Damn.
Evil, Judgy, Dark Jedi, Fire Chief.
Chief Baker barely bent when she bounced off him.
Thank goodness she didn’t land on her face.
He seemed almost amused, as if he could read all those angry, inappropriate sex thoughts she had been having about him lately.
Did she mention hot?
“Sorry, sir.” She tried to uncrease her shirt. “It’s time for lineup.”
Great. Now she sounded like an idiot. Of course, it was lineup. It was almost nine.
His next words made her day worse. “I know. I’m leading lineup. Don’t be late.” He held the door and waved her through.
She amended her description to ‘Dangerously Hot, Evil, Judgy, Dark Jedi Fire Chief.’ Even if he was evil enough to leave her team to die, he was still polite enough to hold the door, preventing the cardinal sin of tardiness.
“The Chief is here!” she whisper-screamed to her team who was lining up.
With no time to say more, she fell into her customary place in the pecking order. They spanned across the length of the barn, facing the ladder truck. The crew generally lined up in order of seniority, but Interim-Captain Luna stood at the head of the line in front of a very bruised Aiden. Erin stayed near the end next to Carver.
They heard the footsteps of the Chief’s dress shoes clicking across the cement floor. “Hello, 15. Glad to see you all on time.”
“Chief, welcome to 15,” Luna replied, appearing terrified by the sudden appearance of the Chief. Erin felt slightly better if Luna was intimidated by him and equally in the dark.
His face was impassive, the earlier amusement scrubbed away. “I’m here to give your crew some updates. Battalion Chief McClunis has been severely injured. Fortunately, she is expected to survive and possibly return to full duties. Firehouse 15’s captain position has been filled, and your new captain will be arriving in two weeks.”
“It’s filled? Who?” Luna blurted before correcting herself. “I’m sorry, sir. That is great news.”
The Chief continued, “In the interim, I’m covering as your captain in 15 and your battalion chief in 2. Right now, I would like to meet with the three officers. The rest of you go grab breakfast and then start chores.” Erin noticed the box of bagels he’d left by the equipment rooms.
The team broke up, and after a quick bagel, Erin went to do truck maintenance with Theo while Kevin took Carver to check the SCBA tanks. If Chief Baker was going to pretend that they never almost made out and she had never been insubordinate to him twice, all the better for her.
She was not prepared when, thirty minutes later, her officers emerged from their meeting. Vanessa had a thoughtful expression and ordered, “Hudgens, Jefferson, get into physical training uniforms, please. Set up basic candidate physical exam stations. And don’t be late. He doesn’t do late.”
That was interesting. Vanessa rarely gave orders, but Chief Baker was the new sheriff in town, which meant a new ballgame.
As they set up for tire flipping, jump roping, and scramble stations, Chief Baker came out in a Firehouse 33 t-shirt and workout shorts. They only served to remind Erin of how tasty he looked in even tighter clothes.
Then again, she still found him delicious even if he was yelling at her.
Or if she was yelling at him.
He handed Vanessa a stopwatch. Vanessa, who lived for exercise and competition.
Crap, this was going to be a long shift.
* * *
The Chief had left for the evening, and an exhausted A-shift was back in the Cafe making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. The Chief had worked out with them for TWO hours and then let them go to three minor fire calls from car accidents. He stayed outside as incident commander for the first one and stayed at the firehouse for the second and third.
“I hope he brings this wrath onto B, C, and D-shifts,” Aiden said, popping his neck. Every shift worked twenty-four hours, and D-shift worked a few times a month to even out the shifts.
“I think we did well,” Vanessa said. “He can’t fault our physical preparations.”
“He’s not a slave driver,” Luna said. “He’s so focused, and I badly want to prove that I’m better than he thinks.”
