Page 14 of Undone, Love Times Three

I stand on the sidewalk, staring down the street long after the door to the flower shop closes.

Back on shift a few days later, I sit with Annie, who takes our emergency calls. We’ve been chatting a while about her kids. She’s just back off maternity leave and is proud as punch about her little boy, always showing us pictures.

She heads to the bathroom, asking me to watch the radio. Leaning back in the chair, I pull out my phone. It’s been a slow few days. Not such a bad thing. No one wants there to be any fires. I open up the Love In Bloom website, navigating to the ‘about us’ page again.

Her smile is wide and genuine, nothing like the smile she gave me the other day. Every word she told me on our date runs through my mind. How we laughed, how attracted I was to her.

What kind of asshole would stand up someone as perfect as her? The dating app she went on didn’t have pictures. Was the guy so shallow he stood her up because he didn’t know what she looks like?

Hell, even if I didn’t see her picture, just talking to her was fun.

The alarm goes off beside me and I almost jump out of my skin. Annie comes back and is immediately on the radio. Lieutenant Stanton, one of the two officers at the station comes out of the common room with my cousin hot on his heels.

“Road traffic accident, three cars involved, we got one hanging over a bridge.”

“Shit.” I thank Annie and run out to the garage.

“What’s up with you?” Colt asks as we file into the uniform room and grab our gear. I stow my phone in my locker.

“Nothing, come on, let’s go.”

We jump onto truck one eighty and Wallace, our driver hits the siren and moves out.

“Don’t tell me it’s nothing,” Colt says from his seat beside me. We sway about as Wallace swerves through traffic. “You’ve been moping.”

“Not the time, Colt.”

“Why not? We got nothing to do but talk till we get there.”

“Not now.”

“Fine, but when we get back to the station you and me cuz. You can make some of that amazing chilli.”

“Not my turn to cook.”

“I agree,” Don pipes up. “It’s been a while since we had your chilli.”

Only firefighters could be so casual, talking about what to have for dinner while driving to a scene of metal carnage.

Luckily, when we get back to the fire house, Colt is distracted by Sadie, one of the EMTs. He’s a reckless asshole and I shake my head as I watch the two of them sneak off. I don’t want to know what they’re doing, but I can guess.

Grandad would kill him if he knew what he was up to while on duty. It’s got me off the hook, so I don’t care.

Plus, he’s on a longer shift than me so I get the hell away from the station without making the chilli, or talking about what is going on with my growing obsession with a cute florist.

Seven

Sylvie

Scowling at the space in the trunk is not going to magically make the spare tire appear. Nope, not gonna happen, because I put the spare on a few months ago when I got a flat taking an order to a house in the middle of farm country. I think I ran over a nail that time.

Things got so busy, I forgot to replace it. Two tow truck places have said it’s going to be hours before they can get to me becausethere has been a huge accident and they’ve been called there to help clear the roads.

The flowers in the back of the car aren’t quite wilting yet, but if they’re out in this heat much longer, they’re going to be ruined. Bringing dead flowers to my client is bad enough, arriving late. Ugh, I can’t abide being late.

I can’t even call Renee to come help because Maria called out sick today, I can’t close the store because she is meeting with a potential bride. Grams would be here in a heartbeat if she was in the state. Not that she could do much to help with my flat, but she could take the flowers. Anyone else I can ask is in work.

This is a nightmare. I call the tow company again, but they just repeat the same spiel. At least two hours.

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