by Cora Seton
“You don’t have to hire me,” he said with that trademark grin that set her body on fire, as he casually strolled to the chair across from her desk and sat down. “The Chief already hired me. He told me to talk to you, so you could put me to work.”
Anger surged up to choke her, but Sunny was determined to keep her cool. “We’ve been through this before, McBride. I hire the medics here, and you’re not hired until I say you’re hired.”
“I filled out my W-2 and signed the hiring paperwork in his office. I’m hired, and I’m looking forward to working with you,” Austin replied so calmly it set her teeth on edge. Leaning back in the chair, he crossed his calf over his knee. “If you have a problem with it, talk to the Chief, because I’m not getting into this pissing contest between y’all.”
“We haven’t ever had a pissing contest until you came along, and that’s just one of the reasons I can’t hire you. You’d bring too much friction and drama to this station.”
His eyebrow lifted along with the corner of his mouth. “You going to tell your uncle why you think there will be friction if I’m hired? That’s probably the only way you’re going to convince him to un-hire me.”
Sunny chewed the inside of her cheek. Hell no, she wouldn’t be telling her uncle why she thought there’d be friction between them. Her uncle was the only one here who knew what happened with her job in Carrolton, with Jason and their falling out at the station. If she told him she’d had sex with Austin McBride when she knew he’d offered him a job here, her own job might be on the line.
“And it won’t be me causing any drama here, I assure you. I don’t have a problem separating work from pleasure.” His smile kicked up on the other side, then turned into a slightly condescending grin. The wink pushed it over into full-blown condescension. “Guys are better at doing that than women.”
His words started a wildfire of feminine indignation inside of her that no amount of apologies would extinguish. Sunny’s chair hit the wall loudly as she stood and put her palms on the desk to glare at him. She snapped a finger up to point at the door. “Get your smug, condescending ass out of my office now!”
Austin chuckled as he stood. “My first shift is tonight, but I’m staying at the Rosebud Hotel down on Fifth Street if you get a fire call and need help.” He patted his hip. “Chief gave me a radio, so I’ll keep my ears on.”
She’d like to chew his damned ears off! Blood rushed up to her face. “Do not come back to this station unless you’re called,” she growled. And it would be a cold day in hell, before Sunny called him for anything. “I’ll let you know if we need your help.”
“I’ll be back at seven then,” he said smoothly, as if he didn’t notice she was about to explode. With a chin nod, Austin walked out of her office, and Sunny’s eyes locked onto his tight ass. When she realized what she was doing she growled.
How in the hell could he take this job? Had he quit the ranch? Why was he staying at the rent-by-the-week motel in town?
Blood pounding in her ears, Sunny walked around her desk and stormed down the hall toward the Chief’s office. Since they were such good buddies, maybe her uncle could answer those questions for her. But she needed to calm down first. Storming into her uncle’s office loaded for bear was not going to get her a thing. He was as chauvinistic as Austin McBride, and the damned board who’d grilled her twice as hard during her interview as they would have any man.
If she went in there acting like an emotional female, he would treat her like one, or write her concerns off to hormones. Sunny had fought too hard to deal with the men here on an unemotional, detached—a man’s level—to ruin that now.
It was almost five o’clock as it was, quitting time for her and Silas unless they got a fire call. Sunny knew one thing for sure, she did not want to be at the station when Austin McBride came back for his shift. He’d have to come here to check in, before he went to the medic station. If she started this conversation with her uncle now, in all likelihood she would still be there when he returned. No, what she needed to do was calm herself down and sleep on things tonight, before she met with Silas. Huffing a breath, Sunny reversed direction to head back to her office. She snatched her cell phone and radio off of the desk and grabbed her truck keys.
What she really needed was a damned drink to calm her nerves, and someone to vent her frustrations to. Jolie fit the bill, but she needed to apologize for standing her friend up the night she spent out at the ranch.
God, Sunny wished she could rewind to the day she made the decision to take that call out to that ranch instead of going to her interview. That poor decision brought Austin McBride and his complications into her life. She’d compounded them by staying at the ranch that night with him, instead of leaving when she had the notion.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, and Sunny had first been driven by duty to take that call, then she was blinded by the heat between her and Austin McBride, but the blinders were off now, the heat extinguished and the only thing left was smoke. The smoke coming out of her ears.
Austin McBride thought he wanted to work here? Well he was about to get a christening by fire from a woman whose only duty now was to herself and her son.
This was war.
Chapter Thirteen
‡
“The gauze and tubing are kept in that metal cabinet over there,” Braden said, pointing toward the black metal cabinet on the wall across the ambulance bay. “Whatever you do, make sure you restock the truck after every run or Sunny will chew your ass out.”
Chew his ass out? Austin was getting so used to that now, he didn’t really give a damn about one more ass chewing from Sunny Gleason. After almost two weeks of it, he didn’t have much left to chew. She’d even written him up for having his shirt untucked when he checked in for his shift at the fire station, and then a second time for clocking in two minutes late—because he had to tuck in his shirt and run back to the truck for his belt.
When the Chief called Austin to ask for his help, ask him to come to work at the station because they needed qualified people badly, he’d initially declined. After their night together Austin had decided he wouldn’t pursue a job at the station. She was a single mother, and she needed that job more than he did. Him stepping into that mix would just make things tougher for her, make her feel more insecure than she already did.
Austin had it damned good at the ranch and he was relatively happy. Managing cattle or being a cow hand was not his ideal job, but it paid well. The Chief persisted though, said Sunny would need his help when he retired and she was Chief. She needed a second-in-command who was capable of helping her, and no one at the station fit the bill. When he threw in part-time Captain’s pay, along with full-time medic’s pay, Austin accepted.
Rand Gleason was giving the foreman’s job a shot, and Tanner was helping him while he recovered at the ranch. Zack Taylor worked out a deal with Austin when he turned in his notice that he’d check back out there sporadically to make sure things were handled until he returned home at the end of the month.
The way things were going here, by that time, Austin might well be begging for his job back. Captain Sunny Gleason had proved to be the most abrasive, petty and insecure person he’d ever answered to in his life. She was keeping him off of fire calls, where he excelled, and he thought he knew why. She was intimidated and afraid he’d show her up.
When they got a fire call and he was on shift here, she took command and told him to stay put at the medic station in case they had a run. The woman he’d dealt with for the last two weeks was definitely not the woman he’d made love to all night long out at the ranch. She didn’t even seem to remember that night, as cold as she was to him when he happened to run into her, which was as infrequently as possible. Austin gave Captain Gleason wide berth these days, because running into that buzzsaw did not make for a good shift or mood. Her men, the volunteers and the medics, seemed to operate the same way. They came in when called, did their jobs, but kept the
ir heads down until they could leave.
With every day that passed, every day he tried to work with her, every ass-chewing he took, Austin knew he had decisions to make, because this was not going to work out long-term. Either he was going back to the ranch, which would be the easiest thing to do, or he was going to go for the Chief’s job himself. He’d asked around and found out the Chief’s job opening closed in two days. The board would stop accepting resumes and the decision would be made for him, so he didn’t have much time to decide.
“You listening, man?” Braden asked with obvious frustration. “If you don’t have this down pat when Sunny grills you, she’ll fire you. She fired Thomas without batting an eyelash, and it’s obvious she already doesn’t like you. What’s up with y’all anyway?”
Austin dragged his eyes to Braden. “If you figure that out, let me know.”
He was clueless why Sunny was acting the way that she was. He thought she’d be happy that he hadn’t applied for the Chief’s job, basically making her a shoe-in, which she already thought she was. Instead, she seemed to be trying to make him quit the station altogether, or have a reason to fire him.
“I’ve been doing this job since I grew hair on my balls. I know the routine, and your protocol now. She can grill me all she wants.”
Braden laughed, and shook his head. “Trust me when I tell you she will singe that right off for you. You can ask any man at the station, including the Chief, if you don’t believe me, brother.”
“Oh, I believe you,” Austin replied with a frustrated breath. He’d seen her in action with the other guys too. And that was exactly why he needed to be Chief. “What’s the turnover rate for the volunteers? For the medics here?”
“If they last six months, we’re doing good,” Braden replied. “That’s why we’re short-staffed here and at the firehouse.”
Someone needed to rein in the leggy, mouthy Captain Gleason if they were ever going to be able to keep the department properly staffed. It was obvious the current Chief, her uncle, was not the man for the job. Austin was more than man enough, and he was just pissed off enough to do it. But first, he had to apply for that job and get it.
*
“I was hoping you’d apply,” Silas Gleason said the next morning, as he looked over the papers in his hand one more time. “I think the board will be pleased too.”
Austin leaned back in the chair to cross his calf over his knee and rested his laced fingers there. “I think my experience and background would be suited to the job, sir.”
“I agree,” Silas said looking back up at him. Austin could see he had something else to say, but he chewed on whatever it was instead of spitting it out. “I have to warn you, son, that my ne—um, Captain Gleason won’t be happy to have competition for the job.”
Well, she certainly wasn’t happy when she didn’t have competition. Austin was starting to believe that even if Sunny Gleason got the Chief’s job, she still wouldn’t be happy.
“I welcome the competition and have every faith that the board will hire the best person for the job.” But if that person wasn’t Austin, he was going back to the ranch if Zack would have him. There was no way in hell he could work for Sunny Gleason. “If that’s not me, I’ll just have to reconsider my options.”
“You won’t stay, if Sunny gets the job?” Silas asked, his wiry gray brows furrowing. “You’d make a fine permanent Captain here.”
Austin huffed a breath. “I don’t think that would be in my best interest, Chief.”
Because she felt threatened by him. Her insecurities wouldn’t go away even if she had full-control of this station. Sunny would do everything she could to tie his hands to put him in his place, or look for a reason to fire him. Austin was not going to sit around waiting for her fire boot to drop on his head or walk on eggshells to prevent it.
“Braden would be a better choice to be her Captain. He seems to be able to work with her well.”
“Braden just stays out of her way,” Silas countered.
“That seems to be the best mode of operation to get along here when you’re not around.” Surely Silas knew how his niece operated and the effect her methods had on morale.
Silas looked back at the papers in his hand. “I’m sorry to hear that. I was impressed with your management of that field fire the other night and how the volunteers responded under your command.” He looked back at Austin. “I kind of hoped you could help Sunny in that area. She’s a damned good medic, the best, but fighting fires and commanding a crew is her weak spot.”
Management of any kind was her weak spot, but Austin wasn’t going to say that to the Chief. Before he came in here, Austin decided he was not going to whine to Silas, or bash his niece. Silas had to know how she was, and he put up with it to his station’s detriment. As Chief, he had every right to decide how far he would let her push him.
If Austin was made Chief that would change. Either Sunny would get with the program and improve her communication skills, or she could find another job.
But the Chief seemed determined to extract his opinion one way or another by putting him on the spot. “Surely you’ve seen it yourself on the fire calls since you’ve been here? That’s why I’ve always made sure I responded too. It’s been nice not to have to do that since you’ve been here.”
“I haven’t been on any fire calls.”
Silas’ eyes flew to his and he frowned. “Why the hell not?”
Austin ground his teeth, and the Chief just stared and waited until Austin knew he had to respond. “Because I’m not allowed to go on fire calls. Braden goes and I stay at the medic station when I’m on shift to cover emergency calls with the second crew.”
Cheeks red, the Chief shot up from his chair to push a button on his phone, and Austin flinched when he roared, “Sunny! Get yourself in this office now!”
A second later, the doorknob rattled and Austin’s heart pounded as the door flew inward and Sunny stalked inside. Her eyes met his and sparked with anger, before they flew to Silas.
“Where’s the fire?” she asked gruffly. “I was looking over the medic charts from this week, before I send them to Foxy.” Her gaze swung back to Austin, as she finished, “I have to tell you, I’m not impressed with the sloppy charting and Foxy won’t be either.”
“Well, I’m not impressed that you have a fifteen-year fire veteran sitting on the sidelines cooling his heels, while you go on fire calls, young lady,” the Chief fired back.
The only sign that Sunny Gleason felt an iota of emotion, remorse or guilt, was the flush that crawled up her thin neck. “I put the men I command where I need them most, and where I feel they will be most effective. I’m sorry if you disagree with my decisions, Chief,” Sunny said cockily.
“Then I have to question both your judgment and decisions, Sunny Jane.” Both anger and disappointment dripped from Silas’s words. He sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out. “Your evaluation is coming up very soon, and that will definitely be on it. I have to tell you the timing is unfortunate.”
Austin saw her long fingers curl into her palms, and he didn’t miss the slight tremor in her voice. “Please reconsider, Unk. Tell me what you want me to do, what I’ve done wrong…” Her eyes cut to Austin quickly. “I’ll fix whatever I need to fix.”
“What I want is for you to do is lose that damned chip on your shoulder and get along with this man,” Silas said pointing a finger at Austin. “He’s either going to be your Captain or your boss. Your actions before your evaluation is due are going to decide which I recommend to the board.”
“My boss?” Sunny squeaked, shooting Austin a glare.
“Yes, Austin has applied for the opening, and right at this minute, I’m inclined to think he’s a better candidate for the job. You have a month to convince me otherwise.”
Maybe Silas Gleason wasn’t such a pushover after all. And maybe Austin could use the month until her evaluation to turn Sunny Gleason into a good Fire Chief, his new plan of action and her last hop
e that he would stand down.
If that didn’t happen, Austin would be Chief, and Sunny would be the one to decide whether she could work for him. And he wouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt.
So, why did her whimper as she turned in the doorway to leave the office feel like a spear sent right through his heart?
Chapter Fourteen
‡
The pressure in Sunny’s head was so intense she thought it might explode before she stumbled into the women’s bathroom, the only place where she knew she could find peace at the station, because no other women currently worked there. Somehow she managed to stagger to the last stall and lock herself inside before the storm inside of her broke.
Intense pain twisted her insides as she plopped down on the toilet. Doubling over, Sunny clutched her stomach just as the wail she’d been suppressing, that should be a scream, pushed past her lips to echo off the walls. Tears overflowed her eyes to run hot rivers down her cheeks. The pain in her gut got worse, and Sunny moaned as the tears ran hotter and faster.
Sunny didn’t cry. Ever.
Not when her father left them. Not when Jason betrayed her. Not when she found out she was going to be a mother. Or even when it became apparent she’d be a single mother, because Jason wasn’t going to be in their child’s life.
But she was certainly making up for lost time now, and it pissed her off.
Austin McBride was on a mission to ruin her life. Ruin any chance she had of surviving those other things to make a good life for herself and her son. And from the looks of it, he didn’t have an ounce of guilt over it either. The smug look on his handsome face in her uncle’s office just now would forever be imprinted on her brain, along with another flashing neon sign for her that said—STUPID. Stupid for letting down her defenses, stupid for talking to him about her situation, stupid for thinking he would care a scrap about her or her son, and that information would make one damned iota of difference whether he decided to come to work here.