Page 2 of Spring Break with a Fire Chief

“Chief. We got a problem.”

I lean back in my chair, steepling my fingers together. “What now, Baylor?”

“I think Probie needs to be put back on probation.” He slides a chair to the front of my desk and throws himself in it. “Sure, he passed the State exam but as far as the house goes?” He shakes his head. “He’s becoming a shit stirrer.”

I raise a brow. “Oh? You mean Jace is learning to fit in?”

Jace Sullivan, Sully for short, or Probie as Maddox likes to remind him, walks into the office and puts his hands on Maddox’s shoulders, roughing him up a bit. Maddox swats athim and the interaction between the two of them makes me smile.

Jace reminds me of myself when I came in. He was very quiet, reserved, trying to adjust to a new life of fire and fitting in with those around us. In the beginning he was taking himself too seriously, but a good woman loosened him up.

I had that, too.

For a short time.

Jace speaks up. “Ask him to show you his hat collection.” My brows furrow as I watch Maddox freeze in his spot, eyes wide. “He’s got one for every holiday.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maddox remarks, crossing his arms across his chest.

“No? You forget we date cousins?”

He shrugs out of Jace’s hold on his shoulders. “What did she tell you?”

Jace wanders to the side of Maddox, leaning against the front of my desk. “Chief, I hate to break it to you, but dick hats might be the way to go if you need to keep it interesting in the bedroom.”

I stifle a laugh as Maddox hangs his head and grumbles, “Poppy. That girlfriend of yours is a loose cannon.”

“I make her explode each night.”

“Okay you two, that’s enough.” I lean forward in my chair, forearms laid out on my desk. “I don't need to hear about your extracurricular activities.”

“But that’s the best part about being here at the station! Hearing the dirty shit we get into and then breaking balls about it,” Jace exclaims.

I try to hide my smirk. I love the banter, and he’s right, we need to know secret details about each other. It keeps camaraderie up.

Maddox punches Jace in the thigh then leans forward in his chair looking at me. “Speaking of, does the name Madeline mean anything to you?”

My blood instantly runs cold. That name means everything to me, but I tell myself daily that it can’t anymore. It’s been three years since she left Love Beach. I haven’t heard from or seen her since.

But hearing her name takes me right back to that night and instantly her vision comes to mind—long brown hair, eyes that glow golden and a body that never quits. I picture our last night together, us laughing on the beach. There was even a shooting star. So I took my shot but she said no. I was completely blindsided. I thought she wanted whatever it was we were doing, just as badly as I did.

“You’re wonderful Ryan and maybe in a year I’ll be willing to stay. But there is a lot I have to do. A lot I want to accomplish. I want to see the world and help anyway I can. You understand, right?”

She rushed me off as if I didn’t just ask her to spend the rest of her life with me.

Okay, no. I didn’t ask her to marry me. But I asked her to stay. I asked her not to leave Love Beach and to make a go of things with me.

But she had bigger plans, that didn’t include me.

“Why are you asking?”

Maddox gets a sly look. “Some woman came into the bakery and was spouting off about you?—”

Jace rolls his eyes. “She was not. Stop making it more than it was.”

“What was it then? Since you know so much?” Maddox crosses his arms and huffs.

“Poppy said she came in dressed in scrubs and asked if she knew your mom, Candee. And when the woman said yes thatshe had worked here at the Love Beach Hospital before, Poppy brought up the chief.”

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