Page 50 of Hot Response
She rose up on her toes to kiss him. “I know that now, but at the time I didn’t think it was the kind of thing a man called a woman he might want to have drinks with.”
“I can’t believe I missed out on you this whole time because of that. Next time, I’ll definitely make sure we get at least as far as the couch.”
* * *
By lunchtime on Friday, Gavin was seriously dragging ass. He’d gone to bed mostly on time because they really had to be careful about Cait’s sleep schedule since nobody wanted treatment from a sleep-deprived EMT.
But getting out of bed to walk her to her car each night tended to wake him up enough so he had trouble falling asleep. Last night she’d fallen asleep in his bed and this morning had been chaos as she raced to leave his place and get home to change, while he tried to get ready for his shift. Throw in the fact that a higher volume than usual of idiots who totally forgot how to drive in Boston in the winter were starting to add up and he’d like nothing more than to go upstairs and crash in his bunk for an hour or six.
Unfortunately, they were doing visual inspections of the lines, which were stretched down the length of the bays and onto the sidewalk, and nobody got excused from that.
When his phone vibrated in his pocket, he stood and pulled it out, hoping it was Cait. These days, that was always his response to his phone going off.I hope it’s Cait.
And he wasn’t disappointed.Are you busy?
He was, but he was tired and a few seconds wouldn’t make a difference.Yeah, but I have a sec.
Carter’s been talking about playing basketball, but I think he’s feeling awkward about sending you a text message.
Gavin wanted to make a comment along the lines of how, if you wanted to run with the big dogs, you had to be able to send a text and not have your older sister do it. But he was the one who’d brought up basketball in the first place, so he took the high road.
Can he walk to the firehouse?It was between his place and Cait’s mom’s house.
Yes.
Tell him to meet me there at 8am if he wants to play ball tomorrow. If something changes and I can’t go, I’ll try to text.
After a few seconds, he got a reply.He’ll be there. Thank you, Gavin.
Do you want to play, too?If there was one unwritten rule of their Saturday morning games, it was no women. But Scott had brought Jamie a couple of times, so he was willing to risk it.
I want to play, but not basketball.
Damn. Twenty-four-hour shifts were really a pain in the ass sometimes.Best of seven series?
LOL. We’ll start with a best of three series and see how it goes.
He laughed, and then remembered where he was. Sure enough, the guys had all stopped what they were doing to look at him.
“Something you’d like to share with the entire class, Boudreau?” Rick asked.
“No way in hell, LT.”
“Tell her goodbye and let’s go.”
Gotta go back to work. Talk soon.
Be safe.
He slid his phone back in his pocket and gave his full attention back to the job at hand. They had to tell dispatch they were temporarily off-line when they checked the lines, so the faster they were done, the sooner they were back on the job.
“Cait’s brother’s going to play ball with us tomorrow morning.”
“Uh-oh. Getting in with the family now. Shit’s getting serious.”
“I invited him to play before Cait and I... Before she even borrowed my apartment. What about you and Wren? You guys get to the meeting-the-family point yet?”
Grant shook his head, frowning at the line stretched out in front of him. “Not yet. Meeting my family means going to New Hampshire and I think she’s still not ready for a road trip together. And she doesn’t really talk about her family, I guess.”
