“Good,” Parker said. “That’s good, stop there.”
Then she felt a slight pressure, the tug and snap of a few fine hairs and then the rough pad of a finger against her breastbone. Her eyes snapped open, focusing on Parker’s smiling face.
“There we are. See, Tamsen? No problem at all.”
She let out a shuddering sigh of relief. Ward drilled two more holes, slowly, with Parker stopping to check each one a few times. Then O’Neil, who had grabbed her oil from the kitchen, poured the liquid into each of the holes. Parker encouraged her to wiggle slightly to move the oil around in the cast. Then he grabbed a small saw, no bigger than her palm, turned it on, and started to cut away pieces of the cast.
She almost cried with relief as each chunk came off, allowing her skin to breathe. Tamsen promised herself she would never be this forgetful ever again. No matter how much crap was going on in her life.
As the firefighters pulled off the plaster piece by piece, a thought suddenly hit her. She wasn’t wearing anything under this cast. She was three pieces of plaster away from Parker and the rest of this team seeing her boobs!
“Um, Parker?”
Not glancing up from the saw that was inches away from her flesh, Parker answered her, “Don’t worry, Tamsen, we’re almost done.”
Yes. That’s what she was worried about.
“About that.” She cleared her throat, glancing at the other two men before lowering her voice. “I, um, I don’t have anything on. Under the, um, plaster.”
Parker paused, saw stopping, his gaze coming up to meet hers as the implication of her words sunk in. Though she might have imagined it, she thought she saw a hint of heat fill those golden eyes, but it was gone in an instant.
“O’Neil, grab a towel or blanket for Ms. Hayes.”
The firefighter glanced around then grabbed the kitchen towel hanging from the handle of her oven.
“This okay?” O’Neil asked.
“That’s great,” Parker responded.
O’Neil hurried back over and handed the dishtowel to Parker, who then placed it over the last bits of plaster covering her chest.
“Okay,” Parker said once the towel was firmly in place. “Just a few more pieces and you’re all set, okay?”
Tamsen nodded, anxious to have this whole embarrassing ordeal over with. As Parker finished sawing and pulled the last pieces free, she clutched the towel close to her chest. They all averted their eyes as she protected her modesty, except Parker, who had to watch what he was doing as he removed the plaster. He removed the last piece covering her breasts, clearly getting a peek of the girls, but he made no indication or comment. A professional to the core.
She was sure as firefighters, they’d seen far worse than a woman’s boobs covered in bits of plaster, but these were her boobs. And as much as she might want Parker, in particular, to see them, this wasn’t the situation she had in mind.
And sadly, after this mortifying fiasco, there was no way she could face the man ever again. Even if he was her hero and the hottest man she’d even seen. She’d just have to thank him, say good-bye, and save the thought of him for a lonely night.
After all, it wasn’t like she would ever see him again.
Chapter Two
Parker grabbed another champagne flute from a passing waiter. He’d give his right arm for a beer, but his mother said beer was too crass for her engagement party, and since he needed something to take the edge off, champagne it was. The shit tasted terrible. Seriously, why did people celebrate with this bitter bubble water when they could grab a nice, cold beer that also cost a hell of a lot less?
The Brown Palace Club was filled to the brim with friends of his mother’s, members of the charity organizations she worked on, and, he assumed, people who knew the groom-to-be. He recognized less than half of them. He didn’t run in his mother’s circles too much these days, and he preferred it that way, but this was a special occasion, so he donned his custom Indochino suit and dragged up all the knowledge of high society that had been drilled into him his entire life to paste a pleasant smile on his face.
For his mother.
Money tended to bring out the worst in people. Like the last two assholes who’d dated his mother.
“Hey, Parker.” Finn Jamison, a fellow firefighter at Station 42, slid up to his side. “How’s it going?” Finn’s wife ran a wedding planning company with her two best friends, Mile High Happiness. It was why his blue-collar buddy was here among Denver’s richest and snobbiest.
Parker shrugged. “I’m in this stuffy-ass suit drinking shitty champagne, trying to smile politely to a bunch of people I don’t know, who are only here to get their picture in some society rag, when what I really want is to catch the Avalanche game at home, in my boxers, while drinking a beer.”
Finn laughed. “Wow. Tell me how you really feel, man.”
He was being an ass. He knew. But it was hard to put on a happy face when his mother announced her engagement to a man she’d been dating for only six months, whom Parker had never even met. It all stank like the time the barber shop on Broadway burned down. Burning hair was the worst, and so was his mother naively going full steam into another relationship with a man she barely knew. He loved his mother, and he knew she was a grown adult and all, but the woman trusted people far too much. She didn’t have the best taste in men, either.
Case in point, his dickwad of a sperm donor.
“I’m just here to make my mother happy.”
Which was the truth. Because as wary as he was about this Thomas guy and as much as he lacked faith in his mother’s choice of men, Parker loved his mom. He’d do anything for her. Including looking into any man who tried to snake his way into her life…and checkbook. His mom could trust people all she wanted. Parker was here to make sure she didn’t get taken advantage of.
It’s what any good son would do.
“She looks pretty happy,” Finn answered.
Parker followed his friend’s gaze to see his mother with her—he still couldn’t think it without tensing—fiancé, laughing at something the guy said with a dreamy, lovesick smile on her face. Yeah, she seemed happy, but he’d met Thomas only once. Today. An hour ago, when he first arrived and his mother introduced them. He and his mom were close, but they didn’t really talk relationship-type stuff because he preferred to fly solo, and hearing about his mom’s love life was just above “running into a burning building without his bunk gear” on the list of things he wanted to do.
Thomas did seem like an okay guy. But that didn’t mean Parker wasn’t going to look into the man. Just because the old guy made his mom smile didn’t mean Thomas wasn’t working an angle.
“Pru says the wedding prep is going well. Your mom and Thomas seem to agree on most everything, and that, my wife informs me, is the sign of a long hauler.”
Parker had suggested Finn’s wife’s company to his mom when she told him about her engagement. His mom could have hired the most expensive planners in the state, but she loved supporting small businesses when she could. And the moment she met Finn and Pru’s twins, his mother had fallen in love. Not that he blamed her. It was hard not to cater to every whim of Simon and Sasha Jamison. Those two were tiny kegs of adorable dynamite. The second they turned on the charm, boom, suddenly you were giving them all the cookies in your lunch box.
Finn turned to face him. “I heard about the call you got last week. The woman stuck in some kind of cast?”
He and Finn were currently on different rotations, but everyone at the station was pretty tight. You had to be. When you ran into burning buildings for a living, it was important that you trusted the men and women who had your back.
“Plaster,” he said.
“Huh?”
“It was a plaster cast,” he answered. “She’s an artist. Was doing some kind of art project thing but forgot to use oil before sh
e put the plaster on her skin.”
Finn whistled. “Damn. Sounds like that would have been a bitch to get off.”
It had been, but they managed. Probably one of the top ten weirdest calls he’d ever responded to, along with the time they had to saw a man out of a restaurant bathroom window when he tried to dine and dash, and the time they had to help remove a fifty-five-pound weight from around a guy’s penis when the man inexplicably tried to masturbate with it and instead got his junk stuck.
People were ridiculous.
But not Tamsen.
A smile curled his lips thinking about her. Sure, the woman might be a little flighty, but all creative types were, right? Wasn’t that kind of their thing?
“I figured it was some kid who got his cast stuck in something,” Finn mused, taking a sip of his drink.
Parker grunted. He’d thought that, too, but it hadn’t been a kid. It had been a smoking hottie with the brightest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen. Eyes a man could drown in. And dark, silky black hair just begging for his fingers to run through it. It had been piled on her head in a haphazard bun that looked sexy as hell. Made him wonder how long it was. Would it cover her breasts when she rode a man?
Thinking of her breasts made Parker’s body tighten. He adjusted his stance, wishing the fit of his suit pants was a little looser. Damn, when Tamsen had pointed out to him that she had nothing on under the plaster, a fact he should have thought about, his professionalism had dropped for a split second. He hated himself for it, but for just a moment when she mentioned her nudity, his mind had gone to places it had no business going.
Parker had seen a lot in the ten years he’d been a firefighter. Tamsen wasn’t the first rescue he’d performed where bare skin had been a factor. He’d had to remove items of clothing for medical emergencies, pulled people half naked from their beds as fire consumed their homes, but he’d always maintained a strict professional barrier. It was his job to save people, often in their worst, most personal moments. But with Tamsen, he’d felt a spark.
Something he’d never experienced before while on a call.
If he’d met her at a bar or in a coffee shop, it would have taken him less than five minutes to ask for her number, but he’d met her on the job, and her safety had been his responsibility. As much as he wanted to see her again, he wasn’t a creep. Asking for her number would have been a supremely predatory move. That shit didn’t fly with him. He knew there were assholes who took advantage of their position of power, and those people deserved to be locked in a cell and the key thrown away.
So he and his fellow firefighters had helped Tamsen in the most professional manner possible. They’d offered to take her to the ER for a full checkup, but she’d declined, face bright red with embarrassment, saying she felt fine and promising to call her doctor for an appointment. He hoped she was okay, though follow-up care wasn’t his job. As a firefighter, he got called to many emergency situations where they either saved the day or…he tried not to think too much about the other outcomes.
Lucky for all involved, Tamsen’s call had been easy—only slightly awkward—and he’d just have to put her in the vault in his mind where he occasionally wondered how his past rescues were doing. If fate was kind, maybe they’d meet again under less strenuous circumstances, but he doubted it. He wasn’t that lucky.
“Darling, there you are!”
Parker turned to see his mother gliding over to his side. He had no idea how she did it, but the woman walked as if she floated on a cloud. Even in the designer heels he was sure were pinching her toes like hell, she sashayed around the room as if she wore nothing but the fluffiest of slippers. But as her son, he knew that infinitesimal tightening around her smile meant her dogs were barking.
“Mother.” He leaned over to place a kiss on her cheek as was expected, whispering in her ear, “You should take those ice picks off and slip on some flats.”
She arched one perfectly sculpted brow. “Parker Kincaid, my dear friend La’Vell custom made these shoes, and I promised I would show them off to all my friends.”
Mimicking his mother’s pose, he arched one slightly bushier brow back. “Uh huh, and what’s La’Vell’s real name?”
He would call her expression a scowl, but his mother would never allow such a gloomy emotion at one of her parties.
“His name is Lloyd and he has true talent, but he didn’t feel his name would open many doors. I tried to tell him his skill would speak for itself, but he insisted on a pseudonym. We all know how snooty those fashion people can be to new talent trying to get a foot in the door.”
“Good thing he has your feet, then, I suppose.”
She smiled, patting him on the cheek. “Exactly, darling. I’m simply helping a friend.”
Like she always did. Victoria Kincaid had a soft spot for the underdog. Whether it was a struggling designer trying to make it in the fashion world or a charity that needed funding, his mother was always there to lend a hand or her checkbook. And he loved her generosity, but sometimes it got her taken advantage of. Which was why no matter how much she insisted her fiancé was a good guy, Parker would be withholding his judgment until he’d checked Thomas out. Thoroughly.
“Oh, Finn!” his mother exclaimed as she spotted him standing next to Parker. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for Pru and her company handling all these wedding details. They’ve been an absolute dream to work with.”
Finn inclined his head. “Thank you, Ms. Kincaid. I know she and her business partners appreciate you entrusting them with your special day. They certainly enjoy working with you.”
“Oh please, call me Victoria. After all, I’ve asked Pru if your lovely little ones would be our ring bearer and flower girl so I’m practically their pseudo-grandmother.” She sent a pointed look Parker’s way. “Since it seems this might be the only way for me to get any grandchildren any time soon.”
Finn let out a laugh. Parker didn’t see what was so funny. He wasn’t even dating anyone and his mother was digging the grandkid knife into his chest.
“But I didn’t come over here to talk about my son’s disappointing ventures in the world of romance.”
Ouch. From his own mother.
“I came over because Thomas’s daughter just arrived and I want you to meet her, Parker.”
The guy had a daughter? This was exactly what Parker was afraid of. Just how much did they know about him? And why hadn’t his mother told him he was getting a new stepsister?
Calm down, dude. Everything isn’t always about you.
Yeah, he knew that, but his mother was so tight lipped about her fiancé. In the six months she’d dated Thomas, she hardly ever discussed him with Parker, and he had no idea the guy had a kid. How old was she? What happened to her mother? Were they divorced? Was he a deadbeat dad who left a pregnant girlfriend high and dry?
Probably not that last one, considering the kid was here. Still, Parker had questions. A lot of them. And he sure as hell was going to get some answers.
“If you’ll excuse us, Finn,” his mother said, taking his arm.
Finn nodded. “Of course, Victoria. I better go call my folks and make sure the kids aren’t driving them up the wall.”
“Oh, I don’t think any grandparent would ever think that about their grandchildren. They’re such blessings to those who have them.”
Another pointed look sent his way. Finn smothered his laughter with his hand while Parker walked away with his mother, mouthing to his buddy all the ways he was going to get back at him once they were on shift together again.
Why was his mom harping so hard on grandkids anyway? Maybe it was the upcoming wedding tugging on her emotions or all the visits she’d had with Finn’s twins over the past few weeks. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. His life was fine the way it was. He didn’t need a wife and kids to look after. He had his hands full with his mother at the mo
ment.
Maybe her new stepdaughter could give her grandbabies. If the woman was old enough. She hadn’t arrived with her dad, so she was probably an adult, right? Unless her mom dropped her off? Damn, he really needed to find out more about this guy.
They walked across the clubroom floor, his mother smiling and accepting congratulations and well wishes.
Time to put on a happy face while meeting his new stepsister. One big freaking happy blended family. He snorted. Yeah right.
“Do you need a tissue, darling?” Mom turned a concerned eye on him. “Are you getting sick?”
“No, Mother. It was only a tickle. I’m fine.” Just contemplating all the ways he could protect his mother while beating a hasty retreat from this nightmare.
Her eyes narrowed but softened a moment later when they reached her fiancé. Parker guessed Thomas was in his early sixties, judging by the dark hair graying at his temples and crow’s feet around his eyes. His suit was nice, but nothing special like the sea of bespoke they were swimming in. Parker’s suspicions pinged. He wouldn’t be the first guy to go after Victoria Kincaid for her bank account.
“Vikki, you’re back.”
The man’s eyes brightened, a smile lighting up his face. He appeared to care for Parker’s mom. But looks could be deceiving.
“Yes, dear, and I brought Parker with me.”
“Wonderful.” Thomas turned to speak to a small woman with long, dark hair falling to her mid back in some kind of intricate braid, currently snagging a champagne flute from a passing waiter. “Pumpkin, I want you to meet Parker.”
Something zinged at the base of his spine as Parker stared at the back of the woman in the deep blue dress. It clung to her like a second skin, hitting all the right curves and angles. But that wasn’t it. Something about her seemed familiar. The moment she turned to face them all, his jaw dropped as recognition and lust hit him right in the gut.
“Tamsen, this is Victoria’s son, Parker.” Thomas smiled as he made the introductions. “Parker, my daughter, Tamsen.”
Bright blue eyes stared at him. Eyes he remembered all too well, as they’d been haunting his dreams ever since he saw them last. So crystal clear, a person could drown in them. He’d been hoping to get the chance to see them again. To see her again. His heart literally skipped a beat before pounding a rapid rhythm in his chest as his body tightened at the sight of her. But then the reality of the situation came crashing down around his head.
The Wedding Dilemma (Mile High Firefighters) Page 2
