by Cora Seton
“There’s not enough material here to sneeze on.” Damien would have died if she wore anything so revealing.
Allie winked. “Exactly.”
Makenna hadn’t confessed her feelings for Titan to her friend. She didn’t exactly know how to do that. Allie had no idea the VFD meeting was far more important to her than the actual party. Titan wouldn’t be at the party.
*
Over at the fire station, Titan unlocked the door, jerking at one of the vines where it had grown down over the facing. No one had the heart to kill the old purple wisteria, they just kept it trimmed back. He’d come early to put on a pot of coffee. The men had negated the idea of getting one of those contraptions that used K-cups, they thought they were too manly for that. What they wanted was an actual container so it could sit too long on the heating coil while the liquid inside grew stiff enough to pass for battery acid. While he waited for the pot to brew, Titan walked around, looking and remembering. A lot of people had worked hard to make this place possible. The department had little to no county or city support. Most of the funds they used to pay for their equipment and gas was money they raised together.
Their prime asset was the old building itself. Having withstood the test of time, it dated back to the early 1900s. The floor was concrete and the walls were brick. Half of the building held their trucks and gear. The other half contained a small kitchen, a meeting table and their files. There was also room for community meetings. In the past they’d held Halloween parties for kids or rented the space out for family reunions.
“Hey, Sloan, how’s it hanging?”
Titan had been studying the photos on the wall. Someone had hung his ‘I Am My Brother’s Keeper’ plaque and a picture of him receiving it. Since he’d stuffed it in the back of the file cabinet, he knew that someone must have been Makenna. Only she would worry about something so sentimental. Each member of the department had their own key to the front door, including her. Would she come tonight? God, he hoped so.
“I’m great.” He shook Montana’s hand. The big guy owned a heavy equipment rental place and hired out extra to dig ponds or other earth moving work for ranchers or anyone else who needed it. Right now he had on a black T-shirt that declared, Find ’em Hot and Leave ’em Wet. “You know anything?”
“I know it’s been hot as a firecracker. All we need is a few grass or forest fires to break out. You know the sap in these junipers is about as potent as turpentine.” Montana poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from where Titan had scattered his paperwork.
“Yea, I agree. We need to go over our schedules tonight and make sure who’s going to be here and who’s going on vacation so we know we’ve got a full crew available every weekend.” While Titan was speaking, a few more of the guys came in—Blaze, Dallas, Ronan and Hotshot, followed closely by Makenna.
As soon as she entered, the conversation in the room turned into a dull roar for Titan. He was only aware of her. All of the men were glad to see her and that didn’t surprise him. Since the truth had come out about her marriage, most could look back and see tell-tale indications that all hadn’t been as it should be. Like Titan, they wished they could turn back the clock and rescue Makenna from a nightmare she never deserved.
Titan tried not to stare, but he couldn’t help himself. She was so damn beautiful. All he could do was remember how good she’d looked in his bed. His only consolation was that she seemed to be having an equally hard time keeping her own eyes off of him. Well, good. Maybe they could put an end to this nonsense and pick up where they’d left off with that kiss.
As Assistant Chief, he welcomed everyone, including her, and soon it was time to get down to business. Titan didn’t know how it was in big fire departments, he’d only had experience in this one. But in Hays County, they sat around the table, listening to the reading of the minutes of the last meeting in Makenna’s husky little voice. Next, Dallas told them how much was in the bank account. Not enough, there was never enough. Titan was about to talk about their schedules when Montana raised his hand. He’d come in late, but apparently he had something to say. Titan nodded at him.
“In view of what’s happened, I’d like to nominate Titan Sloan as our new fire chief.”
“I second the motion,” Blaze spoke up quickly, while Titan sat there with mouth slightly open in disbelief.
“All in favor?” Hotshot asked. There was a chorus of ‘ayes’ and all raised their hand.
“Will you accept?” Dallas asked him.
“Why me?” Titan shook his head, trying to wrap his head around this new development.
“Simple,” Ronan chimed in. “I might be the youngest, but even I can answer this. You’re qualified, you’re committed and you’ve got a heart as big as Texas.”
All of them clapped and Titan bowed his head. “I’m honored and I’ll do my best.”
Makenna smiled at him. “You’ll be wonderful. Now, can I say something?”
“Of course.” Titan gave her the floor.
“I want to apologize to everyone about how my personal life and the actions of my husband tarnished the reputation of this department. I would like to stay on as secretary and continue working with you, but if you don’t think I should, I’ll absolutely understand.”
“We want you to stay.” “Stay.” “Of course you’ll stay.” All of their answers ran together. She looked relieved and Titan was so happy he couldn’t see straight. After that, he went on with the meeting, sharing information on a few training classes they had opportunities to sign up for. Finally, he opened the floor for fund raising discussions.
“I think we could do a ‘bake-less’ bake sale,” Makenna suggested, shyly.
“A what?” Ronan asked. “I don’t get it.”
Sitting a little higher in her chair, Makenna explained. “People are busy. Instead of asking the townspeople to donate cupcakes and cookies and then turn around and ask those same folks to buy what they baked, I would just send out a letter with a cute graphic and ask them to donate whatever money they would have spent on baking or gas or buying the goodies straight to the fundraiser.”
“Hey, I like that idea.” Blaze nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“There’s other things we can do. One fundraiser won’t be enough, of course.” Makenna smiled, glad her idea was being accepted. “We can have some food booths at area festivals, they’re usually successful.” She looked straight at Titan. “Anything we can do to make ourselves…available, I think we should.”
Titan’s eyes widened. Was she sending him a message? In public? He was amazed at the change in Makenna. She’d always been helpful, but now her smile was big and she seemed so relaxed. “All of those things will be great.” He gave his approval. Later he’d find out if there was more to that little speech than met the eye. She’d been doodling something on a piece of paper. He snuck a peek but it was only the letters MTF written several times, sometimes with a heart around them. What did that mean?
“I was hoping we could do another one of those beefcake calendars,” Hotshot said blandly, then smirked when the other guys looked shocked. “What? I was a great Mr. September.”
Titan laughed. “One of those a year is all we can manage.” Jericho was right, though, the calendar had paid for a lot of new equipment they’d needed desperately.
After that, the meeting went along at a fast clip. Titan was pleased. They accomplished what they needed to do. A couple of the guys stood up to leave when there was a tap on the door. Titan looked up to see Fire Marshal Kirkland Armstrong standing there with a serious expression on his face. “Could I have a minute?”
“Of course.” Titan motioned him in. “What did you find?”
Kirk shook hands with all the men and nodded to Makenna. He knew everyone. Before taking the job as Marshal, he’d been a volunteer firefighter himself. “I’m sorry to say that I didn’t find much. The origin of the fire, like you said, Titan, was in the bedroom. There was no evidence of arson that I could find. Unf
ortunately, this is one of those times when I can’t determine exactly how the fire started.”
Makenna noticed that Kirk seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her. She squirmed in her seat, feeling uncomfortable. More than likely many people felt her accusation stemmed from the trouble she and her husband were having rather than any guilt on his part. Feeling self-conscious, she passed her hand over the fading bruise on her face.
Titan was disappointed. “I understand. Sometimes it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of a fire.”
Kirkland stood up, finally directing his attention toward Makenna. “Ms. Wade, I hope everything works out for you.”
“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say. He, like others, probably thought she was either lying or off her rocker. While Titan was walking the Fire Marshal to his car and the others were shooting the bull around the coffeepot, Makenna made her getaway.
When Titan returned, the meeting room was empty. Hearing voices, he walked to the equipment room where Ronan and Hotshot were checking out some air tanks and the others were climbing on the trucks, doing equipment checks. “Where’s Makenna?”
“I guess she left, Chief,” Blaze remarked.
Well, hell. He’d had every intention of talking to her.
A mile or two away, Makenna was headed back to Allie’s. She passed the home she’d shared with Damien. After hearing the Fire Marshal’s edict, she wondered if she’d been wrong. He hadn’t come straight out and admitted to the fire. But when she’d accused him of it, he hadn’t denied it either. At least he was still behind bars for the abuse. As far as the arson allegations were concerned, Kirkland Armstrong’s news had made her look foolish in the men’s eyes. She felt embarrassed that Titan had gone out on a limb for her. It made her look vindictive. If people believed she was lying, it would reflect badly on Titan and the VFD.
Tonight hadn’t gone exactly as planned. Now she felt like the wind had gone out of her sails. Perhaps Titan wasn’t for her. After all, he was a mega-hot cowboy with shoulders as wide as a John Deere tractor and she was nothing special. What she needed was an instructional booklet on ‘How to Come On to a Man’. Despite her sadness, the thought made her smile. Maybe Hotshot’s party was the perfect way to get her mind off of her trouble.
*
“Hand me that wrench.” Titan held out his hand.
Hotshot placed it in his chief’s open palm. “I hate to bail on you, but I gotta go. Which reminds me, you’re invited to a party tonight on the lake if you’re not busy. Nothing fancy, hotdogs, beer and as many girls as I could find to invite.”
“Thanks,” Titan murmured. “But I need to go check on someone.” He was concerned about Makenna. She’d looked upset after hearing Kirk say there was no evidence of arson.
“Well, okay.”
Hotshot sounded disappointed. Titan was about to explain further when his phone buzzed. Sitting back on his heels, he answered, “Sloan,” without checking the display.
“Titan, this is Sheriff Conner.”
“Yes?” He immediately had Titan’s attention.
“I thought you’d want to know, Damien Wade is out on bail. Looks like he’ll be fined, no additional jail time.”
“Fuck!” Titan stood, locking gazes with Hotshot. “How the hell did that happen?” After hearing the Fire Marshal’s investigation results, maybe he should’ve expected this, but he hadn’t.
Conner let out a harsh breath. “Wade’s got friends. I think the judge may be one of them.”
“Did you call Makenna? Does she know?” Titan felt his protective instincts rise. An uneasy feeling crept over him.
“We’ve called, there’s no answer and she doesn’t have a mail-box set up on her phone.”
“Damn!” Titan grabbed his hat off his head, tossed it down and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ll let her know. Where’s the justice in all of this?”
“That’s out of my hands,” Conner said with an even tone. “Tell her to keep her eyes open and go to the courthouse and start the paperwork for a restraining order.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Titan promised. Putting his phone back in his pocket, he turned to Hotshot. “I have to find Makenna, Wade’s out of jail.”
“Shit.” His friend stood up and started for the door. “I think I know where to find her. I invited her and her friend to the pool party. Come on.”
Titan was right behind him. “I’ve got to find her before he does.”
*
The party was in full-swing by the time they drove up. Titan had turned on his First Responders siren to forestall any slow drivers from hogging the road. What the hell use was there in being Fire Chief if he couldn’t use his position to protect those he cared about? He’d been torn about stopping at the Wade house on the way over, just to make sure she wasn’t there. Without a restraining order in place, there was nothing keeping Damien from just going home and wanting to pick up where he left off. Scenarios of him finding or cornering Makenna haunted Titan. He wouldn’t rest until he saw her with his own two eyes.
When they reached Canyon Lake, cars and trucks were lined up on both sides of the narrow street. Titan had the devil of a time finding a spot. Once they were parked, both men hurried toward the waterfront home. Laughter and the sound of splashing water could be heard wafting over the fence. This wasn’t the type of outing Titan usually enjoyed. He preferred doing his courting one-on-one.
Like he’d told Hotshot, he’d already made up his mind to pay Makenna a visit before Conner had called. After what she’d been through, asking her to make the first move was just shooting himself in the foot. So, he wanted to do this right. Titan wanted to court Makenna. If his mother were here, she’d tell him to wait a decent amount of time before calling on her. But this wasn’t a normal situation. In view of Wade’s release, he was about to put his plan in fast-forward. Everything had changed.
“Are you sure she’s here?” he asked impatiently. Conner had been right about one thing—she wasn’t answering her phone, which scared the crap out of him. Could Wade have found her already?
“She should be here, both of the girls said they were coming.”
Titan had no more than stepped into the backyard before a bevy of women surrounded them. A hasty perusal of the guests told him the count of females to males was five to one. Hell, it wasn’t even safe for a single man to be here.
“I’ll help you look,” Hotshot said, taking off toward the beach.
“Excuse me, excuse me.” Titan tried to work his way through the crowd. Where was she?
And then he saw her…
Holy Fucking Shit.
No wonder the women were swarming around. They were destitute, because half the men in attendance were standing around one woman—flirting to beat the band.
Makenna.
He could also see why she didn’t have her phone on her. Her outfit afforded no extra room. The term ‘dressed to kill’ came to mind. She was dressed to kill him, that was for sure. Even as his eyes moved up and down her body, his Justin boots were moving in her direction. God, at the curves…and he wanted to hug those curves like a racecar on the Indy 500. His palms started itching, there was no way he could keep his hands to himself after seeing her like this. What in the hell did she have on? A low cut swimsuit strained to contain a pair of magnificent breasts. The cut of the material emphasized her beautiful legs and cupped an ass so luscious he could barely think straight. Hell, he’d never seen her look like this. Titan didn’t know if he wanted to turn her over his knee and spank her or wrap his shirt around that sweet backside to hide it from anyone’s eyes but his.
As he neared, he could see a big-nosed man lay his hand on Makenna’s ass and give it a squeeze. She jumped at the forward move, forcing Titan to walk faster. He’d never seen the man before, but he would have no problem putting him in his place. “If you want to keep that hand, mister, I’d suggest you remove it from her body right this second.”
Makenna turned around so fa
st, she teetered on the four inch stilettos she was wearing—which Titan had to admit made her sexy legs look a mile long. “Titan! What are you doing here?”
Her friend Allie joined her, handing Makenna a drink.
“I think the best question would be what are you doing here?” Titan pushed in between Makenna and the stranger, his bulk effectively barricading him from touching her. The man had no choice but to step aside, a mountain was on the move. He hadn’t intended to sound so brusque, but Titan was royally pissed at the liberties the other man had been taking with whom his heart considered to be his woman.
It was a most inopportune time, but Allie began to giggle. “I wonder if his…” She whispered the word ‘cock’ into Makenna’s ear, referring to Titan, “is as big as the rest of him?”
Unfortunately she stage-whispered and Makenna wanted to die. “I don’t know, I’ve never got the chance to find out,” she huffed, then turned to Titan, who met her glare with a smirk.
“I could arrange for a private viewing,” he drawled.
Makenna stared at him, trying to figure out if he meant her or Allie. The margaritas she’d inhaled made her brain fuzzy. “As for the reason I’m here…” She dramatically swept her hair off her shoulder and behind her back. “I’m on the make. I just woke up from a nightmare and I’m ready to spread my wings and fly.”
To hear Makenna announce she was ‘on the make’ heated his blood to boiling. And not from anger. “So, you want a man. Is that it?”
Makenna threw back her shoulders and pushed her breasts forward. “I think I deserve one, don’t you?”
“Damn straight I do.” Titan observed dryly. Looking at Allie, he tipped his hat. “Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have a way home?” When she looked confused, he called to Hotshot. “Could you see that Allie Langston gets somewhere safe? I don’t think she should be alone tonight, under the circumstances.” At his friend’s nod, he swept Makenna up in his arms, settling her over his shoulder in a classic fireman’s haul—in other words, her rear end was pointing skyward.
