Big Engine: A Firefighter Romance (Firehouse 22 Book 1)

by Scarlett Brooks

  “Fuck me harder,” she moaned.

  I rocked my hips and the whole bed shook as I pumped her up and down.

  “Harder,” she said again.

  I pushed as deep as I could into her hole, trying to hold on for just a moment longer and her eyes rolled back and her hair fell against her shoulders. Her legs quaked around me as the orgasm rolled through her body. I shot my seed into her hole. Heat running through my veins. “Fuck,” I said as she rolled off of me and lay by my side, going limp from exhaustion.

  “Now do you see how good we are together?” I asked her.

  She laughed. “I guess I can’t deny we’re good in bed.”

  “We’ll be good parents too. I know it.” I offered confidently. I still needed to convince her.

  In the morning, I woke up first. I lay there watching her sleep, listening to her quiet, even breathing. She was more than beautiful to me. I wanted her in my life—especially now, with our baby on the way.

  She started to stir, finally waking up. When she saw the clock, she startled.

  “You have to go; I have to get going too.” She said as she threw back the covers and sat up, putting her feet on the floor.

  “What’s the big hurry, don’t you own your own business?” I asked her.

  “I have a doctor’s appointment this morning; I don’t want to be late. They are doing an ultrasound today.”

  “Really? Should I come?” I would have to wear yesterday’s clothes, but hell I wanted to see this kid.

  “Yeah, okay,” she said, not sounding too sure about it.

  “Pay, it’s going to be fine. Just relax.” I tried to calm her down, but I could tell this morning would be anything but relaxing. This girl was a ball of nerves.

  9

  Payton

  I wasn’t so sure about Crew coming with me to my ultrasound appointment, but he seemed determined to be a part of this baby’s life. So it was only fair to let him share in these important details. These are things that would only happen once, and to deny him the pleasure of seeing our baby for the first time would be heartless. I may have built a wall around my heart, but it didn’t mean that I didn’t have one.

  As I lay on the examining table waiting for the technician to come in, I was feeling anxious. Crew sensed that I was a little uneasy, so he started to entertain me.

  He pretended that he was the doctor.

  “Madam, your baby is very beautiful, I can see that,” he said as he ran his hands over my belly. Then he lowered his ear to my tummy.

  “What is that, little one?” he asked. “Oh, yes I see what you mean. The baby said ‘of course I'm beautiful, just look at my mama!’”

  I had to laugh, Crew was so cute. Then he put his ear back down and said, “Baby said that he/she wants something good to eat, and if we promise to eat breakfast after this, he or she will cooperate and lie in a good position for the photo shoot.” Again we both laughed.

  The technician came into the room and caught us laughing.

  She said that laughing is a good exercise for expectant mothers. Sometimes new mothers are so stressed out and it really affects the baby negatively.

  “Well, we won’t have to worry about this mama, because I plan to keep her happy and laughing throughout this pregnancy,” Crew said. It was so heartfelt. I wasn’t expecting him to be so sweet. He had a tough exterior, a little bit of a bad boy. But since telling him I was pregnant, that had all melted away.

  The tech started the procedure; she spread a warm feeling gel on my stomach and then she took the instrument and moved it all around until she found the embryo.

  “This is your baby.” She moved the wand very slowly and showed us on the monitor the arms, and legs, the head, and the little heart that was beating. We heard the heartbeat and it was so amazing!

  “Look, there is a hose in there, we have a little firefighter! Just like Daddy!” he chuckled a little as he announced the news.

  The tech laughed and told him that what he saw was the umbilical cord. Then she asked if we wanted to know the gender of the baby.

  I said that I wanted to be surprised, but Crew said that he wanted to know. So the tech wrote the gender on a slip of paper and put it in the envelope and sealed it for Crew. He could open it whenever he wanted to.

  Then the tech snapped a few different poses that printed out as black and white photos. She congratulated us both and gave us the pics. I got dressed and we left the office.

  Crew drove us to a local diner and we went in to have breakfast. As we ordered our meals, Crew was busy showing off the photo of our baby. He was so proud. I had to admit it was so cute and endearing. I could feel the walls of my heart crumble a little.

  “So you like pancakes,” he said as he passed the waitress our menus. I had ordered the extra large stack. I mean I was eating for two.

  “Yep, they’re my favorite. Summer makes incredible pancakes. Shit, I should call her. She’s at the bakery alone.”

  I gave Summer a call to let her know that I would be coming in a little late. She informed me that the real estate agent called and she had a place she wanted to show me if I could meet her this morning.

  When I called Meghan, she said that there was a property in Glendale, just outside of Austin. That sounded like a great location, I could glean new clients there as well as keep my clients from Austin since it was not that far away. Maybe I needed a change of scenery.

  Crew waited quietly as they delivered our meal. I felt rude making calls, but it was a work day.

  “Thinking of moving?” he asked as he bit into a biscuit.

  I sighed. “Maybe? My realtor wants me to look at a place this morning. It might be a better location, but I’m not sure I’m ready to give up our current place. It’s served us pretty well all these years.”

  I smothered my pancakes in syrup. I had a sweet tooth. Always. Hence the bakery.

  “Where’s the new place?”

  “Glendale. It’s supposed to have four ovens. I only have two now. Four would be a game changer.”

  “I’ll go with you if you want. To look at it.”

  “I wouldn’t mind another set of eyes. But don’t you have to work today?”

  “Nope. I do two days on, four days off. It’s kind of a great schedule. Also means I’ll be around when you need help with the baby.”

  That was a better schedule than I had originally pictured. Maybe this would work out after all.

  Crew took me to meet her at the location Meghan mentioned. The building was an older restaurant that had a large out building that could work as a warehouse for us. It would take some renovations to enlarge the kitchen to accommodate a few more baker’s racks.

  Then Crew said that he would love to help with the renovations; it seemed that he was quite handy with tools. One of his earlier jobs was working with a construction company. He also thought that some of the other firefighters might be willing to help out too.

  It was something that I would have to think on; and investigate the costs to see if this was a doable project. I had been socking money away for our growth, but the price on this property was a bit more than I was hoping to spend.

  As I was checking out the kitchen, Crew hung behind with Meghan and they were chatting about what could be done with the front of the house. I went outside to the outbuilding and looked it over. There were several walk-in freezers inside where the owners must have stored their frozen goods. There was plenty of shelving for dry goods as well. I really liked the layout of this property.

  There was ample parking in the lot, and the dining area was pretty large, so I was imagining a coffee bar on one side and a different area for small tables and chairs. Maybe if business warranted, we could add soup, salad, and sandwiches/wraps to have a light lunch menu. There were many things that could be done with this place and a little bit of money—actually a lot of money—the price was well over my budget.

  When we sat down to discuss the costs, I shared my thoughts with Meghan. She said that she
would work on the owners to see if they might come down a little on the price and she would let me know how she made out.

  Crew took me back to the bakery and he came along in with me to say hello to Summer.

  “Summer,” I said a bit nerviously, “this is Crew.”

  She wiped the flour onto a rag from her hands and then shook his. “Pleasure, I’m sure. It’s nice to put a face to a name. Since you’ve been monopolizing my best friend’s time, that is.”

  “I promise to have her back before midnight,” he joked.

  “Oh you better, she’s more tired these days.”

  “Hey, I’m right here. Anyway, do you wanna see the baby?”

  Crew pulled out his picture of the baby and showed her.

  “OMG!! How adorable! I'm so excited for you two.”

  Crew looked around at my life’s work and he seemed to like what I had accomplished. Summer gave him a muffin to eat while I told her about the place I had just looked at.

  “Wow! This is awesome, Pay! Is this pecan?” he asked, licking his lips.

  “Yes, that is our famous honey pecan muffin. It seems to be a favorite around here.” I responded.

  “I’d like to take some of these into the firehouse. Would you pack up a dozen in a box for me—mix them up, and I want two more of these in my own little box. I'm hooked!”

  I blushed. Anytime you complimented my baking? Well that was an easy way to my heart.

  Summer packed up his order and took his money; and he came around the counter and kissed me right there in front of Summer and a couple of customers who had wandered in.

  “I’ll see you later,” he said as he turned to leave the shop. My heart skipped a beat as I watched him walk out the door.

  Later as we were working back in the kitchen, Summer was babbling about how sweet Crew is and how it was obvious that he was in love with me. She was such a hopeless romantic.

  “Let’s do something together tonight, the three of us. There is a trivia tournament at Buster’s tonight. That would be lots of fun…”

  “Yes, that does sound like fun, let’s do it!” I answered.

  I could see it now, the three of us racking our brains trying to come up with the correct answers to questions that were mostly ridiculously obscure.

  I texted Crew to see if he was up for it. Luckily he liked the idea so he came to pick us up at our condo around seven and we headed to Buster’s, a local pub that was a popular hangout for young people. They had game nights, karaoke DJs where the brave would get on stage and try out their vocal cords on the locals. I was not brave. We had so much fun that we decided to hang out there more often and time suddenly seemed to begin to get away from us.

  As our baby grew, so did my feelings for him. He was becoming a very important part of my life. I shared things with him about the bakery and he shared stories about his fire calls. He really seemed to be interested in things that meant a lot to me.

  I will never forget the day I took him with me to meet my mom. She was a little put out with me for letting myself get in this condition; but when she met Crew, he charmed the shit out of her. I think she fell a little in love with him too. She could certainly see how I was so attracted to him. Then she started to be a little more positive about my situation. She kept talking about, “when you two get married…”

  And from then on, it was “Crew this” and “Crew that.” But I was okay with that. After all, she was my mother and she had been my biggest fan all of my life. Now she was out buying onesies and baby things, and she even took up crochet so she could make blankets for the baby

  I was actually feeling pretty good most of the time now. It was hard for me to believe that my situation that put me in such a predicament back when I found out I was pregnant, was now bringing me joy. Crew was always making me laugh with the funny little things he would say that the baby told him when they were having their little talks.

  He just had a way of making me smile, feel good about myself. He could make intense times easier. I was beginning to trust him more each day. We had honesty and respect for each other and it was building a stronger relationship.

  I rarely thought about Greg any more. He was my past. Crew was my now. And I started to believe that he could be my future. I regret having lied to him about who I was. We could have been getting to know each other before I found out I was having his baby.

  Putting up walls only hurt me. It didn’t really protect me at all. Having those walls crumbling every day was setting me free from loneliness and sadness. Crew was rescuing me, without even realizing it.

  10

  Payton

  As the weeks passed, I was working as hard as ever. I wanted to make more money for our expansion, so I was putting in extra long hours at the bakery. I knew I needed to hire another baker to help out when I had the baby, so I started interviewing.

  The owners of the restaurant weren’t budging on their price. Meghan thought if we just hung in there and they weren’t able to sell it, they would eventually be open for negotiations. So we shelved the idea for now. It didn’t make much sense to worry about that now while I was pregnant.

  Crew and I kept spending more time together, often doing things with Summer. He was becoming more important to me every day. A little piece of me still wanted to deny it, but I knew that I was really falling in love with him.

  It was now one month from my due date and I was pretty much the size of a small house. I couldn’t help but wonder if Crew was really attracted to me anymore or was he just being nice because I was having his baby. I really wished that I didn’t keep reverting to my distrusting and lower self-esteem ways. It was just something that was always in the back of my mind, but I was fighting every day to bury it forever.

  Summer and I had an appointment today with a frozen food distributor who wanted to make a deal with us regarding freezing and packaging our muffins and going retail with them. I wasn’t really sure about whether to do this or not. It would require our selling the recipes to have them moved into expanded production. As we sat there discussing the details, I started to feel lightheaded.

  “You okay?” Summer asked, looking more concerned than I wanted her to.

  “I’m fine. I guess I’m just panicking a little about selling our recipe. I want to make sure this is the right fit.” But as I looked at her I started seeing double.

  “I get it, we can keep thinking about it. I mean they’re not looking for a yes or no for another month. We can wait if it makes you feel better, but also remember, they’re offering us royalties.”

  “Right… I…” Suddenly the room started spinning, what the hell was wrong with me?

  I must have passed out because when I woke up, I was in the hospital with doctors and nurses all around me. I was terrified. What happened? The first thing I did was reach down to my stomach to see if I was still pregnant.

  “It’s okay, Payton. The baby is okay. We are running some tests on you to find out what happened to make you pass out. Just relax and know that we will take good care of you.”

  “Where is Crew? I need him here. Can someone please call him? He is a firefighter with Station 22. I need him to be with me.” I begged. I knew he was at work today, but surely they would let him come see me. I needed him with me.

  The orderlies wheeled me onto an elevator and told me that they were taking me up to a room—they were going to keep me overnight for observation.

  When I was settled in my room, Summer came up to sit with me. She told me about how the nurse grilled her about my diet. She was unable to reach Crew. She called Brad and no one knew where he was. It was Crew’s day off and he must not have had his cell phone with him.

  Now, I was worried. Where was he? I thought he was at the firehouse. He hadn’t told me he was off today. He never checked in with me today like he usually did. Was he okay? Was he hurt somewhere? I was scared to death. I didn’t realize how much I had come to depend on him.

  As I lay there worrying about him, and I he
ard nothing from him, I started to doubt him and his love for me. The same old feelings crept up in the back of my mind. Was he holed up somewhere with some other girl? Was he cheating on me? All I really knew is that he wasn’t here with me when I needed him the most.

  The demons kept hammering away at me. Where was he? Why didn’t he call, why didn’t someone find him and tell him that I needed him? Did he have an accident?

  I kept going back and forth in my mind. First I was worried; then I was angry. I tried not to be angry because if he had been hurt or even worse, I would feel so guilty for being mad. I was so confused. The only thing I knew for sure was that I missed him, and I needed him.

  Summer tried to calm me down, saying that she knew he would never hurt me. There had to be a good reason why we were not able to get in touch with him. She finally went home, and I soon fell asleep. I was exhausted even though it was early evening.

  I dreamed about awful things all night long. I must not have slept very well at all because when I woke up just before dawn, I was exhausted.

  A nurse gave me something to help me relax. And soon I dozed off again. This time, when I awoke, Crew was sitting by my bedside.

  Instead of being glad to see him, I was enraged that he had not been there for me.

  “Crew, I trusted you! I told you I didn’t want you to be a part of this, but you insisted. And then when I needed you, you weren’t even here!” I couldn’t tell if it was the hormones, my tired body, or what but I couldn’t stand to even look at him right now. He was the enemy in my mind.

  “But Payton, I didn’t know you were in trouble. I was working on a project and I lost track of time. My phone died and I couldn’t call anyone.”

  “I don’t want your excuses right now Crew. Just get out now, or I will have a nurse call security. I mean it.” I started crying and he got up and walked slowly out of the room with his head hanging down. He looked pathetic, but I couldn’t help it. I was hurt and scared all over again.