To Tame a Wild Firefighter (Red Hot Reunions Book 2) (15 page)

“Okay.” Mick nodded, not understanding where this was going, only knowing he hated seeing Faith upset and wanted to do whatever it took to put her at ease.

“What I’m saying is…I’m not ready to be a mom right now,” Faith said, lifting troubled brown eyes to his. “Not that anything is going to happen tonight, but when it does, I want us to be careful, because the thought of being responsible for raising a kid to be a functioning grown-up scares me to death.”

“I get it.” Mick smiled, marveling that he could keep falling deeper in whatever-this-was with Faith every hour of every day. “But that probably means you’re
more
ready to be a mom than most people. I think it’s supposed to be scary, you know. People who aren’t scared by that kind of responsibility are idiots.”

Faith pulled her hand from his. “No, seriously, Mick. I’m not even
thinking
about kids right now. Not even a little bit.”

“Okay,” Mick said. “I’m not either. We’re on the same page.”

“But what if…” She trailed off as she glanced through the truck’s cloudy rear window. “I mean, what if there’s an accident? I know condoms don’t always work, and the women in my family are crazy fertile and there’s no way I could be a firefighter
and
a single mom. Even if I could convince my mom to help out, which I’m not sure I could, or would even want to since she’s a hot mess and I know from experience that she doesn’t—”

“Hold on a second,” Mick said, frowning as he cut in. “Who says you’d be a single mom? If there were an unexpected baby, I’d be as responsible for that as you were. And I’d be there to do my share to take care of things, whether you and I were together or not.”

Faith glanced back at him, a doubtful expression wrinkling her forehead. “Are you serious? I mean, have you thought about what it would be like to have a kid? How much your life would change?”

Mick shrugged. “No, I haven’t spent a lot time thinking about it,” he said, hurrying on when Faith started to speak again. “But I know right from wrong, and I know I would do the right thing. When I have kids, I’m going to love them and help take care of them. No matter what.”

“And…I have some pretty strong feelings for you,” he said, heart beating faster as Faith’s eyes met his and that spark of something so-much-more than lust leapt between them. “I would never hurt you, Faith. I care about you. A lot.”

“I care about you, too.” She laid her cool hand against his cheek with an affection that made Mick’s chest feel tight and something deep inside of him vow not to let her down. He never wanted to betray her affection, or give her any reason to doubt that he was the kind of person who kept his promises.

“And I want to be with you so much it’s killing me,” she continued, “but there’s this voice in my head that keeps saying it isn’t smart to jump into that too fast. There can be real consequences, and I’m not ready for them.”

Mick pressed a kiss to her palm before taking her hand in both of his and giving it a squeeze. “Then we don’t jump into it. We wait until you’re totally ready.”

“Are you sure?” Faith asked. “I mean, even if I got swept up in the moment and said I wanted to, you wouldn’t?”

Mick winced. “That’s asking a lot, I won’t lie. But if that’s what we agree to, I’ll stick to it. Though I may have to get up in the middle of whatever’s happening and leave the house in order to make good on that kind of promise.”

“I know it’s not a fair thing to ask,” Faith said, cheeks flushing pink in that way that made him want to kiss her so much it was painful. “I just…when you kissed me the way you kissed me last night, I…”

Mick swallowed hard, doing his best not to think about the way he had kissed Faith last night, about his mouth between her legs and her body completely vulnerable to him. About how beautiful she was, the sweet, salty, fresh-rain-and-apple taste of her, or how sexy it had been when she came on his mouth, crying out his name.

“I’m not sure I can be trusted to keep my head on my shoulders in that kind of situation,” she finished, letting out a shaky breath. “You know?”

Mick’s tongue slipped out to dampen his lips as he did his best to ignore the way his body was responding to this practical conversation in very impractical ways. “All right. Maybe we should skip that for a while, then, in the interest of keeping promises.”

Faith nodded. “And I’ll put a call into my doctor, see about getting a prescription for birth control. That way we’ll have an extra line of defense.”

Mick smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

“So you’re not disappointed?” Faith asked, brow furrowing again even as she lifted an accusing finger and pointed it at his chest. “You’d better not say you’re disappointed, or I will turn this truck around and take you right back to your sisters, who you know will pester you for gossip all night long.”

“I’m not disappointed.” Mick chuckled. “I like that you take serious things seriously, and that you want to be responsible. I think it’s sexy.”

Faith rolled her eyes. “You think everything is sexy.”

“Not true,” Mick said. “I only think everything about
you
is sexy.”

Faith smiled, a smitten smile Mick could feel warming him all over, assuring him she was in as deep as he was. “We’ll see about that. You’ve never seen me eat Big Ike’s pizza. I make a horrible mess, but Big Ike’s is the best and I can’t go back to lesser pizzas after the
Animal Style
meat and veggie combo.”

“Sounds hot,” Mick said, with a wiggle of his eyebrows that made Faith laugh.

Minutes later, they were slipping into her apartment and kicking off their shoes. Faith coaxed Captain Snugglepants out from under a lounge chair and cooed her apologies to him, while Mick ordered pizza and grabbed plates and napkins.

They spent the rest of the night eating too much, vegging out watching mindless T.V. with the cat purring between them, and holding each other in Faith’s too-small-for-two-grown-people, full-sized bed, talking about the past and the future and secret dreams they’d never told anyone else.

As Mick drifted off, Faith already heavy with sleep in his arms, he dared to dust off an old dream, a dream Bridget had helped dull and shove so far back on a shelf Mick hadn’t taken it out in a long time. But now, with Faith so close and tenderness filling up his chest, Mick brought the dream of a love that lasted forever back into the light.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Five weeks later

Maddie

Maddie Whitehouse was not the type of person who resented other people’s happiness. She didn’t have a bitter bone in her body.

In junior high, she’d baked cookies for Imogen Cain after the other girl beat her out for vice-president of the student council. In high school, she’d found out her friend, Meg, was secretly dating her boyfriend and had wished them a long and happy future. And while studying the art of French pastry in Paris, she’d never begrudged the teachers’ favoritism toward her best friend, Aria, even though Maddie was the one whose soufflés always puffed and
croquembouche
crunched just so.

Heck, Maddie was so easy-going she’d even started exchanging emails with Serge, her ex-husband, and had wished him and his boyfriend, Craig, all the luck in the world. Sure, having her husband of six years leave her for another man hadn’t been the highlight of her life thus far, but looking back she could see the signs that Serge hadn’t been fulfilled, no matter how much fun they’d had together or how much he’d loved her.

And Serge had loved her. He
still
loved her. In his last email he had assured Maddie that she was a gorgeous, sweet, wonderful, talented woman who would soon find the partner she’d always deserved. Serge was certain that soon Maddie would be as excited about her future as he was about his new life in San Francisco with the man of his dreams.

Maddie, however, wasn’t so sure, and as she watched Mick and Faith amble down the stairs from Mick’s apartment with their arms around each other and their heads close together, lost in their own little world, she couldn’t keep her nose from wrinkling.

They’re practically babies
, she thought as she unloaded chocolate croissants into the display case.
And neither one of them was even looking for love, but it fell into their laps, easy as you please.

Meanwhile, Maddie was gazing down the barrel of her thirtieth birthday without a single prospect on the horizon. She’d been on a dozen dates since moving back to Summerville, but none of the men she’d met were relationship material, a fact that bummed Maddie out more than she liked to admit.

She was all for standing strong on her own two feet, but she was a relationship girl. She didn’t like being single. The last time she’d gone this long without a boyfriend was when she was too young to date. She craved companionship and conversation. Life seemed lacking without someone to share it with, and since Mick had moved into his apartment and Naomi had all but moved in with Jake, Maddie was often alone at her parents’ house.

She felt like a ghost haunting the halls where she’d grown up, drifting along all by her lonesome, missing the love and laughter and good-natured bickering that had once echoed through the house. She missed life as part of a large, nuclear family.

She’d started pressuring Serge to start a family of their own only a few years after they were married, but he had always found a reason to put off having a baby. First, he said they were too poor—which was true. Then he’d bemoaned the lack of good medical care on the Caribbean island where they’d both worked—which
had
been sub-standard. Then, only months before he’d confessed he was having an affair with a lifeguard at the resort, he’d told Maddie he wanted to wait until they were in their thirties, like his friends on the west coast.

Now, Maddie was facing thirty alone, adrift and uncertain what the future held. Her parents would return from their winter in Florida in a month or so, and she would need to find an apartment—she loved Mom and Pop, but they had their own rhythm now that they were retired, and she didn’t want to cramp their style—but aside from that…

“Maddie, you want to come?” Mick asked, jarring Maddie from her thoughts.

“What?” She startled back into motion, sliding chocolate croissants onto the tray on the top shelf of the display case.

“I asked if you wanted to come to breakfast with us,” Mick said, his arms around Faith, cuddling her close like she was a treasure chest he couldn’t let go of for fear some treasure-hungry pirate would snatch her away. “Isn’t Naomi coming in at eight?”

Maddie nodded, ignoring the pang of envy that flashed through her chest at the sight of the two lovebirds.

Serge used to hold her like that. He’d always made her feel adorable, though not always desirable. Still, for years it had been enough. Deep down, Maddie knew she wanted more from a marriage than half-hearted sex every few weeks, but there were times when she longed for her old life, for Serge’s arms around her and his voice whispering he loved her in lightly-accented English as they watched the waves roll onto the shore outside their island home.

“Yes, Naomi’s coming in.” Maddie pushed the sad thoughts away as she shut the display case, knowing no good came from dwelling on a past that was dead and buried. “But I’m going to stay and help out. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we’re expecting a lot of special orders. I want to get started on them right away.”

“Are you sure you don’t need a break?” Faith asked. “You got here even earlier than usual this morning, didn’t you? I thought I heard cookie sheets banging at three-thirty.”

“I’m sorry, I dropped one,” Maddie said, setting the empty pan onto the counter behind her. “Did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet.”

Faith shook her head. “You were fine. I’m just a light sleeper. Comes with the job. I went back to sleep, no problem.”

“And I never woke up,” Mick said. “I’m getting great at sleeping through banging pans, cats jumping on my face in the middle of the night, people kicking me in the spine when they have soccer championship dreams…”

“That happened
once
!” Faith glared up at Mick, but there was a smile on her face and a look of such adoration in her eyes that Maddie couldn’t help but smile too.

Ah, young love. It was a little gross and completely envy-inducing, but she was happy for her brother. He’d found something special with Faith, and if Maddie’s gut was right, these two were going to be together for a long time.

“You two are cute,” she said with a happy sigh, laughing when both Faith and Mick ducked their heads. “Aw! And now you’re blushing. That is the sweetest thing ever. Couldn’t get any sweeter if I dusted you both in sugar.”

“Now get out of here,” she continued, untying her apron and hanging it on the hook beside the door leading into the kitchen. “Enjoy your breakfast and your day off. I’ll save some cookies for you for later.”

“Thanks,” Faith said, waving as she and Mick headed toward the front door.

Mick lifted a hand to Maddie. “Tell Naomi I’ll get that broken cabinet door fixed before tomorrow morning.”

“Don’t worry about it. No rush.” Maddie fluttered her fingers in their direction as she pulled her hairnet off and dropped it in the trash. “Have fun!”

Faith and Mick stepped outside amidst a tinkle of bells, and then the bakery was quiet. With a sigh, Maddie poured herself a cup of coffee and plucked a still-warm chocolate croissant from the case—her treat for getting everything ready fifteen minutes before it was time for Icing to open—and was settling down at a table for two when the bells tinkled again.