Page 22 of Set Me On Fire

I’d get her food. I’d get her any damn thing she wanted, but when I rose to my feet, so did she, letting Charlie escort her towards the buffet table.

“No one is ever going to call me Millie again, are they?’ she groaned. The food was amazing as per usual, but I barely smelled the savoury scents, grabbing a plate to hand to her, only to find someone had gotten there first.

“Here’s a plate… Millie.”

She looked up to find Knox standing there, two plates in hand, and that long look had me bristling. He handed her a plate with a small smirk, then turned back to the food. I watched him pile meat and vegetables on his plate dumbly, shaking my head before I realised I needed to do the same. For some reason, I didn’t even pay attention to what I was grabbing, instead just plonking whatever on my plate, before drawing closer. Knox and I shared a long look before he nodded slightly and pulled away.

Now was my chance.

“Come sit with us,” Judy said, linking her arm in Millie’s and drawing her over to the table. “This is my partner, Blue.”I was left to take a seat at the periphery of their little group, something Blue noted with a snort before turning his attention to Millie. “So, tell us a little about yourself. How did you meet the guys?”

“Saved her from a burning building, didn’t we?” Charlie said, sitting down on the other side of Blue. The trucker shot him a measured look before turning back to his plate. “Millie’s old boss wasn’t going to throw them a Christmas party, so I figured we could share some of this love.”

“And set her up to get drenched.” Judy shot him a dark look. “That was all you, right? I remember how you sucked me in.”

“With my winning smile.” He fluttered his eyelids, but Blue leaned over the table.

“Better keep that smile to yourself, Head Job.”

Millie snorted right as she took a bite of coleslaw, almost choking. My hand was up, ready to pat her back, but she rallied quickly.

“Any particular reason why your nickname is a slang term for oral sex?” she asked wide eyed.

“Well, there was this girl—” he started to say.

“Face from A Team.” Knox always used the least amount of words possible as he raised one finger. “Facey, Fuckface?—”

“I particularly liked that one,” Charlie said with a roll of his eyes.

“Then Head Job.” Knox winked at me. “Head for short.”

“And you’re gonna call me Uncle Head, aren’t you, baby?” People talking to women’s pregnant stomachs in an infantile tone was weird, but that never stopped Charlie. “If you’re a boy, I’ll show you the ropes when you get older, and if you’re a girl?—”

“You’ll do the same for any daughter I have,” Blue growled. “Not that you’d get within ten feet of her.”

“Not sure if babies are your thing, are they, Charlie?” Judy’s tone was light, but I caught the moment Charlie’s smile faded. “You’d rather be chasing grown up girls, not little ones.”

“Yeah, of course.”

His reply was perfunctory, but before he could say more, Brent got to his feet.

“Alright, alright.” Everyone knew a speech was coming. “I just want to say a few words.”

“Few words?” someone muttered. “Be here until New Year’s.”

“That’s enough out of you.” I watched Brent’s bushy brows draw down, but not for long. “Now, we’re here to celebrate that we’re all here another year later. We’ve had our issues and challenges, and some of us have had some pretty amazing transformations.” He smiled fondly at Judy, something that had her blushing. “We don’t know what next year has to offer, but we do know we’ve got a great team?—”

“To a great team.” Charlie raised his beer can, then and so did everyone else, leaving me scrambling to locate my own. “Even if you’re all a bunch of miserable pricks who smell bad and need to wash your damn socks more often.”

“We can’t all be pretty boys, Head Job!” one of the guys shouted back.

“Thank goodness we left the kids at home,” Sally said to her husband, “or there’d be some awkward conversations on the way home.”

“The kids are getting looked after?” Charlie said. “Then you can stick around and have a drink with us for once.”

“One.” Sally looked meaningfully at Jason. “One.”

“Don’t need more than one.” He pulled her into his lap, kissing her neck with gusto, which resulted in paper hats and broken Christmas crackers being thrown at the two of them. “Not when I’ve got the prettiest girl in the place in my arms.”

---