Page 10
“I know,” London sighs. “Blame this town for having really inaccessible restaurants.”
“I’ll have my boss come yell at some places,” I say, and that’s the moment Teddy walks through the door. “Or maybe him.”
London snorts as Teddy makes his way over and hugs his cousin, then gives me a firm pat on the shoulder before he pulls his dish closer. London and I both watch in a sort of vague horror as Teddy shovels several bites into his mouth without missing a beat.
“Good?” London asks.
Teddy shrugs. “It’s food.”
London shoots him a grimace. “You’re a fucking heathen.”
I cover a laugh with another bite of mediocre, not-actually-lobster mac and cheese. “Trouble at the station? You took a while.”
Teddy sighs. “I don’t want to tell you.”
My brows go up, and a little bit of dread hits me. “Tell me Easton didn’t…”
“It wasn’t coffee this time,” Teddy says. “It was a bowl of spaghetti sauce. But I think North was helping him get it cleaned up.”
London perks up. “This sounds like gossip. Spill.”
“It’s not that exciting,” Teddy tells him. “This guy at work seems to live to piss Rune off.”
“Like genuine incompetence, or he’s acting like a middle school boy with a crush?” London asks.
My face goes hot, but I’m hoping it doesn’t show as I take a deep breath. “Neither? I mean, he’s good at his job—”
“He’s amazing at his job,” Teddy interjects.
He is, but I’m not going to admit that about Easton.
“So it’s a crush?”
“He’s straight.” I hope to god I don’t sound as mournful about that as I feel. If he weren’t straight, we’d be able to fuck, and I could get this feeling out of my system. Guys like Easton are never good in bed anyway.
They think they are because they’re pretty and people have told them they’re amazing, so they coast on that instead of trying. And it’s probably not fair to them, but it would make me feel better and help get rid of the crush if he couldn’t make me come.
Except that’ll never happen.
“Anyway, I—” Teddy stops abruptly and takes out his phone. From the look on his face, I can see it’s a call. And not a good one. He sets it down after a second.
“Do you need to go?” London asks.
Teddy shakes his head and swallows heavily. “Not a fire. Drowning at the park.”
My heart sinks. Those calls are always the hardest because they almost always involve kids. The one time I ever really felt empathy for Easton was the day he came back from the call where they couldn’t get a pulse on the kid in the pool.
He became a different man in that moment.
“God, that…I don’t think I could ever handle that,” London says.
I look up at him and offer a nod. “You never get used to it. Ever. Every single time you lose someone, it’s like a punch to the sternum.”
“Aren’t you in IT?” London asks.
“Yeah. I didn’t used to be.” I was where Easton is now. I thought I was a hero—and I suppose sometimes I was. But every time my head got too big, the world would remind me that I’m a nobody.
Just like everyone else.
