Page 10 of His Virgin Romance Series

“Yeah.”

“What were you thinking about?”

Before I could come up with a plausible lie, the alarm went off and the four of us jumped to our feet. “Let’s go,” Mel said, in a completely different tone. “Apparatus bay in two minutes.”

Putting my game face on, I pushed all distractions from my mind and headed out.

That night when I got home, tired but satisfied with what we’d accomplished during the day, I headed straight for the shower. Once I was clean, I walked to my room and collapsed onto my bed. I was tired, but I wasn’t ready to go to sleep just yet. What I really wanted to do was speak to Rachel again.

I had casually mentioned spending some time with her as friends. She’d seemed up for it, so I figured it wouldn’t be the worst thing to just call her up for a chat. I had taken her number just before leaving Brent’s the other night.

I pulled up my phone and scrolled through my contact list. When I found her name, I paused for a moment, wondering whether I was getting myself into a situation that would complicate my life in the future.

In the end, my need to speak to Rachel overpowered any reservations, so I hit her name and waited for her to answer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Rachel,” I replied, hoping to sound casual and friendly. “It’s Jared.”

“Jared,” she said, and she sounded happy to hear from me. “How are you?”

“I’m good.”

“You sound tired,” she said immediately.

“I am.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “It’s been a long day. There was an accident near Blue Marsh Lake; my team and I were the first responders.”

“An accident?”

“A car had driven into the lake. The driver was intoxicated.”

“Wow,” she said. “I wasn’t really aware that vehicular accidents were part of a firefighter’s job description.”

“Oh sure,” I replied. “Fires aren’t the only emergency situation we deal with. We deal with car crashes, flooding, chemical spills, water rescue, and general rescue.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Just for the record, I think it’s amazing what you do.” There was awe in her tone that was clearly not feigned. “It takes a certain amount of selflessness to do what you do every day.”

“Oh, I don’t know about selflessness…”

“Are you kidding? You’re risking your life every day.”

I smiled. “Thanks, that’s nice of you to say.”

“I was thinking of you this morning,” Rachel said unexpectedly.

“Oh?” I asked. “What were you thinking about?”

“About how you’re the first person I’ve met since getting here who I’ve actually been able to have a real conversation with—and that includes my brother.”

“You know what?” I said. “Same here.”

“Did you know anyone at Brent’s party?” she asked.

“I’ve met a couple of the guys before,” I replied. “But just in passing. Brent introduced me to two girls that night. Five minutes talking to them, and I knew I needed to get the hell out of there.”

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