Page 4 of Memories with Fire

“Nipple piercings!” she says excitedly. Mistaking my horror for enthusiasm, she yanks the side of her sports bra over and exposes a perky breast to me. “I got them done two days ago. I wondered if you’d notice. Aren’t they amazing?”

“Quinn!” My cheeks flame, a hand coming up to cover my eyes.

I love her, I really do, but I don’t need to see her boobs. Not that this is the first time. Quinn has no scruples about baring it all for anyone who wants to look. Sometimes I envy that about her.

Grabbing my hand, she pulls it down from my face. “Don’t be a prude. Check it out. They’re sore and sensitive, though, so I haven’t been able to really try them out. But I love them.”

I inch an eye open, then the other, giving in to take a look. It’s brief, mostly just to satisfy her, but in the quick look before I turn away, I have to admit, they suit her. “Just keep them clean. Don’t let them get infected. That would be something awful.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her rubbing large circles around her nipples, both breasts firmly in place behind the cover of her bra. I nearly snort because I can tell she doesn’t want to think about it. She knows the horrors of what can happen if something gets infected. Thankfully, she knows how to take care of herself.

“Okay, back to you,” she says, making me sigh. “While I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself, I really think you should go on this date. Just say yes. One more date won’t kill you, and what if the guy ends up being the love of your life?”

Grabbing everything I’ll need for a quick shower, I roll my eyes, refraining from telling her she sounds just like my mom. “I’ll think about it.”

Fifteen minutes later,clean and in a fresh uniform, Quinn, Liam, and the rest of my shift are all howling with laughter over the recount of my date with George. Even Brody, a behemoth of a man who doesn’t say a hell of a lot, is sitting there with a smirk after chuckling a time or two.

“I’m telling you, Hails. Just tell your mom you’re dating me. She’ll leave you alone,” Liam says, causing everyone to burst into another round of laughter. He holds a hand up to silence everyone. “If you tell her we’re dating, she’ll end up so busy trying to convince you to break up with me you won’t need to worry about any more dates.”

Though I laugh, he has a point. I could see my mom telling me to run for the hills if she thought I was seriously dating Liam. Not only is he a playboy, but he’s a risk taker, and as much as I hate risk taking, my mom hates it more. She never got over my dad falling to his death at work. He was a roofer, building new homes, and hadn’t been wearing a safety harness. So, maybe I’ll keep the idea in my back pocket, just in case she doesn’t stick to her end of the bargain when it comes to this final blind date I’m considering.

“You’ll be my secret weapon, Liam,” I assure him.

“Or maybe our new guy will be cute,” Quinn muses, glancing at me with a twinkle in her eye. “And you could get a real date, Hails. Your mom won’t have the opportunity to do shit like this then.”

The new guy. The reason we’re all sitting in the conference room, waiting for Nate. The reason Liam was there to greet us when we got back from our call. He let Quinn know, when I walked away, that we were to meet here.

Today is the guy’s first shift. I don’t even know his name yet, but as we all sit around waiting, I imagine Nate and him will be walking in at any moment. He’s here to replace Mac, the oldest member of our crew, who retired last week.

That final shift with Mac nearly killed us all. Since the day I started, he treated me like one of his own, and I came to love and adore him. Not having him around is weird. There’s a sense of loss around the house with his departure, but none of us has talked about it. I think that would make it too real.

This new guy, however, is also going to make it feel real.

I roll my eyes at Quinn. As grumpy as I felt this morning, I’m feeling better since we got together for our meeting. Retelling the story of last night, to others besides my mom, made me see how funny it could be if I thought of it in the right light, even if it was annoying in the moment.

Today isn’t going to be so bad, I decide, resetting my attitude. Maybe this new guy won’t be so bad either.

“Oh shit,” Quinn whistles low. “He is cute.”

Everyone in the room straightens and turns their attention to the front. My head swivels in the direction of the door, and I see Nate first, his blue eyes glancing around the room, nodding hello to all of us.

I don’t spend much time looking at Nate because my eyes are immediately drawn to the man walking in behind him. For a second, I think I’m seeing things.

There’s no way.

It isn’t possible.

I’ve got to be hallucinating.

All this dating is bringing up crazy things in my subconscious, and now I’m imagining things that aren’t there. This must be a dream, and I’m about to wake up any second.

“Alright, everyone,” Nate says to the room, though I hardly hear him. I’ve blinked so many times that someone who didn’t know me would probably think I have a tic. “I’d like to introduce you all to?—”

“Luke?”

My voice sounds foreign to me. I don’t even realize I’m the one who has spoken until everyone’s eyes shift in my direction. Not that I’m looking at them. The only one I’m staring at is the man beside Nate. The one whose light ash hair is no longer worn in a crew cut, but buzzed close to his head. The one whose eyes I could never decide if they were blue or green, because it always depended on the light. The one whose dimples melted my heart every time he flashed me a hint of a smile.

The one gaping back at me now. “Hailey?”

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