Page 13 of Single Mom for the Firemen

There’s something to his voice that tells me he’s not being entirely honest, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s just me overthinking because I want something to happen between us. I have no idea, but I’m starting to feel as though I might be trying to contain something when it comes to Vanessa that I don’t want to contain.

“Chatted.” Jake snorts, his tone derisive. “Yeah. Sure. Like you’ve ever justchattedwith a woman who looks like that.”

“What’s the problem, Jake?” Killian replies. “You jealous?”

“Not jealous,” he fires back, a little too quickly. “Just pissed that you’ve agreed to take us out of work for a night so you can play like you’re back in the city.”

“We won’t be off duty,” Killian assures him. “I’ll bring our scanners with us. If anything happens, then we’re going to be the first to know about it, okay?”

“Fine,” Jake mutters back.

“So there’s no reason to be pissed about any of this,” Killian remarks. “We’re just going to dinner. That’s all. Nothing more to it.”

“Nothing more to it,” Jake repeats, and with that, he turns his back on us to stalk toward the showers. I can already tell this isn’t going to be the last of the shit we get from him, but Killian is clearly looking forward to getting his hands on that woman again too much to care.

“I’m going to clear up,” I say, gesturing to the coffee cups still laid out on the counter where Vanessa and I had been sitting.

“Seems like the two of you got on fine when you were here alone,” Killian remarks. Maybe he’s the one who’s jealous, and he’s just projecting onto Jake.

“She wasn’t here for long before you got back, thank God.”

“Thank God? Why? Is she that difficult…?”

“No, no, I just…” I trail off. I’m sure it won’t go well if I tell him about my paranoia regarding the way she interrogated me about the other guys and what they were up to. “Nothing. Forget it.”

Killian looks like he wants to press for more, but I shake my head, letting him know I’m really not in the mood to discuss it. He closes his mouth again. While he can be an ass sometimes about pushing for certain reactions, he knows when we’re seriously done, and he’s not going to push it any further than that.

Even if I still have to go through with this dinner tomorrow night with that woman, regardless of my own feelings about her.

6

JAKE

“I still can’t fucking believeyou’re making me do this.”

Killian rounds on me from where he’s standing in the doorway, smoothing out his shirt.

“Look, Jake, if this is such an imposition for you, then you can just stay home,” he tells me sharply.

I hold my hands up. “Hey, don’t get mad at me, you’re the one who agreed to do this with her…”

“Yeah, so you don’t have to come. I could tell her you’ve got some flu or something. terminal asshole-itis.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t be such a child.”

“Then stop complaining or just stay here!”

I don’t reply. He knows as well as I do that I’m not going to turn around and cancel something like this out of nowhere—it wouldn’t be fair on Vanessa or Callie, no matter how bad an idea I might happen to think this is. No, if I’ve agreed to something, I’m a man of my word, and I’m going to see through the rest of the night. Even if I don’t have to be nice about it.

“You guys ready?” Mason asks as he emerges down the stairs. “We need to get going now if we’re going to make it by six.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter. “Have you got the scanner…?”

Mason pats his hip. “I’ve got it. We’re not going to miss anything.”

“Then I guess we may as well get going.”

We head out into the cool summer air. I can already smell the heat coming in the next few months, that sense of the grass drying out and the flowers gasping for water under the bright sun. For most people, it’s the best time of year—those long nights and hazy days. But for me, I’m thrown back into the midst of a nightmare, a horror I wish I could forget.

---