Page 34 of Love Songs

Jackson snickered under his breath while Whittaker tapped his fingers to his brow, and the two of them disappeared into the main station.

“What brings you by?” I asked, ridiculously happy to see him, now that the dynamic duo had left us alone.

Dallas shrugged. “I was in town, so I figured I’d drop by and say hi.”

The dog door at the back of the bay swung open and Eldi trotted toward us, her toenails tapping on the polished concrete. She ran straight to Dallas and danced around his legs, her tail wagging a mile a minute, as though he was already her favorite human. Dallas kneeled to pet her.

“Hey, pretty girl,” Dallas cooed, and she slobbered him with kisses.

Yuck. Don’t get me wrong. I loved dogs, and Eldi was one of the best, but dog kisses were nasty. Did he not know where that tongue had been? I grabbed a clean cloth from one of the shelves that lined the bay.

“That’s Eldi,” I said as I handed him the cloth.

“Hello, Eldi,” Dallas said as he took it and wiped his face. “Jay would love you.”

I frowned as something tightened in my chest. Who was Jay and why did Dallas care what he’d think about Eldi.

“Who’s Jay?” I asked, trying hard to sound casual but going by the smirk on Dallas’s face when he looked up at me, I’d failed.

“Jay is short for Jaylin,” Dallas said with a note of pride in his voice and his grin widened. “My daughter.”

“Oh.” I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked away as heat crawled up my neck. “That’s a nice name.”

“It is,” Dallas agreed. “But I didn’t name her.”

No. I remembered he’d said his daughter was fourteen, and he’d only found out about her the year before.

“So, uh. Would you like a tour of the station?” I asked, relieved that he didn’t have a man back home waiting for him and confused that I’d felt jealous at all because he wasn’t mine. I had no claim on him. Dallas had a whole life that had nothing at all to do with me. One so far removed from my life that the two could never mesh.

“Sure,” he said, standing and brushing dog hair off his jeans. “I’ve never been inside a fire station before.”

Eldi followed on Dallas’s heels as I showed him our two firefighting vehicles.

“This is our fire engine,” I pointed to the truck I’d been polishing, and then to the one parked beside it that looked similar except for the large hydraulic ladder on top. “And this is our ladder truck.”

“And the one out front?” Dallas motioned to the vintage fire engine.

“That one is for show,” I said. “We usually only roll it out for fairs and fundraisers.”

I opened the driver’s side door of the engine. “Want to hop inside?”

“Hell yeah, I do,” Dallas enthused, his eyes growing wide. “Can I turn on the sirens?”

“Not inside the bay,” I said, my gaze fixed on the way his jeans hugged his firm ass as he climbed up into the cab. “Notunless you want to blast your eardrums out and piss off all the guys.”

“Maybe not then.” He shook his head. “My eardrums take enough abuse on stage.”

I frowned. “Please tell me you wear ear protection.”

“Oh yes,” he said. “But not until it became cool to wear earplugs. Now I wear them all the time.”

“Good.”

He climbed down out of the truck after a few minutes of asking what all the gadgets were for, and I led him to a small room at the back, where we stored all our turnout and duty gear. The room was small and not meant as somewhere to hang out, but when Sam, Ryan, and Haider came by, we would go in there so we could talk freely without my coworkers overhearing.

“What is—”

I didn’t let Dallas finish asking his question. Taking advantage of the quiet, private space, I pulled him close to me and kissed him. I couldn’t wait another second to feel his lips against mine again. And holy hell, did I need it. I felt like I’d been lost in the desert, and he was my oasis, even though it had only been a few hours since I’d said goodbye that morning.

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