Page 73 of Anchor Point

Silence fell between us. There was no easy answer. Someone had to lose in this situation.

“Well, we can at least help you keep the Livvie part a secret.” Nate finally broke the silence.

“Thanks. For now, we’re just trying to keep things normal, professional, and keep our distance from each other unless we are at home.”

“Does HR know she’s at your house?” Mo asked.

“No, she didn’t change her address. No one knows except you.” I thought of the conversation with Cal. “Well, maybe more. Cal mentioned it.”

For an afternoon workday, this conversation had turned surprisingly deep. It felt good being able to confide in these guys. And maybe having more than just my ideas would help find an alternative solution.

“We’ll help you any way we can, Mac.”

“For now, just keep things quiet, and if you hear any grumblings or rumors, let me know.”

“Speaking of rumors…” Mo started. “Did you guys hear that Cal is going to the county?”

“What? Why?” Mike, Nate, and Thoren all drew back.

“Just part-time right now, but I wouldn’t blame him if he went full-time. Better benefits, more money,” Mo replied.

“Yeah, because they work all that mandatory overtime.” Thoren sneered. “It’s a shit show over there, from what I hear.”

It was time to put a stop to this before it became a full-on bash session. “Okay, guys. That’s enough. We can’t partner with them for mutual aid and then talk about them behind their backs. They’ve got some management issues. They’ll get it sorted.”

“Feels like Cal is betraying us.”

Mo scoffed. “Not every station has a crew as cool as ours. Plus, I also heard he’s been helping his sister and her kid. Probably needed the money and couldn’t turn it down.” Mo was a solid voice of reason for these younger guys. I clapped him on the shoulder in thanks for being the one to point out the obvious. My guys were good at their jobs. Smart, successful, competent firefighters. But sometimes they could just be stupid and self-centered about real life.

“Can’t blame a man for taking care of his family.” I spun and grabbed the next bail of wire. “Are we done gossiping? Can we get back to work now?”

Little did I know how big of a challenge keeping my distance and remaining professional around Olivia would be.

She sent out an email about physical testing, requiring all personnel to meet standards, pushing a ton of buttons and drawing criticism that it was fucking hard to remain silent about.

Then she called a mandatory meeting, where I had to pretend to be myself and not glare at an asshat from C-shift who continually stared at her legs.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that ‘everyone has to do it’ was sent down,” he said, putting quotation marks around the phrase, before sitting back with his arms across his chest. “We all know that ‘everyone’ won’t be doing it.”

I don’t know how she maintained her calm, but her voice was ice cold when she replied, “Lieutenant. Are you implying that I will get a pass on this test?”

I was so fucking proud of her for not taking his shit.

“Just calling it like I see it.”

“I see.”

I loved it when she got all bossy and confident. I hoped she’d cream his ass. If anyone could, it was her.

The next week, she’d shown up at the training tower in full turnout gear, just like all the other guys, and proceeded to smoke his ass in the exercises, much to everyone’s delight. No one liked that guy anyway.

But for her efforts, she won the open respect of my entire crew.

“Chief is a badass,” more than one of them had muttered.

Only I knew what it’d cost her to go out and push herself to the limit. I’d made it up to her by running her an Epsom salt bath and giving her a very enjoyable full-body massage.

Still, on the job, she showed up in high heels the next day and called a video conference, in which she congratulated the few who’d beat her times and let the others know she’d be ready for a rematch.

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