Light Up The Tree: A Firehouse Three Novel

by Regina Cole

  “Christmas Eve. We can meet up Christmas Eve night like we usually do, and then we can talk about what all this is supposed to be. But until then, let’s focus on work. Okay?”

  For a moment, she thought he’d say no. His clean-shaven, square jaw was tight. He’d removed his cowboy hat when he’d come in the door, so there was no hiding the deep, direct look in his green eyes. But then again, she couldn’t blame him.

  Part of her wanted to get everything out in the open now, too. But the coward in her was too big, to powerful.

  “It’s only a few more days,” she said, glancing away from him. “Just—give me a little time.”

  He squeezed her hand, and she turned back to him in time to catch his nod. “Christmas Eve, then.” He slid off the arm of the couch and stood. “I’ll take you back to work now.”

  But she didn’t let go of his grip. Her chest was roaring, her body insisting, and her poor, chickenshit heart couldn’t take it.

  “Take me to bed first.”

  His nostrils flared, just slightly, but he didn’t ask it aloud. He didn’t have to.

  “I’m sure,” she said, standing and wrapping her arms around his waist. With her cheek against his chest, she closed her eyes. “I want you. No talking, just… be with me.”

  His lips pressed to the top of her head, and it was at that moment she knew.

  She loved Nate. Had never stopped, really, but now that she’d tasted a bit of what it could truly be like between them, letting him go was an impossibility.

  She tilted her face up to him, and he captured her lips with his. Soft, insistent, hungry, his kisses stirred her body the way his steadfast loyalty and innate goodness had stirred her heart.

  He ended the kiss and led her to the bedroom.

  Sweet kisses and tender touches interrupted their removal of clothing, the brush of fingers on bare skin stoking their fires even hotter.

  Allison let him take the lead. She needed this, needed him. Needed to surrender all control, to show him everything through her actions that she couldn’t say in words.

  I love you.

  I’m sorry.

  I trust you.

  I want you for more than just sex.

  Be with me. Forever.

  “Ally,” he said, combing her hair back from her forehead as he laid her in his bed, the tender sound of his voice making her want to weep. “Are you ready?”

  Her body was afire with his touch, the strong heat of him pressing her down into the softness of his bed. Her blood was pulsing hot in her veins, her lower belly tight with anticipation even as her arms wound around his neck.

  “Yes,” she whispered, burying her face in his chest as he entered her in one slow, smooth stroke.

  He rose up on his arms to look down into her eyes as he moved. Slowly, tenderly, his hips advanced and retreated, and the decadent, delicious slide of flesh on flesh stoking her passion hotter.

  Even as her body burned for him, the beautiful look in his eyes spoke directly to her heart. Their connection was more than his sweet invasion of her flesh, more than the hot, smooth strokes that were coming quicker now as their desire peaked.

  There, in Nate’s eyes, was everything she had ever wanted.

  And was too afraid to grasp.

  15

  The firehouse was abuzz with holiday cheer—well, for the most part.

  Someone—probably Reid—had decorated a small Christmas tree in the lounge area across from the mess hall. Bright red and green lights were strung on the Charlie Brown-esque conifer, purchased at a discount from the Hopeful Paws Christmas tree stand.

  An unusually eventful shift was finally winding down, and Nate, Drake, Hunter, and Kyle had just returned from their last call. As Nate entered the lounge, the sound of thumping country rock blared from the small stereo in the corner.

  “Redneck, why do you have to play that shit so loud?” Liz poked her fingers in her ears, glaring at the miscreant while Ty laughed.

  “What do you mean, shit? This is Florida Georgia Line. It’s practically required listening.” Reid stood and did a butt wiggle in Liz’s direction while Hunter rolled his eyes.

  “You’ve got a weird idea of what required listening should sound like.” Hunter collapsed onto the beaten green sectional couch, affectionately called the Old Monster, while Drake checked out the sweets-laden table in the corner closest to the mess hall. A few of the community ladies had joined together to give them some Christmas snacks—peanut butter fudge, haystacks, hell, there were even caramel popcorn balls over there. It was good stuff.

  As the conversation rolled on, Nate looked around for something to keep his hands busy.

  There were only twenty minutes left before he could get out of there, but the next shift had already arrived and were doing their checks. If a call came, the fresh crew would go out. But Nate couldn't just sit there and shoot the shit.

  Normally, at a time like this, everyone was off doing their own thing. But with the eats in the corner, and the holidays in the air, everyone was hanging around and being sociable.

  It was enough to make him jump out of his skin.

  In just a few days, he’d meet with Allison, just like they did every Christmas Eve. But this time he’d be confessing his love for her.

  He'd rehearsed it mentally about seventeen times since he’d almost spilled the beans the other day. There were so many ways for it to go wrong.

  Hell, every spare minute he had, he’d been burying himself in his pickup restoration, just to give his hands something to do while his brain chewed over the problem.

  “Hey, man,” said Kyle, yanking Nate out of his head. “Got a minute?”

  “Sure,” Nate said, casting a glance at the guys seated on the Old Monster. Reid, Hunter, and now Drake were arguing about the relative merits of country versus rock versus rap, while Liz played referee.

  The conversation was sure to last out the rest of the shift.

  Nate followed Kyle out into the relative privacy of the hallway. The garage was down the corridor a-ways, and the soft echo of voices and laughter from the opposite shift broke the silence. Kyle sent a narrowed look down the hall before turning his gaze back on Nate.

  “I fucked up, and I need some help.”

  Nate crossed his arms and leaned against the painted cinder block wall behind him. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Kyle ran his hands through his dark-red hair, which was a shade lighter than his full beard. The move bespoke a ton of frustration. “It’s Abby.”

  Abby, Kyle’s sister, the resident reptile expert and fellow Firehouse Three crew member was always working an opposite shift from her brother. She and Kyle got along like oil and water most days, despite the fact they were roommates.

  Nate didn’t say anything, just patiently waited for Kyle to go on.

  “She’s, well, she’s had this crush on another firefighter. The guy’s nice and all, but he’s not the kind of person she needs long-term.”

  Nate hiked a brow at Kyle, who didn’t notice.

  “The guy’s involved with someone else, and she was really hurt by it. And now, I can’t fucking believe she did this, but she invited the guy to stay with us for a while. In our house. She said it was just a friendly thing, but I told her how much bullshit I thought it was, and now she’s pissed at me.” Kyle leaned back against the wall, his head thumping as he stared toward the ceiling. “I fucked up. She isn’t speaking to me.”

  “What’s the big deal?”

  Kyle shot him a glare. “What do you mean, what’s the big deal? The prick hurt my baby sister. She’s just letting him walk all over her heart by being with someone else and then having her face rubbed in it by letting him stay with us. That’s the big deal.”

  Nate pushed himself to standing. “She’s a grown woman. She can make her own decisions.”

  Kyle sighed. “I know. And I don’t have a problem with the guy in general, it’s just—”

  The creak of the outside door’s rusty hinges sound
ed, and Kyle clammed up tight as Chaz entered, his duffel’s strap thrown across his stocky frame.

  “Kyle, Cowboy,” Chaz said, nodding at each of them in turn.

  “Chaz,” Nate said, tipping his hat.

  Kyle’s jaw tightened, but he returned the nod as Chaz proceeded down the hall toward the lockers.

  Well, didn’t that just clear up the mystery of whodunit, and make things a hell of a lot more complicated. Chaz wasn’t a talker—never had been. But he’d sent Nate a few texts over the last week or two, and apparently, Payton-the-stepsister-that-wasn’t and Chaz were having some kind of a thing. A big, messy, complicated relationship thing that made Nate’s problems look like kindergartener math. And if Abby was involved somehow too?

  It was beginning to look a lot like fuck this.

  Kyle sighed, the piss and vinegar seeming to leak straight out of him. “Anyway, it’s almost Christmas, and Abs loves Christmas. I thought if I got her a really nice gift to go with my apology, she might take it better.”

  “So where does the help come in?”

  Kyle looked at him with agony in his blue eyes. “Come with me to the mall?”

  “Jesus Christ, Winters, do you know what day it is?”

  “I know, I know, this close to Christmas, it’ll be a bloodbath. That’s why I need backup. Come on, Cowboy. Ty’s got a lunch date, Hunter and Drake are volunteering at the Hopeful Paws stand, and Liz has Caleb’s holiday pageant. There’s no one else I can ask.”

  Nate sighed. Kyle was a good guy, and he genuinely did want to help him out. Besides, Allison was hard at work. She wouldn’t have time to see him today, as she’d told him earlier in text. All-day meetings were on her agenda.

  “Get out of here, boys,” Chief Donaldson said as he exited the kitchen. “Shift’s over.”

  “Fine,” Nate said, and Kyle nearly sagged with relief. “But you owe me.”

  “You got it, Cowboy. I’ll buy you lunch.”

  They packed up and with a chorus of goodbyes said, Kyle jumped into Nate’s F-150 and they were off to NorthPark Center, the closest shopping destination.

  Their worst fears hadn’t even come close to the glut of humanity that was the holiday shopping season at noon in the mall on the twenty-first of December.

  “Shouldn’t some of these people be at work?” Kyle grumbled as they jostled elbows with about a hundred other humans on the escalator.

  Nate just shrugged as they got off at the second floor.

  Cheery Christmas music was piped in from tinny speakers overhead, red-and-white striped candy cane decorations plastered over every available surface. It was cute, in a way, to see the little kids pointing and jumping up and down at every little Christmasy thing with weary-looking parents.

  He'd never thought about having kids. Never figured he’d end up in a long enough relationship to have them, especially since it wasn’t fair to another woman when he couldn’t clear his head and heart of Allison. Still didn’t know if that was ever going to be on the table.

  If Christmas Eve didn’t go well, he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to let go of Allison and begin to try to love someone else. He had a sneaking suspicion that he would probably remain devoted to her, even after a stone-cold rejection.

  But rejection was off the table. He’d find a way, for both of them. He had to break through her walls somehow.

  He was an idiot, a sap, and a fool. But he was hers.

  “There,” Kyle said, pointing to a jewelry store on the corner. It was a swanky place, the name spelled in gold cursive letters with a glittering gem above the “I” in the name. “Abby loves their stuff. She’s got a whole Pinterest, whatever you call it, board thing on the internet devoted to it. Know anything about those?”

  Nate shook his head a little as they walked in.

  The interior of the jewelry store was mostly open to the mall, but the noise was somewhat quieter in the plush carpeted space by virtue of the fact that there were much fewer people in there. A couple was in the corner by the diamond rings, and an elderly woman was talking to a clerk about a sapphire bracelet she was trying on. Other than that, he and Kyle were the only ones in the store.

  “Here,” Kyle said, stopping at a case in the corner nearest the mall. “This designer. Her name is Leslie Dawn, or something like that. She does gemstone necklaces in animal shapes. Look.”

  Nate bent down closer to the glass case and peered inside. Foxes, frogs, lizards, and deer winked back at him, all crafted with silver metal and glittering gems.

  “That one,” Kyle said. His Cowboys jersey stretched over his wide shoulders as he leaned on the glass case. “The one in the center. It’s a limited edition.”

  Nate whistled low through his teeth as he took in the sight of the emerald and diamond snake. It was a beautiful necklace, the adder curled and poised to strike, a single ruby representing its eye. The price was astronomical.

  “Should be able to do that for you,” said a voice behind them. Nate turned his head and caught sight of a smiling clerk as she turned a wristwatch over in her hand. “It won’t take a moment, if you’d like to wait?”

  The customer had her back to Nate, but he recognized the voice as she walked toward the back corner of the store where the couple had stood a few moments before. “No problem.”

  Deb, Allison’s assistant. She must be on her lunch break.

  As Kyle waited for a clerk to come by and help him with his purchase, Nate turned to walk toward Deb and say hello. Maybe she’d have an idea who might be stealing Allison’s clients. Ally had said she had talked to Deb about it, but the assistant hadn’t known anything of value. But maybe Nate could glean something.

  He hated not being able to help her.

  Before he could call out Deb’s name, she pulled her phone from her pocket.

  “Oh, hi there, Mr. Sandringham.”

  Nate stopped on a dime. Had he heard that name right? Were they calling back to explain?

  Deb’s laugh was scratchy, rough. “No, no, don’t you worry about it at all. I’ve taken care of it. Our private arrangement has nothing to do with Allison.”

  Doubt crept into Nate’s mind, and he gritted his teeth.

  “Sorry, if you’re not looking at this case, do you mind moving over?”

  “Excuse me,” Nate said to the guy who was trying to get to a case of expensive men’s jewelry. “Sorry.”

  “No problem,” said the guy.

  Nate moved a little closer to Deb, in front of the case of engagement rings. He pretended to scrutinize them as Deb’s call continued.

  “…Should have your fundraising plan in place by then,” she was saying. “No, no, it’s going to be a great event, and I guarantee you’ll bring in three times more money than you did when Allison was heading it up. She’s much too busy with other clients anyway.” Deb clucked as if in sympathy. “No, she had too much on her plate. This is better for your business.”

  “Would you like to see something, sir?”

  A nice brunette clerk had appeared from nowhere, and was smiling at him. Oh. He was pretending to shop, wasn’t he?

  “Sure,” Nate said, pointing at a ring totally at random. “That one, the big, square one.”

  “Oh, this one’s a beauty,” the sales clerk said as she unlocked the case. “Three carats, princess cut…” she droned on and on about the clarity and cut of the stone, effectively drowning out the rest of Deb’s phone call.

  Fuck.

  It was enough, though. Nate knew who was behind Allison’s poached clients, and it was someone neither of them had suspected. Allison was going to be devastated.

  He held the ring and looked at it as if he knew what the fuck he was looking at, and then suddenly there was a presence at his side.

  “Well, hello there, Mr. York,” Deb said, her motherly air not quite masking the shrewdness in her eyes as she looked him up and down. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “Deb,” he said with a brief tip of the hat with his free hand.
/>   She glanced at the big diamond sparkler he was holding and hiked her eyebrows.

  “It looks like my boss is getting a pretty impressive Christmas gift,” she said with an incredulous laugh. “When are you popping the question?”

  Nate gritted his teeth. Damn it.

  “It’s a secret,” he said, his voice tight.

  “Of course,” she said, her smile a little mean as she leaned closer, her finger laid beside her nose. “I won’t breathe a word.”

  She walked away then, laughing a little as she went.

  “What do you think, sir?”

  Nate shook his head, the cold anger suffusing his limbs. “It’s beautiful, but I think something much simpler for now. Maybe a necklace.”

  As the clerk headed off toward a different case, Nate concentrated on slowing his breathing.

  Allison had to know about this as soon as possible. They had their culprit, and now the important thing was stopping her before the damage was permanent. He pulled the phone from his pocket and connected the call to her office, standing right there in the jewelry store.

  It dumped to voicemail.

  He tried again, this time her cell, the ringing echoing in his ear. Shaking his head at the canned message again, he left a short message at the beep.

  “It’s me. Call me as soon as you get this. I saw Deb here—shit, I can’t tell you this over the phone. Just call me and let me know where we can meet as soon as possible.”

  He killed the call as the clerk came back toward him.

  “Sir?”

  “Sorry about that.”

  She showed him to the counter where precious stones and metals glittered under carefully placed lights.

  He’d like to choke Deb with his own two hands, but this wasn’t Nate’s business in danger. It was Allison’s. His job was to support her. He would stand by his woman, hold her Louboutins and cheer her on while she put Deb on her ass.

  And then he’d give her the necklace he’d picked out while Kyle was waiting for his own gift to be wrapped and profess his eternal, undying love for her.

  Easy, right?

  * * *