Maggie had long ago stopped wondering how her daughter did half the things she did. “It’s Emily.”
“True.” He shrugged.
“Was the library fun, at least?”
“The lecture was surprisingly good, considering the fireman looked like he was about to pass out when he started.”
“I used to be that way. But after being traumatized by dealing with a classroom full of seven-year-olds, I got over public speaking fast.”
“And then you had Emily.”
“Yep. The cure for all that ails you.”
The cure returned to the living room in last year’s Halloween ninja costume, carrying her bear and throwing stars made of tinfoil.
“I need nunchucks, Mag-Mom.”
Maggie refrained from rolling her eyes. At least Mag-Mom was better than Margaret-Mother—what Emily had taken to calling her last month. With any luck, Maggie would become “Mommy” once more. “Nunchucks? What for?”
“To hunt down the assassins after me and my new friend, Reggie.”
“The scared, hunky fireman,” Doug murmured.
“So Reggie was nice?”
Emily nodded. “And pretty. He thinks I’m pretty too. I bet if I asked nicely, he’d give me a baby brother.”
Doug choked.
Maggie just stared at her daughter with wide eyes. “A baby brother? I thought you wanted a turtle.”
“I did, but Sherry has a baby brother, and she said he smiles at her all the time.”
“Probably just gas,” Doug said.
“Maybe.” Emily narrowed her eyes on her mother. “But Sherry said he looks like her mom and dad and kinda like her. My brother would be an EMT ninja who has fire dog stickers.” That said, Emily did somersaults down the hallway with Brownie the bear, making explosion noises.
“EMT ninja? Stickers?”
Doug grinned. “Reggie, the hunky fireman, is an EMT, and he gave out stickers at the end of his speech. She’s right. Any baby you had would be a ninja and fight boo-boos. A win-win. Let’s schedule that tour of Station 44.”
“Oh boy. Let’s not. The last time Emily wanted to set me up with someone, Mr. Nelson’s wife was not amused.”
Doug laughed. “No, but Benny and I were. And hey, now you get extra fries with your order at the deli when Mr. Nelson waits on you.”
They didn’t eat there when she saw Mrs. Nelson at the counter, however.
Maggie sighed. “I’d better go make Emily some paper towel nunchucks before she orders the real thing off Amazon.”
“Can I just say how happy I am to spend time with that beautiful child, watching her grow and learn? And that Benny and I can give her back at a moment’s notice?”
“No, you can’t say that.”
“Die, evil fire lord,” Emily screeched from her room and gave an almost maniacal laugh. “You are thwarted again. This time, my dagger will spear your heart.”
Doug looked at Maggie. “Your six-year-old knows the word ‘thwarted,’ and her dagger is ‘spearing’ someone’s heart. Yep, I’m ecstatic to leave that little girl with her mommy.” He danced out the door with a wide grin.
“Thwarted by a six-year-old, her poopy uncle, and a pretty, if scared, fireman,” Maggie muttered and went in search of her craft bin, praying she had something to satisfy her brainy, beautiful, tiny terror.
Chapter Two
Reggie spent Tuesday, the first day off in his two-set cycle, exercising at the station. He had two days off, one on again, then four days off before the cycle restarted. His crew of four had decided to join him at the station.
Though they all worked together, they liked to play together as well. He and his buddies found time at the gym both therapeutic and needful. Besides, nowhere could Reggie get better equipment and a decent facility with showers for free.
Mack grinned while Reggie deadlifted, embellishing yesterday’s class at the library to anyone who would listen. The dick. “So Reggie’s got that nervous sweat going on, his bald head dripping with nerves, when—”
“I’m not bald. It’s a close cut, but I’ve got hair.” He ran his hand over his head, pleased with his barber.
“—the kids were brutal.” Mack hooted, and Brad and Tex hung on his every word.
Like Reggie, the rest of his team had bonded over shared prior military experiences in addition to being Seattle firefighters. While Reggie had served in the Navy, the best of the armed services, Brad and Tex had been Marines and Mack, Air Force. They still liked to razz one another, but in a good, brotherly way. Having grown up with two older sisters a rabid bear would know better than to mess with, Reggie knew the difference between brotherly teasing and being plain mean.
At the thought of a “rabid bear,” memories of the adorable kid from the previous day came back.
Mack was saying, “They kept asking Reggie about blood and guts since he made the mistake of trying to explain basic life support and advanced life support to them.”
Feeling the need to defend himself, Reggie spoke up. “I only told them that if someone got knifed or shot, they would need paramedics, not an EMT.”
Tex nodded and, in his slow, drawly Texan accent, said, “Probably not the smartest thing to say to little kids. Might scare ’em, hoss.”
“Everyone’s a critic.”
Mack continued to give the team the rundown, ending with, “Then the girl tells Reggie she wishes she was brown and pretty like him and her bear. It was adorable.”
“Well, he is pretty,” Brad said with a large smile. “So, so pretty.”
“Like a beauty queen,” Tex agreed.
Reggie glared at Mack, imagining the ribbing in his future once everyone knew what had happened. “I hate you.”
“Who, me?” Mac tossed a small, stuffed bear at him with an I’m Pretty sash across its chest.
The guys cracked up.
Damn. Part and parcel of being a firefighter—being able to dish it out and take it. The ribbing, teasing, and the laughter. They’d been making fun of Brad forever. The guy looked like a buffer version of a Ken doll, and Ken had been fooling around with a bunch of Barbies and other toys all over the station, doing perverted things to poor Barbie.
Tex had seen his life upended when he’d started dating the battalion chief’s daughter. Now cowboy figures and blond dolls were up to no good all over the place. And since the other lieutenant in the station, who worked with B and D shifts, resembled the cartoon character Dora the Explorer, she’d been finding Dora stickers on her notebooks and tons of action figures on or near her desk.