Page 4 of Eligible Best Friend

“It’s only lunch,” I mutter. Scowling, I buckle my seat belt. “Besides, I can’t hide from him forever. I can be a big girl and stick to my decision.”

“Promise me you’ll pour a glass of water on his crotch.”

My lips twitch. “I already did that.”

“Ice water?”

I nod.

“Good girl. Every time you want to fall under his ‘but baby, you mean so much to me’ spell, picture the look on his face when you did that.”

Samuel’s too suave to use a corny line, but Ford’s onto something. I can’t forget my ex’s face when I asked him what had happened in his office with Olivia. Precise denial turned into abject regret when I told him I’d heard everything and caught a glimpse of even more. He’d nearly broken down in front of me, dropping to his knees to beg me to hear him out.

But he was too busy brushing ice off his crotch by that point and I was walking out of the restaurant, deciding what I really wanted to be when I grew up. Attending to his political campaign, or anyone else’s for that matter, no longer held any appeal.

“I’m lunching on Saturday, too,” Ford says.

I glance at his strong profile. Even after a year of being his partner, I can’t believe he’s real. A brooding chin straight out of a Jane Austen movie. A hard body carved from granite. A nose with a slight tilt from a break when he was a teenaged lifeguard and got headbutted by a kid he was helping out of the pool. Dirty-blond hair that looks as good messy as it does perfectly combed.

If Samuel had Ford’s level of good looks, I would’ve been toast.

“Your mom?” That’s the only lady Ford lunches with.

“Yep.”

“Maybe we should switch lunch dates.”

“No offense, Wescott, but the way you talk about Samuel, I’m afraid I’ll succumb to his charms.”

I laugh, mostly because he’s right. I do go on about Samuel. He was such a big part of my life for so long and it all went south so stereotypically. “Fine. I’ll go with my lunch date and wish I were at yours.”

“Mom probably wishes you were at mine, too.”

Maggie Monroe is a gem, and I can see why Ford did what he did to help her. It wasn’t just because he’s so driven to prove he isn’t like his bio dad. That jackass stepfather of his was a piece of work too, leaving Maggie in such a bind when he died. She only has Ford to help her. It wasn’t like her stepchildren were going to lift a finger for her.

The radio comes to life. “Fifty-year-old male in cardiac arrest.” As the dispatcher rattles off the address and more details, I flip the lights and sirens on, glad to have something else to focus on.

Because work keeps me from remembering everything I walked away from and how much Samuel and my family are trying to pull me back.

Two

Ford

Is it possible to roll my eyes so hard they clink in the back of my head?

I scowl at one of the city’s finest firefighters as he shamelessly flirts with my partner. He’d be a good guy, and he’d be good for her, certainly better than the piece of crap that broke her heart, but does he have to try to pick her up at work?

“Jimmy, you got what you came here for?” I doubt Lia even suspects that Jimmy is being anything more than friendly. She’s oblivious to the looks the single firemen throw her way or each other when she walks by. She’s striking. I’ll give them that. I’m a little over six feet tall and she’s only a few inches shorter than me, with a defined frame that’s clear even under her unisex polo shirt and boxy pants. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear an ounce of makeup, but she doesn’t need it. The dazzling amber of her eyes would put any jewelry she wore to shame. Despite the fact that I’ve only ever seen her in a braid, it doesn’t detract from the allure she can’t help but give off.

I’d have to be dead not to notice Lia’s looks.

As my partner, it doesn’t matter. As my friend, I go out of my way not to notice. I don’t have many friends, mostly buddies from work. I hang out with some of the firefighters once in a while too. But most of the friends I made in college and medical school are balls deep in their residency. Talking to them only reminds me of where I should be at this stage of my career. That would’ve been me if I hadn’t hit a pileup on the road of life.

Jimmy’s expression turns incredulous and he puts his hand to his chest in faux offense. “Am I bothering you, Monroe?” A smirk tilts his lips and his eyes gleam. He thinks I’m being territorial over Lia. I’m not. I’m being protective. She doesn’t need to be hit on at work. We’ve had long talks about how earning respect in her own right is important to her. A firefighter doesn’t need to fuck that up.

“You’re always a pain in the ass, but Wescott and I have some stocking up to do unless you want to go fetch another obstetrical kit.”

Jimmy waves me off and adjusts the suspenders of his uniform. He’s a big guy and probably doesn’t need to put in as much effort picking up a girl as he is with Lia. “Fine, fine. My shift is over anyway. Let me initial the inspection and let your boss know that the building passed one more time.”

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