Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
E MILY
The bass of the music vibrates through my body when Shayna and I walk into O’Riley’s Bar for their New Year’s Eve bash.
Shayna walks in front of me and I check out my work of art, pretty damn impressed with myself for how smokin’ hot I made her look tonight. It was easy though—she’s naturally gorgeous. But, left on her own, she’d dress in a burlap sack every day.
Lucky for her, I have an amazing fashion sense and am happy to share it with my best friend.
When I arrived at her apartment a few hours earlier and she was in jeans and a sweater, I got to work. If anyone deserves a night out, it’s her. She’s a compassionate hospice nurse during the day and kicks ass as the single mom of five-year-old Tommy when the workday ends.
When we spot our friend group, we make our way over to their table and I climb up on the tall chair next to Charlie.
He glances under the table and then looks up at me, grinning, and chuckles.
“I’m pretty sure you’re gonna need help off the chair when you go to stand. Your feet are pretty far from the ground, shorty.”
I snort. “Shorty? I thought my nickname was sunshine?” I challenge him.
“You can be both.” He winks at me, and it warms my insides. I love seeing Charlie relaxed and happy, jovial even.
Jack and Ben stand to give us both kisses on the cheek before Jack heads off to get us drinks.
I scan the bar looking for my sister, she’s supposed to be here. When I don’t spot her, I turn to Charlie.
“Where’s Tri?”
Charlie gestures with his head over to the back corner of the bar. “She’s over talking with Battalion Chief Malone and Reynolds.” I follow his gaze and see Trina with a very attractive couple.
The guy, handsome with blond hair and a clean-shaven jaw, is laughing at something either Trina or the other woman said. But the woman—she’s beautiful, her chocolate brown hair cut in a choppy chin-length bob, perfect facial features, and curves I’d kill for.
“Wow,” I say, hearing the fangirl in my voice.
“Oh, brother. You, too?” I look at Charlie and he rolls his eyes dramatically.
“What? She’s a smoke show. I’d kill to be as pretty as her and have curves like that.” I shrug at Charlie.
“Huh? You’re gawking at the Battalion Chief?” Charlie asks.
“No, at his date. Reynolds, I think you called her?” I glance back over at their table. She’s smiling at her date now and is even prettier.
“ She is the Battalion Chief, Em. Reynolds is her partner, sitting across from her. He’s on shift with me and Jack at Station Three. And he’s usually the one most of the women fawn over. Well, him and now Finn.” Charlie’s mouth isn’t far from my ear as he speaks, my gaze still watching the attractive couple.
“She’s a chief? Oh my God, gorgeous and a badass? I’m not sure I could be more jealous of her right now.” I turn to look at him and sigh.
“You’ve got absolutely nothing to be jealous of. Not a thing.” His voice is rough, and it makes my lower belly flip flop. Charlie’s eyes pierce mine with a look I’ve only seen aimed at me a few times, and I can’t break the eye contact, though it leaves me feeling confused about what it means.
Then Shayna audibly groans next to me.
I divert my attention to her and see a frown come over her face just as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. I glance up to see Jack and an extremely handsome man returning to the table with our drinks. Jack introduces him as Finn, and I reach out to shake his hand. When he sits down next to Shayna, I can’t figure out why she’s looking at him like he’s the Antichrist.
Finn starts to talk to Shayna, and I decide I’ll let them chat.
I lift my glass and take a sip of my wine then turn back to Charlie, happy to see whatever weirdness was going on between us a few minutes ago is gone. We make small talk for a few minutes until Shayna pulls at my hand.
“Let’s go dance,” my best friend says. When I look up at her she looks pissed. Her eyes narrowed and her lips held together tight.
I look back to Charlie. “See you out there when you’re ready to dance.” And I stand to follow Shayna.
She won’t tell me what Finn did to piss her off, but it must have been something because there’s no question, she’s angry. We find a spot on the dance floor, and within a few minutes Trina comes over and joins us.
“Hey, sis!” I stretch up to kiss her on the cheek.
“Hi, Em. Hello, Shayna. Geez, you two pulled out all the stops tonight getting dressed up, didn’t you?” She eyes our outfits. “Shayna, I’m guessing this is Emily’s work, right?”
Shayna smiles and snorts—something she can’t seem to avoid doing when she finds something amusing. “You know it is. Your sister thinks I need to find a frog to kiss at midnight.”
Before Trina can answer, a male voice chimes in. “Well, I don’t consider myself a frog, but I’ll volunteer for the job.”
We look up to see that the speaker is an attractive, bulky guy, with a few friends standing behind him.
“I’m Jared,” he says to Shayna. “And you are?”
“Not in?—”
I cut her off before she can finish because I know she’s going to be rude. “She’s Shayna,” I offer him. I nudge her with my shoulder. “And we’d love to dance with you and your friends.” I gesture to the guys behind her.
That’s all the encouragement the three men need before they join us in our dance circle.
Trina leans into me, “I’m out. Enjoy your new friends.”
“Aw, Trina. Come on,” I practically beg.
“Nope.” She grins and just when she turns to walk away, Ben walks up to our group. Trina stops in her tracks and turns back to us.
“Jones,” he says to Jared, no smile on his face. “You should find some other dance partners. That’s my sister”—Ben gestures toward Shayna—“and these ladies are with us.” I don’t miss that he glances over at Trina.
I look at the faces of my sister and my best friend and can’t quite judge which one is more pissed off by Ben’s interruption. Shayna, I get, she seems to want to dance, but Trina, she was just about to walk away anyway.
“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t work for you, Donley. You can’t tell me what to do, and unless your sister and her friends tell us to leave them alone, we’re staying.”
“We’re fine, Ben,” Shayna says.
Ben doesn’t give any sign he plans to leave, though, until Trina reaches across between Ben and the men, to the taller of Jared’s two companions, and grabs his hand.
“C’mon handsome, let’s dance.” She pulls the man to her and throws her hands around his neck.
The man grins like he just won the lottery. Why wouldn’t he? My sister is model tall and stunningly beautiful with long blond hair.
I swear Ben Donley growls and glares at Trina and her dance partner before storming off.
Not ten minutes later, Trina excuses herself from our group and leaves the dance floor. Shayna and I continue to dance with the three men, learning they are police officers in the neighboring town, Meadow Creek, and that Jared and Ben went to the police academy together.
After almost two hours of dancing, I’m exhausted.
I tap on Shayna’s arm. “Hey Shay, I’m going to go rest for a bit. I’ll meet you back at the table in a while.”
“I’ll come with you,” Shayna responds.
“No, you stay out here. It’s almost midnight.” I wink at her.
She rolls her eyes but nods at me.
Based on his behavior over the last few hours, I know Jared is more than willing to help my best friend get back in the saddle.
I’m happy to find Charlie and Trina sitting at the table when I return to where we started our night.
“Hey, you two. What are you up to?” I ask.
“Your lame ass sister here was just telling me she’s gonna duck out now and go home,” Charlie says.
“Really, Trina? You okay?” I always worry about Trina. She gets pretty debilitating migraines.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You two worry too much. I’m just tired.” She glances briefly out to the dance floor and frowns, then quickly stands, says goodbye to us, and leaves.
* * *
CHARLIE
I watch my best friend leave the bar, wondering what got into her tonight. Something was off with Trina, and she wouldn’t tell me what it was. I had pestered her some, but I know how annoying it is when I’m not ready to talk about something and she won’t let it go, so I dropped it.
“You think she’s okay?” Emily asks quietly. The concern in her voice is clear.
“Yeah, I think she is. She gets like this sometimes and usually is back to herself the next day. I’ll check in on her tomorrow.”
When I glance over at Emily, she’s watching the door Trina just walked out of. I hate the worry etched on her face.
“It looked like you were having a good time out there making some new friends,” I tease.
I’m trying to distract her from worrying about Trina, but I hated watching her out there dancing with those guys. Not because I don’t want her to have a good time—of course I do. But I’ve yet to meet a man good enough for the likes of Emily and I’d bet money none of those guys they were dancing with tonight would be the exception.
“Eh. It was fine. I was mostly playing wing woman for Shay. I think she’s given up on dating.”
“So, you were taking one for the team, dancing with the hunky guys. Is that it?” I smirk at her.
Emily throws her head back and laughs. “Hunky? What are you, eighty? Who says hunky?”
Her laughter has me smiling. “Hey, be nice. I don’t know the right words women use to describe attractive men.”
Emily hops down from her chair and turns toward me, a bright smile on her face.
“C’mon, Charlie. They’re playing a slow song now and it’s only six minutes until midnight. Come dance with me.”
I’m not a bad dancer, but I can’t say I love it. However, I can’t say no to her. And the idea of having a reason to hold her close to me is too much to resist, so I stand and let her lead us to the dance floor, my hand on the small of her back. She guides us next to Shayna and her dance partner and I pull her into my arms.
“God, you’re tiny. Even in those heels. What kind are they?” The word I’m looking for escapes me since I’m nervous, for some reason, dancing with Emily tonight.
“Fuck-me heels?” Emily asks.
Against my will, my dick twitches. Thank God, she isn’t pressed up against me to feel it.
Shayna overhears her and laughs. “I think he means stilettos.”
“Yeah, stilettos. Jesus, Em. The mouth on you.” I chuckle at her.
“Oh, come on Charlie. I’ve always had this mouth. You know you love it.”
She’s smiling up at me and she’s damn radiant, her blue eyes glimmering with laughter. I take a quick peek at her mouth and have to force myself to tear my eyes from it. She has no idea how much I love that mouth of hers.
I’m hit with a wave of shame at the way my body reacts to having her this close and to her words.
I remind myself she’s my best friend’s little sister and she was the wife of one of my former firefighters. One who just died a little under four months ago.
Yeah, we’ve been spending a fair amount of time together rebuilding our friendship over the last few months but, still, I’m an asshole for thinking of her like this.
Broccoli. Swamp water. The smell of the locker room at the fire house.
Maybe if I force myself to think of enough non-sexy things, I can get my head back on straight.
“Only one minute until midnight, Charlie, and it will officially be your birthday.”
“Yep, another year older. Thirty-one.”
“I gotta be honest. This last year has been a shit one for me and I’m glad to see it go. But I’m happy I get to end it with you.”
I smile down at her. “I’m glad, too.”
The surrounding crowd begins the countdown from ten, signaling the arrival of the New Year and my birthday.
“Three, two, one. Happy New Year!” the crowd shouts in unison. The honking sound of noisemakers fills the air.
Emily stands up on her tiptoes and pulls down on the back of my neck, drawing my head toward her.
She plants a sweet kiss on my cheek.
“Happy New Year and happy birthday, Charlie,” she whispers near my ear.
Not able to stop myself, I press my lips to her forehead, holding them there for a second before planting a soft kiss.
“Happy New Year, sunshine. Here’s to 2023. My birthday wish is that it be filled with all the love and happiness you deserve.”