Page 53 of Courageous Yearnings

Colton stared at the man silently and still held himself where he’d been injured a moment ago.

Alec laughed, leaned forward from where he was lying on his side on the sidewalk, from having been pinned by all three men and held up a fist to bump knuckles with Justin, their captain.

“Man, you are okay – you know that? Prison orange— now that’s funny. I thought I had the smart mouth, but you scored one on all three of us with one solid hit. Relax, nobody is getting killed. Okay? We like living a little too much, and ol’ Lancie-poo is getting hitched on Friday.”

“You are?”

“Can we talk about this on the truck when my butt doesn’t feel like a marshmallow over a campfire?”

“Bubble butt…” Alec grinned, pointed, and gave Lance a thumbs-up as all of them burst out laughing wildly. Justin got to his feet, held out a hand to Alec, and then shoved him toward the fire hose that was lying on the ground unattended. Chad was watching in the distance and had cut the pressure, waiting, and looked like a worrywart beside the truck.

“Is everyone okay?” Chad hollered.

“Yup – give them some juice, brother… and let’s go home.”

Two days later, Lance was adjusting his badge on his dress uniform and tugged his hat on his head. He looked up as his ‘brothers’ walked into the room… also in their dress uniforms – along with the chief.

“I hear you are getting married this morning?” Chief Carpenter began and bumped knuckles with Justin, who was smirking nearby.

“My wife is picking up a wedding cake from Dixie’s in Yonder.”

“No nuts,” several voices rang out in the distance and he recognized the other team and heard laughter nearby. Not a moment later, he saw several faces pop up behind Justin, Alec, and Colton.

“Oooh, Cortes looks awfully purdy…”

“Can it, Olivera,” Chase chuckled, elbowing the skinny man that was grinning happily from the doorway. “Mind if we all tag along? If we get a call, we’ll head out, Chief.”

“Lights and sirens?” Andy volunteered.

“Lights, no sirens. It’s early fellas…”

“Who knew that the Flirt’s Battalion would end up being a bunch of married men within two years of that auction,” Chase teased, winking at the chief and then elbowing Kyle. “And Kyle fell first. First on the auction block – and first on the chopping block.”

“Hey now…”

“Hang on,” Lance grinned – and pointed directly at Alec who was looking green about the gills. “Not all of us are married. Alec, you wanna share something with your fire family?”

“I hope when you have kids, they are twice as ornery as you are,” Alec grumbled, glaring at Lance – who chuckled and blew him a kiss.

“Love you too, bro.”

“Wait a second…” Colton began and looked at the both of them. “Alec, is that why your mother gave me a dozen donuts for free yesterday?”

“Free? Hold up…”

“Hey – that’s not fair…”

“I pay a premium for a dozen lemon…”

“Oh, they were lemon – and she likes our team better.”

“Cause her son is on it!”

“Yup – and they were deeeelish.”

“Your team sucks, Justin. You know that?”

“Watch it, Rimes… Don’t start it if you don’t intend to finish it.”

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