“Oh.” I laugh nervously. “Then, uh… sure.”
He moves closer to me again, his eyes heated as he looks down at me. “Or maybe we could check out that strip club together?”
“You’d want to do that?” I breathe out.
“Hell yeah. I think it’d be fun.” He winks, and I have to hold myself up by the table.
And then this god awful sound starts blaring through the building. Noah covers his ears, looking around like he’s in actual pain.
“Shit,” JJ mutters.
Everyone in the firehouse pauses, and I don’t know what they’re waiting for until I hear the voice that comes over thespeakers. It mentions a multi-family fire and is requesting all units from Firehouse 99, which is this one.
“Sorry, gotta go,” JJ says, hurrying toward the stairs. “I’ll call you!”
Within seconds, everyone is downstairs, preparing to leave.
Noah barrels past me toward the window. He shoves his face against it to watch the trucks take off. We stand there until the bay is empty, and then he looks up at me with wide eyes.
“That was crazy,” he says.
I nod in agreement. “Yeah, it was.” I offer out my hand. “We should go.”
He huffs a sigh. “Okay.”
“I know you didn’t see the truck. I’m sorry, but I promise we can come back another day.”
“He’s your friend, right?”
“Yeah, he is,” I say with a smile as we get to the car.
“Then we should be able to visit whenever we want,” Noah says matter-of-factly.
“I wish it worked that way, Noah, but this is his job. He has a boss. And we could get in the way if we’re here all the time.”
He buckles and I get into the driver’s side to start the car.
“Can we get a milkshake?” he asks excitedly.
“Only to-go. We need to get home for dinner. And we need to get one for your mom.”
“But then she’ll get mad that I spoiled my dinner,” he groans.
“Not if you eat it all.”
He huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “What is she even cooking?”
“I don’t know. Let’s call and ask.” I call her on the Bluetooth, so we can both hear her through the speaker. I’d talked to her earlier, so she knew we were heading here after school.
“Hello?” she answers.
“Hi, Mom!” Noah shouts.
I chuckle. “Hey, Audrey.”
“What’s up?”
“What is for dinner?” Noah asks in an overly sweet tone.
