Page 16 of Spring Break with a Fire Chief

“Stop it! He asked me to!” Marigold defends him.

Candee grabs the two shots in front of her and throws them back at once. “My son puts hats on his dick?”

“Don’t ever say that again, Mom.” Reece makes it sound like she’s going to throw up.

“Oh yeah,” Poppy perks up while nudging her cousin, “and we’re not talking normal hats. We’re talking about special handmade ones, like something that would fit on a cucumber.”

I’m laughing so hard I almost can’t catch my breath. I’ve missed this closeness and it’s cementing the fact I need to be here. And stay here. “This has been one of the best nights I've had in a long time, so thank you.”

“Just think. This is just the beginning. We’re going to have so many more years of trouble in this town together.”

Chapter 10

Ryan

“What did I do to deserve this?”

Maddox, Jace and I are visiting Ted tonight. We barged into his home with pizza and two cases of beer. It’s as much for him as it is for me, I know it. Brian, our chauffeur at the firehouse will be here after his shift and that’s when I know it will be full on. These guys are bigger gossips than the old women in town.

“Yo! Lefty! How are we doing?”

I laugh as Ted flips off Maddox. “I’m just fine and can still hold a hose better than you.”

He laughs. “I'm engaged, I don't need to hold my own hose anymore.”

I roll my eyes. These guys and their innuendos. Bunch of horn dogs. I reach out and shake Ted’s hand. “Looking good, man, happy to see it.”

“Same, Chief. I’ll be back in no time.”

I hold my hands up. “You heard the doctor. Give yourself time. I want you back at one hundred percent, not ninety.”

A sly smirk comes across his face. “Speaking of doctors …” He lets his words linger and just like the busybodies they are, they all face me with raised brows and smirks of their own. “You playing the part as her patient yet or what?”

“Can we open a beer before having this conversation?”

“Hell fucking yes!” Maddox goes to the counter where he placed the beer and pizza when we came in. “I’ll open yours, lefty.” He pops the top and hands it to Ted before tossing us each a can. We each open ours and he holds up his hand. “To more hands and more head!”

Everyone snickers and we tap cans and gulp it down. We grab a plate and throw two slices each on it and then head for the living room where we crash on the couch and chairs.

“You know the girls are out together tonight, right?” Maddox asks while chewing a mouthful.

“Yes. I'm well aware.”

“And you know they're at Love Beach Brews, probably attracting a shit ton of attention,” Ted cuts in.

Maddox levels his eyes at him and Jace snickers. “When you’re secure in your manhood there is no reason to worry about them being out.”

“Oh I'm not worried, I’m just wondering which dick hat Marigold will want tonight.”

I choke on the bite I was trying to swallow and the rest of the guys laugh. “Baylor, it’s a wonder you even have a fiancé.”

“Let’s talk about your lack of one.”

His words cut me. If I had it my way, she would have been mine. I hate to sound needy but Madeline is it for me.

“You want me to talk? I’ll talk.” I swallow my bite of pizza, finish my beer, then get up and crack another one open, taking a long pull before I begin talking. “Madeline is mine. I knew it then. I know it now. I’ve never gotten over her and her being back here, it makes me feral. I want to take her, marry her andstart our life here. But I can’t trust she won’t leave again. I can’t trust she won’t choose her career over me. But at the same time I don’t know how to move on from her, so I pray she chooses me. And if that makes me a pussy I don’t care.” I finish my beer and grab for another. “There’s your gossip in thirty seconds.”

The three of them all exchange looks and it sets me on edge.

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