Page 37 of Jump

Everyone sees it. Clint, especially. But no one mentions it. No one comments on the old receipt I’ve used for a bookmark, already sitting a third of the way through.

“Do you like your work?” I ask him. It’s a lame question, but I’ve got no desire to think of something better. “Have you deployed in the past?”

“Yeah.” His eyes can’t decide between checking out my book, or my boobs. It’s a battle he wages between ego and desire. The first is offensive to him—she expects to be so bored, she brought a damn novel?!—and the second are right there, in his line of sight. “I’ve been out a couple times. Though I’m stationed at Fort Bragg right now.”

“Mm.” I have no clue what to say to that. I have no follow-up questions. So I show him a kind smile and glance toward the band as they finish setting up onstage. “Well… I guess, especially considering the occasion, I should thank you for your service.” I peer his way and meet his expectant eyes. “Thank you.”

Ruiz

JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS MAN CHEST

“Let’s go. We’re rolling out.” I tap Axel on the shoulder and make a beeline for the rack of turnouts we always have within easy reach.

There’s no emergency to rush to right now, but if we leave the house, even for just a few minutes, we’re trained and required to be kitted up, just in case we get that dreaded call.

The idea is to not be caught with our pants down, so to speak. So I step into my turnouts and swap my boots for those I wear to a fireground. I flip my suspenders over my shoulders and ignore the rack labeled with Ainsley’s name.

Most of her stuff was lost that night she died inside a doomed hotel. But some remains. Her old turnouts. Her first coat, replaced after a couple of years on the job. Her first ever helmet, the one she was fitted for when she was an eager eighteen-year-old with no desire to go to school to become an office drone.

She knew what she wanted from the moment she watched Fireman Sam on the kid’s channel. So she came looking for it the second she was old enough, and because she was tenacious in everything she wanted, she’d earned her bugle before the end of the first summer after high school.

But a woman of eighteen is not the same size as a woman of twenty-five. Or thirty. So when she outgrew her initial set and graduated to the next, the first were put in storage for safekeeping.

And now here they are, hung up as though she’s still part of the crew.

It both mends my heart, and tears it anew every time I see them.

“Where are we going, Lieutenant?” Ivy comes up on my left and steps into her turnouts, still a little skittish, like she thinks we’re feuding, but when I glance her way and don’t snap, she relaxes fractionally and snags her coat from the rack. “Nothing has come in on the radio.”

“I know where we’re going.” Laughing, Axel pulls his truck door open and climbs up. “There’s a party happening at the lake, and the lieutenant is feeling a little left out.”

“Dude.” I grab my coat and start toward the truck, though I don’t swing it on. “Your girlfriend is literally on a double date tonight—and you’re not her other half.”

“My girl is hanging with friends,” he counters, plopping into his seat. I climb in after him as Sloane meanders to the driver’s side door. “She’s with her best friend,” he continues, “who can be pretty shy. But Jase is a buddy and a mutual connection for everyone, and his cousin is, apparently, interested in Viv and in town for a couple of days. But Viv is too shy to date on her own, so Hannah and Jase are doing what friends do, and helping her across the line.”

Fuck you. Fuck Jase. And fuck anyone who wants to ‘help’ Viv date some jarhead asshole.

“Hundred bucks says Hannah’s making out with Jase,” I taunt, purely to be a prick.

Axel isn’t easily goaded. But his jaw still clenches in my peripherals. His shoulders harden.

So I push a little more. “Hundred and fifty says she’s dancing onstage with the band and showing off her twerk.”

“Two hundred says I’m gonna take your Halligan and shove it up your puckered asshole.” He glares at me. “Respectfully, Lieutenant.”

“You should thank me.” I lean forward and clap Sloane on the shoulder when the rest of our crew climbs into the truck. While he starts the engine and Ivy makes herself as small as possible, I sneer right back to Axel. “I’m taking us to the lake, on shift, to make sure everything is good.” Dropping my coat to the floor of the truck between my legs, I sit back and get comfortable as we roll out of the firehouse. “If everyone is behaving, then I’m happy. If they’re not, then at least we can be there to intercept poor behavior.”

“Mmhm.” He settles back and rests his elbow on the doorframe. “And it has nothing to do with being a possessive cattle dog who can’t bear the thought of his little sheep roaming all alone at night? You’ve got a roommate now, Ruiz, and you’re terrified the wolves might jump out and snag her right from under your nose.”

“Yeah,” I drawl, “because I’m the bad guy for taking care of the people we give a shit about.”

* * *

Hannah’s not dancing with the band, and at first glance, it doesn’t appear anyone is drowning. The water’s surface is still. Calm. So if someone’s in there, they’re already dead and sunk.

A problem for another day.

The band, who has a gritty, soft rock vibe, plays cover songs, to their audience’s delight, interspersed with original songs that long ago became anthems in this town.

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