Page 27 of Single Mom for the Firemen

13

KILLIAN

Jake doesn’t makeit through the door before I swoop down on him. If he thinks he’s going to get away with kissing her like that and then making like nothing happened? He’s got another thing coming.

“Saw you with Vanessa out there,” I tell him, blocking his path up the stairs. With one foot planted on the bottom step, my oldest brother looks up at me, clearly incredulous.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I guess you must have short-term memory loss, then,” I fire back. “Probably from the kiss.”

His cheeks darken for a moment, and he goes to barge past me.

“Come on, I saw it!” I call to him as I follow him up the stairs. “It’s chill, I’m not jealous, I just want to talk?—”

“Not jealous about what?”

Mason emerges from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, a flood of steam following him through the doorway as he comes to see what the commotion is about.

“Nothing,” Jake growls quickly, but I’m not going to let him play this off.

“Oh, just that Jake and Vanessa were making out on the front step a few minutes ago.”

“We weren’t making out!” Jake protests. “It was just a kiss…”

Mason laughs, his eyebrows rising. “Damn, so she’s really making her way through all three of us, huh?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, lifting my chin as I lean up against the wall. Jake has one hand on the door, and it’s clear he wants nothing more than to vanish from this place and this conversation, but he knows Mason and I will get it out of him one way or another.

“I mean, we hooked up the other day,” Mason tells us casually. “And she was with Killian too. And now she’s kissing Jake?” He lets the words hang in the air. “Yeah, sounds like she’s on a mission.”

“Maybe she’s already completed it,” I suggest, turning to Jake. “How long were you down there at her house? What were you doing?—”

“I was just there to help her fix her stove,” he replies, holding his hands up in protest. “Nothing else. She offered me lunch, we talked a little?—”

“Talked? Like you did an interview?” Mason asks with interest.

Jake shakes his head. “No, no, just like…like normal people,” he replies.

“And then you kissed,” I say.

“And then we kissed,” he concedes. “It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Nothing more to it than that. I’m not going to turn it into anything it isn’t…”

“Relax, man,” I laugh. “I’m not saying that you have to go make an honest woman of this girl or anything. I’m just saying, we should be straight-up with each other about what’s going on. Keeping secrets around here is the best way to get into trouble. So we stay honest, yeah?”

“Agreed,” Mason replies, and he looks over to Jake. “You on board with that too?”

“We shouldn’t be getting involved with her at all,” Jake mutters.

I stare at him for a moment.

“I’m sorry, the hottest woman in the state moves in across the forest from us, and we’re meant to just pretend like we don’t see it?” I protest. “No. I’m not going to let you fuck this up for me with your overthinking?—”

“But it’s not just her, is it?” Jake counters, his head flipping up to meet my gaze. “It’s her daughter too. Her family.”

“They’re just going to be here for a few months,” I point out. “It’s not as though we’re going to get into anything life-changing in that time, is it?”

“Yeah, that’s how it starts, and then…”

---