Page 25 of A Gift for her Festive Firefighter

“You betcha.”

It was several hours later when Cade finally got a text back from Holly, and he had been wondering if she was ignoring him, found the little pumpkin, or if she truly wasn’t interested in more than just an easy friendship. He could have sworn there was something in her incredible eyes, but he had been wrong before.

Several times before, he thought grimly, putting his hands behind his head on his bunk and listening to Rodney play a video game on his phone instead of sleeping. Mayberry and Jude were both ‘sawing logs’ – and that was what he should be doing, except he couldn’t sleep.

Tonight, being Halloween, usually brought about at least a few problems. Candles falling over in pumpkins, flame-retardant costumes weren’t ‘flame-proof,’ or an overzealous kid would run out in front of a car. Yeah, he loved the holidays with a passion, but it also made people reckless... and his phone beeped.

Happy Halloween to you too!

Is this officially a trick?

Sorry I didn’t reply sooner – I was reinstalling the transmission on the minivan. I ended up having to rebuild it. All the syncros and planetary gears arrived this morning. I didn’t want to leave it hanging on the lift on the jackstands.

Can I shame myself now and ask what a ‘syncro’ or ‘planetary gear’ is?

The cool stuff in an automatic transmission that makes it go vroom.

Are you mocking me?

Maybe…

Cade chuckled at the admission, realizing that he liked how she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. It was nice not to chat with some meek girl who was afraid to make you upset. This was real, and he could deal with a dose of sass on occasion.

Butter got a present last night.

You almost got buckshot in your butt last night.

He couldn’t help the burst out loud laughter that exploded from him, interrupting the snore-fest nearby as Rodney shushed him, giving him a knowing grin from across the dimly lit room.

Was that a threat?

Nope. Stating a fact. Girls react weirdly when they see someone tripping the motion detectors behind their home, and you could have knocked.

I wanted to surprise you.

Me?

Why?

Just because

Because WHYYY?

Because, because…

And Cade put a rolling eye emoji on the screen, hoping she wouldn’t press for more because he really wasn’t sure how far he wanted to go with this in a text message.

Fine. You win. We’ll leave it at ‘Because…’ and fill in the blanks when appropriate.

Sounds like a plan.

You’re strange.

Strangely nice?

Hmm… we’ll see.

His heart flipped in his chest weirdly as he saw her put a winking emoji on the screen. Maybe she was playing slightly hard to get, just like him. Wouldn’t that be weird if perhaps she was just as nervous about this… just like him?

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