Chapter 5
FIVE
PERCY
It had been three days since we met at the trailhead, and I was losing it.
My dragon had been keeping a running countdown since we drove away from Larkin's truck.
Seventy-two hours, he announced. That's four thousand, three hundred, and twenty minutes.
Thank you. That's incredibly unhelpful.
I was lying on my couch and holding my phone on my chest. Larkin's number was right there, one tap away, and I'd opened the text thread eleven times without typing anything.
The last message was his from the night he'd gotten my number, and looking at it made my stomach do what I called hopscotch.
It bopped up and down, before leaning over and straightening up.
My thumb hovered over the display. What was I supposed to say?
Hey, I know we agreed to six weeks of secrecy, but I haven't stopped thinking about your forearms.
I typed Hey and deleted it. Then Hi, and I deleted that too. What are you doing? made me sound like a bored teenager, so that went too.
Your fingers are moving but nothing is happening, my dragon observed. Is the phone broken?
I'm thinking.
You've been thinking for days. Try doing something.
I texted Larkin. You owe me a water bottle. You stole the last one at the barbecue.
It wasn't smooth or clever, but it was words. I hit send and tucked the phone under a cushion because I’d scream if I had to look at those three dots.
Thirty seconds later, the phone buzzed, and I tossed the cushion on the floor.
You handed it to me.
Under extreme duress. My fingers were in shock from touching yours, and I panicked.
There was a pause. The damned dots appeared, and I pounded my fist on another cushion.
That's not how I remember it.
I grinned. Oh yeah? Give me your version.
You practically threw it at me and insulted my station.
I laughed out loud which released some stress and pleased my dragon.
We texted back and forth for an hour. It started with the water bottle and drifted into other things. He asked where I grew up.
Trenton, born and raised. Lived in the same house until I moved out at nineteen.
Larkin was from upstate, near the mountains, and had moved to Danvers when he got the lieutenant position.
Just you? I was fishing for details. No family here?
Parents are still upstate. Sister a few hours away. He paused. It's just me and the crew.
Awww, he sounded lonely, but perhaps I was reading too much into it.
I pictured him in his place eating dinner and watching TV alone. My chest ached, but this was a different one than what I experienced when we weren’t together. He kept everyone else together but didn't have anyone waiting for him when the shift ended.
My parents are twenty minutes away, I replied. I told him that my alpha dad called every few days to make sure I was eating enough. And my father phoned to check if my truck was making a noise.
I'd pay good money to hear your truck again.
That response startled me, and I gulped. Was he talking about the vehicle or was that a euphemism? He said “again” so that had to be my actual truck. I decided to reply as if he wasn’t playing games.
Don't insult my truck. She's sensitive.
She?
Berryl. I gave him details on the model and how she had a dent in the door and a radio that had constant static.
I could almost hear him laughing through the device.
Larkin changed the subject and told me his dragon was the strong silent type. It sounded as though he and his beast were pretty similar. I told him mine loved to talk and he had opinions about my wardrobe, what I ate, and who I associated with.
My dragon and I have opinions about you. As soon as I hit send, I regretted it.
What kind?
I can't repeat them over text, but they’re my opinions that he agrees with. I almost sent eggplant and peach emojis. But I stopped myself just in time.
I pressed the phone to my chest when he didn’t reply. Had I gone too far? We'd agreed to figure things out slowly, and I'd just implied I wanted to do unspeakable things to him, which I did.
Me too. And my dragon's been agitated since the barbecue. He's never like this.
Knowing his dragon was feeling the same made the ache worse and better. It was worse because I wanted to be near him but better because I wasn't going through this alone.
I’d avoided making the emoji mistake, but now I debated whether to make a suggestion.
We should eat. Somewhere that isn't a parking lot. Oh no, would he think eating referred to sex? I tapped out, Food. Eat food.
His response was one word. When? He didn’t question or umm and ahhh, and he didn’t refuse or tell me that was a bad idea.
Thursday. I finish my shift at six. I suggested a place somewhere not in either Trenton or Danvers. I didn't need Briggs spotting me having dinner with the enemy.
He sent me a link to a restaurant in Grafton I’d never heard of.
It's quiet, has good food, and isn’t romantic.
Wow, such a great selling point. "Not romantic." Should I wear sweatpants?
Wear whatever you want.
I tossed the phone on the couch and pressed my palms to my face. I had a dinner with my fated mate in two days, and that was how many hours? I asked my dragon.
Didn’t you do math at school? Forty-eight. I’ll set a timer and remind you every hour.
I had no clue about his “timer” but trusted he wouldn’t let me forget.
It's never just food with a mate, my dragon told me.
Thursday took forever to arrive.
I worked a twenty-four-hour shift on Tuesday that dragged on despite two calls. Between the calls, I cleaned the gear, restocked the truck, ran drills, and did everything I was supposed to, but my brain was in Grafton.
Briggs caught me staring at my phone during lunch. “Hot date?”
He was right, but I was admitting nothing. “Nope. Checking the weather.”
“On your text messages?”
I shoved the phone in my pocket. “It’s nothing.”
He went back to eating, but Hallie was watching me from across the table with that look she got when she was putting two and two together.
“You've been different since the barbecue.”
“I’ve always been different. You're just picking up on it now.” I crammed half a bread roll in my mouth so I couldn't say anything else.
On Thursday evening, I couldn’t decide what to wear. This wasn’t a date, so I couldn’t get too dressed up. And I wasn’t wearing sweatpants. I settled on jeans and a green shirt that my dragon approved of, though he wasn’t known for his fashion sense. But it was too late to change.
Green is the color of forests, and forests are the lungs of the earth.
Maybe I should get him a job as an environmentalist.
The drive to Grafton had me questioning whether we were doing the right thing.
This was risky. If anyone from either station saw us, the gossip would be everywhere by morning.
And not just gossip. There'd be questions about loyalty and whether I'd been holding back during events.
My crew trusted me, and I was about to have dinner with the one person who could shatter that trust.
But as I pulled into the restaurant parking lot and spotted his truck, my doubts evaporated. The ache that had been building for three days, the one I'd been pretending was indigestion or anything other than what it was, quieted.
I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. I had flushed cheeks and my pupils were enlarged. I looked like a person who was about to have a secret dinner with his fated mate from a rival fire station during an active competition.
Hey, you nailed it.
I climbed out of Berryl and walked toward the entrance before I could change my mind.