Billion Dollar Man

by Ali Parker

  Maybe it would change now since Ben was back.

  He had looked so good last night. He had grown up but in a good way. He had become more solid, the way boys did when they became men. His dark hair and blue eyes were still a smoldering combination, and after Rachel had left in a huff, I knew he had told her off. It had made me happy. I would never stand a chance with him, but knowing Rachel couldn’t have him was satisfying.

  “Mila,” Skylar said, and I realized she’d been talking to me.

  “Sorry. What?”

  Skylar laughed. “Just a childhood fantasy, huh? Looks like it’s an adult fantasy too.”

  I blushed, and Skylar laughed harder.

  “Speak of the devil,” I said when Jerrod and Ben walked through the door. They were talking about something. Jerrod was going on and on, and Ben nodded and listened. Strong and silent. And hot. He wore a collared shirt and jeans with shoes that looked expensive but understated. Everything about Ben was like that.

  “It’s fate,” Skylar said and winked at me.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “We were talking about him, and here he is,” Skylar said. She lifted an arm and waved at the two men.

  “Stop it,” I said, but Jerrod had already seen us, and they came over toward us.

  “Now, you can tell him how you feel,” Skylar said.

  “I’m not doing that,” I said.

  Skylar laughed, enjoying herself at my expense. My stomach fluttered when Ben looked at me and smiled. My heart beat in my throat as they came closer. I hadn’t spoken to Ben in years. What the hell was I going to say to him?

  “What’s so funny?” Jerrod asked Skylar when they reached us.

  “Mila and I were just talking about—”

  “Nothing,” I said. “Girl stuff.” I glared at Skylar, hoping she wouldn’t keep going. She gave me a pointed look, her mouth curling into a smile, and I shook my head at her. For a second, she looked like she was going to embarrass me, but she pulled up her shoulders instead.

  “Mind if we join you?” Ben asked.

  I shook my head, and Skylar laughed again.

  “Let’s get a table,” Jerrod suggested. We abandoned our seats at the bar. I nudged Skylar when the men turned their backs. She nudged me back. She wasn’t going to get off this. I just hoped she wouldn’t say something in front of Ben and Jerrod. But she was my best friend, and she knew how pissed off Jerrod would get. She would have my back. I was almost sure of it.

  Almost.

  When we sat down at the table, it was like old times almost immediately. Jerrod and Ben bantered back and forth, laughing about something that had happened after I had gone home last night. Skyler was being shameless with her interjections, as always. And I sat back and listened as I had always done. I wasn’t as shy as I used to be, but it was a dynamic that had been created years ago. It was hard to think that six years had passed.

  We were such different people now. And yet, we were all the same in a way.

  “I need a refill,” Skylar said when our cocktail glasses had been empty for a while.

  “I’m getting this round,” Jerrod said to Ben, and he stood up. He accompanied Skylar to the bar, and suddenly, Ben and I were alone.

  “It’s good to see you again, Mila,” Ben said and smiled at me. His smile was enough to push up my temperature.

  “It’s good to have you back,” I said. “Jerrod missed you.” I would have said that I’d missed him, too, but that would have been too much.

  “I can tell,” Ben said with a chuckle. “I hear you’re a nurse now.”

  I nodded. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

  “I can appreciate that,” Ben said. “Besides, I bet you look pretty damn hot in that nurse’s outfit.”

  My stomach did a little flip. His line was so blunt. He looked at me, completely at ease with what he said.

  “You’ll have to judge for yourself sometime,” I said, and it was Ben’s turn to be surprised. I hadn’t been this comfortable around Ben when he’d seen me last.

  He laughed. “We’ll have to make a date for that.”

  “I guess you’ll just have to ask me,” I said.

  Ben laughed. “You’ve grown up, Mila.”

  “Yeah, I have,” I said and smiled. “You have no idea.”

  “I’m beginning to see that.”

  For a moment, we were silent. Ben glanced to the bar where Jerrod and Skylar were laughing about something.

  “What are you doing now?” I asked.

  “I’m starting at Fire and Rescue Station Nine,” he said. “On Monday.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s quick. I didn’t know you still wanted to be a firefighter.”

  “Once the hero complex grabs you, there’s no going back, you know?” Ben said and chuckled.

  I could relate to that. In a way, firemen and nurses did the same thing. We went into the thick of things and helped people when they needed saving. It was hard work, long hours, and sometimes, we couldn’t save the day. But it was worth every minute of blood, sweat, and heartache to see the people we saved walk away alive and well.

  A thrill went through me to think that Ben and I had so much in common. But I suppressed it almost immediately. Just because we thought alike didn’t mean we were soul mates. I was still being a silly girl with a crush.

  “Jerrod said you have your own apartment now,” Ben said.

  “Jerrod talks about me a lot, huh?” I replied.

  Ben chuckled. “Yeah, just the basics. I left all the good stuff to ask you personally.”

  “Like what?” I asked with a giggle.

  “Things your brother has no business knowing about,” Ben said and winked at me.

  I blushed. I couldn’t help it. My cheeks flamed red, and I looked down, feeling like an idiot. Ben chuckled, and when I looked up, those midnight blue eyes rested on me, the smile arrogant and so hot, I was struggling to think straight.

  Ben was trouble. I’d had a crush on him for years, but it had been fine when he hadn’t noticed me at all. Now, it was a different story altogether. We were equals now, and he was flirting with me.

  It was only going to make me like him that much more. I thought about what Skylar had said about it being an adult fantasy, and I decided she was right.

  Ben was very much an adult fantasy, and I could think of all kinds of dirty things about him, which was a bad idea. He was still Jerrod’s best friend, and I couldn’t be with him. Not in any way.

  “So, how’s Rachel doing?” I asked, trying to change the topic. I felt like a moron the moment the words left my mouth. Why would he want to talk about his ex? Why would I bring up his ex when I wanted to get in there myself?

  I scolded myself for thinking along those lines again.

  “Rachel who?” he asked.

  “You know,” I started before I realized his response had been an answer. He grinned at me, and the way he looked at me made me want to blush again.

  “Sorry, I’m sure you don’t want to talk about her,” I said. I didn’t know how he’d handled their breakup. I’d only heard from Jerrod that she’d cheated on him and he’d dumped her. I had resented her for hurting the man I’d crushed on for so long back then.

  “Why would I want to talk about her when I have someone as stunning as you in front of me?”

  I blushed again. Dammit.

  “You’re impossible.” I giggled, sounding like the schoolgirl with a crush that I evidently still was.

  Ben shrugged. “I’ll tell you what’s impossible: how beautiful you’ve become since I left. Inside and out.”

  “You’re only making it worse,” I said, feeling like my cheeks were on fire.

  “You’re cute when you blush.”

  “Did you know that when you blush, your stomach lining also turns red?” When I said it, I felt like a complete idiot. “I bet you didn’t come here to hear arbitrary medical facts.” I squeezed my eyes shut.

  “That’s exactly why I c
ame here,” Ben said. When I didn’t open my eyes, he nudged my knee with his under the table. “Seriously, you can never have too many arbitrary medical facts.”

  I looked at him and laughed. He was who he had always been—kind, funny, and able to get me out of every awkward situation I got myself into. But he was different, too. Grown up, mature. Sadder, in a way. And happier. It was hard to figure out what I saw when I looked at him.

  The one thing I did know was that if I’d thought I was going to struggle with a crush on him before, it was so much worse now.

  Chapter 3

  Ben

  Monday was my first day at the Station. I had waited for this day for years, and I was as ready as I would ever be. I had all my tests and refresher courses, and thanks to a fitness regime back in New York to get my mind off the stress of work, I was in perfect shape too. Captain Kelly couldn’t do anything but hire me to work with the men.

  When I arrived at the Station, Mike Kelly met me with a grin.

  “You’ve worked hard for this. Congratulations.”

  I shook his hand. “Thanks.”

  “Come with me. I’ll introduce you to the guys, and they’ll do the rest.”

  We walked up the stairs that led to the living area above the fire station. The smell of something burning greeted us.

  “It smells like Sam is trying to cook again,” Mike said, pushing the door open with a sour face. Three men sat around a Formica kitchen table. One man stood before the stove, and it was smoking like it was nobody’s business.

  “If you carry on like this, we’ll have to ring the bell and dispatch the truck to put out our own fires,” Mike joked, and all the men stood up. The one cooking, Sam, turned around with red eyes from the smoke.

  “This is Ben Atwood. He’s joining the team. The cook is Sam Vaughan.”

  “You mean the arsonist,” one of the men piped up.

  “Next time, you cook,” Sam said.

  “Please, I’d love to.”

  I laughed.

  “The mouthy one is Tyler Medina.”

  I nodded. “I know him. We were in school together.”

  “What’s up, man. Long time,” Tyler said. We had a lot of classes together. We had never been friends but that could change.

  “The one with the ugly mug is Jay Fleming.”

  “Ugly as sin but a heart of gold, my mama always says,” Jay said.

  “Your mama is just being nice,” Tyler quipped. “You’re as filthy on the inside as you’re ugly on the outside.”

  Jay punched Tyler on the shoulder a lot harder than I would have thought was playful, but Tyler laughed, rubbing his shoulder.

  “And this over here is Lieutenant Ted Stephens.”

  “Lieutenant,” I said.

  “Just call me Ted,” he said. “We don’t do labels and shit here. When it comes to saving lives, we’re all in it for the same reason.”

  I nodded. I knew right away I was going to get along with these guys.

  Mike left us, and Sam carried on with his cooking. After he produced pancakes that tasted more like smoke than anything else, we headed down to clean the firefighting equipment.

  “This is the cheapest therapy you’ll ever find,” he said, walking with me to the extinguishers to perform routine checks. “Everyone else complains, but I like doing the mundane jobs, you know? Keeps my mind off the shitty images that get stuck in there sometimes.” He tapped the side of his head.

  “Does it get bad?” I asked.

  Tyler shrugged. “Depends on what you see, I guess. I had a bad run last year. A building collapsed with us still in it. We found the woman we went in to save but there wasn’t much of her left to identify. Stuff like that stays with me.”

  “Sounds awful.”

  “It is, sometimes. But usually, we get them all out. Nothing better than knowing we saved the day.”

  We got the equipment all checked, running through a process that ensured we didn’t miss anything.

  “So, rumor has it you came back from the big city,” Tyler said.

  “Where did you hear that?” I asked.

  Tyler shrugged. “My sister is friends with Rachel.”

  “Oh,” I said flatly.

  “Yeah, I know all about the shit that went down between the two of you. How you dumped her because you found something better in the city.”

  “She said that?” I asked. I was so surprised, I wasn’t angry. Not yet.

  “Yeah.” Tyler laughed. “But don’t worry, she’s a bitch. Besides, Brittany says she was the one who fucked around. Brittany knows everything, of course. My sister doesn’t make shit up.”

  I shook my head. “Dating Rachel was nothing but bad news, man. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”

  “I’ve had relationships like that,” Tyler said. “But I’m happy with Caroline now.”

  “Dating?”

  “Married. Three years.”

  “Oh, wow,” I said. “That’s a big step.”

  “Yeah, man. Crazy to think we used to be at school together. Where has the time gone?”

  It was crazy. When we were in school, Tyler was scrawny and pimple-faced, the butt of a lot of jokes and never really the type of guy who would be labeled as “cool.” Now, he was muscular and confident and apparently married.

  “What about you? Got a girl?”

  I shook my head. “A lot of flings but nothing serious.”

  “Even with all the cash they’re saying you have?”

  I chuckled. “Because of all the cash. They all just want one thing from me. So, I turned the table on them and only wanted one thing from them instead.”

  Tyler hooted. “That’s the life.”

  I laughed. It had been for a while. Fucking around had been fun. I had liked it when I’d walked into a place and everyone had known who I was. For a while. But it had become boring. I’d wanted companionship when all I’d gotten was women who wanted my money or the status that would come with dating me. I had still taken the sex from them—what sane man wouldn’t? But I hadn’t hoped for something more.

  “If I were you, I would have stayed in New York, surrounded by money and supermodels,” Tyler said.

  “It wasn’t exactly like that,” I said. “Besides, I wanted to do something good for humanity, you know? You can only fuck so many women before you stop feeling like something special.”

  “But all that money, though? You had to be living the life,” Tyler said.

  I shrugged. “I guess so, but there’s more to life than just money. And doing something I didn’t like was soul-crushing. Happiness can’t be bought.”

  “That’s some fortune cookie shit.” Tyler laughed.

  Less than an hour later, we got our first call. We pulled on our gear in no time and jumped into the truck.

  Ted was driving. I sat next to Sam with Tyler and Jay on the back of the truck.

  “House fire,” Ted said as we pulled up. “Doesn’t look too serious.”

  A woman in her dressing gown ran toward the truck, her face contorted in fear. A small boy tagged along behind her. He looked scared and lost.

  “It’s a fire in the kitchen,” she said. She was close to tears. “I tried to put it out, but it spread too quickly. It jumped to the curtains.”

  “You were right to get out, ma’am,” Tyler said. “Please, stay close to the truck. We’ll take care of it.”

  Sam and Ted assessed the house. Smoke billowed from one window only. It looked small enough to handle without difficulty.

  Tyler and I moved around the back of the house while Sam went in through the front. We reached the kitchen at the same time. The stove was on fire, and the curtains next to it had caught alight as the woman had said. The fire moved to the tablecloth as we arrived.

  “We got here just in time,” Tyler said, aiming a handheld fire extinguisher at the stove. “Start from that end, and we’ll meet each other in the middle so it doesn’t get away from us.”

  I nodded and aimed my ext
inguisher at the table. Sam moved through the rest of the house, checking if anything else was wrong. Tyler and I made quick work of it, putting out the fire in no time. When it was done, the kitchen smelled like burned cloth. The pan on the stove was blackened with charred food in it.

  “Looks like Sam’s cooking,” Tyler said.

  “You don’t need fire extinguishers when I cook,” Sam said, coming into the kitchen. “The rest of the house is clear.”

  “Maybe we should consider it,” Tyler said, still mocking Sam about his food. Sam rolled his eyes, and I laughed.

  “Let’s get out there and report to Ted,” Sam said. “He’ll be talking to the family about what could have happened.”

  We left the house, sure that everything would be safe.

  “Do you have insurance?” Ted was asking the woman who stood with the little boy clinging to her legs.

  “I do,” she said. She looked less panicked but still on the verge of tears. “I’ll have to contact my husband. He has all the information.”

  “Is he around?”

  She nodded. “He’s at the office. I’ve already called him after I called the station.”

  “Is everything okay?” she asked when she saw us coming toward her.

  “Everything is under control, ma’am,” Tyler said. “It’s nothing too serious. Do you know how the fire started?”

  The little boy started crying.

  “James was trying to cook breakfast for me. I was in the bedroom for a moment. I thought he was watching television. If I’d known he was in the kitchen, I wouldn’t have left him alone.”

  “Don’t worry, ma’am. This isn’t a case of negligence. Right, buddy?” Ted kneeled in front of the boy who looked like he was going to break down in hysterics.

  “Hey, don’t worry,” I said, stepping closer. I had an idea what had happened. “Do you see Sam, here? He burns our food all the time. Even when we’re right next to him.”

  The little boy looked at Sam. “Really?”

  “Really,” Sam said with a sigh.

  “I was just trying to surprise Mommy,” he said. “She makes eggs all the time. I watch her. I don’t know why I couldn’t.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “The most important things are that you’re both safe, we stopped the fire, and you learned a lesson. What will you do next time?”