Page 33 of Finn Rhodes Forever

I watched her make her way to the seats at the back, where the other volunteers gathered.

“I surely fucking do mean it,” I muttered under my breath before I followed her.

* * *

“Puttingout fires is only one small part of my job,” I told the class when it was my turn to present. “On a typical day, we might do routine checks of smoke detectors and fire alarms,”—I pointed to the smoke detector on the ceiling—“or we could be running safety drills at our training facility. If the paramedics are too busy, we answer emergency calls. And because Queen’s Cove is a small town, many of the firefighters double as Search and Rescue.”

The kids were enthralled and I was freakingnailingthis. Emmett was a genius for telling me to clean up my image. From the back of the room, Miri beamed and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. Even Jen seemed to be warming up to me. Her expression had softened as she watched me present.

“Do you get to ride in a helicopter?” one of the kids asked.

“I sure do,” I told her. “Does anyone know why someone would call Search and Rescue?”

Several kids put their hands up and I pointed to one.

“Do you work with girls?” the kid asked.

I nodded. “Yes, there are three women on the crew. My boss, Chief Bell, is a woman, too. People call Search and Rescue when they get lost or injured—”

Another kid cut me off. “What happens when the girls aren’t as strong as you?”

I should have thanked this kid for lobbing me that softball. I fought the urge to crack my knuckles because I was about to nail this.

“First, we refer to them as women, not girls, because they’re grown-ups. Understand?”

The kids stared back at me. When I glanced at Liv, she wore a little smile on her face, which filled me with confidence. One gold star for Finn Rhodes.

“All firefighters are required to pass a series of tests before being hired on to the crew, which means all the female firefighters are strong enough. They’re an important part of our crew and I’m lucky to work with them.”

Miri clutched her heart and pretended to swoon.Whoosh—that was the sound of meslam dunkingthis. My chest puffed out with pride. Miri slipped out into the hall to speak with a volunteer who had just arrived, and I opened my mouth to continue talking about safety in the back country.

“Have you ever been drunk?” another kid asked.

“Uh.” I hesitated. Of course I had, but I didn’t think I should say that. “Alcohol is bad.”

“My parents drink wine,” she volleyed back.

Uh. “A little is fine but getting drunk is bad. So, one of the main reasons people need to call for help is—”

“You didn’t answer us,” a girl in the front row said, raising her eyebrows. She turned to the class. “He’s drunk right now. That’s why he has no tooth.”

“I’m not drunk,” I rushed out. My ears were going hot again. What the fuck? “And I knocked my tooth out surfing this morning. Sure, I’ve been drunk before, but as you get older, the hangovers will hit you harder…” I caught Jen’s bemused expression and Olivia rolling her lips, trying not to laugh, and cut myself off. “Let’s stick to talking about hiking safety.”

“Have you ever smoked weed?” the girl prodded.

“Uh.” I glanced at Jen, who raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

I glanced at the doorway. Miri was still fuckingchattingin the hallway. I exhaled heavily. I couldn’tlieto them, they’d see right through me. Besides, it was more responsible to tell them the truth and give them the tools to make good decisions, right?

A kid in the front row held up his phone. “Is this you?”

I leaned forward and nearly choked at a photo of me in my early twenties, doing a bong rip with some friends.

I reared back. “Where’d you find that?”

She tapped something on her phone and the phones around the classroom started pinging and buzzing.

“I put it in the group chat,” she said to the class, and everyone pulled out their phones to look.

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