Page 43 of Out of the Fire
He shook his head. “Yeah, I could see my brother doing that.”
“But not you?” Was he just not competitive? Or did he just not feel the need to show off? Or both?
“Nope.” He shrugged. “I probably would have thought it was stupid. If I wanted to work out, I would go to the gym. But my brother would have done it just to show off.”
Of course he would have thought it was stupid. I shook my head and placed my hands on my hips. His gaze roamed down to my chest and that tingle in my core was back as he stared at my breasts.
He tipped his chin at me. “Hopefully you don’t scare the kids with your skull and crossbones.”
I glanced down at my white T-shirt and the hope I had a second ago disappeared. I squared my shoulders, pushing my chest out.
“I can go help PD if you’d rather…” Teasingly I started walking away, heading toward the front of the building.
“Oh no you don’t.” He grabbed my hand, turning me and pulling me back.
I stumbled and fell into his chest. His arms wrapped around my back, and he stared down at me. My breath hitched as his gaze locked on my lips. That same heat I swore was there a moment ago, that I’d felt earlier when he’d called me a good girl as well as last weekend when we went out with Logan and Izzy, was back. Maybe I wasn’t making it all up.
I had convinced myself I’d had too many drinks that night. The few times I’d seen him this week when he’d stopped by to check on me and bring me stuff, I hadn’t gotten an inkling of desire.
“Hey, Seth,” Jay called. Seth made no move to pull back. He searched my face, reluctance written all over his expression. “Can you help me close off the road?”
His arms dropped and I stepped back.
“Yeah,” he called back. But he still didn’t move. “I’ll be right back,” he whispered to me.
“Okay.” I nodded.
I wasn’t sure what to do while I waited for him, but Zack appeared a minute later with a wide smile aimed at me.
“Thanks for doing this.”
I shrugged. “Sounds like it’ll be fun. But you know Seth could have handled this all by himself. He’s actually pretty good with kids.” At least I assumed he was good with other kids, and not just his niece. At least five kids came up to him before the parade, and they knew him by name, lending further evidence to my assumption.
“I know. For someone who’s cranky and doesn’t like people, he seems to be great with kids.” Zack smirked. “But this way he gets to hang out with his girl, too. You make him happy. We’ve all seen that in the last month.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I had no idea what to say to that. I couldn’t deny it because I was supposed to be his girlfriend.
“You better not be giving her a hard time,” Seth’s voice rumbled.
Zack shot me a wink. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He turned and slapped Seth on the shoulder as he passed.
Seth ignored him, diving straight into how this would work. Owen’s wife Cece, and Jay’s wife Sarah, were manning the information table out front and would send small groups of kids and parents to check out the fire engine before coming out this way for a demonstration of the hose. Then each kid would geta chance—with Seth’s help, of course—to aim the hose at the wooden house cutouts to try to knock down the flames.
“So, I just reset the flames for the next kid?”
He nodded with a smirk. “And then get out of the way.” He ran his hand down one suspender that covered his tight gray uniform T-shirt and connected to his turnout pants. I never would have thought suspenders could be sexy, but on him they were.
The first two groups went quickly. But the third one was chaotic for sure. Sibling rivalry at its finest. The kids kept fighting and the parents scolded them multiple times. We’d heard their bickering as they approached our area, and I was just hoping the group they were in went quickly.
After resetting the flames for the next kid in line, I stepped a few feet away to wait. Seth turned on the nozzle and helped the little boy hold the hose steady. Just like I expected, he was so good with each kid who had come through. Patient and pleasant and not at all gruff or broody.
The problem children started bickering again, and almost in slow motion, I watched as the boy pushed his sister forward, in turn bumping Seth and the little boy he was working with. The hose shot wildly to the right, hitting me square in the chest. I took a step back from the slight force, and was actually a little grateful for the drenching. The cold water felt good with the intense heat of the day.
Seth got it back under control and finished with the kid. Luckily, the parents of the problem children pulled them away, scolding them for their behavior.
“Sorry, are you okay?” he said, jogging over to me. When I nodded, he added, “Go up to the bunk room. My bag is on one of the beds, it has my name on it. I keep a spare, clean T-shirt in there.”
He stared intently at my chest. Was he going to tease me about my skull and crossbones again?
