“You will? Why you?”
“I’m the coach.”
“Well, that’s not fair at all,” she says, popping a hand on her hip.
“They wouldn’t make me. I’d just offer.”
“Ohhh,” she says. “Well, Greyson. That’s what we commonly call doing too much.”
“You think?”
We’re at the door now, and it’s too soon—too soon to have to share her with everyone else. I search her face for a sign she feels it too. She just gives me a soft smile. Then she opens the door. I wait for her to walk in and then I take an empty chair across the table.
After shift change, Cody says, “My crew, stick around.”
The alternating crew heads out the door.
Patrick, Dustin, Hallie and I sit around the dining table eating donuts Dustin brought in from his wife’s bakery.
“These never get old,” Dustin says, holding up his favorite, a blueberry lemon.
“They actually do,” Patrick says. “If they sit around for acouple days.” He pauses. “I think that’s why those half-price ones are calledDay Old.”
I chuckle and Dustin glances at me, his eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with you?”
“What?” I ask, swallowing the last bite of a maple bacon.
“You’re smiling—again.”
I brush a crumb from the table, straightening my face to its usual neutrality. I turn my focus to Cody while he runs through our role in the upcoming Pie Day Festival. The annual spring event in Waterford is more significant than Groundhog Day. Spring might start on a certain day on the calendar, but in Waterford, it starts on Pie Day. Our station runs the pie toss and sometimes a few of us judge the entries for best pies.
Hallie’s eyes are locked on Cody, attentive and respectful. My gaze keeps flicking her way and then back to our captain. She’s under my skin. But, then again, she always has been.
After our meeting, the day flies by. We have a few medical calls and an electrical fire we contain before it gets out of control.
Cody leaves at five. The county rearranged it so he’s day captain, leaving the four of us on crew overnight. I’m acting officer in his absence. I cook dinner—pasta, steamed veggies and roast chicken—and the four of us eat around the table, talking about the electrical fire and listening to Dustin carry on about Emberleigh and how she’s going to out-bake everyone in town for Pie Day.
Hallie and Dustin do dishes. I sink back into one of the recliners along the wall and open my laptop, but I’m watching them banter like siblings. Dustin’s making Hallie laugh. Patrick’s got his head in a book, so I can shamelessly watch her without any repercussions.
After they hang the dish towels, Dustin challenges Hallie to a game of cards.
“Wanna join us?” Dustin asks, glancing at Patrick and then me.
Patrick’s reading some romance novel—as usual for him. It’s wrapped in a paperback cover that obviously came from another book.
“I’m good,” he says.
“I’ll pass too,” I say. Then I ask Patrick, “Good read?”
Dustin and Hallie take seats at the table and Dustin deals the cards.
Patrick looks up and smiles at me. “Spy novel.”
“Spies, huh?” I tease. “Is that what they’re calling them these days?”
“Mm hmm.”
“Any of those spies call a woman milady, or do they wander across the heath in a fog with a broody expression on their face as they approach the damsel they’re secretly pining for?”
