Star-crossed

Two

CAMILA


Austin planted a chair smack in the middle of the fire station living room and straddled it backward, facing me. He did this so he could harass me as close as humanly possible.

I sat in one of the six brown leather recliners parked in front of the TV. My dog, Eugene Fitzherbert, stood in my lap, growling.

Austin bounced his eyebrows at me under his stupid pompadour hair. "'Sup, girl. You think about what I said?" He grinned.

"No, Austin, I don't have any Mexican in me, and no, I don't want any."

The fire station captain, Cez, came down the hallway into the kitchen as I leaned forward with a hand on my dog's head. "Austin, I want you to know that if I needed mouth to mouth, and you were the last paramedic on Earth, I prefer donations made to the ASPCA in lieu of flowers at my funeral."

Cez laughed as he poured himself a coffee, and Joe chuckled over his book from the recliner next to me. "Austin, get lost."

Austin got up and grabbed his chair, mumbling as he dragged it back to the table.

Taylor breezed back in from the bathroom. She had on that white linen skirt she got when we were in Mexico last summer and sandals that laced up her calf. She looked like Helen of Troy.

My best friend was gorgeous. Blond, waist-length hair, a glistening rock on her ring finger. Joe was her firefighter and equally hot fiancé.

It was Sunday. Family day at the station when the four guys on shift got to bring their friends and family to have breakfast with them if they wanted to. Taylor and I were the only takers this morning. Cez's wife was at church with his daughters, and Austin didn't have a girlfriend.

Imagine that.

Technically I was here for Shawn, the fourth member of the crew, though I'd never met him before.

Joe's best friend, Shawn, just transferred from South Dakota to be the station's new engineer. He was Joe's best man, and I was Taylor's maid of honor for their April 16th wedding in two months. Shawn had missed the engagement party, so it was some all-important thing that we meet each other immediately.

I checked my phone for the time. I was starving and getting irritable. Breakfast was on Shawn today. He hadn't shown up yet though, so nobody was actually making anything and all I'd had was coffee.

He was already pissing me off, and I hadn't even met him yet.

"So," Taylor said, sitting in the recliner next to Joe. "Are you going to tell me where you got the shirt?".

I looked down at the black, men's Wooden Legs Brewing Company T-shirt I'd knotted at the waist. "Nope."

She eyed me. "You left for tampons, and you came back wearing some random shirt. Is there some particular reason you're hiding this from me?"

Joe glanced up from his page. He was a pretty level-headed guy. He didn't usually let things work him up. But explaining that I'd christened his new truck with my black Sumatra drip would probably earn me a stern disapproving look that would somehow be worse than if he cussed me out.

I opted against it.

I'd cleaned it up. I'd managed not to damage the bumper in the fender bender I'd caused slamming on the brakes when I spilled it everywhere. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Since my top was already ruined, I'd used it to clean up the mess and changed into Parking Lot Guy's shirt instead.

"It's Nic's," I lied. "It smells like him. I just missed him." I put my nose to the top of the collar and made a show of breathing in.

Damn, it smelled good.

That guy had been kind of sexy. A nice body under those clothes, I could tell. Good-looking too. That clean-shaven boyish face I always gravitate to.

I needed to get laid. I was starting to fantasize over strangers. It had been too long. Nic hadn't been home in seven months.

Taylor's face went soft. "Awwww. That's so sweet. It's sad you can't be with him on Valentine's Day tomorrow. But just three more weeks and you'll have him for good."