Burned

TWO

GROWING UP MY MOM ALWAYS TOLD ME I'D SET THE KITCHEN ON FIRE; I just had hoped that it wouldn't actually happen.

It all started with eggs. All I wanted to do was make a nice breakfast for Mrs. Hoover as a thank you for her kind hospitality.

I'm honestly not sure where I went wrong.

But somehow, someway, it ended up with me scrambling around the kitchen waving a towel around while profusely yelling at the smoke alarms to shut up.

They didn't.

In my panicking state, I quickly open the window as I try to air out the smoke and turn off the stove top, which I should have done in the first place. A loud knock on the door makes me jump and shriek. I quickly put the towel down and ran to the door, while wiping my clammy hands on my pajama shorts.

My heart drops.

Standing outside my door, at five in the morning, are two fire-fighters all geared up.

"Hello Ma'am, we were sent out here because your alarm was going off."

I'm mortified, I stand here frozen in my silver, satin, ruffled tank top and shorts. My hair is in a low messy bun, my hair pieces falling out everywhere. My 'woke up like this' is not flawless, despite what Beyonce says.

"I-I oh god, I'm so sorry." I look at both of the guys, completely gob smacked at how attractive these two men are. My eyes can't move from the piercing ice blue eyes of the gentleman in front of me. Even in his gear, he looks hot, not heat hot, I mean hot-hot. I can notice some of his dark brown hair peeking through his helmet. The sudden urge to tug on this stranger's hair is strong, it's embarrassing, but I can't help the urge.

His perfect eyebrow raises like a question as a beautiful smirk appears on his lips, hey lips let's meet and not be strangers.

Someone clears their throat and I jump.

Oh yeah, my kitchen is currently burning.

"Oh, Oh!" I shout before jumping behind the door letting them come in. "Sorry, I um- spaced come on in." The two gentlemen come in quickly, luckily nothing actually caught fire, I just hope they don't ask what caused the alarm to go off.

The second guy walks over to the sink where I had placed the pan of burnt eggs, the handsome one stands a little in front of me. He looks back over his shoulder at me as he chuckles, his dimple showing, "So what caused the alarms to go off?" My alarms are going off because you're so fucking hot.

Jesus- H- Christ Emberly Lynn, shut the fuck up.

I clear my throat before wrapping my arms around myself. "Uh-um eggs." I whisper, too ashamed to admit it loud enough. My breath hitches as Mr. handsome takes a step forward, his smile widening in amusement.

"What was that?" God, his husky voice sends a pool of heat between my legs.

"Fine, it was eggs." My face heats, as I hide my face in my hands. That's it, Littletown was cool and all, but I think it's time for me to go.

"Egg-celent." The other guy says as a moment of silence sits between us. I slowly lift my head up to see the guy read in the face as he tries to hold back his laugh.

"Jesus Starks." The handsome guy shakes his head, a smile on his face as he rolls his eyes at his partner's terrible pun. "Are you okay, is everything fine here?" His attention back on me, he bites his lip as he fights back a smile.

"Apart from wanting the ground to swallow me up, I think I'm doing fine." I let out a fake chuckle- could have easily been described as a cough- as I looked around the cabin.

"It's alright, it happens to all of us." The other guy says as he takes off his helmet. His shaggy black hair falls on his face, two o'clock shadow on his sculpted face, green eyes shine with amusement. Holy hell, I wasn't expecting attractive men like this to live in a small town. I catch movement in the corner of my eye as Mr. Handsome takes off his helmet.

Sweet baby jesus, lord have fucking mercy on a woman.

My mouth drops and I swear I slip on drool as my eyes examine him. Not only is he a tall son of a bitch, but his tan skin also makes his blue eyes pop, his dark brown hair even looks perfect after a helmet was on his head. His thick silky locks are nicely cut and styled to the side, his clean-shaven face looks immaculate on his perfectly chiseled face, so smooth, so perfect. If someone were to tell me this guy, this guy right here was a god.

I'd fucking believe it.

"I'm guessing you're new here?" Starks says as he looks at me, I can feel the other guys on me. I stand strong-I'm not weak- I will not look at him.

Oh, a little peak wouldn't hurt anyone.

I quickly look at him, quickly turning into slowly, as I take in his handsome self as he leans against the cabin wall, his helmet resting between his arm and his hip as he poses deliciously. He looks like those fireman models in the calendars. I clear my throat before looking at Starks.

"Yeah, I just moved here Friday." I rock on my toes, feeling absolutely awkward in my pajamas.

"It's Saturday morning, and you already managed to set something on fire." Starks laughs tilting his head back.

"Hey, listen. I didn't ask for shitty cooking skills, okay? I can cook, I'm a really good cook. I just don't know what happened. One second the eggs were looking egg-celent," I pause and look at Starks who instantly looks at me with a proud smile. "Then next thing I know, smoke is everywhere. I tried my best to get the thing to shut up, but then you guys, you guys got here really fast." I say lightly out of breath at my ramble. "I'm so sorry." I blurt.

"It's fine, we weren't doing anything anyways." The handsome man shrugs his shoulders as he smiles at me. "Well, hopefully you don't catch anything else on fire, if you do wait till Wednesday, it's the next time I'm on shift." He winks before nodding at Starks, who in a couple strides, walks up to me for a handshake.

"My name is Erick Starks, welcome to Littletown." He smiles, shaking his head before leaving my house. The other guy, in a very sexy way, pushes himself off the wall as he takes a step towards me, holding his hand out for me. I very shakily, put my hand in his. My whole body tingles at his light touch.

"I'm Nolan Benson and you are?" He questions. He's still holding my hand. Bolt of electricity shoots through me at where our fingers touch.

"Uh, it's Emberly Berry." I shyly say, my hand shakes. The feeling of his skin on mine is making my anxiety skyrocket. I ignore the tingles running up my arms from his touch.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure I'll see you around." He smiles warmly before letting go of my hand and stepping back out the door. He pauses before slowly turning around and walking back to their fire truck. I stand there, like a fucking weirdo, and watch as the drive away.

"Well shit. If I would have known you were attracted to the guy I would have given you his information. You didn't need to set the place on fire." My mouth falls open at Mrs. Hoover standing there in her pajamas.

"Oh-no, uh no- it's-no-not- nothing actually caught on fire." I fumble out, her laugh is loud as she laughs at my dispense. She wipes a fake tear from her eye.

"Oh dear, you're funny. May I?" She points inside and I nod my head, she quickly walks in taking in the scene. "So what did you do?"

"I wanted to make you breakfast as a thank you for your hospitality but that necessarily didn't work out." I look down embarrassed.

"Oh sweetheart." She looks at me like I just fucking cured cancer. "Well, how about we head to my house and we make breakfast together?" I smile right away.

I haven't had a friend in so long. The freedom to do things I want is refreshing and exciting. Tears brim my eyes but I hold them back.

Don't let him get to you Emberly.