Page 7 of Set Me On Fire

“You’re about to find out.” Millie stepped back from the prick and then turned to face us. If I thought I was over the shock of seeing her again, that assumption was quickly corrected. She looked so damn beautiful when she was pissed off. Her eyes shone with all the brightness of a living flame as she took us in. “If I talk to the police, can I go?”

No, that was my instinctive response. My hands flexed, it taking all the control I had to stop myself from reaching out and hauling her in close. I’d keep her safe, look after her, find her another job, if that’s what she wanted, but I didn’t say any of that.

Just like always.

I was too much of a fucking coward at school to pursue her properly, but I wanted, needed to think that I was a whole other person now. One that had the fucking balls to step up and?—

“What about our Christmas party?” one of the blokes in the crowd grumbled. He looked around himself blearily, some of his equally pissed buddies getting grumpy as well.

“Christmas party?” My hand was on Millie’s shoulder the moment I heard the waver in her voice. “Christmas party? What the hell do you want us to do, Bruce? Drag the slabs of beer out into the carpark and sell them out of the back of my car?” Hopeful looks were quickly shut down as she broke free of my hold and went to confront the man. “When do we get a Christmas party, huh?” She jerked her thumb back over her shoulder. “Jim doesn’t even put on a pizza party.”

“Oh, well, that’s no good—” the drunk bloke mumbled but was cut off as Charlie stepped forward.

Nothing good would come from this, somehow I knew. That wild smile, the look he shot me, it was the same one he gave me every time he was about to do something really dumb.

I wasn’t wrong.

“That’s not OK,” my teammate said to the girl I wanted to make mine. “But how about this? We’ve got a Christmas party on in a few days.” He moved closer to Millie, too close, my muscles locking tight when he unlocked his phone and handed it to her. I should be the one talking to her now. I should be the one getting her number. Charlie glanced my way, shooting me a wink, making clear what he was doing. There was nothing he liked more than being a wingman, and for some reason, he’d decided he was helping me out. “You should come.”

“Come…?” I watched Millie look my way, treasuring every second as she stared back at me. Her smile hit me completely differently, lifting a weight on my heart I wasn’t even aware was there. I nodded slightly and watched her cheeks flush pink.

“It’ll be lit,” Charlie said. “We eat too much, drink too much, then maybe we could burn up the dance floor afterwards. I’m sure you’ve got a smoking hot dress you could wear.”

“Are you making fire puns?” Millie asked with an incredulous look.

“She’d love to.” An older woman snatched Charlie’s phone from his fingers and tapped in a number, then created another contact and added hers in as well. “That’s her number and mine… just in case there’s any fellas looking for a bit of cougar action?”

Charlie went a little pale at that but took the phone back and shoved it quickly into his pocket.

But he didn’t matter.

I’d move heaven and earth to make sure Millie had the best Christmas ever. Enough that she’d forget all this shit with the pub and her stupid boss. One where I’d end up with the one thing I’d been dreaming about since high school. I didn’t need gifts of socks and jocks or aftershave of questionable quality, just Millie. If I could make her mine, I’d never ask Santa for another thing.

Chapter 5

Millie

“Hey…” Annie said, coming closer. We’d all stood around and gave our statements to the police while the fire crew went over the burning ruins. My eyes kept being drawn towards the pub, like a passerby’s might to a car wreck.

Trouble was, it wasn’t a mangled car that caught my attention–it was them.

Knox was walking around the rubble, poking through it with his team, Charlie’s blond hair shining in the artificial light, and then Noah— I forced myself to look away, not wanting to feel the same pang I experienced when I realised who’d put the fire out, but if I was looking for a distraction, Jim’s loud voice as he hectored the police officers, demanding answers, was enough.

“Don’t worry about that dickhead,” Annie directed, using her best mum voice. “Worry about this Christmas party.”

“Are you going?” Felicity, one of our barmaids, asked. “Can I come too? Because I’ve got a whole other fire they can put out.” She bit her bottom lip, then slowly let it pop free. “In my pants.”

“I got that,” I replied drily. “Look, I’ve got bigger issues to deal with right now.” I didn’t need to explain further, all thefemale staff clustered around me nodding in agreement. “I don’t even know those guys.”

“You know one.” Annie fixed me with an even stare.

“I knew one,” I corrected, the words coming out way too fast. “It’s been ten years. We weren’t even that close…” I stumbled on my words, never being all that good at lying, and her eyebrow cocked upwards. Annie smelled blood in the water. “OK, fine, Noah was supposed to be my first kiss.” I could get through this, I could. “I thought he was into me and then he wasn’t. He never explained and we finished school, only for me to never see him again.”

“Until now,” one of the girls said, the others giggling at her portentous tone.

“He’s the kind of guy you dream about running into on the street,” Annie said, her lips quirking into a small smile. “Right after you’ve had a stomach bug and lost ten kilos vomiting up everything you put in your mouth.”

“This is an oddly specific scenario,” I said with a frown.

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