“Aspen!” I bellow but I’m laughing.
He sends back a final text.
Sounds great. It’s a date. See you then.
Holy shit. He’s right. It’s adate. I smile.
8
Logan
It’s been a reallyslow night at work. We’ve only been out on two, thankfully minor, calls. So now, I’m sitting around the long kitchen table in the fire station, eating some left-over pasta. Jake, who is also working tonight, is sitting across from me, cutting a Granny Smith into slices and popping them into his mouth. I’ve hit that wall I told Chloe about and the end of my shift seems way too far away. I yawn loudly. Jake lifts one of his jet-black eyebrows.
“Late night, princess?” he asks, and I nod. His intense stare doesn’t flicker. “You were at the hospital that late? I mean…it’s a little weird they called a paramedic back about a case to begin with, but why did they need you so long?”
Here is my only problem with Jake. He is street smart because he basically grew up on one, and he never ever falls for bullshit. Damn him. I shrug and swallow my pasta. “Someone needed a ride home after they were brought in for slipping on the ice.”
“So what, you now run a dedicated hospital Uber or something?” Jake says, his dark eyebrows furrowing. “Does Uber Jay know you’re stealing his business?”
Uber Jay is the one guy in town who works for Uber and basically our only taxi-esque option in Ocean Pines.
“Look, I promise I won’t bail on you again and that’s all you need to know,” I say and give him a smile.
“I hate vague shit, Logan,” Jake says and rolls his eyes. Jake grew up in foster care, and there were a lot of people in his life that talked around things or used half-truths and he still hates it.
“It wasn’t some random person. It was a friend who needed a lift home. Happy now, Sherlock?” I ask, trying to keep it light and still vague.
“What friend? You don’t have friends.”
I frown and put a hand to my chest. “Ouch. And fuck you, I do have friends.”
Jake opens his mouth to argue again because he’s right. I don’t really have a lot of friends—at least not a lot he doesn’t also know and isn’t also friends with. But then suddenly, he closes his mouth and cocks his head. “AA friend?”
“Nope. But if it was, you know I couldn’t tell you,” I reply and start switching on the buttons and knobs on the fancy coffee maker. Captain bought the House this freaking space ship-looking Italian espresso machine as a soon-to-be parting gift. Jake will take over for him next month. We’re all super excited and proud of him. The machine has been here two weeks and I still don’t know how to use it. Now, it flashes, makes a gurgling noise, and then turns itself off. “Wanna run to Dunkin’ across the street with me?”
I start out of the kitchen and Jake pushes back from the table, leaves his knife and half eaten apple there, and follows me. We walk through the rest of the firehouse in silence but as soon as we step into the blustery night air Jake screeches to a halt. I turn and look at him. “Dude…was it a chick?”
“Chicks are baby chickens, Maverick. Hasn’t Terra given you grief about using that term yet? She rails on Finn and me all the time,” I reply.
“I don’t use it for her, obviously. She gets called Tink and baby and lover and—”
I raise my hand, palm out, directly in front of his face and fight a shudder. “Quit while you’re ahead.”
Jake is the best person in the world. He saved my sister’s life when he gave her a kidney, but somehow, I’m still weirded out that my best friend is in love with my sister, and vice versa. I knew Terra had a mad crush on him when we were kids, but I just…didn’t realize this was actually something serious. But it was for both of them all along, and now I feel stupid I didn’t see it. I wouldn’t have it any other way, don’t get me wrong, but she’s mybabysister and I’ve talked dirty sex stories with Jake, so I have to not think about them together.
“Your friend is awoman?” he asks and actually air quotes the word friend. “Please say what she needed help with was finding her G-spot.”
“Why? Do you need me to draw you a map?” I snark as I turn and then realize those jokes are off-limits now because that map would be used on Terra. I can’t control my shudder this time as I keep walking toward the giant, glowing Dunkin’ sign across the street. “Forget I said that. Forget I said anything and change the subject.”
“The date has been set. Cap moves on January fifteenth, and I’m your big boss,” Jake explains and he grins cockily, but it’s fake. He’s not cocky about this at all. He’s grateful and nervous. I can tell by the way the smile doesn’t reach his dark eyes. But fact is, he should just be proud. He earned this promotion.
Jake becoming a firefighter made sense. Since the day I met him at fourteen, he’s had three enduring qualities: a desire to help others in need, unwavering positivity, and an inability to value his own life. My mom once said, “Jake has no sense of value for his own safety, his own life, because he thinks no one else ever valued it.”
That statement hit me like a ton of bricks and still does. Thankfully, I think Terra has made him realize how wrong that philosophy was.
We both order coffees. As we wait for them, I think of Chloe’s texts. Earlier, when I was on my way back from a call with my partner Murphy, she’d texted to invite me to brunch. So now I have a date. With my landlord. Well, I mean she didn’t call it a date, but when I did, she didn’t correct me. And more importantly, itfeelslike it’s a date, so I’m going to just enjoy the hell out of that.
We cross the street and start up the drive of the fire house. It’s not snowing but it feels like it might, and I really hope Chloe remembers what I said about not shoveling the stairs.
