Page 15 of Shielding His Heart
They sit in contented quiet and eat their breakfast. Alec joins at some point—shirtless and in a similar pair of pajama pants. I cover my look of surprise with a deep drink from my coffee mug.Don’t even go there, Tana. But my inner warning doesn’t stop me from sneaking a peek at a shirtless Alec.
He doesn’t notice as he gets his own mug and pours a steaming cup. But I notice. I notice everything. His ab muscles—all eleven thousand of them—ripple then contract when he reaches up. I may not know a damn thing about myself, but I do know Alec Dorran is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, and I can say that for a fact.
I manage not to drool much as Alec bundles the girls off to school. I’ve kept out of their way as they go about their daily routines. It’s important to me to keep the girls’ lives as normal as possible, and Alec seems to have everything well in hand for now. Gemma and Paisley wave goodbye as they get onto the bus, leaving Alec and me alone.
He turns to me—finally with a shirt on—and asks, “Well, are you ready for today?”
“Define ready?”
Alec gives me an easy smile. “Don’t worry, we’re going to start off easy. I thought we could go to the station so you could see where I work. Since I’ll be there for the weekend, I figured maybe I’d give you a tour. Let you meet the guys.”
I perk up. This feels fairly innocuous and low-pressure, which is probably why he chose it. Plus, fire trucks and ambulances. “Really? Could I ride in the ambulance?”
He rocks on his heels. “Sure, we could take a ride around the block. You sure that won’t bother you? I know how much you hate hospitals at the moment.”
I shake my head and say, “No, this sounds like fun. I’ll go get ready.”
It makes me a little nervous to think of meeting the people Alec works with. I haven’t done much interacting with anyone else yet, but I have to break the ice sometime. It may as well be now. Besides, I’m exceedingly curious about how Alec is with others. I want to see how other people view him and if it’ll put my fears to rest or add to them.
After a shower, I agonize over what to wear and decide on a pair of jeans and a bright red T-shirt. It’s simple and comfortable. Besides, these people were the ones who responded to my accident. I doubt they really care what I’m wearing.
I find Alec in the living room surfing on his phone. “Ready to go?” he asks.
“As I’ll ever be,” I answer.
He looks up from his phone and visibly stills. All my muscles tense as he studies me. Oh, God, is he staring at my scars? I’ve tried to cover them up with my hair, but he doesn’t say anything.
I follow him out to the truck, my nerves jangling. Maybe going to see his work isn’t the best idea. There will be a lot of people there, people who know me, know him.Get ahold of yourself, Tana.
The station is a short drive away from our little suburb, and we arrive all too soon. Certainly not long enough for me to get control of my nerves. It’s a small metal building with two roll-up doors on either side. One of them stands open with a fire truck facing out. Two guys are going through the compartments and marking things off clipboards. They look up when we pull to a stop.
The first is tall and lean with a swath of dark hair and intense eyes. I stiffen, waiting for some spark, reaction, or recognition, but nothing. Nada. No matter how many times it happens, it still surprises me. I really don’t remember anything or anyone.
The second—who I don’t recognize either—looks up as Alec comes around to help me down from the truck. He’s in Battleboro Fire & Rescue sweats and a T-shirt with the letters EMT over his left pec. He’s taller than the first guy and broad across the chest. His sandy blonde hair is trimmed in a tight, almost severe crop. The way he carries himself is precise and exacting. I bet he’s one of those guys who labels the food in his pantry and lines up his drinks in his fridge.
They straighten and move toward us. I immediately deduce the first guy is Alec’s partner. His eyes light up in friendly greeting, and he moves to Alec to clap him around the back with a loud, slapping man hug.
The blonde in the back hangs back and observes instead of coming forward with the dark haired one. He nods in greeting when Alec says hello. I don’t get an antagonistic vibe from him, more the strong silent type.
“Tana,” says the dark-haired guy. “I’m Walker, Alec’s partner.”
I shake his hand, but he pulls me in for a hug. When we part, I babble. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you, but you obviously know my name.”
“Shit, we’re just glad you’re okay. It was a gnarly accident.”
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that he would have been there but of course. I learned enough about the accident to know Alec was one of the responders to it. Since Walker is his partner, it makes sense he’d be there too.
I wince a little and say, “Yeah, so I’ve been told.”
“Tana, this is Remington Davis, but we call him Remy.”
Remy gives another nod in my direction. I was definitely right about the strong, silent type. “Hello,” I say in as steady a voice as possible. He’s the sort who doesn’t have to say a word or do anything but can make you nervous from gravitas alone. I inch toward Alec without thinking. “Nice to meet you both. Again, I guess.” I give a little nervous laugh.
“Everyone else inside?” Alec asks, and we move to a door on the right side of the building.
“Nah, Zeke and Jax are running a call right now, but they should be back soon.”
The door opens to a nondescript hallway. There’s another door off to the left, and Alec says to me, “That’s Zeke’s office. He’s our captain.”
