Page 3 of Controlled Burn
“Hey, give him a break. It’s not like any of the rest of us are doing any better,” Ezra said, cutting his eyes to Jude before quickly looking down at his wine glass.
“You have a point there,” Livy said. “Hell, at least Caleb here knows what he wants, even if he isn’t brave enough to go after it. I don’t even know what I want after my disastrous last breakup.”
On the one hand, I felt like I needed to defend myself, but really, what was there to say? She wasn’t exactly wrong. I wasn’t brave enough. The truth was reading about Daddies and actually having one weren’t the same thing. Or at least, they might not be. How was I supposed to know? It’s not like I’d ever had one. Some things were probably best left in the fantasy world of books.
Sure, the idea of having a partner who would love you and respect you all while taking care of you and making decisions for you so you didn’t have to sounded really good when you read it in a romance novel, but in reality, a guy like that would also be controlling and possessive, right? And not in a sexy way.
“Maybe we’re just all doomed to read about love but not find it,” Jude said with a sigh, and poor Ezra cringed.
“Maybe so,” he said sadly.
I wasn’t the only one around here who had a bravery problem but knowing that didn’t make me feel any better.
“Love, shmuve. I read them for the hot sex ideas,” Toby said. Not that any of us believed him. The guy hid it well, but the more mushy and sweet a book was, the more he loved it. He was a closet romantic at heart, and one of these days, he was going to fall hard.
“Okay, enough of that.” I huffed a breath and made a show of shaking off the melancholy floating around the room. “Not only have I already picked the next book, but I have them with me. I’ve been waiting for this one to come out for a while.”
I grabbed my bag and reached in, pulled out the latest Daddy romance by one of my favorite authors, and started passing them out.
“Oh, I’ve heard about this one. I didn’t know it was released, yet, though,” Livy said, taking her copy.
“It just came out. This one has it all… a little suspense, a lot of romance, some super hot sex scenes, and a really bossy older Daddy.”
“Sounds right up your alley,” Ezra said.
Toby grabbed his book and looked at the cover. “And mine. The bossy Daddy aside, of course. But I would take a sexy silver fox like that any day of the week.”
He wasn’t wrong. I’d known the second the author had done the cover reveal for this one that I wanted to read it. The model was older, muscular, and had a look about him that said he knew what he was doing. So basically, he checked all my book boyfriend boxes.
Who knows, maybe someday I’ll find a real guy who could do the same. I glanced down at my empty glass. But it would take something a lot stronger than wine before I’d be ready to try.
Chapter 2
Keith
Our shift on Tuesday had been an abnormally busy one, full of car accidents and a medical emergency at the local big box store. Thankfully, that had all taken place during the day, and our night had been mostly quiet.
“At least we managed to get some sleep last night. I got stuff to do around the house today,” Robert said. “You have anything going on? I could use a hand.”
“Can’t. I have that thing at the library today.”
“I forgot all about that. You know you don’t always have to be the one to do it.”
I shrugged. “I know, and I’m not. Ford does it sometimes. I don’t mind, though. It’s fun.”
“My friend, your idea of fun and mine are two totally different things.”
He wasn’t wrong. As friends go, we were kind of an odd match. He loved to fish and hunt and do all things outdoors. I’d rather stay home and read a book or work in my yard. Not that we didn’t have things in common. We did, just not that.
“Yeah, but you knew that. I’ll swing by after, though, and if you still need a hand, I’m happy to help. I don’t have anything else planned for the day.”
“Sounds good.” He hefted his bag up over his shoulder. “I’ll see you later.”
We worked two twenty-four-hour shifts a week at the firehouse, with three days off in between, but I tried not to schedule anything the day after a shift if I could help it. There was just no way to know what our shifts would hold. I might be up the whole time, or I might’ve gotten a ton of sleep; it all depended on the calls we took. The last thing I wanted to do was spend time in the dentist’s chair or meet a friend for coffee when I’d been fighting a fire all night.
The one exception to this was our station’s monthly trip to the local library. On the third Wednesday of each month, we sent a representative up to the library to talk to the kids about fire safety, read them a book, and let them check out our equipment. If it fell after a shift, I still signed up.
I knew Robert didn’t understand why I was usually the one who volunteered to go, but being a firefighter was all I’d ever wanted, and it was fun to be the one sharing about a job I loved. Not to mention how satisfying it was to witness that spark of interest light up in some little kids’ eyes.