“Yes, mom.” Ryan winked and waved them off.
Noah gratefully drank the coffee. It was only the afternoon and a very long night lay ahead of him.
Chapter 33
Erin checked her watch; Noah’s Uber was late. It was after 10:00 p.m. at the North Star Cafe. They’d agreed on tonight for his special birthday date, and he’d promptly got stuck at the office. Erin drove herself, and they’d agreed he’d catch an Uber.
Other than their pre-hell-broke-loose shower time, they hadn’t seen each other since he’d left the firehouse a week ago. Carver had returned with Katz on Medic 15. The snowplows had found their way back and were picked up the following morning by their real owners. Since then, Firehouse 15 had Assistant Chief Cordero and a rotating stable of lieutenants covering their remaining two rigs.
The list of wounded was rather extensive. Williams was in the hospital and refusing to see anyone—Luna apparently had tried before she was discharged. Kevin had taken a day off to accompany Aiden to meet the psychologist. Aiden was enrolled in a two-week intensive day therapy course, and Kevin traded to twelve-hour shifts instead of twenty-four-hours to be home at night. Erin, Vanessa, and Theo had agreed to cover the nights Kevin couldn’t.
No discipline or warnings had been handed down from HQ thus far. Noah had personally signed the order for Aiden’s leave of absence and assigned him to administrative duty upon return. It could have been so much worse.
Vanessa reported that Elias took Luna’s brush with death worse than Luna had. He never left their place, and Luna was all fangs and claws over it.
Her phone beeped with a message.
Han: 2 minutes.
A car stopped by the door, and Noah got out. Immediately, Erin started salivating. He’d showered, shaved, and trimmed his hair. Now she didn’t mind her fifteen-minute wait outside in the snow.
When he beamed at her and took her hand, she realized this really was a ‘date’ date. Not a ‘grab a bite and get busy’ date, but an actual date where they were going to talk to each other.
The green space alien host greeted them and moved them into booths close to where they had sat on the previous visit. Erin did a quick survey and confirmed she didn’t know anybody in the mostly empty cafe.
The host said, “It’ll fill up later for Rocky Horror Picture Show night.”
Noah took off his leather jacket. He was wearing charcoal dress pants and a bright blue sweater that made his eyes pop. If God came down from heaven and said, ‘this is temptation,’ it was this gold-blue-gray man who shyly smiled at her with adoration.
He sat across from her rather than next to her. Without speaking, he laced their fingers together across the table. The warmth of his hand seeped into her, and she remembered she needed to take off her own jacket.
“Wow. I might have undershot here.” Erin set her jacket on her side of the bench. She’d worn her favorite skinny jeans that outlined her ass since Noah was definitely an ass-man. The jeans were pared with a neon pink top, formerly her ‘picking up guys at the bar’ shirt. Her real investment was under the shirt.
“You look beautiful.” He took her hand back and tapped the eight-sided menu. “What are we having tonight?’
Erin had to bite back the temptation to order a double shot of vodka and a main course of Fire Chief-sex. The man expected to eat food. “It’s your sort-of birthday; why don’t you pick? I haven’t been here since September when you and—”
“When Abby messed with you ladies?”
“Yeah. Back when we thought we could…”
“Thought we could what?” he invited her to finish. He ran his thumb across her wrist, the motion shooting sparks across her body.
On what she doubted would be the only time tonight, Erin suppressed her urge to dive across the table. They were going on three weeks without sex, and she craved him.
“You’re making this very difficult. You can order anything you want, including me, which isn’t on the menu,” Erin said.
Noah actually appeared amused by her admission and gave her a sly grin. “I’d better order us a big meal. Keep our energy up since we’re both off tomorrow.”
“You’re cheating. Dangling the bait.” Erin made a show of pretending to struggle with his hand.
“I’m hooked,” Noah said simply.
She resorted to filling the air before she found herself falling hard. It was hard not to think about how great he had been with the Aiden situation. Or how selfless he was during the aftermath of the snowstorm. He could have blamed her for not telling anyone about her Aiden concerns sooner, but he hadn’t.
A waitress in a Star Trek Next Gen uniform arrived, rescuing Erin. Noah let her hand go and ordered the Light Speed Cake Tour, Stardust Fries, and Alternate Timeline Pancakes for sharing.
“How’s this fake fortieth birthday date compare?”
