by Harlow Layne
“How does he not have more?” Pen questioned while her boyfriend blinked rapidly.
“While I don’t have nearly as many followers as Lexie or Ryder, like not even close, I could get a picture with you and post it on mine. Every little bit helps, right?”
“Your friends are too nice.” Walker’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked over at us. “I don’t have words for how grateful I’d be.”
“That’s enough for me,” Lexie said before she finished off the last of her pancakes.
“Me too,” I said around a bite of mine. The Dutch knew how to make some mean pancakes.
“I told you they’re the best.” Pen laid her head on his shoulder. She looked so serene as she snuggled up to him. It was a sight I hadn’t seen from her in all the years I’d known her. It looked good on her.
“You kind of have to say that about your friends.” He chuckled all low and rumbly.
“Clearly, you haven’t heard her talk about our friends Zelda and Reagan. Especially Reagan.” I couldn’t even say Reagan’s name without my lips curling up in a snarl.
“I can’t say that I have.”
“Yeah, I don’t always have the nicest things to say about the two of them. Mostly Reagan, but I’m not sure I’d count her as a friend anymore.”
“She’s certainly not mine,” I added.
Pen raised her hand in the air as our waitress went by and made a checkmark in the air, signaling for our check. “Do you want to go back to the hotel after this, or do you want to see the nightlife of Amsterdam?”
“I wouldn’t mind walking off some of these pancakes.” I patted my full belly. “Seeing a little more would be nice and then heading back. We did as much touristy stuff as we could after we checked in since both of us slept for most of our flight.”
“We even hit up the Red Light District. Although, I’m sure it’s much more entertaining at night than it was during the day.”
“Oh, we should go there.” Walker’s eyes lit up.
Pen rolled her eyes. “Of course, you want to go where the prostitutes are.”
“Are you jealous?” He pulled her close and lightly kissed the corner of her mouth. “It’s not like I’m going to do anything. They went, and you didn’t assume they paid for any services.”
The man made a point.
“Who knows if I’ll ever be back here? While I’m here, I want to see what the big deal is. Don’t you?”
She shrugged as if she didn’t want to, but I knew she wanted to go. Who wouldn’t?
Walker pulled Pen even closer and spoke against her ear. Pen looked down as her cheeks pinked up at whatever he said. I was pretty sure it was something dirty.
“You’re right.” She nodded. “You only live once, and who better to share this experience with than you three.”
Lexie slapped the table as she stood. “Now you’re talking. Let’s go. The only thing I ask is that we don’t do anything that will get us arrested.”
“What?” I nearly shrieked, turning on her.
Pen rolled her lips. “Did you see the look on her face? I thought she was going to pee herself.” Unable to hold back her laughter any longer, Pen leaned against the booth as she laughed.
“Relax, no one is getting arrested.”
Walker wrapped an arm around Pen’s waist and started to guide us out of the café. “You can’t be too sure. The guys might decide to do something stupid without you there.”
“Do you know something you aren’t telling me?” He shook his head, but that didn’t stop Pen from continuing to ask questions. “Are you trying to make me feel bad for doing something with my friends? Should we find them?”
“No, I’m fucking with you. No one is getting arrested. Tonight, tomorrow, or any other night if I have any say on the matter.” He looked over his shoulder to Lexie and me. “She takes her job way too seriously sometimes.”
“Because I like my job and don’t want to get fired, and I want Crimson Heat to be the best. That’s not going to happen if you guys are out partying every night, doing drugs, or getting arrested.”
“I know, babe. Tonight, we’re going to have a little fun, but not too much fun. Okay?”
I liked that even though Walker was young, he seemed to have a level head and knew how to calm Pen down when she needed it. Seeing them together made me feel better.
“Let’s go have some fun, girls!”
15
Stella
Lexie and I stood outside by her pool, looking at the angry sky. We’d only been home from Amsterdam for two days, and there was a fire threatening to burn down our homes. If the wind shifted even the tiniest amount, it could very well send the flames to our little town. While I’d said I wanted to live in Malibu because everyone knew of it, I lived a little further south between the Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. Up until now, the location hadn’t mattered as much.
“I can’t believe this. Do you think we’ll have to evacuate?” Lexie held her camera to her chest after taking about a hundred pictures of the sky.
“Maybe. I really don’t know. They think it’s possible it might reach us if they don’t get the fire contained.”
“Will you keep us updated?” She glanced over at me and then back to the sky. Lexie and Ryder would be gone for the next two weeks on jobs, and I knew it was hard for them to leave with the uncertainty of what would happen.
“Of course, I will. If you want to pack a bag or bags of things you’d like for me to take if I have to leave, do it. After you leave, I’m going to pack a bag to be ready just in case.”
She nodded. “You know you could come with us if you want to. I hate leaving you here alone.”
I wasn’t too thrilled about it either, but I couldn’t run from all my problems. “I know, and thanks. You don’t need to worry about me. If I need to, I can always go stay at Pen’s house until it’s over.”
“Baby, it’s time to go,” Ryder called from the door with Delilah on his hip. “Stella,” he called to me, “be safe.”
“I will.” I’d won the lottery having those two as my neighbors. They could have been stuck-up assholes like the rest of my neighbors, but instead, they’d become some of my closest friends.
“I’ll see you in two weeks,” Lexie said as she leaned over and hugged me. “I expect you to have the first five chapters of your book written when I get back.”
Pulling back, I laughed. “Now you,” I accused her. Pen was always on my case about how I procrastinated. I didn’t need Lexie to start in on me as well.
Walking backward to her house, she only grinned at me until she reached the door. “What can I say? You need someone to hold you accountable.”
I did need the accountability, but it was hard to write when you thought your house might burn down with you in it.
Heading back over to my house, I grabbed my computer, not wanting to think about the fact that I was now alone. All my friends were off living their lives while I sat in my office, stuck somewhere between my past and the present.
Pulling out a stack of index cards, I wrote down all the pivotal points that would occur in my story and tacked them up on the wall. Before I’d moved in, I’d had a person come out and make one wall in my office a tack wall so I could pin all my notecards to it.
Some days, I’d stare at it for hours as I tried to conjure up the twist that would keep my readers reading.
After covering a fourth of my wall with my notecards, I was wiped out. Now that I had my key components done, I’d start writing in the morning.
It felt like my head had barely hit the pillow when I was woken up by my doorbell ringing. Cracking open my eyes, I looked over at my clock to see it was a little after ten in the morning. The blackout curtains I had installed were doing their job at keeping out the bright morning sun. I liked to wake up when my body told me it was time to wake up. It usually resulted in a better writing session than when I woke up with an alarm.
As I trudged downstairs, I already knew today wasn’t
going to be a good writing day. My head felt fuzzy from not enough sleep.
My doorbell went off again. Whoever it was was impatient. “I’m coming,” I yelled as I hit the first floor. Swinging open the door, it occurred to me I should have looked at my phone to see who was at the door. It could have been some annoying salesperson or one of my neighbors. All people I wouldn’t answer my door for.
“Good morning, ma’am, I—” He stopped talking the moment our eyes landed on each other.
Standing before me was Remy. Remy from Seas the Day in a...firefighter uniform. Was I dreaming?
“Stella?” he asked in disbelief.
“This has to be a dream,” I muttered as I turned to look around. The sky outside my living room windows was a darker orange than it was yesterday.
“It’s not a dream, Stella. This is real. You need to leave.”
“Leave? Why? What happened?” My brain was trying to catch up to what was going on around me and how Remy was now standing just inside my front door.
“The fire shifted and is headed this way. I’m part of the team trying to get residents to vacate from the area.”
“But I didn’t pack a bag yet. I didn’t…”
He moved quickly. One second, he was a few feet away, and the next, Remy was toe to boot with me cupping my cheeks in his warm, calloused hands. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. You have time to pack a few things if you need to, but then you have to leave. Do you have any place to go?”
“Um...Pen has a place in LA where I can stay. I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you doing here? I thought you were on a yacht in Spain.”
Smiling down at me, he shook his head. “Not for about six months now. I needed a change.” He shook his head, and a big smile grew across his face. “Damn, it’s good to see you. I never thought I’d see you again.”
“Same.” I giggled. “I thought about trying to get your number somehow after I read your letter, but—”
“You read it?”
“Four months later, Pen found it in her purse. After I read it, I had no way of contacting you. I even thought about flying to Spain to find you.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t.” Knowing my feelings were only one-sided, my face dropped, and pain shot through my chest. “Hey, look at me and let me finish.” Slowly tipping my chin up with his index finger, Remy didn’t speak until our eyes locked. “I’m glad you didn’t try to find me because I was in Florida. I would have hated for you to spend all that money for nothing.”
“Oh,” was my simple response.
“Yeah, oh. I’ve thought a lot about you. Make no mistake thinking otherwise. Now, why don’t you go pack a bag?”
“Can you stay? While I pack,” I amended. He obviously had more important things to do than sit around with me.
“Yeah, sure, but you need to make it quick. Do you know if your neighbor is home?” he asked as we climbed the stairs. “I tried the house, and no one answered.”
“They’re out of town, but I’ll let them know what’s happening. What is happening?” I turned around at the entrance to my bedroom.
“We’re trying to get as many people out as we can in case the fire reaches here. I only got here yesterday, so I don’t know much, and I haven’t been on the front line to know much more.”
Shakily I went to my closet, changed my clothes, and pulled out a suitcase. “Do you think my house is going to burn down?”
“I can’t say, but I hope not.” He looked around the room as I threw anything I thought of into my suitcase. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be gone or if anything would be here when I came back. “So, this is your house.”
“It is. I haven’t even been here a year, and now this,” I laughed without humor. It would be just my luck that I’d finally move on with my life only to have my house burn down.
“Is there anything else you need?”
Looking up from my bag, I answered. “My laptop and all the cards on the wall in my office.”
“I’ll be right back.” He turned on his heel and was out of the room quicker than I could blink.
I was packing my toothbrush when he came into the bathroom. “We really should be going. I have a long list of houses to go to. Um...I…” I stopped what I was packing and looked up at him. It was strange seeing him in his firefighter garb, but I liked it. “I don’t want this to be the last time I see you. I mean, I know where you live now, but this is coming out wrong. I still can’t believe I’m standing in your house. In your bathroom. Can I get your phone number? Maybe I can call you tonight when I get back to the firehouse.”
Warmth filled my belly and up through my chest and arms. “I’d like that. Maybe if you’re not too tired, I can take you to dinner or something like that.”
“Sounds good. I don’t know when I’ll be free, but I promise to call.” He held out his phone, and I promptly snagged it and put in my number.
“Oh, I need my phone and charger. It should be by the bed. Can you grab it?”
“Of course, and then we need to leave.”
I couldn’t believe I was leaving my house. At least I was lucky enough that I had a place to stay. Once I was on the road, I’d have to leave a message for Pen to let her know that I was at her place, and I’d need to leave an update with Lexie.
“Do you need this?” Remy asked as he held up my vibrator while he tried to keep a straight face.
Tilting my head to the side, I asked. “I don’t know, will I?”
Throwing it over his shoulder, Remy moved into my space. His large hands came to my waist as he bent down until his lips were only a breath away. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“Good, then leave it here.” Stepping out of his grip, I grabbed my bathroom bag and took a look around my room. It was mostly dark with only the lamp on for light. My bed was unmade, and Remy stood in the middle of my room with a heated look in his dark eyes.
As I went to pick up my suitcase, Remy did it for me. He didn’t say anything as I slowly walked down my stairs and through the lower half of my house, silently saying goodbye just in case.
As the garage door opened, I turned to Remy and placed my hand on his cheek. “I really thought you were a dream when I first saw you.”
“Do you dream of me often?”
“That’s for me to know.” Pushing up on my toes, I grazed my lips over his. “Stay safe.”
Opening the driver's door for me, he waited until I had my seatbelt on. “I will. You do the same.”
As I backed out of my driveway, I watched Remy go to the house next door and ring their doorbell.
Who knew all it would take was a state of emergency to bring us together again?
16
Remy
Fresh out of the shower, I went in search of Donnie. Even though he wasn’t the Captain, he’d been put in charge of all the volunteers since Captain Rodrigo was overseeing Station Nineteen’s firefighters.
I knocked on his door and waited until I heard him call out. Donnie looked up from behind the desk he sat at as I walked in. “What do you need...sorry, I can’t remember your name?”
“Remy St. James, sir.”
“No need to call me sir. We’re pretty laid back around here. Is there something you need?”
“Yeah, I was wondering if it would be okay if I went to dinner with a friend.”
He stopped typing and leaned back in his chair. “Are you expecting me to drive you to meet this friend?”
“No, I just wasn’t sure what the protocol was and didn’t want to do something that would piss anyone off.”
“I appreciate you asking. You can do whatever you want in your free time, which there won’t be much of, I can assure you. Just be back before we roll out in the morning. Did you only come out here to spend time with this friend?”
“No, sir. It was a coincidence I even ran into her. She was one of the houses I was sent to evacuate. Before that, it had been almost a year since I’d seen her.”
“No need to exp
lain all of that.” Donnie gave a tight smile. “I only ask because we’ve had a couple of guys who only came for a free plane ticket. Like I said, you can do what you want in your free time. No one is going to come looking for you if you’re not here in the morning.”
“I’ll be here,” I promised.
“Today, we went easy on you. Tomorrow night there will be a skills test so we can see what you’re capable of.”
“I’m ready to prove myself.”
“Good, now go see your lady friend.” He chuckled.
“Have a good evening,” I said before I closed his office door. Pulling out my phone, I pulled up Stella’s name and hit the phone icon to call her. It rang twice before she answered.
“Hello?”
“Are we still on for that dinner you promised me earlier?” I answered in reply.
“Um...yeah, of course.” She giggled, and I felt it in my bones. “It got late, and I thought maybe you changed your mind.”
“That would never happen. I’m a man of my word. If I say I’m going to do something, I will do my damnedest to do it. Do you by any chance know where Station Nineteen is?”
“I don’t, but I don’t know where most stuff is here. I have to use my GPS wherever I go. Let me see.” Her voice was muffled as she continued to speak. “It says it should only be about thirty minutes from where I am, but I’m not sure if it’s taking traffic into account.”
“If it would be easier, I can get an Uber and meet you someplace to eat?”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Okay, do you like Mexican?”
“Love it. Send me the address, and I’ll meet you there.”
A moment later, a text came in with the address. Looking forward to seeing Stella, I went into the bathroom and slicked my hair back, and sprayed myself with a touch of cologne as I waited for my Uber to arrive.
