“First of all, my damn love life isnotgoing to be used for your fucking fodder around this station.”
“Fodder?” Don looked puzzled.
I rolled my eyes. Don was always playing as if he didn’t know what certain words meant.
“Gossip,” Carter responded, his gaze pinned on me.
“Oh. Whatever, man, give us something. Is she hot?”
“Come on, Donnie. You know Eric only messes with beautiful women.”
“Corey, you call me Donnie one more time, and you won’t have to worry about women, fodder, gossip, or any-fucking-thing else. Got me?”
We laughed at Don’s fake threats.
“Harvard,” Carter started in a tone as if he was a school teacher dealing with an unruly child, “All we’re saying is, you’re our brother, and as such, it is our responsibility to make sure any young woman you’re gallivanting around with is suitable. Right, fellas?”
“Yeah, what the fuck he said.” Don pointed with his thumb in Carter’s direction.
I looked at the three men, who reminded me of children, anxiously waiting to be dismissed from school on a Friday afternoon.
“Okay, you wanna know?” I asked after swallowing the last bite of my breakfast and wiping my mouth.
They glanced between one another and then nodded.
“She’s…” I leaned in and held up my fork, jabbing it in their direction with every word I said. “None. Of. Your. Fucking. Business.” With that, I stood up and took my plate to the sink.
“Ah, man, this must be serious. We never withhold this type of vital information from one another.”
“Whatever, Corey.” It was true. We’ve each done our fair share of talking about the women we dated and bedded. But this time around, I didn’t feel like sharing what was happening between Angela and I. One reason was that these guys knew her. They frequented her bar and the idea of them knowing what went on between us didn’t sit well with me. An image of Angela?breathing heavy from our kisses, as she sat on her dining room table, legs wrapped around my waist, eyes wide after having just felt the size of my hard-on?had me swallowing deeply. When I thought of her kiss-swollen lips, and then the acquiescence in her eyes as she decided to give in to the chemistry between us made me shift my positioning in my chair. No. I sure as hell wasn’t about to share that moment with these guys. And I damn sure wasn’t about to confess the sheer amount of strength it took for me to drop Angela off at her door after our date, place another kiss on her lips, and then walk away after she went inside, alone. All that, after feeling her body against mine as we walked and danced at the jazz festival. Nope. I’d never hear the end of it. But more than that, I wanted to protect what we were building. This felt entirely too important to expose for fire station gossip.
“Whatever, man. Since Harvard’s not talking about his love life, let’s talk about something that matters. You hear who our new captain is?” Corey asked, looking around the table.
I shook my head. There were a few different names floating around the station as to who was going to be our new captain. Unfortunately, in the fire department, things like replacements could happen slow as hell or quick as lightning. Just depended on what the upper-level department heads were doing. And since there’d recently been a shake-up with the Fire Chief, new positions had been slow to be replaced.
“I hear it’s Graham,” Carter spoke up.
“Graham? Fuck outta here!”
“You gotta be shitting me!”
“The hell?”
Corey, Don, and I spoke in unison.
“You mean Graham Waverly?”
Carter nodded.
“Shiiiit,” Corey cursed.
Graham Waverly did not have the best reputation as far as Rescue Four was concerned. He was captain over at Firehouse Station Three a few years back when part of our station’s area was redistributed to theirs. Graham had been the biggest proponent of the change. Since then, Rescue Four has held a grudge against Graham Waverly. As I said, firefighters are highly competitive, and the idea of knowing part of our district was taken away from us, thereby causing us to get fewer calls, was ahugeproblem.
“He better not bring his ass in here thinking he runs shit,” Don mumbled.
We all chuckled at the look of anger on Don’s face.
“When’s he supposed to show up?” I asked Carter.
