Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21278 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 106(@200wpm)___ 85(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21278 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 106(@200wpm)___ 85(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
I’ve been here less than a day and yet, everything about being here seems normal. No, it’s more than that. Being here with Lincoln and his kids feels like home.
8
LINCOLN
She kissed me.
Right before I headed out the door, Lucy kissed me. The kids weren’t paying attention so there were no questions to answer. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms and kiss her back. Instead, I froze and did nothing.
The moment she pulled away, I saw the embarrassment flash in her gaze. I realized too late that I fucked up. She’s special, one-of-a-kind. She makes me ache in a way I never have before.
“You’re avoiding her,” Cam pronounces. After helping Nick Taylor round up his bull, I dropped by the station even though I’m not on duty. Normally, I’d go straight home and spend time with my kids. But tonight, I’m hanging out here.
Wynter doesn’t add anything as she deals the cards across from me. She’s a rookie and she doesn’t say much most of the time. She’s quiet but well-liked and respected. Derek, our lieutenant, would bust our asses if we ever treated her as anything less than a member of the crew just because she’s a woman. I love him for that.
After having a daughter, I no longer look at sexism as a woman’s problem or think that women need to suck it up. I get it now. I don’t ever want my girl to be treated differently because of her gender.
“She’s watching the kids. It’s what she’s paid for.” My tone is too defensive as I snatch up my cards. The king and queen of hearts are laughing at me.
“Is this about Iris?” Derek asks from my left. He’s the best damn firefighter I’ve ever met. He’s a leader like no other and he never bullshits. He gets straight to the heart of every matter.
I swallow and toss my cards in the middle to indicate I’ve folded. There are still moments when I can hear her laughter on the breeze, feel her touch on my face when the sun shines just right. We were high school sweethearts, but we were friends for years before that. “Lucy and I…it’s too fast. You don’t fall for someone in a night.”
Cam shakes his head and folds too. “I don’t know about that. I mean, look at me and bar girl.”
Bar girl is what we call the woman that Cam hooked up with at the bar last week. He’s been looking for her ever since. He’s been back a couple of times, but no one knows who she was.
“You’re not going to find her. Give up on that,” Derek barks. He’s anything but a romantic. Word around the station is that his heart was chiseled out of stone. I’d believe it, but I was there the night we rescued a toddler from a car that went over the side of a bridge. He worked for forty-five minutes to keep her alive when everyone else had given up. She’s a perfectly healthy little girl now, even starts school in the fall.
“Point is,” Cam levels our superior with a glare before turning his attention back to me, “sometimes love grows slowly and sometimes, your heart recognizes her heart and that’s all there is to it.”
Wynter quietly ups the ante against Derek and I don’t miss the way he looks at her. He treats her just like one of the guys. No one from the outside looking in would think they were anything more than a lieutenant and rookie. But there’s something in the way he glances at her tonight. He looks at her the same way I look at Lucy. With longing and affection.
He loses the game. No one bets that high on a pair of sixes. He grunts, “Thought you were bluffing.”
She chuckles and starts dealing the next round but doesn’t give me any cards.
I start to protest but Derek holds up a hand. “Go home. Talk to her. Maybe she sees something in your sorry ass.”
On the way home, I review all of the reasons I should keep my distance from Lucy. There are about a million of them, but I can’t bring myself to care. I want her. I want this woman with her dark hair and smiling eyes and curvy body that turns me inside out. I need to feel her again, need to be inside her.
The house is dark when I arrive, and Lucy isn’t anywhere to be found.
I check on the kids and see they’re sleeping soundly in their beds. I pull the covers over Leo since he always kicks them off in the night and put Lyla’s favorite teddy bear back in her arms.
I move to the kitchen to grab a late dinner when I hear the soft sound of footsteps behind me. I close my eyes, feeling the way my heart races just knowing that she’s nearby. My body tingles and my pants tighten.