“You going to sit down, son, or are you going to keep hovering?” Tommy demanded, craning his neck to look at Scott.
Since Tommy was in an old recliner and Danny was in an armchair with his leg up on an ottoman, the only place left to sit was on the couch with her. She shifted to one end, leaving plenty of room, and he really didn’t have a choice but to sit at the other end.
Part of her wanted to laugh at the stupid situation they’d put themselves in. Less than twenty-four hours ago, they’d been naked in her bed. Now they were sitting on opposite ends of a couch, barely looking at each other.
The other part of her, of course, wanted to crawl across the couch and curl up on his lap.
“So tell me, what made you want to be a firefighter, Jamie? Family business?”
She shook her head. “I’m the first firefighter to shake out of the family tree. It was a career day presentation when I was in middle school, sir. A firefighter came in to talk to us about it and...the rest is history.”
She glanced at Scott and he raised an eyebrow as if to ask if she was going to share the rest of the story. No, she wasn’t about to go into how offensive men could be about female firefighters when talking to somebody of Tommy’s generation. On the surface, he seemed perfectly happy to make her feel welcome, but in her experience, if given the chance they usually had a laundry list of concerns. And they quite often didn’t realize those concerns—women weren’t brave enough or strong enough or the guys would get in fights over her or they’d be bossy and make them clean too much—were offensive to the women they were talking about. The guys she served with didn’t have a problem with her, so she didn’t feel a need to open the door to Tommy wanting to justify that old-timer’s attitude.
“You’re not only the first woman in Engine Company 59,” Tommy said, “but you’re probably the first person who’s ever told me those career day things were worth a damn. I remember the first time Ashley dragged me in for one of those.”
Jamie listened to him tell the story, laughing in the right places, but she was conscious of Scott sitting only a few feet from her. He chuckled a couple of times, but mostly he was very quiet and still. It wasn’t normal for Scott to be that still, so she assumed he was having as much trouble figuring what “act naturally” should be as she was.
And it was probably why Danny kept looking at Scott as though he was trying to figure out if something was wrong with him. Luckily, none of them knew Jamie well enough to know she probably looked a little off, too.
“Food’s ready,” Ashley called from the kitchen a few minutes later.
Scott and Tommy both stood and together hauled Danny to his feet. Once his crutches were tucked under his arms, he smiled at Jamie and rolled his eyes. “I can get up by myself, but they think it’s funny to move me around like a doll.”
They let Danny go first, and he thumped his way to the dining room with Tommy on his heels. Scott gestured for Jamie to go next, and as she passed by, he put his hand on the small of her back. She paused, very briefly, savoring the warm pressure for a few seconds.
“Thought about that pudding all day,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Before she could tell him he was welcome to stop by for chocolate pudding anytime, his hand fell away. Rather than risk a lull in the conversation in front of them coinciding with her saying something mildly suggestive to Scott, she kept her mouth shut and followed Tommy into the dining room.
Ashley was directing traffic around Tommy, who was already seated at the head of the table. The dining room wasn’t very big, so there wasn’t a lot of room to play with. “Danny, you sit on the end on that back side so your leg’s out of the way. I’ll put your crutches in the corner. Lydia and I will be getting up to serve, so we should be on this side.”
“I’ll sit in the middle on the far side, next to Danny, so I’m out of the way,” Jamie said.
“I’ll be the third,” Scott said. “Aidan can sit next to Lydia.”
Jamie walked behind Tommy’s chair and pulled out the middle chair. As she sat, Scott pushed it in for her before sitting next to her. It was sweet, and she wondered if the others would notice the gesture, but then she saw Aidan doing the same for Lydia. Apparently it was how they did things.
There was a salad at every place setting and everybody dug in, so Jamie did the same. They all talked as much as they ate, and they made sure she was pulled into the conversations. Maybe because she was there, most of the talk was about the fire department, with Tommy occasionally breaking in to tell them how he did things back in the day.
The salad bowls were replaced by plates of the most amazing lasagna, and she looked across the table at Lydia and Ashley. “If you guys always eat like this, you’re going to have to tell me your secret for still fitting in your jeans.”
“We only eat like this when Ashley cooks for us,” Lydia said. “Or, trust me, I wouldn’t be able to.”
“Ash won’t be fitting in her jeans much longer,” Danny said, and his wife blushed.
“Funny.” She looked at Jamie, her cheeks faintly pink. “I don’t know if anybody told you, but I’m pregnant.”
“Congratulations! No, nobody told me. That’s really wonderful news.”
“It is. I originally didn’t want anybody but Danny to know because I’m a little superstitious.”
Lydia laughed. “Jamie’s already noticed that about us.”
“It’s hard to keep secrets in a firehouse,” Jamie said, hoping her cheeks didn’t turn the same shade as Ashley’s had.
“Well, I’m still not sure who knows and who doesn’t.”
“Rick knows,” Scott said, and Jamie looked sideways at him when she heard the tension in his voice. “I don’t know who else heard.”
“It doesn’t matter, anyway,” Ashley said, her voice high with a too-chipper, false note. “Superstitions don’t trump science.”
Jamie wasn’t sure what was going on, but there was a low-level buzz of tension around the table that hadn’t been there before. She put a forkful of lasagna in her mouth and chewed slowly so she couldn’t unknowingly say something that made it worse.
Danny leaned closer to her. “We’d just found out when I got hurt. Tommy, Lydia and Scott were the only ones we told, partly because we didn’t feel right not telling them and partly because she was having random any-time-of-day sickness and her shifts at the bar were becoming a problem.”
She wasn’t sure how that tied in with Scott sharing the news. “That must have been scary for everybody.”
“It was,” Scott said in a flat voice. “When Danny didn’t come out, I tried to go back in and Rick wouldn’t let me. I told him Ash was pregnant and I couldn’t go home without Danny. He still didn’t let me go back in.”
“Enough,” Tommy barked. “We’re all here and we’re having a nice meal. Put some in your mouths.”
“Dad,” Lydia said.
Scott turned slightly toward Jamie and she could see the anger in his expression. “We only talk about the good days.”
The silence as everybody went back to the lasagna was deafening, and Jamie wished she could think of something to say that would restore the easy banter they’d started with. She shifted her right leg, though, moving it sideways until it pressed against the length of Scott’s. He didn’t pull away and, through the corner of her eye, she saw the muscles in his jaw relax.
“Hey, did you two pick a wedding date yet?” Ashley asked, and everybody instantly picked up. Jamie knew she was the oldest of the three kids, so maybe she’d had to learn young how to keep the peace between two temperamental siblings and their dad.
“Not yet,” Lydia said.
“You have to pick a date. People keep asking me and I have to tell them I don’t know.”
“I guess anybody who needs to know the date will know it when we do.�
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“Do you want a big wedding or a small one?” Jamie asked, because weddings were a fun thing to talk about.
“Small,” Lydia and Aidan said at the same time Ashley said “Big,” and they all laughed.
“So, Jamie, when are you going to come in the bar again?” Tommy asked, and Jamie felt as if she were under a spotlight when everybody looked at her. “I hear you’ve only been in once.”
“I’ve actually been in three times, but the first two were quite a while ago and I didn’t know anybody.”
“And did the third time scare you off?”
“No, sir. I just haven’t had a chance to come back.”
He pushed back his empty plate and rested his hand on his stomach. “You’ll have to come in more often.”
“I might. I haven’t had a burger yet and I’ve heard yours are good.”
They sat around the table and talked while Ashley and Lydia cleared the plates and loaded up the dishwasher, refusing any help from Jamie. Tommy told them of the E59-L37 station’s history, which she found interesting, even though it was obvious the others had heard the stories before.
After decaf coffees and pastries, Jamie cursed herself for eating so much lasagna. It was a good thing she’d decided to brave the roads and drive because it would have been a long, agonizing walk home. She didn’t even want to think about the stairs.
When it was time to go, she thanked Tommy for the invitation and Ashley for making the lasagna. “It’s a good thing we don’t work tomorrow because I’ll probably still be full.”
“You’re not walking, are you?” Tommy asked. “Scotty can walk you home. Make sure you get home safe.”
Dammit. That would have been a great excuse to sneak some alone time with him. “I drove, but thanks.”
Lydia walked to the door with her, so all she could get from Scott was a casual wave. “See you Tuesday.”
“Thanks for coming,” Lydia said when they were out on the porch. “The family can get a little hard to take at times, but we all mean well.”
“I had a great time,” Jamie said honestly. “I miss my family, so hanging out with yours was nice.”
“You really should stop by the bar,” she said. “It’s pretty low-key when Scotty’s not punching people, which he hardly ever does anymore.”
Unless somebody insulted her, Jamie thought. “I will.”
About fifteen minutes after she managed to drag herself up all the flights of stairs to her apartment, her cell phone chimed. She thought instantly of her friend Steph, and felt a pang of guilt. She needed to touch base with her, but usually Steph was the one to initiate the conversations because of her work hours and the customer traffic at the pizza shop.
But it wasn’t from Steph. It was from Scott. I hope that wasn’t too bad.
She wasn’t sure if he meant being around all the Kincaids, or the strain of keeping up the appearance they hadn’t recently had sex. I enjoyed tonight.
I wish I hadn’t promised Rick I’d help him with a few things around his place tomorrow. I want to see you again.
She smiled, though she wished the same thing. You’ll see me Tuesday.
It only took a few seconds for him to respond. You won’t be naked.
Not on Tuesday.
Wednesday?
Some of her anxiety about how their tour on Tuesday would go had been eased by their success at getting through a family dinner without anybody seeming suspicious, so she didn’t hesitate. Yes.
Good. The guys have the game paused for me, so I have to go. Good night.
Sweet dreams.
After setting a reminder on her phone to text Steph at a time the pizza shop was typically slow, she stretched out on her couch and hit the TV’s power button on the remote control. There was no way she could go to bed after eating all that food, so she flipped through the channels, looking for something to catch her eye.
When she landed on a hockey game and some of the guys were wearing black and gold, she stopped channel surfing. It must be the game Scott was watching, which made her smile. Over the years she’d survived a lot of sports games on station televisions. Being a fan seemed to mean a lot of yelling and hand waving and cursing, so she’d usually used game time for catching up on paperwork or doing anything she could find to do in a room farthest from the TV. The E-59 guys, though, were taking it as a personal challenge to make her a hockey fan and they spent a lot of free time trying to tutor her.
After watching it for a few minutes, she laughed at herself and starting hitting the channel-up button again. It was hard enough to keep track of the guys flying around on the ice. She had no hope of figuring out where the puck was and the words the announcers were using still meant nothing to her.
After settling on a disaster movie she’d seen enough times that the fact she’d missed the first twenty minutes didn’t matter, she pulled the knit throw off the back of the couch and got comfortable.
Her eyelids got heavy fast, though, and as she drifted off, her last thought was that she had to remember to ask Scott what kind of movies he liked.
EIGHT
SCOTT FROWNED AT the puzzle piece in his hand, then looked back at the picture on the box lid. “I think some dipshit mixed up the pieces of this puzzle with another one.”
Jeff leaned over on the couch to look at the piece. “That looks like part of a Santa hat.”
“We’re doing a fall foliage puzzle.”
Jeff shrugged. “Maybe it’s like one of those Where’s Waldo things and there’s a Santa hat hiding in the leaves.”
“Or maybe some dipshit mixed up the puzzles,” Scott repeated under his breath.
“I’ve done that foliage puzzle about nineteen times,” Chris said from across the room, where he’d been pretending to nap in a chair. “There’s no Santa hat. It’s probably the pointy part of a red leaf.”
Scott tossed the piece back into the pile and picked up another one. It was a blur of red and orange, like 80 percent of the other pieces. He really hated jigsaw puzzles that were mostly scenery. “We need to put a puzzle fund jar on the table and buy some new ones.”
Some tours, they busted their asses for hours without any rest beyond the short breaks necessary to keep them going. Most varied, with some medical emergencies and accidents and people smelling smoke, but plenty of downtime for meals, rest and getting stuff done around the station. And then there were days like today, when it seemed everybody in their neighborhood was feeling good, obeying traffic laws and not setting stuff on fire. They were good days for everybody but, holy crap, did the hours drag on when the chores were all checked off and the alarm didn’t sound.
“Hey, Scotty, Ellen wants to set you up on a date,” Jeff said.
“I’m not interested. Tell your wife I said thanks, though.”
“She says this new girl at work would be perfect for you. Her dad’s a firefighter in Philly, so she knows how it goes. Came up here for college and plans to stay. She’s really pretty, smart, makes good money, and wants to get married and have kids in a few years.”
“She sounds great, but I’m not into dating right now. Which you know.”
“Yeah, but she’s not the women you were dating when you decided to take a break. She’s the kind of woman you’re looking for.”
Scott was glad Jamie had gone down to the second floor to do paperwork because he’d have a hard time not looking her way to see her reaction to this conversation. “I’m not looking for any women right now.”
“I like pretty and smart women who make good money,” Grant said from the kitchen doorway.
“Yeah, but my wife thinks you’re a shithead because you flaked out on the charity breakfast last summer and you were supposed to be in charge of the bacon.”
Grant sighed. “I was sick.”
“You were hungover. And you can fudge a lot when it comes to breakfast, but you can’t fake your way out of a bacon issue. It’s bacon.” Jeff pressed a yellow leaf into place in the puzzle. “Besides, her friend wants a guy who’s ready to settle down. Rings. Strollers.”
With a grimace, Grant disappeared back into the kitchen, which Scott hoped would end the issue. He didn’t want to date Ellen’s friend and Ellen wouldn’t want her friend to date Grant or Gavin, who wasn’t any more ready to settle down. Everybody else was taken, so both companies were a dead end on the road to finding Ellen’s friend a husband.
“It’s been a while since you talked about going out, Scotty,” Jeff said. “You have to go on first dates to know who you want to go on a second date with, you know what I mean?”
He already knew he wanted to go on a second date with the woman who was one floor beneath them, either doing paperwork or asleep at her desk, but he couldn’t say that. It was awkward because, if he hadn’t met Jamie, it would have been in his nature to at least take Ellen’s smart, pretty friend who made good money to dinner and they all knew it.
“Or maybe he’s already found somebody to date and he’s not telling us,” Chris said, and Scott looked up from the puzzle to frown at him. Was he just messing with him, or was he fishing for information?
“Why wouldn’t I tell you?” he asked, neither confirming or denying he actually had found a woman to date and wasn’t telling them.
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s ninety-seven and you think she’ll leave you her fortune.”
Scott laughed. “If you don’t tell anybody, I’ll buy you a pony. And on that note, I’m sick of this puzzle. I’m going to go find Aidan. He said he was going to check the tanks and never came back.”
“He’s probably hiding in the cage, talking to Lydia,” Gavin said as he walked out of the weight room with a towel draped around his neck. At least, unlike the rest of them, he’d worked up a sweat today.
Scott went down one flight of stairs and paused in the narrow hallway of the second floor. The door to the office Jamie and Rick shared was closed, but he could knock. He’d have to come up with a reason to want to talk to her if Rick was in there, but if she was alone, Scott could visit for a few minutes.
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