Page 40 of Silver Fox Firefighters Next Door

He nodded. “Yeah.”

I stood there after he walked away to check on Tate and tried to work out something in my head that meant keeping Eve. I bargained out a dozen different life plans that all just crashed and burned. Tate was right. Nothing had changed. We moved on to keep our sanity intact. Eve was temporary. She had to be.

Like some cruel twist of fate, I looked up and saw Eve walking down the street with her friend, Joanie. Her hair was dancing behind her in the breeze and she was laughing at something her friend said. Then she glanced over and saw me standing there and I watched her smile fade. Lifting her hand in a wave, she nodded at me and then turned away like it hadn’t happened.

I was jogging across the street before I could stop myself. My blood was on fire with determination to make her mine, no matter what my brain screamed at me. She gasped as I caught her wrist and spun her into my chest. I didn’t give her a chance to question me; I just lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her with everything I was feeling behind it. When I finally pulled back, I watched as she slowly opened her eyes and searched my face. I was clutching her face in my hands and the last thing I wanted was to let her go but I forced my hands to loosen.

She stepped back and licked her lips. Her eyes left my face and she shook her head as a forced laugh left her. “Come on, Aiden. If you kiss me like that, my future husband is never going to take a chance on me.”

I staggered back a step and watched as she turned around and hurried to catch up with her friend. I watched until she was out of sight and still, I was stuck. Whatever we had, it was hovering on a ledge. What we did next was going to determine which way it fell. Only I knew which way it had to fall.

CHAPTER 32

Eve

“It’s tomorrow. Tomorrow! I don’t feel prepared for a battle. Margaret has still never fully explained what the hell we’re doing.” I sank into Grandpa’s chair and reclined. “Or maybe Margaret is right about me being bad at listening. Did you catch anything, Joanie?”

With a snort, she settled on the couch. “There was a lot about picking the battles a while back. Everyone was throwing out suggestions but…I’m still confused, too. People made a big deal about a fitted sheet folding competition.”

“Well, fuck.” I giggled when Billie’s eyes went wide. “What? I’m just not good at folding sheets.”

“Who knows what it’s going to be. Margaret and her band of crazies are up to something.” Billie looked around. “Speaking of…where’s your grandpa?”

“He’s with a friend but that’s all he’ll tell me.” I frowned. “Vera thinks he’s hooking up with Coco.”

“Grandpas hooking up. This town is wild.” Joanie caught the look I sent her and shrugged. “What?”

“He’s not hooking up with Coco. Vera is nuts.”

“Thanks for telling me all about her, by the way. You could’ve really saved me a lot of embarrassment.” Billie settled on the floor in front of the couch and groaned. “Are all the Hellstone children so beautiful?”

“I was saving her from her brothers at first and then I just forgot. I’m sorry. I suck.” I still hadn’t told them how I knew Vera. Her writing career was her secret to share, not mine. “As for being beautiful, it seems so.”

“Why aren’t we talking about that kiss, yet?” Joanie laughed when I shot her a dark look. “Sorry! You wouldn’t let me talk about it earlier, so now it’s time. You should’ve seen it, Billie. That man put his entire soul into that kiss. If I wasn’t so turned off men right now, I might’ve orgasmed.”

“So…? Are you guys taking things public?” Billie rolled her eyes. “Taking things public. Who are we?”

I brought my knees up to my chest and hugged them. It was a sad replacement for feeling Nash’s giant arms around me, but it would have to do. “No. We’re not…we’re not doing anything. I mean, we’ve been together. Obviously. But they’re leaving soon.”

“I’m sorry, Eve.” Billie sighed. “Men suck.”

Tears filled my eyes and I laughed while angrily wiping them away. I held up my hands to hold Joanie and Billie off when they saw my face. “I’m fine. It’s fine. I don’t even know why I’m crying. It’s stupid.”

“You don’t want them to go.” Joanie wiped at a few tears of her own.

“I don’t want them to go.”

Billie grunted. “And there’s no chance that they’ll—”

“No.” I wiped the traitorous tears away and slammed the footrest down. Standing up, I marched to the kitchen and looked around for something to grab. I didn’t know what I wanted, though, so I just spun back around and stomped my foot. “It’s fine. I knew the score going in. I’m just…angry. Not even at them, really. I’m angry at life. I’m fucking pissed. I thought I’d never heal from Mark and just when I do, here come three amazing guys who just happen to be stupid nomadic paramedics who do charity work and volunteer to fight fires. They’re perfect and so hot it physically hurts to look at them sometimes but of course they’re leaving.”

“Life is bullshit.” Billie stood up and grabbed her phone from the island. “I don’t know what to say to help right now, Eve, because I’m feeling pretty much the same. Joanie is, too. Life sucks. But…we’re here. We have to go fight in a battle of sexes tomorrow that we aren’t invested in and it’s probably going to suck but we have tonight. Let’s forget about these stupid men for one night.”

Joanie jumped up and nodded. “Please!”

I nodded along, finally feeling something other than doomed. “I’m game.”

“Let’s go for a ride. We can blare the music until we can’t hear our own thoughts.” Billie grabbed my car keys and shook them at me. “Let’s see if we can get some mud on your tires.”

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