The Complete Firehouse 56 Series

by Chase Jackson

  We all took a few steps forward to get a better look.

  “Is he… dancing with that brick wall?”

  I squinted my eyes. It did look like Josh was dancing with the wall; he was swaying back and forth, rocking his hips--

  “He must be drunk off his ass,” Duke cackled gleefully.

  “I don’t think he’s dancing--” Bryce frowned and cocked his head slowly.

  Suddenly a long leg shot out from between Josh and the brick wall. The leg wrapped around his waist, and then a pair of hands emerged and clutched onto his shoulders.

  “Holy shit,” Duke whistled. “Is that the maid of honor?!”

  He tried to take another step forwards, but I gripped onto the back of his suit jacket and stopped him.

  “That’s none of our business,” I said sternly. “Come on. Let’s give ‘em some privacy.”

  I tucked my lit cigar between my lips and then I steered the guys back towards the Pond House entrance.

  We stood in the yellow light of the reception hall windows, and I gazed through the glass until I found Cassidy on the dancefloor. She was dancing with her mom, and they were talking about something that made them both smile.

  When Logan came outside to join the group, I saw my chance to escape. I passed my cigar off to him, then I slipped back into the reception hall before the guys could stop me.

  Cassidy found me on the dance floor and she swept to my side, lacing her fingers through mine just as the band started to play a slow song.

  I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her close, and we swayed to the music.

  “You’ll never guess who your brother was dancing with,” Cassidy grinned up at me.

  “Hmm….” I pretended to twist my face thoughtfully. “Was it… the maid of honor, by any chance?”

  “How did you know?”

  “I might have spotted them together outside,” I revealed. “And… they might have been doing a little more than just dancing.”

  “No way!” Cass stifled a giggle. “Vanessa and Josh… I never would have guessed.”

  “There were a lot of people that said the same thing about you and me,” I reminded her. “And look at us now.”

  “Look at us now.”

  Her hands slipped under my jacket and her hands dug into my back, pulling me closer.

  “So, when do I get to take you home and rip off this dress?” I asked, testing the beaded lace around her waist with my fingers.

  “I was just asking myself the same thing…”

  The song ended and the lights came on over the dance floor. I reluctantly released my hold on Cassidy and we joined the rest of the crowd in a round of applause for the band.

  The band bowed and left the stage, and then an event coordinator stepped up to the mic.

  “In a few moments, we’ll be gathering outside to bid our bride and groom farewell with a special sparkler send-off,” the coordinator said. “But first, we’d like to invite any single guests to the dance floor for the bouquet toss!”

  “That’s my cue!” Cass said. She slinked towards the stage, where Mrs. Laurent was waiting with bouquet in hand.

  The dance floor started to fill up with single men and women, all eagerly hoping to catch the bouquet. I headed towards the edge of the room, and that’s when I saw Josh attempting to discreetly slip back into the reception hall through a side door.

  “I was wondering where you snuck off to,” I smiled coyly as I approached him.

  “Oh, uh…” Josh frowned slightly and ran a hand nervously through his hair. “I was just--”

  “Watch out!” Duke interrupted, cutting between us as he sprinted towards the dance floor. “It’s bouquet toss time!”

  I had to laugh. Of course, Duke wants to catch the bouquet...

  “What’s the bouquet toss?” Josh glanced over his shoulder towards the stage, where Cass was preparing to make the throw.

  “The bride tosses her bouquet, and whoever catches it will be the next to get married,” I explained, crossing my arms and preparing for what was bound to be an entertaining show.

  Duke was lining himself up in front of the stage, assuming the pose of a starting lineman on Superbowl Sunday.

  “You should get out there,” I said, nudging Josh towards the dance floor.

  “No thanks,” he scoffed, but his dimples pinched with a smile. “When it comes to weddings, I think I prefer to be a spectator.”

  “Suit yourself,” I shrugged.

  Cass turned around on the stage and raised the bouquet over her heard. The crowd went silent; everyone was focused on predicting the trajectory of the flowers.

  “This is a weird tradition,” Josh remarked, taking it all in.

  Cassidy flung her arms back and the bouquet launched into the air.

  The flowers seemed to move in slow-motion as they hurtled through the air. Dozens of hands reached up, but the bouquet curved away as it soared closer and closer towards the edge of the dance floor, where I was standing.

  I turned my head as the flowers arched down towards the ground. On instinct, Josh’s hands flung outwards and he caught to bouquet.

  He glanced down at the flowers in his hands, realizing what he had just done. Then he looked up at me.

  “Oops…”

  EPILOGUE | CASSIDY

  Three Months Later

  “AGAIN, AGAIN!” Ava screamed, flinging her tiny arms up towards Brady.

  “Ok, ok,” Brady relented. “One more time…”

  He reached down and scooped the little girl up by her arms, then he threw her up into the air. She soared over his head and squealed gleefully, kicking her arms and legs through the air. Then Brady caught her in his arms and returned her gently to the ground.

  The little girl immediately collapsed onto the grass and burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggling. Then she rolled back up onto her feet and threw her arms around Brady’s knees.

  “Again!” she begged. “Again!”

  “Come on, kiddo,” Bryce said, ruffling the little girl’s hair. “Let’s give Uncle Brady a break.”

  Ava’s giggling immediately stopped, and she stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.

  “Pwease,” she blinked up at Brady. “One more time?”

  “How can I say no to a face like that?!” Brady groaned playfully. He stooped forward and swept Ava up into another throw.

  Bryce shook his head in defeat and turned to me:

  “He’s going to spoil her rotten.”

  “That’s what uncles are for!” I grinned back.

  Ava was Bryce’s daughter and, since the guys at Firehouse 56 considered each other to be brothers, that made Brady a defacto uncle to the spunky three-year-old.

  “He’s going to be a great dad someday,” Bryce said sincerely.

  Before I could answer, Ava took off running.

  “Ava!” Bryce called wearily as he jogged after her.

  I chuckled, then I started walking back towards the ring of picnic tables that had been pushed together at the center of the park.

  It was the annual Firehouse 56 picnic, and the entire crew had showed up. The fire chief was flipping burger patties at the grill, and Josh was standing by to assist. Duke was playing bartender, serving beers and mixed drinks out of a jumbo-sized blue cooler. Logan was tossing a football with a couple of guys I didn’t recognize, and Troy had wandered off to crash a women-only yoga class at the opposite side of the park.

  I heard footsteps jog up behind me, then out of nowhere Brady’s arms wrapped around my waist and he spun me around in the air.

  “Hey you,” he whispered into my ear as he set me back on my feet.

  “Where’d your little friend go?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see where Ava ended up.

  “She noticed the ice cream truck at the front of the park and she forgot all about me,” Brady shook his head, pretending to be hurt.

  “I don’t blame her,” I teased.
“Ice cream is pretty cool…”

  “Cooler than Uncle Brady?!”

  I shrugged playfully, then I snuggled deeper into Brady’s arms and whispered: “You’re really sweet with her. I had no idea you were such a softie when it comes to kids…”

  “I need all the practice I can get,” Brady grinned. His arms wrapped around my waist and his palms found my flat stomach. “We’re going to have a couple of our own little rugrats running around this place pretty soon…”

  A smile spread across my face and my hands laced around his.

  “Oh we are, huh?”

  “Yep,” Brady nodded matter-of-factly.

  “And how do you plan on making that happen?” I asked.

  He raised his eyebrows and leaned down, so his lips grazed my ear. His hot breath tickled my skin as he whispered every last filthy, explicit detail of what he planned on doing to me later…

  By the time he was done, my knees had turned to jelly and my face was bright pink from blushing so hard.

  “So that’s how you make a baby?” I managed to ask, albeit breathlessly.

  “That’s just one method,” Brady nodded stoically. “But I’m willing to try other techniques, if necessary.”

  Other techniques. My insides twisted like a pretzel and my panties felt as wet as a Slip-n-Slide.

  “I know we said we’d wait a while, in case your mom’s condition started to decline again,” Brady said, this time in a sincere voice. “But it’s been a few months now, and your mom is doing better than ever.”

  “That’s true,” I nodded. Just last weekend, my mom had taken home a bronze medal after running in the neighborhood 5K. She was getting stronger and healthier every day. Doctor Burke had called her recovery a “miracle.” She continued to go in for monthly check-ups, and every time her scans and blood work came back completely cancer-free.

  “Plus,” Brady added with a smile, “Your mom’s been hinting that she wants a grandchild.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, wrinkling my nose and blushing on my mom’s behalf. “She has been sending some pretty strong hints.”

  ‘Strong hints’ was probably an understatement. The ink on our marriage license hadn’t even had a chance to dry before Mom was cleaning out my old bedroom to make space for a nursery. Also suspicious was the fact that she had recently taken up the hobby of knitting baby-sized socks in pastel hues.

  “So, what do you think, Ladybug?” Brady asked. “Should we make a baby?”

  I flicked my head up, so I could stare directly into his bright grey eyes.

  “Yes!” I gushed. I jumped into his arms and he swept me off me feet.

  “GET A ROOM!” Duke’s voice shouted from the picnic area, but I was too excited to care who saw us. I leaned forward and kissed my husband.

  “Careful, Mrs. Hudson,” Brady teased when he pulled away. “If you keep kissing me like that, I’m not going to be able to wait until I get you home…”

  I gave him one last peck as he set me on the ground, and then we walked hand-in-hand the rest of the way towards the picnic area.

  When Josh saw us approaching, he dropped the plate of hamburger buns he was holding and reached for a beer.

  “Alright, I want everyone to gather ‘round for a toast!” he called out.

  Everyone squeezed together to make a giant circle around the tables. There were several faces I recognized, and some new ones that I didn’t.

  Josh waited until everyone had settled down, then he raised his beer bottle towards the group:

  “Next month I’ll be celebrating my one-year anniversary with Firehouse 56,” Josh said. “And since we’re all together today, I wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you, for being part of the most important year of my life.”

  “When I first joined the crew, my brother Brady warned me that it would change my life,” Josh continued. “I don’t know why I doubted him, since Brady is pretty much always right.”

  Everyone chuckled, and when I smiled at Brady I saw that he was blushing.

  “I want to thank the fire chief and my brother, because they both took a chance on me,” Josh said. “Without them, I wouldn’t--”

  I felt my phone vibrate in my pants pocket and I discreetly slipped the phone out and glanced down at the screen. It was a text from Vanessa:

  “911.”

  I slipped the phone back into my pocket and waited anxiously for Josh to wrap up his toast. But as the minutes dragged on, Josh didn’t seem to get any closer to wrapping things up. When he launched his third story in a row, I decided to make an escape.

  “Hey,” I whispered to Brady finally, “I need to make a quick phone call. I’ll be right back.”

  He nodded understandingly, and I slipped away from the picnic area and dialed Vanessa’s number. She answered on the first ring.

  “Sorry I didn’t call sooner,” I said. “I’m at this work picnic thing with Brady, and his brother was giving this speech that went on and on, and--”

  “Josh is there?” Vanessa gulped through the phone.

  “Oh, um… yeah,” I said slowly.

  “He can’t hear this conversation, can he?”

  “Of course not!” I assured her. I glanced back at the picnic area. Josh was mid-story, gesturing dramatically with his hands as the circle around him laughed. “What’s going on? Why are you asking about Josh?”

  “I don’t really know how to say this,” Vanessa said. She sounded shell-shocked. “Cass… I’m pregnant.”

  ***

  February Burning

  A Firefighter Secret Baby Romance

  Chase Jackson

  CHAPTER ONE | JOSH

  “Hey…don’t I know you from somewhere?”

  That was the question that greeted me when I stepped into the Riverview Apartments leasing office. My eyes locked onto the source: a hot little blonde thing tucked behind the front desk, blinking up at me over a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses.

  I had never seen her before in my life. If I had, I’m pretty sure that body of hers would have jogged my memory: petite, tight little waist, and more curves than the Connecticut River.

  Her bronzed legs were crossed at the knee, her plump tits were suffocated by her powder blue blouse, and the tight little beige pencil skirt riding up her thick thighs was practically begging for trouble.

  But I’m not looking for trouble, I reminded myself. I’m just looking for an apartment to lease.

  “I must just have one of those faces,” I shrugged casually.

  That was only half true. There was a reason this hot blonde stranger swore she recognized me, and it was the same reason that my face probably looked familiar to half of the people in my hometown of Hartford, Connecticut. That reason: Brady Hudson.

  Brady was an Iraq war veteran who had bravely served two tours of duty in the 101st Airborne Division. He was a second-generation firefighter dedicated to continuing his father’s legacy at Firehouse 56. He was a town hero and local legend. Oh, yeah…and he also happened to be my big brother.

  We were born two years apart, but we could still pass for twins. We had the same dark brown hair, the same dimpled chin, and the same deep-set grey eyes. I was my brother’s spitting image. And since everybody in Hartford seemed to know who Brady Hudson was, that put me on the receiving end of constant double-takes and ‘don’t I know you?’s.

  As the hot blonde scanned me up and down, I could already tell that it was my brother’s face that she was trying to place.

  Maybe she knew Brady from somewhere. Maybe he had taken her home after a drunken night at Rusty’s Tavern…or maybe she had seen his picture on the front page of the Hartford Courant a few weeks ago, when the newspaper had dubbed my brother a “hero” for rescuing an unconscious woman from a burning building.

  “I definitely know you,” she frowned as she slid her glasses down the bridge of her nose. She propped one of the plastic arms between her lips, then gave it a thoughtful nibble. “What
’s your name?”

  “Joshua Hudson,” I told her reluctantly, like it was an admission of guilt.

  “Joshua Hudson...” she repeated slowly, testing the taste of my name on her tongue. Then her face lit up: “Oh, shit! I do know you! You’re that firefighter!”

  Bingo. Almost...

  “You were in that ‘sexy fireman’ calendar that came out a few years ago!” she gushed. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere! You were the month of January, right?”

  That fucking calendar, I grimaced.

  If my brother was a town hero, then that ‘sexy fireman’ calendar was the stuff of legends. The entire Firehouse 56 crew had gotten together a few years back to pose for the calendar. It was supposed to be a charity project…but it might as well have been my brother’s own personal Playgirl photoshoot.

  Each crewmember got assigned to a different month. Brady got January, and let’s just say he started the year off with one hell of a bang. They had to order three reprints of the calendar to keep up with the orders that were coming in.

  My brother’s newfound fandom earned him the nickname ‘January’ at the Firehouse. While the rest of the crew still liked to joke about the calendar, I couldn’t help but chalk it up to yet another piece of supporting evidence for my brother’s superiority.

  “I hate to disappoint,” I said, another reluctant admission. “But that wasn’t me. Actually, that was my brother.”

  Countdown to disappointed sigh in 3… 2…

  “Oh.”

  You’d think that after twenty-five years of living in my big brother’s shadow, I would have found my way out by now. Not the case. Turns out, competing with the town hero is just about as futile as fighting a five-alarm fire with a garden hose.

  The list of things that Brady and I had in common didn’t go much further than our dark hair and matching grey eyes. Even as kids, we had been as different as night and day.

  Dad had retired from the Army and joined Firehouse 56 after Brady and I were born, but he stilled ruled his roost like he was back at the barracks. Obedience and respect came before love or compassion. Mom was my saving grace; she was the glue that held the Hudson family together. When Mom died, everything fell apart. At least, for me it did…