24. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
VIOLET
I rode next to Seth in the front seat of one of the FD’s utility trucks as he pulled a trailer decorated by the local middle school behind us.
The local Boy Scout troop walked in front of us, with Adam and Lyla between us and them as a safety precaution.
My job was to toss candy into the crowd of spectators lining the parade route.
I had told Seth I was fine to walk in the parade with the other PD and FD families.
But since I had just started feeling like myself yesterday after three days of being sick, he’d convinced me to conserve my energy and ride with him.
I was going to have to help him lead the fire hose activity and supervise a bunch of kids, so conserving my energy wasn’t a bad idea.
Seth slammed on the brakes just as Lyla lost her footing, stumbling over something in the road. Adam was quick, reaching out to grab her arm before she could faceplant into the pavement.
“Friends my ass,” Seth mumbled under his breath.
I glanced over at him. “What?’
“Those two.” He tilted his chin up, indicating the pair in front of us. “I don’t buy that they’re just friends.”
I cocked my head, studying them as Adam held her arm and made sure she was okay. “Why?”
He scoffed before looking over at me. “Trust me, no guy fusses over a girl like that unless he wants to be more than just her friend.”
I stared at him, trying to decipher the look in his eyes.
Almost like he wanted to say more. It made me wonder how he really felt about me.
Because between taking care of me when I was sick and persuading me to ride with him, he’d done his own fair share of fussing over a girl in the last week.
But maybe that wasn’t what he meant and I was just reading into him being a nice guy.
I smiled, thinking how sweet he’d been, stopping by every day to check on me. James would never have done that. The one time I was sick while we dated, he stayed away because he ‘didn’t want to catch whatever plague I was incubating.’ He really was an insensitive ass.
The truck lurched forward, pulling me from my thoughts, and I turned back toward the window and threw another handful of candy toward a group of kids jumping and waving at us.
Seth raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to end up running out of candy before we reach the end.”
I opened a new bag of candy, throwing some out to the crowd. “I feel bad when it looks like one or two kids didn’t get any.”
He chuckled and shook his head.
I finished two more bags just as we made the turn at the end of the marked route. “Look at that. I had just enough.”
“Good girl.”
I sucked in breath, his words shooting straight between my legs, and he sent me a smirk. Did he know the effect he had on me? Did he feel it too? And why did we have to be on the clock for an event when all I really wanted to do was try to figure out the answers to those questions.
Businesses along Main Street had an hour to set up for the block party, so we made our way back to the firehouse. I tried not to overthink the way he looked at me, or how the tension grew between us as we made the ten-minute drive back.
Once he parked the truck, I got out and followed him through the bay and out onto the back lot where he began laying the hose out.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
He nodded to two large wooden cutouts. “Grab those and set them up down there where the piece of tape is marked on the ground.”
Easy enough. I set out the house-shaped boards, both with window cutouts that had flames hinged in the middle. I guessed that was what the kids would aim for.
“Dylan gave me a hard time about all this.” I put my hands on my hips and sent Seth a smirk.
“Why?”
“'Cause I’m helping the FD instead of PD.”
Seth chuckled. “It’s not our fault we have more fun things. No one wants to do pull-ups on a bar.”
I raised a brow. He obviously didn’t know preteen and teen boys. “You’d be surprised. Boys come in swarms trying to see who can do more than the other.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, I could see my brother doing that.”
“But not you?” Was he just not competitive? Or did he just not feel the need to show off? Or both?
“Nope.” He shrugged. “I probably would have thought it was stupid. If I wanted to work out, I would go to the gym. But my brother would have done it just to show off.”
Of course he would have thought it was stupid. I shook my head and placed my hands on my hips. His gaze roamed down to my chest and that tingle in my core was back as he stared at my breasts.
He tipped his chin at me. “Hopefully you don’t scare the kids with your skull and crossbones.”
I glanced down at my white T-shirt and the hope I had a second ago disappeared. I squared my shoulders, pushing my chest out.
“I can go help PD if you’d rather…” Teasingly I started walking away, heading toward the front of the building.
“Oh no you don’t.” He grabbed my hand, turning me and pulling me back.
I stumbled and fell into his chest. His arms wrapped around my back, and he stared down at me.
My breath hitched as his gaze locked on my lips.
That same heat I swore was there a moment ago, that I’d felt earlier when he’d called me a good girl as well as last weekend when we went out with Logan and Izzy, was back. Maybe I wasn’t making it all up.
I had convinced myself I’d had too many drinks that night. The few times I’d seen him this week when he’d stopped by to check on me and bring me stuff, I hadn’t gotten an inkling of desire.
“Hey, Seth,” Jay called. Seth made no move to pull back. He searched my face, reluctance written all over his expression. “Can you help me close off the road?”
His arms dropped and I stepped back.
“Yeah,” he called back. But he still didn’t move. “I’ll be right back,” he whispered to me.
“Okay.” I nodded.
I wasn’t sure what to do while I waited for him, but Zack appeared a minute later with a wide smile aimed at me.
“Thanks for doing this.”
I shrugged. “Sounds like it’ll be fun. But you know Seth could have handled this all by himself.
He’s actually pretty good with kids.” At least I assumed he was good with other kids, and not just his niece.
At least five kids came up to him before the parade, and they knew him by name, lending further evidence to my assumption.
“I know. For someone who’s cranky and doesn’t like people, he seems to be great with kids.” Zack smirked. “But this way he gets to hang out with his girl, too. You make him happy. We’ve all seen that in the last month.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I had no idea what to say to that. I couldn’t deny it because I was supposed to be his girlfriend.
“You better not be giving her a hard time,” Seth’s voice rumbled.
Zack shot me a wink. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He turned and slapped Seth on the shoulder as he passed.
Seth ignored him, diving straight into how this would work.
Owen’s wife Cece, and Jay’s wife Sarah, were manning the information table out front and would send small groups of kids and parents to check out the fire engine before coming out this way for a demonstration of the hose.
Then each kid would get a chance—with Seth’s help, of course—to aim the hose at the wooden house cutouts to try to knock down the flames.
“So, I just reset the flames for the next kid?”
He nodded with a smirk. “And then get out of the way.” He ran his hand down one suspender that covered his tight gray uniform T-shirt and connected to his turnout pants. I never would have thought suspenders could be sexy, but on him they were.
The first two groups went quickly. But the third one was chaotic for sure. Sibling rivalry at its finest. The kids kept fighting and the parents scolded them multiple times. We’d heard their bickering as they approached our area, and I was just hoping the group they were in went quickly.
After resetting the flames for the next kid in line, I stepped a few feet away to wait. Seth turned on the nozzle and helped the little boy hold the hose steady. Just like I expected, he was so good with each kid who had come through. Patient and pleasant and not at all gruff or broody.
The problem children started bickering again, and almost in slow motion, I watched as the boy pushed his sister forward, in turn bumping Seth and the little boy he was working with.
The hose shot wildly to the right, hitting me square in the chest. I took a step back from the slight force, and was actually a little grateful for the drenching.
The cold water felt good with the intense heat of the day.
Seth got it back under control and finished with the kid. Luckily, the parents of the problem children pulled them away, scolding them for their behavior.
“Sorry, are you okay?” he said, jogging over to me. When I nodded, he added, “Go up to the bunk room. My bag is on one of the beds, it has my name on it. I keep a spare, clean T-shirt in there.”
He stared intently at my chest. Was he going to tease me about my skull and crossbones again?
I shook my head. “It’s fine. I’ll dry.”
His brows shot to his hairline as he glanced back up at my face. “You’re wearing a white shirt.”
I tilted my head and followed his gaze back down to my chest. Oh. Crap. The outline of my bra showed perfectly through the now drenched material. Not only that, but my nipples and the piercings were obvious too. Maybe I should have gone with the padded bra instead of a sheer one.
I looked back up at him. His eyes darkened, making his hazel irises almost nonexistent, and he licked his lips, taking a small step forward. My breath caught in my throat. It was impossible to deny the lust in his eyes as he stared at my breasts.
The sound of kids and their parents came from behind me, reminding me of my current, very public situation.
Seth blinked. “Don’t move,” he growled before moving out of my eye line. He reappeared a moment later with his turnout jacket and wrapped it over my shoulders.