This, however, is one of those situations where I should choose the easy road, give Hailey the answers she’s looking for without a fight. The problem is, teasing her was one of my favorite past times, and it doesn’t seem like what happened between us, or ten years, has changed that.
“I got a job offer,” I say casually with a shrug of my shoulder.
In my peripheral vision, I see her chest rise as she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. The spark in her eyes tells me how frustrated she’s becoming, and I have to hold back my smile. I shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I am.
“So someone just called you up and said, ‘Hey Luke, we have a firefighter position available in Santa Rosé. You interested?’” Hailey rolls her eyes, her hands planting themselves on her hips, and it might be the sexiest thing I’ve seen in recent memory. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Not at all,” I tell her with conviction, my expression sober. Ten years ago, she was the smartest person I’d ever known.
For the briefest of seconds, something besides anger flickers in her eyes. A softening. It’s only there for a moment before the hardness returns and she snarls at me. “So what the hell are you doing here then, trying to be a firefighter?”
Immune to her fury, I give her my most charming smile, knowing my dimples will pop. She used to find those irresistible. “I’m not trying. I’ve been a firefighter for the last six years. I’m simply transferring.”
The sound of annoyance that comes from her is part growl, part scream. Her hands drop to her sides, closed in fists. Briefly, I wonder if she thinks about hitting me. If she does, she thinks better of it, instead choosing to turn on her heel.
“Hailey, wait,” I call out, taking a step in her direction.
I don’t get any further than that when she whips around, jabbing a finger in my face. “The last I checked, being a firefighter in Santa Rosé is a far cry from being a fucking cop in Texas.”
“And being a paramedic isn’t a doctor,” I retort with a hint of my own frustration.
Immediately, I regret it. Her eyes tell me I’ve crossed a line I didn’t know about. The anger drains from her and is replaced by something far worse. Dull, lifeless green eyes stare at me, and my gut churns. I saw a lot of sides to Hailey in that short span we were together, but I never saw this. The spark in her eye has completely extinguished.
I’m relieved to hear barely contained rage when she speaks next, her chin lifting, though the light doesn’t return. “Do not talk to me. Do not look at me. And don’t you even dare think about me. If you need something from a paramedic, you ask Quinn. I will have nothing to do with you.”
When she turns this time, I let her go without a word.
“Well that went well,” I mutter to myself when she disappears through a door.
Dang it. This is what I mean by the hard road.
It’s not how I expected this to go at all, though I’m quickly learning any expectation I had about coming here should be thrown out the window. Liam was right. Hailey wasn’t only shocked to see me, she wasn’t happy about it. I’m just not entirely sure why. If anyone should be angry, it should be me after what she did. I’ve let that go. I had to let it go. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here in Santa Rosé.
I’m the one who got my heart broken. So why the hell is she so angry with me?
Turning around, I begin to head back down the hallway with a lot more questions than I had before our conversation. There’s no way I can go sit in the kitchen or rec area if Hailey is in there. Not until she’s calmed down. But as I glance down the hall, I’m met with two pairs of eyes that are, indeed, watching me like a hawk.
Dang it.