Page 13 of Give Me a Reason

“You know today’s my leg day,” Joe said with a self-satisfied smirk. “Besides, we should hit the shower and get ready for dinner. Everyone will be here soon.”

Frederick smiled despite himself. He loved having Thanksgiving dinner at the fire station. His parents were long gone, andhis older sister, Shannon, and her husband, Chris, were out of the country more often than not.

Chris was a sought-after film composer who recorded most of his scores in Europe, and Shannon accompanied him whenever possible. Frederick missed them, but his crew was his family, too. He couldn’t wait to go into a food coma with them.

“Bethany insisted on bringing the turkeyandsome homemade pies,” Joe said meaningfully as they headed out of the station gym and down the hallway leading to the offices. “You’re in for a treat. She’s an amazing cook.”

“Uh…” Frederick wasn’t sure what meaning his friend was trying to convey. He nodded at Tanner, a senior firefighter, who sat in a shared office with the door open. “That’s great. Does Coraline cook well, too?”

“Nah, but she likes everything I cook, so we’re good. Anyway, what did you think of Bethany?” Joe’s expression conveyed wiggling eyebrows without actually wiggling them.

“She was busy with her students. I hardly spoke to her.” All Frederick remembered from that day was Anne. But at his friend’s crestfallen expression, he floundered for something nice to say about Coraline’s sister. “But she seemed… sweet?”

“Isn’t she, though?” Joe clapped him on the back, stopping at the door to the apparatus bay. Frederick’s office and attached room were a few doors down. The dormitory and showers for the rest of the team were on the opposite side of the bay. “And you’ll have plenty of time to get to know her tonight.”

“That’s great,” Frederick repeated in a slightly choked voice, finally understanding his friend’smeaning. He gulped and glanced longingly at his office.

Frederick didn’t date much, which might have prompted this unfortunate bout of matchmaking. He was far from a womanizer, but he also was no monk. He just never talked to his friendsabout the women he “dated,” mostly because he rarely went on more than three dates with them, and partly because there was nothing to say.

They met, shared a meal, and had sex—sometimes skipping the meal part altogether. After two to three such “dates,” he started twitching with a sense of wrongness. He didn’tfitwith these women. Most of them let him bow out with a shrug, but some thought he was an asshole. He tended to agree with the latter, which was why he didn’t date much.

For the hundredth time, he wondered if he should talk to his therapist about his aversion to romantic relationships, then swiftly decided against it. There was nothing to talk about. Not everyone needed romance in their lives. He blew out a long breath and raked his fingers through his sweaty hair. He caught Joe watching him with furrowed brows.Shit.

“Time for that shower.” Frederick gave his friend an embarrassingly awkward salute and dashed for his office.

He was touched that Joe wanted to set him up with his future sister-in-law—it was a sign of trust and affection. But Frederick wasn’t about to have a fling with Bethany Hong, which was all he had to offer. So he had to derail his friend’s misguided kindness as swiftly and effectively as possible.

Frederick brooded under the steaming water and lost track of time. When he walked out of his office, there was no one in the hallway. He hurried across the empty bay.

As he neared the kitchen in the back corner of the station, he heard the ruckus of his crew shouting over each other and hooting with laughter. Nothing excited those heathens more than food.

When he walked into the large open kitchen, the huge dining table was already laden with enough food to feed his entire team for days. Not that it would last that long. The next shiftwould finish any leftovers before his team came back on duty twenty-four hours later. It was a matter of principle and jackassery between the shifts.

Well, they had to do their utmost to leave slim pickings for C Shift. Joe could probably get everyone pumped up enough to eat their weight in food.One more bite. Do it for the team.Frederick chuckled under his breath and glanced around the kitchen.

Michelle, the driver operator, chatted with Tanner as they grabbed pitchers of iced tea from the refrigerator. Sandy and Nick stood next to the cabinets by the sink, bickering over which dinner plates to use. Pete and his wife, Katie, were setting out even more platters of food on the kitchen island, and Frederick sauntered over to them.

“Chief.” He slapped his friend on the back and leaned down to kiss Katie’s cheek. “Hey, gorgeous. Did you miss me?”

Katie trapped his face between her hands with uncanny speed and studied him with narrow-eyed focus. For a wisp of a woman who was an inch shy of five feet tall, she was ridiculously strong and fast. After a moment, she declared, “You’ve lost weight.”

“No, I haven’t,” Frederick protested through puckered lips.

“It’s a good thing we have plenty to eat.” She released him and patted his cheek. “You can drown your sorrows in food.”

“What sorrows?” Frederick frowned in confusion, but understanding and mortification soon dawned on him.Someonehad blabbed about his run-in with Anne. He glared at Pete, who assiduously avoided his eyes.

“If I ever meet that woman, I’m going to give her a piece of my mind,” Katie fumed, removing aluminum foil from a platter of her famous beef rolls.

“I thought you and Pete loved her.” Frederick couldn’t hold back a huff of affectionate laughter.

“We can separate the art from the artist,” Katie growled,ripping open a bag of King’s Hawaiian Rolls instead of taking off the plastic clip. Her husband gently took the bag from her hands before she flattened the sweet, fluffy rolls.

“Sorry about Katie,” Pete said when she went in search of more plates. “You know how fiercely loyal she is to her friends.”

“Don’t worry about it. Katie is awesome,” Frederick said with a wry smile as he swiped a beef roll off the platter. “Even when she wants to throw down with my ex.”

He couldn’t stay annoyed at his friends. They were looking out for him like they always did. Besides, who could stay annoyed while eating one of Katie’s beef rolls? The tender spiced beef melded beautifully with the fresh cilantro and spring onion, all wrapped to perfection in a chewy flour pancake. He could stand there and eat the entire platter of them.

---