“I need advice,” I say, slipping into Noah’s booth.
Rios’s fire chief raises a dark-blond eyebrow at me. “About fire safety?”
I lower my voice. “About something personal.”
Interest stirs in his dark-green gaze. “Wouldn’t that be better shared with your pack?”
I shake my head. “No. This is too intimate.”
Both brows shoot up. “Too intimate to share with your pack? Now you have me intrigued.” He glances at his watch. “I don’t have long, though. I’m meeting a friend from the fire academy.”
“You’re hiring?”
What little I know about firefighting, I learned from Joel. Both he and Noah went to a fire academy in Des Moines for about twelve weeks of intensive training after they graduated from high school. When they came back as rookies, they worked part-time at first until full-time positions opened up. The training is constant, and not all of it is in Rios. Other times it’s out of town, and Joel can be gone for a couple of days.
He nods. “We’re down a guy. Sean moved to Colorado to be closer to his wife’s family a couple of weeks ago, and my friend is interested in moving down here. What’s so personal that you can’t talk to your pack about it?”
It’s a good question. I’ve been friends with Joel forever, though I’m closer in age to Noah. We can talk about most things. Except for this.
I hesitate. “It’s about Rose. We’ve kissed a few times, and… well, things have been leading one way, but?—”
Noah holds up one hand and sits back in his seat. “Okay, that might be a littletoointimate to be sharing with me.”
“It’s not about sex advice.”
A shoe squeaks and I turn in time to see Lina spin on her heel.
“I’ll be back to get your drink order later, Noah,” she says.
She couldn’t walk away any faster if she tried. We’re close, so I understand why she wants no part of this conversation.
Please let her nevereverbring up what she overheard.
Letting out a sigh, I massage my forehead and lower my voice further. “Rose slept with Joel and Murph. But every time things start heading that way with us, I run away.”
Noah eyes me for a beat. “I’m going to assume this is not sex advice related, despite the fact that this sounds very much like it’s sex advice related.”
“I don’t want to disappoint her.”
He shrugs. “Everyone always thinks that, Win.”
I run my eyes over him. “Yeah, right.”
He’s over six feet tall, blond, an alpha, and a firefighter. Hell, at thirty-five, he’s Rios’s youngest-ever fire chief, to boot.
“It’s not about how I look, Win. Feelings change all the rules.”
I stare at him, silently communicating how little I’m buying this shit. Maybe if it weren’t coming from someone who has never been short on female attention, I’d be more willing to listen. But I have literally overheard a woman say she wouldn’t mind if Noah Shaw hosed her off, preferably while he’s wearing nothing but his firefighter's hat and boots. The stuff he’s telling me hits different—as in, not at all.
He smiles, reading my skepticism. “When it’s someone important to you, you care more. That’s just the way it is. Why couldn’t you have asked Joel or Murph this? They’d have told you the same thing.”
“They wouldn’t have wanted to hurt me.” Both know I’m comfortable singing loudly in public and walking around in a horse costume. But women… everyone has insecurities, andromance is mine. It’s always been easier to revert to being the friend, even when I’ve wanted more.
He snorts. “Joel has always been honest, and Murph has always been blunt.”
“You might have a point there,” I concede.
“And stop running away when she kisses you,” he warns. “She’ll start thinking you’re not attracted to her, and then you really will have a problem on your hands.”
