“He tore Aiden and me a new one, so I wouldn’t call him unemotional,” Rodriguez said. “But you’re right, he was equally angry with both of us. I never got the sense that it was gendered. He treated us exactly the same. What do you think, Erin? He yelled at you.”
Noah was torn between straining to hear her answer and announce his presence. Abby kicked him in the shin to keep him from moving.
“It wasn’t yelling; it was a heated discussion. Besides, Baker’s a million ranks above me, and I try not to think about the idea of the Chief and sex.”
Thank goodness she remained unaware that he spent an enormous amount of time thinking about the idea of Hudgens and sex. His legendary control nearly abandoned him every time she got within a ten-foot radius. He couldn’t stop wondering how her body would feel beneath his, sinking into her . . .
Even when his sister was sitting next to him.
“You vote gay? Maybe bi?” Knight prompted.
“Neither,” Hudgens said.
“How can you be sure?” Knight asked.
He shot a glance sideways at his sister. Abby was dying and covered her mouth with her napkin in an attempt to hold back her laughter. The last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself.
“I’ve heard he’s divorced from a woman. Remember, Theo checks this stuff on the FD website,” Hudgens explained. Noah was certain it said no such thing on his CCFD profile.
Before he could stop her, Abby stood up. “Trust me, I have it on good authority what team Chief Baker plays for. His high school girlfriend can attest.”
He closed his eyes, rubbing the beginnings of a headache away. Abby ruined all four dates he’d gotten during his senior year.
Three heads popped up from the other booth. Three tipsy, horrified faces.
Abigail waved, smiling, “Hi, Noah Baker’s sister, Abby. Such an interesting brunch conversation about my little brother.”
Noah stood, schooling his expression for his most chiefly demeanor. “Hello, ladies.”
The women were clearly mortified.
Abby was having a great time. “Why don’t you ladies come join us? Sounds like we have plenty to talk about.” Her blue eyes dared them to decline.
Rodriguez tried to apologize first. “I am so sorry, Chief. We were—”
Knight tripped over her own words, adding, “Inappropriate and out of bounds and—”
“We would love to join you two for brunch,” Hudgens finished brazenly, completely unconcerned.
Of course, she was. What was there to be embarrassed about? During the discussion of his dating life, she’d omitted their two near kisses and his recent blatant erection, which they had mutually agreed hadn’t happened.
Ignoring the glare from Noah, Abby waved over the cafe’s waitress and instructed them to move the three women’s drinks and food to their table.
Knight and Rodriguez made a beeline to sit next to Abby, leaving Hudgens to sit right next to him.
Fabulous.
The good side was that he couldn’t look at her forest green shirt or strand of pearls resting on the upper slopes of her chest. The flipside was that he couldn’t stop imagining her hand on his skin, a phantom echo of their time alone in the gym. Noah tried to ignore how her hair was in the exact messy bun she wore at yoga. They were maintaining a strict one-foot distance between the two of them, but that didn’t make it less distracting. He could have described her entire outfit from her silky shirt to her skinny jeans to her bright red, open-toed heels.
Introductions were made, and the two lieutenants continued to stumble over each other to apologize. Rodriguez had it the worst since she seemed to believe this was the first he’d heard about her relationship with Clarke. Hudgens cheerfully went on eating her pancakes with her left hand, same as Noah.
“Stop,” he interrupted his lieutenants. “You don’t think I’ve ever been day drinking after shift? You think that the guys I hung out with didn’t talk shit about their bosses either? It’s probably overflowing from holding back while I was at the firehouse.”
“This is the group that you babysat for two weeks?” Abby asked innocently, making some waves.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘babysitting,’” Knight said. “We took care of ourselves. He was our leader, but he also had a lot of other responsibilities.”
“I know. Sometimes it’s hard to get a hold of him even if his big sister wants to check up on him,” Abby teased.
