Page 107 of Sunshine

It was a productive afternoon, in more ways than one. We hugged each other goodbye, and I drove back to the pack’s house feeling like I was as ready as I would ever be for Julian’s heat.

If I was really going to try to be part of his pack, being with them through a heat would be a good test for me to see how I did. We had only been dating for a month, and planning a future seemed too much like hubris.

But I could dream, at least, about how we could learn from this first heat and use it to make Julian’s next heat in August better.

August felt like it was right around the corner, but also impossibly far away. I couldn’t help but wonder whether I would even still be dating Julian, Luca, and Logan or whether something might have happened by then.

I pushed the thought away, because it made my heart freeze in my chest at the thought of their loss. Better to focus on the here and now.

Chapter 29

Julian

My entire body ached.

I was at work, and even though it was only mid-morning, I felt like I had gone ten rounds with a sledgehammer. The sledgehammer had, of course, won.

It was only a few days after Sunshine had taken me on the best heat date ever. Yesterday, I’d started feeling the need for extra cuddles. According to the calendar, I wouldn’t officially be in heat for another day or two, but the days leading up to it could be just as bad. No crazy sex drive, not yet, but my skin itched, the world was too loud, and I was cranky. Today, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be cuddled or left alone.

I hated being out of sorts, but there was nothing for it.

It had been slow around the station house all morning. I finished the herbal tea I’d made to try to balance out my mood and stacked the dishwasher. When I came back out into the living room, I wrinkled my nose.

It smelled weird. I was used to the scent of the chemicals they used to clean the apparatus bay, the turnout gear and other places to make sure the carcinogens weren’t building up, but it was more than that. The station house smelled like the scent-canceling laundry detergent that the fire department bought inbulk. It had a musty after-smell and wasn’t my favorite brand, but it was cheaper than most others.

I decided it was time to clean. I started with the laundry, and stripped the couch of its throw blankets, took all of the sheets off the beds, and grabbed all the used towels, even the hand towels in the kitchen.

When I passed any of the guys I was on duty with, they took one look at my face and the armful of laundry and gave me a wide berth. Good. I didn’t want their weird scents around me anyway.

Logan and Luca had both asked me if I’d wanted to stay home today. I’d told them no, and had snuggled harder against Sunshine, marking her shoulder with my scent.

I wasn’t in heat yet. I was just close. I could suck it up a bit longer.

Besides, the nasty bathroom here wouldn’t clean itself. I knew we deep-cleaned the station house once a week and each shift also spot-cleaned. But there was nothing like kneeling and scrubbing the ever-loving hell out of the tile to make sure it was actually, properly clean.

Once I had the washing machines going, I moved to the bathroom, working until the shower grout, the tile, and sinks were all gleaming. I reorganized the bathroom supplies by color and then moved on to the bedrooms.

No one was asleep, thank heavens, because my instincts were screaming at me to make sureeverythingwasclean, and I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done if I’d had to skip any rooms. I remade all the beds, swept and mopped, and even pulled the bed frames out to get between the wall and the legs of the bed.

The living room was next. My back ached and my hands were pruny from the rubber gloves and cleaning supplies, but I’d already been aching all over, so the new problems just seemed like a distant complaint from my body.

Chloe wandered over to my corner of the living room where I was wiping down the baseboards. “How’s things?”

“Fine.” I muttered. “I’m cleaning this filthy fire station. It’s disgusting.”

“I see.” She paused, then went on. “Do you want to leave early?”

“No,” I snapped, immediately regretting it. I sat back on my heels and looked up at her. “I’m okay.”

The door swung open, and we both looked over to see Chuck appear. He took a moment to look around the sparkling clean living room, then a shit-eating grin appeared on his face. “The nice thing about having an omega around is things stay clean. Almost makes the mood swings worth it.”

My temper popped. I threw my cleaning towel down and leapt to my feet. “I’m going to punch you in your freaking face.”

Chloe looped her arm around my waist long enough to keep me from taking more than a step forward, then let go. “He’s not worth it. He’s a whiny little piece of garbage.”

“Right.” Chuck snarled. “I’m just one of your crew that has to cover your shifts while you get to lay around and get fucked. WishIwas an omega and I got to skip off of work every couple of months for a fuck fest.”

I growled, all the hairs standing up on the back of my neck. Chloe hovered beside me, her hand outstretched near my arm, but she didn’t touch me, something I was grateful for. My skin crawled at the thought of any skin-on-skin contact that didn’t come from my pack. Then the stand-off was interrupted as another voice boomed through the living area.

---