“Oh, quit being dramatic,” Willow mutters, sitting down cross legged in front of Liv to help with the lights. The two of them bicker back and forth, and I head outside to the big Bliss Garden Transit van loaded down with holiday totes.
“Hey, Lou, whatever happened with Hot Neighbor? Anymore crotch grabs?”
Sending a glare over to Willow as I set the tote down next to them, I hiss, “No, I have not grabbed his crotch again, thank you very much. Loudmouth!”
“Wait, what happened?” Tess asks, sliding over toward us. I groan and let my head fall back against my shoulders and prop my hands on my hips. Fuckk. The evil woman pinches me in the side hard enough to hurt and I yelp, swatting her hand away. She holds her fingers up, tapping the pads of her index and thumb together like little pincers. “Start. Talking. Or I keep pinching—”
“Yoouuu,” I growl over at Willow, pointing a finger at her as I jump out of arms reach of Tess. Running around to the other side of Willow and Liv to get away, I hiss, “Traitor!”
“How was I supposed to know you haven’t told her?” Willow asks innocently, but the bitchwinksat me. Turning her head, she looks up at Tess from where she’s still sitting on the floor of the barn and says, “She finally met the family that lives next door. The dad ishot. And instead of shaking his hand in greeting like a normal person, she grabbed his dick. It’s how all the kids are doing things these days—”
“I’m telling Luck,” I seethe, slowly circling the two on the floor, staying out of reach of Tessa’s pinchy fingers as she circles them, too.
“Oh, he knows I think that man is beautiful,” Willow laughs, shrugging. She goes back to detangling the lights. “He’s my hall pass.”
“Ohmygod,” Liv snorts, shaking her head while twining the length of string lights around her arm and elbow like one would with an extension cord. “My hall pass would be—”
“Don’t you try and change the subject,” Tessa warns, and I groan. Liv mouths ‘I tried’ up at me. “Come on, Lou. Out with it. I thought you were on a man hiatus.”
“Iamon a man hiatus. Put those damn pinchy fingers away and I’ll talk!” I demand, stopping so that I’m behind Willow, with Tess standing behind Liv. She makes a show of dropping her hand to her side and I chew the inside of my cheek. When I take too long to start talking, my sister raises her hand again, holding her finger and thumb an inch apart in warning. I roll my eyes and slap my hands to my bare thighs below the ragged hem of my jean shorts. “Fine! I was runningwaylate on my way out for a birthday party last weekend, and when I went running outside, I quite literally ran straight into this guy. Knocked me off balance. I dropped my bags, almost fell over. Grace personified. Caught myself on the only thing I could get my hands on… which happened to be his crotch.”
Tessa doubles over laughing, her glasses sliding down her nose before she catches them and pushes them back into place. “Oh, this isgold. Wait until Grandma Jude finds out about this—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I hiss, pointing my finger at her, this time. “You keep Jude out of this, I swear to—”
“Oh, she’s gonna find out eventually. The woman is a professional sleuth. And you and I both know you don’t keep secrets from Jude.”
I groan. Grandma Jude—our maternal grandmother—may be one of my best friends, but the woman is a menace to our love lives, and to our sanity most days. If—when—she finds out about Zach, she will make my life a living hell. Shit, she’ll be printing wedding invitations the following week if she has anything to do with it.
“Anyway,” I continue, rubbing my temples where a headache is forming, “then he caught me staring at his naked chest when I went over to eat cake the next morning—”
“Wait, so more did happen!” Willow exclaims, twisting around to stare up at me, a victorious grin spreading across her face. “Yes! I knew it!”
“I also learned from his daughters that he’s a firefighter.”
“Ohhh, we do love a sexy man in uniform,” Willow says, grinning. “Did you tell him you’ve got a fire he can put out for you?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I whine, shaking my head at her. “No, I absolutely did not say anything of the sort in front of his kids!”
“Well, in all fairness, you did already grab his junk—"
“And I’m still totally preparing to move at any given notice because of it,” I grumble, spinning on my flip-flop covered heel to dig into the tote full of more tangled lights. Speaking to the three women over my shoulder, I groan, “Seriously. One more embarrassing moment in front of that man and you can just call meScarlett O’Harabecause I’ll be gone like the mother fuckin’ wind.”
Eight
Zach
This goddamn bush rig is going to be the death of me.
Armpits deep in cataloguing gear, I’ve been at this for hours. It’s mostly mindless work, and it’s a nice reprieve from my piles of paperwork in the back office. I’m also supposed to be helping organize a chili cook off the second weekend of October… but I keep telling myself I’ve got time.
Chief will get on my ass about it in a couple weeks. It’ll be fine.
Today it’s just myself and Nathan in the station, along with our newest guy. Nate’s got one of the pumper trucks outside of the garage bay while he catalogues that rig and reorganizes and stocks the roll-up door compartments from our last call.
Our recruit from the rehabilitation house is currently coiling all the hoses back up and putting them back inside one of the roll-up doors. Chief said his name is Tommy Chandler, that he’s a recovering alcoholic and addict, and that he’s been sober for just over a year. He hasn’t said much, but he’s asked insightful questions and seems eager to assist anywhere he can. He’ll go through field training and safety classes, and if he cuts it, he’ll have the option to join as a regular volunteer for the department.
I watch the new guy from under the brim of my hat as he works. I can say I’m fortunate to have never struggled with addiction, but I know Xander had a hard time with alcohol after our dad died seven years ago. Eventually he was able to pull himself out of it, but I know it’s not that easy for some people.
