Page 15 of Sampled

Chief Haskell wasn’t fooled. “Firehouse 19 was at the other fire last night. Pickford, keep an eye on them.”

Pickford waited for his boss to move out of earshot. “I want to know if whoever arrives from 19 is the new shift or the old. I’m not going to let anybody fuck up the boss’s first day on the job. Got it?”

“Got it,” Casey said.

“You set up rehab here. I want you to monitor for dehydration, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion. As soon as another medic comes, you’re off.”

As they set up, Royce couldn’t help but wish he had that kind of decisive leadership.

Or that he was any kind of leader.

* * *

Royce had caught a three-hour catnap at the firehouse before he headed home.

The text messages from Vandy indicated she was still at his place. She’d sent a couple photos of herself and Eowyn snuggling on the couch surrounded by half of his bookshelf.

She bounded to the door when he knocked and gave him a bright smile. Even better, she was wearing his T-shirt and boxers. “Welcome home.”

“Sorry I’m late. The incoming shift was a little late, and then there was a crashed fire truck.”

“Wow, that sounds bad.” She let him in.

“Or a regular day. Did you clean in here?” The apartment was cleaner than usual. But not excessively clean. “What were you doing while I was gone?”

“The usual. Snuck into my parents’ house to get clothes and saw them in person at the hospital. After hearing how important it for me to become a hard-working CPA, I came back here and did hardly any work. I watched a bunch of movies and read a book or seven. Did you know that someone turned one short book The Hobbit into like three movies?”

“Did you like them better than Terminator?” he asked. He’d shown her the first two Terminators to introduce her to real action movies.

“No, the third movie had a goat chase on ice. It wasn’t in the book. I started reading the next books, and they have movies too. I didn’t know that Viggo Mortensen used to be super hot.”

“Did you cook?” His coffee table had a place setting and something that looked like rice and vegetables on the plate.

“No. It’s dal bhat—Indian comfort food. Mom tried to force it on my brother Raj, the med student. He didn’t want it, so we get to pretend he ate it to keep her happy.” She pointed to a pile of books she had unearthed from somewhere. “Are you studying for the lieutenant’s exam?”

“No,” he said, trying to ignore the books.

“Really? Because there’s like a study schedule clipped to them…”

“No,” he repeated. “You were the busy little bee, weren’t you?”

“This place is empty except for books, a cat, and a ukulele. You have a box of empty picture frames. I thought about putting this one in a frame.” She showed him an old picture from over a year ago. “Is this your brother?”

“No, it’s me, that was a while ago.” He kept his response vague. Back then, he’d had zero tattoos and a shaved head.

For someone who claimed to do nothing, she had done quite a lot, but she also seemed to be having the time of her life.

“Oh. Are you like anti-photo frame? Isn’t that Amish? Or was it Feng Shui?”

“I got rid of the pictures of my fiancée,” he said.

She bit her lip adorably. “Sorry. I’ve just never been in like a dating relationship, so I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Am I too much?”

“You’re doing fine.” He grabbed her hips and kissed her to shut her up. It worked like a charm, because she melted underneath his mouth.

When he let her breathe again, she was almost putty in his hands, but she soldiered onward. “I had this whole plan about going out tonight. I was going to make reservations. I’m only in town till Saturday.”

“Stop planning,” he said. Touching her felt good, and he didn’t want to think about the future or the past. “Live in the now. Have your adventures.”

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