“Of course, Luce, we are dispatching now.” He put the radio down and turned to me. “Let’s get to work! Maybe we will see some cute firefighters today?” Freddy beamed, throwing the ambulance into drive and peeling out of the depot.
I glowered at my colleague. The last thing I wanted was more handsome firefighters in my life; they were nothing but trouble. But he didn’t know that.
Two weeks of sickness, and it wasn’t going away. Glaring at my knees, I silently cursed Preston. With any luck, he was sitting in the convict firefighter camp, feeling just as bad as I was.
“Actually, speaking of firefighters,” Freddy started. “I wrote up the reports from the Amhurst apartment fire a few weeks ago. They need to go to Walker. Could you do that?”
Furrowing my brow, I folded my arms and glared. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because you’re cute, and he’swayless likely to get pissed at you over how late they are…Please?I’ll buy you a donut!”
A laugh escaped me. It was true that Walker was way less likely to be mad at me than Freddy.
Everyone at the station considered me a friend, and as an omega, they tended to be more lenient with me. Sometimes it was irritating, but other times, it was useful.
“Fine, I'll do it, but I want a donutanda hot chocolate. One of those fancy ones with whipped cream and chocolate shavings and everything. The works.”
“Done!” He reached into the glovebox as he drove, pulling out a file and handing it over to me without looking away from the road.
I took it, sighing as I shook my head. “I'll do it after this call.”
Grinning, Freddy leaned toward me. “Has anyone ever told you you're amazing and pretty and smart and funny?”
I laughed, rolling my eyes yet again. “Make ittwodonuts. Jelly-filled.”
Chapter 6
Merrick
Paperwork and more paperwork. That was what was on the agenda, so it caught me entirely off guard when Hailey walked into the firehouse.
Shit.
Whenever Hailey came around, I couldn’t help but watch her, against my will and higher reasoning. Still, she was magnetic; there was this pull to her I always experienced. With a blinding smile and that soft, subtle Southern accent, she was sweetness and fire all wrapped into one.
A small part of me tended to hover just because I wanted to get another whiff of her scent. Usually, our jobs meant that our scents were muddled. Smoke and sterilizing chemicals tended to do that.
But not with Hailey.
A few months ago, Hailey had come to the firehouse to help Sunny, who wasn’t feeling all that well. She hadn’t been working that day, and I hadn’t been ass-deep in cleaning up fire debris, so when she’d stepped through the doors of Station Sixteen, I’d been hit full force with her scent.
Strawberries. Sweet, delectable strawberries and cream.
My mouth had instantly watered when I picked up a faint trace of it while walking down the hallway toward my bunk room. At first, I’d thought it was Sunny baking again. She’d been making all sorts of goodies with her son, Luka. Having her and the kid at the firehouse was actually kind of wonderful.
You weren’t going to catch me complaining, at any rate. I loved kids; having them around just made things more lively.
Only, it occurred to me that Sunny was sick, so there was no way in hell that she was going to be making goodies.
Then I bumped into Hailey—literally.
We had met several times, and I knew how stunning she was. Who could miss that? Blonde hair and bright green eyes that made me wonder why a pack hadn’t snatched her up yet.
Her kindness and compassion when treating patients at the scenes of fires was what made my cold heart flutter in a way it hadn’t in a very, very long time, though. And I was not prepared for that in the slightest.
Hailey’s scent had been overwhelming at that moment, but not in a bad way. That sweet, undeniablyomegafragrance scrambled my brain and made rational thought difficult.
Hell, it’s been nearly impossible to think of anything but grabbing her and kissing her.
