Chapter Seventeen
Ω Bronx Ω
After sleeping in the same bed as Blakely for the last several days, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sleep without her for the next two days. I spin around on the chair that I’m sitting in. We haven’t had a call yet today, which is weird for us.
Drew comes and sits beside me. “So, tell me everything.”
I stop spinning to glare at him. “You sound like a girl.”
“Don’t care. Tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” I sigh.
He’s not going to let this thing go. He wants to know more about Blakely and that whole situation.
“You’re telling me that you called Chief Knight, and he did nothing. He said nothing. He didn’t even so much as threaten you? There’s no possible way. That man is crazy about his daughter.” Drew laughs and tilts his head at me. “Did you sleep with her? ”
I’m silent for too long.
“YOU SLEPT WITH CHIEF KNIGHT’S DAUGHTER?” Drew practically shouts.
I cover his mouth quickly. “Shut. Your. Mouth.” I grind my teeth. “Anyone of the people we work with could tell him you said that! No, I haven’t. We haven’t done anything other than kiss. Are you happy?”
Drew nods excitedly.
“If I remove my hand are you going to yell again?” I ask.
Drew shakes his head. I hesitantly remove my hand from his face. “You haven’t done anything other than kiss her?”
“No. When she spends the night, we sleep. That’s it.”
I probably should’ve kept that information to myself. But it feels kind of nice to talk with him. If I talked with Alex about this, he’d immediately tell Charlotte, who would tell Blakely. Drew, at least, is too scared of Chief Knight to talk with her.
“Nothing else?”
I shake my head.
“Why?” Drew asks.
“Because we just got together. I don’t want to rush it with her.” I’m being completely open with him.
Blakely is… different. She’s everything to me. She put up with a lot from me in high school and never looked at me like I was a disappointment. I can’t screw it up with her. I won’t screw it up with her.
Drew opens his mouth to respond, but I see his eyes trail up to something behind me.
“Why are you two just sitting here?” Chief Knight’s deep voice rumbles from behind me.
I close my eyes. I should’ve guessed it was him.
“We’re waiting for a call, Chief Knight,” Drew answers before standing up to greet him.
I stand up and turn around to look at him. He’s in a more casual fit today. A dark polo with matching pants. “Crew Chief” is embroidered into it. I hear stories about him being a paramedic from the older firefighters. They all adored him, claiming he was the best paramedic they’ve ever seen.
“And you thought you could just sit around?” Chief Knight glares at me.
I knew this was coming.
“I’ve done everything that could be done,” I tell him. “This is all we can do.”
Chief Knight crosses his arms and looks down at me. “Stocked the rig?”
I nod.
“PCR’s are all done?”
I nod again. That’s one of the most boring parts of my job, but it needs to be done.
“Reports are all done?” He keeps asking me questions like he is expecting for me to fail.
“Yes, sir. Everything is all done and sent in. I made sure to double check everything as well.”
“Did you call my daughter today?” Chief Knight asks.
Before I can think to stop myself. I answer. “Yeah. We’ve been texting all day.”
Drew snorts behind me. I didn’t think he was going to ask me about Blakely.
“I see.” Chief Knight walks to the ambulance.
He opens the back doors and looks through it like he’s trying to find something I did wrong.
“What did you do?” Drew mouths to me.
I shrug my shoulders. I don’t think I did anything. I know I provoked him the other day, but I apologized, and I haven’t done it since. Blakely is happy and content. I didn’t make her upset. We were fine last night. I messaged her back. Right?
I steal a quick glance at my phone and see that she hasn’t responded to me yet. I’m not going to tell her her dad is giving me crap.
“Rig looks good.” Chief Knight nods and types something onto his tablet. “You haven’t gotten any calls yet?”
Drew and I shake our heads. “We got one earlier shortly after we clocked in, but nothing since then,” I tell him. “I figured it was just one of those days that was silent until it wasn’t.”
Chief Knight is too quiet for my comfort. Did he think he could catch me off my game? When I step into this building, everything else doesn’t matter. I’m on top of my game all the time.
“Medic 12, stand by,” my radio chirps out.
“Medic 12, priority one response. Chest pain, fifty-four-year-old male, conscious and breathing.”
Drew and I run to the front of the ambulance without another word to Chief Knight.
“Medic 12 copies,” I respond.
I want to text Blakely to see why her dad seems to be ticked off, but I don’t have time.
I’m sure nothing happened. Chief Knight just has a stick up his butt because he doesn’t like me.
I don’t care what I have to do to get him to like me. I’ll make sure he approves of me being with his daughter.