The Last of The Red Hot Firefighters (Red Hot Reunions Book 1) (21 page)

“But I’m still angry,” he said, making her eyes fly open.

“You are?” she asked, brows knitting as she nodded. “I mean, of course you are. You have every right to be. But as long as you’ll give me a chance to make it up to you, I know I—”

“You can make it up to me right now,” Jake said, raising his voice to be heard over the train, which was now so close Naomi could smell diesel in the air. “All you have to do is say yes.”

Naomi shook her head. “What?” she shouted as the train rushed beneath the bridge, sending a gust of warm air up the side of the embankment, making Jake’s tuxedo coat fly up in the back as he sank down on one knee.

Naomi’s lips parted, but her sound of surprise was swallowed by the roar of the wheels.

“Will you marry me, Naomi Whitehouse?” Jake shouted, taking her hand in both of his. “You drive me crazy sometimes, but I’d rather be crazy with you for the rest of my life, than spend another day without you.”

Naomi nodded, fresh tears filling her eyes as she leaned down to hug him and press a giddy kiss to his cheek. “Yes!” she shouted before kissing him again. “Yes, yes, yes!”

She clung to him as he stood, drawing her up his body until her feet dangled, wrapping her so tightly in his arms that she knew this time he would never let her go. He held her close as the train rushed by and was still holding her when the chug of the wheels had faded to a distant rhythm and the smell of metal and diesel had been replaced by the sharp winter scent of rotted leaves and frozen earth.

“Think there’s any chance in hell I’ll be able to find that ring box now?” he finally asked, making Naomi laugh.

She pulled back to look into his face, relieved to see his eyes shining with love.

“I seriously doubt it, but we could spend a few hours looking,” she said, letting her fingers play up and down his lapel. “Or…we could head home, and be naked in your bed in twenty minutes. I certainly know which I’d prefer.”

Jake made a low, rumbling sound that sent tingles shivering up Naomi’s spine. “Tempting, but I wasn’t kidding about that ring costing half my life savings.”

“And I wasn’t kidding about having more money than God,” Naomi said, with a grin. “And what good is that money if we don’t use it? Not to mention that I’m freezing to death out here with no coat on and will probably catch pneumonia and die if you don’t take me home and make love to me right now.”

Jake smiled as he set her on her feet. “Pneumonia is pretty serious,” he said, kissing her neck as his hands slid lower, cupping her bottom in his hands.

“It is,” Naomi said, breath coming faster as Jake’s hands urged her hips closer to his. “So let’s get out of here. I’ll follow you back to the ball, we’ll drop off Jamison’s car, and be at your place ten minutes later.”

Jake pulled away with a curse. “I hit him. I popped Jamison one right on the mouth.”

Naomi’s nose wrinkled. “Yeah, I saw that.”

“I should go into the ball and apologize,” Jake said, running a hand through his hair.

“As long as it’s a quick apology,” Naomi said, taking his free hand in hers and starting toward the car.

“But I’ve never hit him like that,” Jake said. “Not even when we were kids. He’s got to be pissed.”

“I don’t think so,” Naomi said, turning to him as they reached the car. “Honestly, I think he’ll just be glad to have this all behind us.”

Jake nodded, glancing down at the ground before meeting her eyes in the cool, blue moonlight. “Thank you,” he said softly. “For coming after me.”

“Thank you for hearing me out,” she said, brushing his hair from his forehead, so grateful that she was still free to touch him that she couldn’t seem to stop. “And for letting me in.”

“I didn’t have much choice,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Like I said, I’m crazy about you and… Well, once you started talking about your reasons for keeping quiet, I realized I’d kind of been doing the same thing.”

“How so?” Naomi asked, cocking her head to one side.

“Mick let it slip at the holiday party that you’d lost your baby,” Jake said, hugging her closer. “But I pretended not to know because I didn’t want to hurt you, or push you to share something so private before you were ready.”

Naomi nodded. “I understand,” she said, then added in a relieved voice. “I’m just glad something I said made sense to you.”

Jake smiled. “You make a lot of sense, Whitehouse.”

“Not for long,” she said, leaning into him with a happy sigh.

Jake laughed. “Giving up cookies
and
making sense for the New Year?”

“No, I’m giving up Whitehouse.” She hooked her wrists behind his neck. “I’m planning to become a Hansen as soon as possible.”

“As soon as we can get a ring and book a preacher,” he said, and then he kissed her, banishing her awareness of the cold, eliminating every last shadow of doubt.

Jake Hansen kissed her like a man who knew who he was and where he was going, like a man who worked hard and loved harder, who believed in second chances and forever, and who would never let the woman he held in his arms slip away.

Naomi closed her eyes and opened her heart and kissed him right back, every doubt melting in the warmth of Jake’s love, her homecoming now feeling absolutely complete.

As long as she was with Jake, she would be home, for now and always.

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To Tame a Wild Firefighter

Red Hot Reunions Book Two

c. Jessie Evans 2016

Mick Whitehouse had it bad. So bad that not even a gorgeous redhead with big, blue eyes, legs for miles, and a dress so low-cut it practically offered a hand-written, engraved invitation to stare at her cleavage could make him stop thinking about the girl who’d walked away.

Run
away is more like it.

After they’d kissed in the garden at the Fireman’s Ball, Faith Miller had broken a short distance sprint record in her hurry to get away from him. And then the next morning, while Mick was still in bed, dreaming about her sinfully addictive lips, Summerville’s only female firefighter had been splitting town. She’d taken two weeks vacation—an unprecedented occurrence, according to her boss, and Mick’s sister’s fiancé, Jake—and vanished.

Mick had no idea where she’d gone. He only knew he couldn’t stop thinking about her and the night he’d held her beneath the mistletoe. Faith had felt so perfect in his arms and responded to his kiss with such unrestrained passion that for a few, blissful minutes she’d banished the memory of his last girlfriend from his mind—a feat Mick had been trying, and failing, to accomplish since moving home eight months ago.

Mick craved that forgetfulness even more than he craved the way Faith made his blood rush and body ache. He wanted to cover her mouth with his, pull her tight against him, and disappear into the heat they generated together.

He wanted Faith, and no other girl would do.

He’d tried to forget her. He really had. First with Betsy, then Therese, and now, Nina…whose chest had to be in danger of frostbite in that tiny blue dress with only a light sweater pulled around her shoulders. Why wasn’t she wearing more clothes? At the very least, she should have on a winter coat.

Wishing a hot girl in a revealing dress was more covered up. What is
wrong
with you?

“Thanks for coming out,” Mick said, smiling at Nina, ignoring his caustic inner voice.

There was nothing wrong with him, nothing a date or four with Faith couldn’t cure, anyway. If she hadn’t run off, he could have already convinced her to go out with him and be halfway to being over her by now. He didn’t want a long-term relationship or the associated angst; he just wanted to get Faith out of his system.

“Thanks for dinner,” Nina said as they stopped in front of Icing
,
the bakery Mick’s older sisters had opened on Main Street. “I had so much fun tonight.”

“Me too,” Mick said, fishing for his keys in his pocket, making a mental note to touch up the paint around the door the next day, after he finished the kitchen remodel he was working on south of town.

The bakery had only been open a week, but it was already a Summerville hot spot and had the chipped paint to prove it. Almost every morning, there was a line out the door as people queued up to get their favorite cookies, pastries, bread, and cakes before Icing
sold out for the day. Last Saturday had been the worst.

By tomorrow morning at eight, there would be people milling around outside, visiting with each other as they waited for the shop to open, making way too much noise for anyone to sleep in.

Which was as good a reason as any to end this date early.

Mick yawned pointedly before pulling Nina into his chest for a quick—platonic—hug. “See you at the New Year’s Eve party on Sunday. Drive safe.”

He figured that was the end of his latest failed date, but unfortunately, Nina didn’t seem to get the message.

“I could come up for a while if you want,” she said, angling herself between Mick and the door. “I’d love to see your new apartment. It sounds like fun living above a bakery.”

Mick silently cursed himself for moving out of his parents’ house, where he’d been living with his sisters while his mom and dad wintered in Florida. True, his sisters had been driving him crazy, especially when they started planning Naomi’s wedding, and the entire living room began looking like a marriage bomb had exploded, every available surface covered with wedding magazines, lace, and repulsive penis-shaped Jell-O molds for the bachelorette party. Still, he had to admit that sometimes their date-repelling qualities came in handy.

Right now, for example, he could have counted on Naomi and Maddie to scare Nina away. Not intentionally, of course. They weren’t like that. There was just something about the presence of a guy’s sisters that tended to intimidate girls—especially when one of the sisters was a famous celebrity chef. Thanks to the Sister Scare-Off Factor, Mick hadn’t been with a woman since his older siblings moved back to Summerville.

In his more rational moments, Mick told himself going without sex for two months was the reason he couldn’t get Faith out of his mind. In his less rational moments, he suspected he had a crush, a bad one, the kind that wouldn’t be banished by time, distance, or dates with otherwise perfectly desirable women.

“I don’t know, Nina,” he said, taking a step away from the door. “It’s pretty messy up there.”

“I don’t mind. I know how guys are,” she said in a flirtatious voice.

A few weeks ago, Mick would have been eating that flirt up with a spoon and asking for seconds, but now it only made his stomach churn.

“Seriously, I just moved in. Half my stuff is still in boxes.” He turned to glance at the firehouse across the street, silently wishing Faith were working so he might have a chance at spotting her silhouette through the second floor window. “Maybe some other time?”

“Sure. No worries,” Nina said, though she sounded disappointed. “Walk me to my car, then? I get nervous walking by myself.”

“Of course,” Mick said, though he didn’t see why she would be nervous.

He could see her car from where he stood. She had parked on Main Street, less than ten feet from his front door, under a streetlight, across from the fire station where five of Summerville’s biggest and burliest were keeping watch over the firehouse. She couldn’t be safer, and Mick couldn’t help thinking about what Faith would do in a situation like this.

Faith was as fearless as she was irresistible. Even when they were kids, Faith had been the kind who could take care of herself and anyone else who had the poor judgment to mess with her. Faith would probably tell him to scram and jog home alone down Summerville’s darkest streets, never once fearing for her safety.

The thought made Mick smile as he stopped next to Nina’s car. He knew some guys had a problem with strong, independent women, but Mick couldn’t imagine anything sexier. After the hell Bridget, his last girlfriend, put him through his senior year of college, as far as Mick was concerned—the stronger the woman, the better.

And the sexier.

For the last twelve days, Mick’s dreams had been nonstop montages of Faith’s long, shapely legs, deliciously toned arms, and soft, full lips.

Twelve days, which meant only two more days until Faith was back in town.

Two more endless, impossible days…

“So, do you have a date for Melody’s party?” Nina asked, fidgeting with her purse instead of unlocking her car. “If not, maybe we could go together.”

Mick cringed inwardly. He hated this part. He hated letting girls down easy.

Once upon a time, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal—he and Nina had only been on one date, and they’d made each other no promises—but Bridget had taught him that breaking up wasn’t always easy to do.