Men In Uniform Anthology

by Delilah Devlin

  A whooshing sound, then light flooded the room. Tyler twisted her away to protect her from the unyielding gaze of what she knew had to be her father. Because that was what this moment needed.

  “Get dressed. Both of you.”

  She pushed back against Tyler, feeling equally protective of his nakedness, and looked directly at her grimacing father. “Dad—”

  “Eveline, do not try me! I want to see you both in my office with your damn clothes on.” The door slammed, leaving them in semidarkness again.

  She turned to him, the beginnings of an inappropriate giggle on her lips. “Dads, right?”

  Tyler’s expression was pure granite. “This isn’t funny, Evie.”

  “It kind of is. I mean, both of your faces were pretty priceless.”

  “He’s my boss and my mentor. He told me not to hurt you—”

  “Which you didn’t.”

  He glared at her for interrupting. “And implicit in that warning is not to fuck you on city property.”

  “Are you worried about your job? Are you telling me Gage Simpson has never sullied the hallowed walls of Engine 6? Who do you think let me in the side door?”

  Clearly furious, he picked up her coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Still taking care of her, which was so sweet. “The point is to not get caught, Evie. And extra points for not getting caught with the chief’s daughter.” He zipped up his pants. “You need to get dressed so we can talk to your dad.”

  “Might be better if I left. Talk to him tomorrow.” Or never.

  “Nope.” He opened the door, just enough to let himself out, and his expression changed to something more forgiving. “We’re going to take care of this, Evie. As a team.”

  …

  Three minutes later, they were seated in her father’s office. Well, she was seated. Both her dad and Tyler were standing, looking like giant moose about to lock antlers.

  “Dad, let me explain.”

  “Sure, Evie, you do that.”

  She cleared her throat and took a glance at Tyler. The expression on his face was softer than it had been back in the bunker gear room when he’d looked like he wanted to strangle her for her flippant reaction. Truth was, she felt sick that she’d put him in danger with her dad, hence her reduction of the circumstances with the “everyone’s doing it” excuse.

  Now Tyler’s eyes searched hers for anything to get him out of this fix. She needed to explain this, so her father wouldn’t take it out on her best friend, who right now felt confusingly like so much more.

  “Well, Dad, it’s like this—”

  “I love your daughter, sir.”

  She whipped her head around.

  “I know that,” her father said to Tyler. Cautiously. “You’ve been a friend of hers for a long time.”

  Yes, exactly. Best friends. That’s what he meant.

  “This is more than that, sir,” Tyler said, though he was looking at her squarely. “I’m in love with her. Have been for years. Probably since the moment I met her during freshman week when she dropped in to borrow sugar. She was wearing a CFD shirt and denim cutoffs and the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. I crashed right there.”

  No, that wasn’t right. Tyler was practically engaged to Misty, and there’d never been a hint of impropriety. Evie would never do that to another woman. Didn’t stop her fantasizing, though.

  “Tyler, you—you don’t have to say this to get out of trouble. My dad just has to realize that this is a fun fling and that his daughter has a naughty streak.”

  Her dad looked like he didn’t have to realize anything of the sort.

  “Evie,” Tyler said, his tone patient. “I’m not making this up. Do you honestly think I’d disrespect the uniform, my place of work, and my chief by having sex on city property with my boss’s daughter unless I was completely and utterly gaga for you?”

  “Well, I’m very persuasive.” So not the thing to say, but she didn’t know how to react. Tyler had just told her father—first, mind you—that he was in love with her. He hadn’t seen fit to fill her in on this salient fact.

  Neither was she sure she believed him. If this wasn’t about his job, then he was clearly trying to protect her, so she didn’t look like a straight-up skank in front of her dad. His instincts were always to keep her safe.

  Tyler hunkered down beside her, taking her hand. Those impossibly blue eyes pleaded with her for understanding.

  “You can convince anyone of anything, city girl. But this isn’t a game. Your father came across us making love—”

  “Please don’t call it that.”

  “And that’s exactly what was happening.”

  A growl emerged from her dad. Oh, stop, Tyler, please God. Stop.

  “We’ve been building something here,” Tyler went on, oblivious to her mental begging. “A life, a future—and I love you.”

  “No, you don’t. Not like that.” Stop ruining everything. “This is just your dumbass hormones playing havoc because you’re finally getting some after years of—well, never getting some!”

  Tyler shut his eyes briefly. Yeah, she’d outed him to her dad as a just-popped virgin. Nice work, Evie.

  “I know my mind here,” Tyler insisted, passing over the reveal. “I know what I want, and what I want is Evie Ventimiglia every day for the rest of my life. And I think you want me the same way.”

  Evie stood, her blood in a frenzy, her heart slamming every which way around her rib cage. Boing, boing, boing. “You—you idiot! You were my friend. The one person I trusted, who didn’t want anything from me, who would always be there for me.”

  “And I’m still all that.”

  “No, you’re not. Now, you’re auditioning for the role of boyfriend, lover, God knows what else, and that’s not what I want or need from you, Tyler. I need you to be my rock, the person I can hold on to. Not a whiny, no-good man-child who thinks with his dick and makes unilateral decisions about my future.”

  His face crumpled with the hurt she’d just inflicted. “Evie, please—”

  She threw a hand at her dad, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet while Tyler said his piece. “You told my dad how you felt about me before I even knew about it!”

  He unfolded his body to his full height. On his face, she saw determination, and when he spoke it was in that same tone as when he’d spanked her. Rough, bossy, in charge. Who knew he had this side to him?

  “I didn’t tell him anything you didn’t already know, Evie. This isn’t news.”

  “Yes, it is. It’s big news!”

  “Piccola, maybe you should hear him out,” her father said, and in his voice she heard it—his pride that Tyler was stepping up like this. Taking responsibility for fuckup Evie. She loved her dad to pieces, but she knew his mind here. He wanted a man to take care of her because she’d made so many man-mistakes before.

  “I don’t have to hear anyone out. I’ve heard enough. Go back to your bro-club where you discuss my life and who’s in love with whom. It’s not as if I need to be here for that!”

  She left, suspecting she had screwed up but determined to not allow the two most important men in her life tell her how to run it.

  …

  Tyler stared at the door Evie had just stormed through.

  “Fuck.” He winced and turned back to the chief. “Sorry.”

  “No need to apologize—for swearing, that is. My daughter often provokes that reaction from me.” He gestured to a chair. “Have a seat, Brooks.”

  Tyler suspected that Venti’s “real” thinking on the topic was about to be made known. And he was right.

  First, he listened to the chief’s long-ass tirade on the “sanctity of city property,” like it had been blessed by a flock of Southside Irish priests with a combo of Guinness and holy water under instructions from the Archdiocese.

  Next, he heard all about how bringing non-city employees into off-limits areas of the firehouse violated this regulation and that ordinance. Never mind that the non-city
employee in question had spent considerable time in off-limit areas in the past.

  Tyler tuned out when the speech got to the part about health and safety violations.

  Evie didn’t love him.

  She’d looked horrified at the idea that Tyler might be—no, was, was, was—in love with her. This was apparently the worst news she’d ever heard, maybe even worse than finding out her Italian dickhead fiancé had cheated on her.

  Probably not as bad as that. But it was up there. Evie needed a friend, not a lovesick idiot, and he’d screwed up. Could they go back to what they had? Was that even possible now that he knew how she tasted? How she looked naked? How she sounded when she came? Those sexy lark squeaks would be imprinted on his brain forever.

  Venti was still talking, but Tyler couldn’t hear what he was saying. It was just the wah-wah sounds that the teacher made in the Charlie Brown cartoons. He needed to go after his girl. Tell her that he didn’t want to lose her—and that he’d do anything she wanted to make it right.

  Did that include taking back what he’d said? Unringing that bell?

  “Brooks!”

  He shot to attention. “What?”

  “You can talk to her later after she’s had a chance to process what you told her.”

  “What difference will it make? I can’t not have her in my life, Chief. And if that means going back to what we had—”

  “Walking back the ‘I love you’?” The chief looked disgusted, and Tyler’s balls shriveled even more than they had in the moment when his boss had walked in on him with his daughter. “You’re already giving up?”

  He’d screwed up with his best friend because he needed to finally fuck a woman instead of his fist. Of all the women in all the world, why did he have to choose Evie?

  You didn’t choose her. Your heart did.

  Question was, could they ever return to what they had before?

  Chapter Ten

  “So, I’m completely in the right, aren’t I?”

  Evie waited for her therapist to make the call in her favor, but all she got was a happy, watery gurgle. Logan Dempsey-Cooper, all of ten weeks old and cuter than a bug in a rug, blinked the big blue eyes he’d inherited from his father yet otherwise remained silent on the topic.

  “Oh, what would you know? You’re already part of the male conspiracy.”

  His mom, Alex Dempsey-Cooper, pushed her wild, auburn hair out of her eyes and chuckled. “Hey, don’t tar him with the same brush just yet. Any son of mine will grow up knowing that women rule the world.” She passed a glass of wine over to Evie, but not before taking a damn-this-breastfeeding-business sip from it first. “Look, you know I’m a ninja at overreacting, so I’m in full support of anyone else who goes a little nuts because they need their feelings validated, but—”

  “I’m still overreacting.”

  Alex scrunched up her mouth. “Kind of? What’s the true crime here? That he fessed up to being in love with you to your dad first or that he fessed up at all? Could it be that you panicked when you heard the L word?”

  Maybe. Change was hard, people! She wanted coolheaded, reliable, steady-as-a-rock Tyler to be there for her. Always.

  “If we do this, it’ll all go south eventually. Guys enjoy me in short, sexy spurts—”

  “Nice.”

  Evie grinned, then became serious again. “But I’m never the long-term girl. I’m too mouthy, inappropriate, brash. Paolo never invited me to faculty parties because he was worried I’d say the wrong thing.”

  “Screw Paolo. You think Tyler will be cringing at every word out of your mouth during the annual Engine 6 picnic? Or do you think that maybe, just maybe, he already knows exactly what he’s getting himself into because he knows you better than anyone and he still thinks the benefits outweigh the risks? When I started fake-dating Eli to help his mayoral campaign and give him some much-needed working class street cred, it was my mouthy, inappropriate, brash self that sealed the deal. He wanted me because of those things.”

  “Not because of your great tits?”

  “My tits are pretty amazing, especially lately while they’re milk dispensers for this one. But my no-fucks-given, say-what-I-think ’tude is Eli’s true kryptonite.”

  There was a book for every reader, Evie supposed. “Tyler blushes like hell whenever I say something over the top.”

  “And I bet he loves every dirty, crazy thing out of your mouth. I bet he loves how you make him feel, even if it’s a blush. But does he tell you to quiet down? Does he pull you aside and advise you to be more of a lady? Or does he just accept you for who you are? I know introducing sex into a friendship is tricky, but you’ve already done it. Did you really think you could go back to whatever you had before and nothing would have changed? Honestly, what was your end game here?”

  Evie blew out a breath, giving Alex’s question the consideration it deserved. “I’d be lying if I said that I wanted it to stay the same. I’ve always wanted him, and I saw my chance. The idea that anyone else might have him makes my blood boil. He’s mine.”

  Oops. She covered her mouth, those words churning over in her head and finding purchase in her heart. “He’s mine,” she repeated through the cage of her fingers, less forcefully but with no less sincerity.

  Doubt bit at her again. “But maybe I’m reacting this way because I’m selfish and wanted him all to myself. Especially when I saw another woman hit on him. How do I know that what I’m feeling isn’t possessiveness and petty jealousy instead of—”

  “Love?” Alex looked at her, with the pity of a woman who’d once tried denying all those messy feelings. She started a count on her fingers. “You’ve wanted him forever but it was never the right time. You’d happily scratch the eyes out of any chick who even breathes in his direction. You can’t keep your greedy hands off his pale, ginger-topped body. And you feel accepted and cared for when you’re with him. Ding, ding, ding, I think we have a winner. Now what are you going to do about it?”

  “Alexandra,” a deep voice cut in, “are you playing at life coach again?”

  They both looked up and smiled at Eli Cooper, only the hottest man to ever hold political office in the fine city of Chicago. Okay, the country. Eh? Let’s just say the universe. No longer mayor, now a lawyer, he still wore those sharp suits that drove the ladies wild.

  He kissed his wife—managed to slip some tongue in there, too—then picked up his son from the bassinet. “Hey, buddy, you feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the lady talk?”

  “I’m dispensing the best advice ever,” Alex said with a wink at Evie. “I’m telling her to go balls-to-the-wall and make her claim.”

  Eli raised an eyebrow. “That’s your advice for everything. Work, sex, pizza, sex.”

  Alex grinned. “Hey, it’s my go-to strategy.”

  Their laughter meant that they almost missed the buzz of Evie’s phone, oddly occurring at the same time as Alex’s. Quickly, recognition turned to horror for Evie.

  “Oh God, I have to go.”

  Alex stood and kissed her husband, then dropped a peck on her son’s head. “I’ll drive her. I’ll call you when we know more.”

  …

  “What did Wyatt say?”

  Evie was trying her best not to scream at Alex to drive faster and, at the same time, give her every piece of information she could glean from Wyatt’s text. Tyler’s lieutenant was also Alex’s oldest brother. The chief’s message had just said he himself was fine but Evie should probably head to the hospital. Way to bury the lede, Dad!

  Alex’s voice betrayed no impatience at the fact this was the third time Evie had asked for this information. “Tricky house fire that needed squad. Tyler pulled your dad out, and now your guy’s in the ER and they’re waiting for news.”

  So, exactly the same as before. “Is your brother usually this informative?”

  “That’s a freakin’ book. Usually, it’s ‘just the facts, ma’am’ with Wy.” She turned onto Chicago Avenue off Lake Shore Drive. “We�
�re almost there, Evie.”

  Two minutes later, while Alex parked the car, Evie barreled into the waiting room at Northwestern Memorial and tackled the first person she saw: her father. The scent of smoke, but most of all, him, alive and well, filled her nostrils. “Are you okay, Dad?”

  Her father hugged her tight. “Yes, piccola, I’m fine. Your man did his job.”

  She looked around, noting the weary, smoke-streaked faces of the guys Tyler was usually on shift with. Wyatt regarded her with those cool blue eyes but didn’t look away. Surely a good sign. “My—where’s Tyler? Dad, where is he?”

  “Here, city girl.”

  Her heart lifted clear through the roof of the emergency room. Oh, thank God! Tyler stood before her in an it-could-only-be-sexy-on-him hospital gown, holding one of those portable IV units. His ginger hair was marbled with soot, his eyes an electric blue in his smoke-blackened face. A bandage over his forehead was already seeping pink.

  Her father eased up on his hold, an implicit order to attend to Tyler. Her man, he’d said, and damn, he was right. She threw herself around his torso, assuming he’d tell her if she was hurting him.

  “Baby! You’re safe.”

  He grinned. “I am.”

  “Good work, Brooks,” her father said behind her, and that was all the crew needed to surge forward and give manly thumps on Tyler’s back and tell the rookie he was A-OK in their book.

  A nurse barged out and ordered Tyler back to bed. “I’ll take him,” Evie said, because not even a team of Rescue Squad firefighters combined with hard-ass nurses could drag her away from this man.

  Once he was flat on his back—just how she liked him—the enormity of it all hit her. She could have lost him. She almost had before, but now this very real, very horrifying conclusion struck her with the force of a cat-five hurricane.

  Babbling away like a fool, she stood over him, adjusting his pillows and pouring water from a pitcher into a polystyrene cup (terrible for the environment) and being a general fusspot.

  “Evie, honey, stop. I’m good.” He clasped her hand and brought it to his heart. “You’re here. You’re all I need. And we should talk.”