“Nope, I would never do that.” He looked up at Cerise and winked; fortunately, she smiled back. The conversation they were having before Finn turned up would have to be put on the back burner. He would make sure he got an answer before he left, though. It was too important to ignore.
“Come on, Brodie, let’s do the next step.”
Cerise nodded for him to go ahead but she looked strained, not what he wanted to see on her face, especially after the kiss they’d shared. He was being pulled in two directions: sitting with Finn to continue what they were doing or go over to Cerise andtaking her into his embrace to soothe the look of indecision on her face.
Before he could do either one, his cell phone blared into the silence that had fallen between them. He scooped it up from where it sat on the coffee table and saw the main HVFD number flashing on the screen.
Dammit, he was about to get called out.
“Brodie here,” he said the second the call connected.
“Hey, Dice, Gene here. We need you at the station. We’ve got a wildfire that’s getting out of control. All hands on deck.”
“Right. I’ll be there in about forty minutes.” Brodie stood before he finished speaking.
“Sounds good.” The call disconnected.
He looked between Cerise and Finn. “I’m sorry. I have to go. There’s a fire.”
“Oh man, will you be gone long?” Finn whined and Brodie felt bad that he was letting the boy down.
“It’s okay. I understand.” Cerise came up to stand by Finn, placing a hand on his shoulder. “And Finn, you know Brodie’s a volunteer firefighter, right? This is what he has to do. He can’t ignore it when he gets a call. He has to help people, like I do at the hospital.”
He rose from where he was seated on the ground and came over to Brodie. “I’m sad you have to go, but I promise I won’t do any more of the LEGO until we can do it together. It’s our project.”
With every passing second the little boy was working his way into Brodie’s heart. Actually, so was his foster mom, which was mind blowing, considering the short amount of time they’d spent together. Wasn’t it supposed to be months before couples worked out they cared for each other?
“I trust you, buddy. Now you look after Cerise, okay?”
His little chest puffed out after being given such a responsibility. “I promise.”
Brodie smoothed down the hair sticking up on Finn’s head and in response, the boy hugged him tight.
“Come on, Finn, we need to let Brodie go.”
The boy dropped his arms and went over to Cerise. “See ya, Brodie.”
“Bye, buddy.” Brodie looked up at Cerise. “Walk me to my car?”
She hesitated for a moment, and he feared she’d turn him down. “Sure,” she said with a nod before turning to the little boy. “I’ll be right back. Why don’t you get into bed, Finn?”
He looked like he was going to argue and remind Cerise that she said he could stay up later than he normally did, but a second later he nodded and disappeared out of the room.
Together they walked out to his car. “I’m sorry our night got cut short.”
“We’ve spent the whole day together. It’s okay, Brodie. I understand.”
He reached out and slipped his hand through her hair, cupping the back of her head. “I want you to think about what I said earlier—about us, you know.”
“I don’t want to lie to Daphne or my lawyer, Brodie, no matter how tempting it is to say yes. It’ll be suspicious if I turn up with you in tow saying we’re together and we want to adopt Finn together. Daphne won’t believe it, even if she does know you. Plus, she already cautioned me not to do this.”
“I know the risks but still, think about it.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. They were expecting him at the station, and he needed to get moving but saying goodbye to Cerise was proving harder and harder.
“You need to go.” She gave him a gentle push against his chest. “Be careful.”
“Always.” He pulled her in for a brief hug before he got into his truck and pointed it toward Hunt, leaving a little piece of him behind with Cerise and Finn.
Sweat poureddown Brodie’s back as he and Eric dug out the underbrush to create a firebreak. This was the third location they’d been sent to for this very purpose. Slowly they were getting ahead of the blaze. The rest of the team was spread out doing the same.
