Page 13 of Falling for Brody

Rhea Russell.

As he pulled into the driveway of the triplex he shared with Joshua and Gabriel, he saw a note on his door.

He knew it had to be one of the Moms who wrote it. The dads would have called.

He pulled the note down and read it, smiling.

Brody,

We're having a small dinner at Kay's.

Come over when you're clean.

Mom

He wanted to roll his eyes at the note, but he had a feeling that his mother would know. The Moms had eyes everywhere.

So he went into the house, set his bag down by the door and went into his bedroom, going straight for the shower. He needed to get clean. A twenty-four hour shift was no joke, even when there was downtime at the firehouse. What most people considered downtime was putting your feet up or watching television in the common room, but a small-town firehouse was much different. They might not have as many calls as they had in big cities, but that also meant they had more responsibilities on their shoulders.

Reports. Ordering supplies. Cleaning around the firehouse and keeping the rig spotless.

And cleaning meant that their uniforms could get even more dirty than they would in the field.

He took off his uniform shirt and dropped it in the hamper, toed off his boots and flexed his toes in his socks.

This was probably his favorite thing to do after a shift. His feet felt free. He reached into the shower and turned on the water. The steam felt good on his face and he reached for his belt and stripped off his pants and his undershirt and ripped his socks off of his feet a second before he stepped into the stream of water.

He snatched the bath towel off the hook, lathered it up and worked it over his body. There wasn't really time to linger on anything, but his mind didn't care. His thoughts went right to the best part of his day.

Avalon was safe. Hurt, yes. But safe. He'd gotten some news back from his sister Rachel. Avalon was healing up.

And Misty was in a hospital closer to the wreck. Given that she'd been kidnapped and injured by a serial killer, the LEOs in the area weren't risking her health. They wanted to make sure she had the best treatment for her injuries.

His dad had messaged him saying that Roya was going to be okay. Sore, but she'd heal up just like Misty. Things were going to be okay.

And now, he smiled. He had a partner in the rig.

A partner who was really good at her job.

And her kid was super cute. And smart, too.

He grinned and wondered if everything was okay when she went to get her car and if she got to the motel and settled in with Chip.

He looked over at the wall and saw the big numbers on the clock. He'd have dinner with the family and then go over to the motel to see if Rhea needed anything. He certainly wanted to get her number.

"For work reasons."

Yeah. He was a fucking liar.

He wanted her number.

For very personal reasons. On top of the work reasons.

"Fuck."

He reached out a hand and turned the water to ice cold.

It had been months, many, many months since he'd gotten hard about a woman.

---