Page 16 of Wish You Were Mine

“Okay, thanks.”

He grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and brought it with him as he followed me out of the staff room. I glanced at him while we walked down the corridor. His eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. Dark circles marred the skin beneath them, and the lines on his forehead were more pronounced than usual.

He looked tired.

No, more than that: He seemed weary on a bone-deep level.

But after telling him he looked like crap last night, I could hardly double down on that this morning.

“Thanks for the treats from Taste of Destiny,” Asher said as we exited the building. “It means a lot to the guys. Calls like the one yesterday are never easy.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how to help in a more meaningful way, so it seemed like the least I could do.”

He smiled tightly. “You’ve always got to help, don’t you?”

Why did he make that sound like a bad thing?

“I try.”

He shook his head, then dragged his fingers through his hair. “Anyway, thanks. And, uh, about the other night… I’m sorry if my being there made your date un—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. Apparently, I hadn’t escaped the awkward conversation after all. “You’re allowed to date whomever and whenever you like.”

If I had to listen to him reference my feelings for him, I might go up in flames.

“But if—”

“Seriously, Ash.”

“I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He looked so adorably uncertain that I didn’t point out how he was doing exactly that, right this instant.

Instead, I forced a laugh. “I had an adolescent crush on you almost ten years ago. I’m over it. The other night was just too weird for my liking.”

His lips formed a thin line. “Right. I guess if you’re sure?”

“I am. I moved on from that stupid crush on you ages ago.”

And I was a lying liar who lied.

8

ASHER

I rubbed at my gritty eyes after a long and uneventful night shift spent lying on my bunk at the fire station, staring at the underside of the bed above me.

“Parks wants to see me now?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Paul, who’d just arrived for the day shift, had shaken me awake a few minutes earlier with instructions to report to Parks’s office.

“Fuck. Okay.”

I hauled myself out of bed and glanced over, went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. I ran into Maia in the corridor outside.

“Any idea what this is about?” I asked.

I hated being summoned by the boss. It reminded me of being called to the principal’s office at school. I’d been a naughty kid, and that had happened far too often.

“Nothing to worry about.” She didn’t seem concerned, but then I was the one who’d been called in, not her.

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