Page 6 of Sweet Hate
“Jeez, I’m joking. No worries, boss. I won’t say a word about those tight little nipples of hers. Not one word.”
He zips his mouth shut, throws me a wink, and goes back to drying off. But Beckett, not one to be deterred, carries on.
“Bro, I’ve known you for ten years, and not once have I seen you this riled up. Not once have you abandoned protocol and lost your cool like that on a job.” When he grins, adjusting his junk, I know I’m not going to like what’s about to come out of his mouth. “Not that I can blame you. She showed up and made it everyone’s problem.”
Yep. Didn’t like it. Fury shoots through me, and I white knuckle the locker door before I do something stupid.
Like punch that grin off his face.
“Watch. Your. Fucking. Mouth,” I grind out, my pulse hammering in my ears again.
“Woah, woah, Jesus. I’m only messing with you. But real talk, should we grab a beer? You look like you could use one and maybe a good distraction. We might even find a couple of hotties to play with. I’ll let you pick first this week.”
Hell no.
Some random hookup is not what I need—especially with the sight ofherstill fresh in my mind. I suck in a deep breath, trying to calm the hell down before I end up ripping someone a new asshole. While my guys are milking this for all its worth, this isn’t on them. Beckett’s just trying to help.
“Nah, bro, heading home, I’m beat. Catch you on the flip side.”
Shit. There she is again.As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I grit my teeth. Haven used to say this back in the day.
I’ve managed to keep her out of my thoughts for years, but now the floodgates are open, I can’t fucking stop.
A while back, I’d have taken Beckett up on his offer and hitup the bar, finding some willing pretty lady to spend the night with, but now? The thought of touching another woman makes my guy shrink to micropenis proportions.
I can’t bring myself to face another meaningless hookup. I’ve had my fair share, but the truth is, I haven’t been able to for months now.
I need to hit the road and clear my head, figure out how I’m going to keep my shit together until Haven inevitably leaves again and my life can go back to normal.
Itneedsto go back to normal. I don’t have time for her to wreck my plans. I need to focus on work.
Rumor is our captain is retiring. Iwantto be captain. It’s been my end goal for as long as I can remember. Ever since Cap used to tell me and my dad stories of his firehouse.
His retirement is my only shot at becoming captain in Sweet Haven. If one of the other shift LTs gets it, no way in hell they’ll leave anytime soon, and I can’t leave to advance my career when Mom needs me here to help run Dad’s business. It’s not like I can split myself in two. Hasn’t that always been my damn problem?
I can’t afford this distraction.
I’ve dedicated my fucking life to this job.
This is everything I’ve been working toward. I can’t risk it slipping from my fingers at the eleventh hour.
I can do this. I run into fires every day, for fuck’s sake. One little firecracker isn’t going to send me off course.
I won’t let her.
Hurricane Haven might be sweeping through town, but she won’t break me.
Not this time.
3
HAVEN
How many people can say they uprooted their happy, mostly fulfilling life, moved back to a town they hate to inherit a bakery, and then set fire to that bakery on day one?
Oh wait, let’s not forget being rescued from said fire by theoneperson they wanted to try to avoid,preferablyforever.
Just me. That’s who.
