One
"Cap?”
I barely registered the rapping on my door frame as I was pulled out of my brain’s full screensaver mode. It had been a long fucking day.
Hell, a long thirty-six hours, considering I’d had to pick up half of someone else’s shift.
“Sorry, Finn,” I sighed, shaking off the last of my mind-fog. “What’s up?”
“You’re still planning on heading to Kindling with us, right?” the young firefighter asked with a wry smile. This kid was trouble. Twenty-five, blond hair, blue eyes and the charisma to make any woman within a forty-five-mile radius weak in the knees. He looked more like a fairy tale prince than a firefighter, but luckily for me, the kid was also damn good at his job.
I scratched my fingers through the shadow that ran the length of my jaw. “I don’t know, kid, it’s been…”
“A long day,” Finn finished. “Yeah. Has been for all of us. Hence the need for a round or two.” He just stood there staring at me for a beat, knowing we were at a bit of an impasse. “Besides,” he continued. “It’s Flanagan’s birthday.”
Ah, the parting shot. Couldn’t back out of plans on someone’s birthday now, could I? Kid was fucking clever.
I arched a dark eyebrow as he stared at me with pleading puppy-dog eyes. Shit. No wonder this kid got whatever he wanted. I was twenty years his senior AND a man and it still got me. “Is it, though or are you just saying that to get me to go out with you?”
“I’m telling Flan you forgot his birthday, Finn stated with a scoff of disbelief. “Gonna break the guy’s fuckin’ heart, Cap.”
I groaned and scrubbed both hands over my face. “Fine. Fine. Give me twenty to get cleaned up and I’ll head out with you forAdrink. One. Not looking to spend my two days off like a fuckin’ zombie.”
Finn shook his head, his golden blond locks drifting in front of his eyes. “Sometimes I forget how much of an old man you are.”
“Watch your mouth or you’re running drills when we get back on Thursday.”
“How many wetalking?”
“All of ’em,” I snapped. “Now get the hell outta here so I can change.”
“Aye aye, Captain!” Finn exclaimed, giving me a mocking salute before he pulled my office door shut and shouted down the hallway to our brethren that I would, indeed be joining them.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I heard the roaring cheer that followed Finn’s announcement, though I definitely rolled my eyes in tandem. You would think these guys hadn’t already spent the last twenty-four hours with me. But that was the thing about the family we’d created within the firehouse wall: we were brothers. Sometimes we fought like them, but we were always ready to have some fun too.
Six of us walked into The Kindling about thirty minutes later. There were usually seven of us on shift, but our EMT, Sheppard, had elected to head home to his wife and kids instead of joining the rest of us doofuses at the bar. Some days I wish I still had the wife excuse to get out of being social, but when I remembered what a train wreck my marriage had been, I’d take forced beer outings over it any day.
“I got the first round!” Finn shouted before heading to the counter with resounding applause, but the second he saddled up to the bar, he started flirting with a pretty blonde and everyone groaned, knowing it’d likely be a good thirty minutes before he made it back to the table.
I chuckled and rolled my eyes affectionately. “I got it. By the time he’s done, we could be halfway to drunk.”
The four remaining at the table cheered as I walked away, immediately bellying up to the far end of the counter and losing myself as I perused the on-tap offerings.
“What can I get for ya?”
The husky voice that pulled me out of my menu sifting was not one I’d heard at Kindling before. This had been the hangout of every firefighter that had come through the firehouse doors since I’d joined the force almost twenty-five years ago, and I could count on one hand the times I was served by someone new. And this one… she was NEW and just her tone made my skin tickle.
I turned my gaze from the wall of beer taps and in the direction of the voice, almost freezing up the second its owner came into view.Standing just to my left, wiping off a pint glass, was the most heart-stoppingly stunning woman I’d seen in all my forty-seven years on earth. Yeah, it probably sounded like an exaggeration, but even if it was, it didn’t feel like it in that moment. She was agoddess,and I was ready to worship her with one fucking glance.
Jet black hair framed her porcelain skinned face in flowing waves that cascaded down to her collarbones. Her hair, however, was a stark contrast to the icy glass color of her eyes, which knocked the wind right out of me. They were damn near clear, and they sparkled in even the dim bar light. She wore a low-cut black tank top emblazoned with skeleton hands that appeared to be cupping her ample… chest, and black ink lined almost all of the skin she had on display. She looked like an edgy, badass Snow White, and fuck, it was working for her. And it was more than fucking working for me.
I gave my head a firm shake, certain I’d probably just made her very uncomfortable with my less than disguised appreciation. “Sorry, um… I’ll do a pitcher of Bud and a Yuenling.”
She gave me a crooked smirk as she set down the polished glass and picked up a pitcher. “Friends haven’t earned the expensive stuff?”
I chuckled a bit, leaning my forearms against the counter and trying to disguise my interest in her every move. I quickly glanced down at the lower half of her body, and it was just as glorious as the upper, clad in skintight black denim and bright red Chuck Taylors. She had curves for days and my palm was already itching to trace every dip and valley. “They’re too young to know good beer. Might as well use it to my wallet’s benefit, right?”
“Or you could teach them the good stuff,” she retorted. She inclined her head toward the table of men waiting for me and I glanced back to see Finn setting down a pitcher and glasses. “Maybe he got them something decent.”
“Doubtful,” I retorted, turning my full attention to the girl before me. “He’s more worried about the blonde sitting at that end of the bar than taking care of his buddies.” She gave me a blinding smile and shook her head, setting down the now full pitcher and picking up a glass for my special order. “How long you worked here?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t take my curiosity as a cheesy pickup line. Though, in honesty, it probably was. “We’re in here pretty regularly and I’m certain I’ve never seen you behind the bar before.”
The girl chuckled as she straightened the glass in her hand and created the perfect pour, golden amber with the perfect foam cap floating on top. “Just took over a couple days ago,” she answered as she slid the glass in my direction. “Old owner made me promise we wouldn’t shut down as we transitioned ownership. Said we’d have some very upset firemen if I did.”
“Well, he wasn’t wrong,” I stated, taking a sip and then licking away the foam I knew now lined the underside of my mustache.I could’ve sworn I saw her nearly clear eyes tracking my tongue’s movements. “Can’t imagine having to find somewhere else to hang out after twenty-five years. Would’ve been a travesty.”
“Well, I’m certainly glad I didn’t inconvenience you then,” she responded with a grin full of mischief. I watched intently as she mirrored my pose, leaning her inked forearms on the bar and making her ample cleavage impossible to ignore. Jesus Christ, I wanted to bury my face in there. “If you’ve been coming here that long, then I’ve probably seen you before.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, matching her flirty smirk with one of my own. “How’s that because I definitely don’t remember you and I’m sure that I would.”
“Well, my…”
“Hey, Cap!” Finn’s voice shouted from behind me.
I grumbled and locked eyes with the object of my flirtation, intent on ignoring the barking pup behind me. “Sorry. What were you…”
“CAP!”
I spun around, my annoyance evident in my tone and my posture. “What, Finn? What do you want?”
“Stop flirting with the pretty bartender and come play darts!” Finn responded, either not noticing my annoyance or not giving a shit. “I still owe you for the last ass-kicking you handed me.”
“Can you give me a second?” I almost growled in response.
I heard a laugh from behind me and turned to see the beauty grinning and shaking her head. “Go ahead,” she retorted. “I should probably get back to work anyway.”
“Yeah? What time you done?” I replied.Jesus.I was coming on hard tonight, but she didn’t seem to mind, and frankly, neither did I.
She licked her blood-red painted lips and looked me up and down. “I own the place,” she retorted. “I’m done whenever I want to be done.”
“I like the sound of that. How about…”
“CAP!”
“Goddammit,” I cursed, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. “Let me go deal with the children. I’ll be back in a bit, alright?”
“Whatever you say, Cap,” she answered with that smirk that made me want to lean over the dark bar top and run my tongue along the seam of her lips. “I’ll see you later.”
“You better.” I picked up my pitcher, balancing the stack of plastic glasses she’d given me on top of my beer, and shot her a wink before I headed back to the table.
“Who the hell is THAT?” Finn asked, ignoring the glare I had laser focused on him.
“I don’t know,” I retorted angrily. “Maybe I coulda fuckin’ found out ifyoudumbasses had left me the fuck alone.”
“Hey,” Flanagan spoke up, putting both of his hands up in a placating gesture. “That was all Finn. We were all enjoying watching you work your magic.”
“I don’t have fuckin’ magic,” I grumbled, nearly slamming down the pitcher and sinking into my seat. “We were just talking.”
“I don’t know, Cap. Seems whatever you were spouting was fuckin’ working,” Jamal, the newest addition of our team, stated nodding toward the bar. I glanced over my shoulder and immediately made eye contact with Snow (that’s what my brain had decided to call her instead of getting a name). She winked and I had to bite down on my lip to prevent myself from grinning like an idiot schoolboy.
“Ya know, I’d heard rumors of the Sullivan Charm, but I’d never seen it in person,” Finn stated, eagerly joining his brothers’ teasing. “You still got it, old man.”
“I’ll fuckin’ show you ‘old man’,” I grumbled. “Let’s get this dart game over with. I got better shit to do than listen to your bullshit all night.”
“Right. Like bending Snow White there over the bar?” Finn snickered before jumping out of his seat and scampering to the dartboards lining the back wall. Kid was lucky he was fast, or his teeth may have ended up imbedded in the tabletop.
“Ifuckinghate him,” I grumbled as I rose, once again, and followed after the still giggling pretty boy.
The other four chuckled and quickly followed behind us, making sure to bring both pitchers along for the short trip, but all I was thinking about was beating Finn as quickly as possible and getting my ass back up to the counter.
Yeah, I wasn’t seeing a second marriage anywhere in my future, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a night or two of fun.
She was gone.
I lost myself in darts and laughing with the boys and the next time I went up to the bar for a drink, it had been a few hours (and a few shots) later, and she was gone.
I kicked myself as I headed out of Kindling and for the parking lot. I wasn’t drunk by any means, but I was definitely buzzed, and I’d left my phone at the firehouse. I needed to grab it to order a ride. However, as the door closed behind me, a voice shouted at me from the black of the barely lit lot.
“Not planning on driving yourself home, are you?”
I was too buzzed to hide my smile as I spotted Snow, leaning against the door of a gorgeous red Impala. The car was definitely older than she was, but it was just as much of a looker. “Nah,” I answered, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans as I strode toward her. “Left my phone at the firehouse so figured I’d order an Uber from there.” I stopped a few feet in front of her and could swear I felt the chemistry sizzling between us. It was cold, pretty normal for a Detroit December night, and she’d added a well-worn leather jacket to her ensemble. Even with the slight pink that had developed on the tip of her nose, she was gorgeous. Maybe even more so. “You always wait for drunk customers in the parking lot or am I special?”
“You’re definitely something alright,” she grinned as her eyes scanned my body. I would have never called myself conceited, but I was in impeccable shape, especially for a nearing fifty-year-old man. Granted, my job called for physical fitness, but a lot of the hours I spent in the gym were simply for the benefit of my own ego. And I definitely enjoyed the way Snow was ogling me right now. “I thought you were going to come see me again, but you never came back up, just sent your friends.”
“I didn’t send anyone,” I argued. “Trust me, I was trying to get back up there, but the boys decided we needed to rotate rounds. By the time I was up again, you’d disappeared.”
“I was in the office til about five minutes ago,” she responded. “Should’ve asked Becca for me.”
I lifted one shoulder in a shrug as our eyes remained locked on each other. “Didn’t want to seem like a creep,” I stated. “I’m sure I’m not the first guy to hit on you… probably not even the only one tonight.”
“Is that what you were doing then?”
“That wasn’t clear?” I retorted with a smirk. “I thought I was pretty obvious.”
“Didn’t want to make any assumptions,” she beamed. This smile wasn’t like the sly, mischievous ones she’d given me before. This was one was bright and genuine, like I’d answered her deepest desires.
“What’s your name?” I asked suddenly. My brain was fine with calling her Snow, but I wanted to know who she really was. I needed to know.
“Gigi,” she answered, extending a hand in my direction. “Yours?”
“Sully,” I responded, removing my hand from my pocket and wrapping it around hers. I could feel the heat from her palm through the thin glove she donned, and I wanted more. “Sullivan’s my last name, but most people call me Sully.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit as they scanned my face as if she was looking for something. “Sully…” she repeated softly. “Sullivan.”
I gave her a curious look. She was definitely thinking something, but I wasn’t entirely sure what. It did, however, make me the slightest bit uncomfortable, just as it seemingly had her. “I’m sorry, do we…”
Suddenly, Gigi snapped out of it, dropping her grip on my hand and giving her head a forceful wave from side to side. “Sorry. I should probably get…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I interrupted, stepping up behind her and laying a hand against her car door as she tried to open it. “What just happened?”
“Nothing!” Gigi exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically. “I just… I should probably get home. My roommate’s probably freaking out.”
“Roommate?” I muttered, confused. Was roommate code for…
“My actual roommate,” Gigi explained, interrupting my thoughts. “I live with my best friend, and I told her I’d be home like an hour ago.”
“Right…” I stated with a nod, still not believing her roommate was responsible for the sudden switch in the air around us. We both just stood there for a tense beat, Gigi looking anywhere but at me while my gaze burned a hole into the hair atop her head. After a few beats, I couldn’t take the silence anymore and I sighed, taking a step back as my breath clouded the cold air. “Look, if I made you uncomfortable, I’m…”
Gigi let out a whine and closed her eyes, tipping her head back and breathing into the sky as she sighed. “No. It’s not… It isn’t you, Sully, I just…”
“What? You just what?”
“Galena!” came a shout from the back door of the bar. Gigi’s eyes went wide in what looked like horror as I turned and found afaceI knew heading toward us.
“Mrs. Castellanos?” I asked, confusion running absolutely rampant in my head.“What are you…”
“Sully!” Eleni Castellanos exclaimed; her Greek accent as heavy as it had been when I last saw her. “I didn’t know you were here!”
I embraced the petite woman, glancing at Gigi over the top of her head as the beauty winced. “It’s good to see you,” I stated as she pulled back and reached up, patting my cheek affectionately.
Eleni’s husband, Gus, had been the fire captain when I joined the force. I was young, twenty at most, and a bit of a prick. Gus Castellanos had righted merealquick though, getting my attitude and my penchant for ignoring authority in check before I even strapped up for my first fire. By the time I was in my first full year as a fire fighter, I was invited to his house for the holidays, I got birthday presents from his family. He’d basically adopted me, though my parents had still been very much alive and a part of my life. It didn’t matter to Gus. He took me under his wing and kept me there until he left the station.He was now the Fire Chief and still very much my boss, but we didn’t spend a whole lot of time together. At least not like we used to. He had to deal with all of the stations in Detroit and the politics of it. I wanted nothing to do with that side of things. Occasionally, I still got invited to cookouts and things, but most of the time our schedules didn’t align for it.
“It’s good to see YOU!” Eleni exclaimed. “Can you believe? My Galena has finally come home!”
I looked up at Gigi, realization hitting my gut like a wheelbarrow full of fucking bricks. Not Gigi.Galena.My boss’s daughter who couldn’t have been more than fifteen the last time I saw her, was the raven-haired haired vixen I’d spent the majority of the night lusting over. I felt fucking sick.
“Sully…” Gigi whispered softly.
“Holy shit,” I practically croaked. It felt like my throat was closing in. What the literal fuck. She was a CHILD the last time I saw her. Sure, that was probably fifteen, twenty years ago now, but she was a fucking kid. Her parents treated me like I was part of their family. Hell, I teased her like she was my kid sister and now… “I did not recognize you.”
“It’s because of all that makeup on her face!” Eleni stated with a laugh as she pinched her daughter’s cheek. “Spends hours to make herself look like a corpse!”
“Mama,” Gigi groaned, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, child, shh. You’re still my beautiful baby girl under all that white and tattoos,” Eleni stated. She suddenly brought forth a bag of takeout in her hand. “You forgot your father’s dinner! You said you would drop it off! Maybe Sullygowith you! Papa missesyou,you know.”
“Mom, please,” Gigi stated, taking the bag from her mother’s grip. “I’m sure Sully has better things to do than ride with me across the city to drop off Dad’s burger and fries.”
“No fries,” Eleni argued. “Papa needs to lose weight. Salad.”
“Okay, his salad then,” Gigi sighed. We locked eyes for a second and she quickly mouthed ′I’m sorry.′
I just shook my head. Too freaked out to even deal with the fact that mere seconds before her mother appeared, I was prepared to take this girl home with me. Definitely did not want to acknowledge the litany of depraved things I was fantasizing about doing to her. “I need to go grab my stuff from the firehouse,” I said, more to Eleni than Gigi. “I’ll get out of your hair for the night.”
“Nooo!” Eleni argued. “You go with Galena! Go see Gus.”
“Can’t tonight, I’m afraid,” I insisted, though the only reason why was the feeling that I needed to take a shower the temperature of hell itself. “I’ll stop in soon though, I swear.” I bent down to press a kiss to the cold apple of Eleni’s cheek and then rose to meet Gigi’s worried gaze. “Galena, it was good to see you again.”
She swallowed, her sparkling eyes now dim and completely crestfallen. “Yeah,” she responded softly. ”Youtoo.”
“Have a good night, ladies.” I gave both Castellanos mother and daughter a nod, shoved my hands back in my pockets and headed back in the direction of the firehouse.
“Bye bye, Sully!” Eleni called after me. “Come back soon!”
I shot her a smile over my shoulder but didn’t stop moving my feet. I needed to get fuck out of here and about as far away from Galena Castellanos as I could get. Hell, if the cold hadn’t brought out the nagging pain in my knee I would’ve bolted like an Olympic sprinter.
This was not how I’d pictured this night ending, but I was certainly really glad it had.
No one wanted to figure out they’d fucked the boss’s daughter after the fact, and now I knew that option was one hundred percent off the table. I would absolutely not be going there.
No chance in hell.
