Fireman Daddy (Crescent Cove 8.50)

That was a very good question. My family was very small. Just me and my sister were left. I’d literally hand her my arm if she asked for it. The Ramos family had always seemed much the same.

“Manita, of course.”

“Don’t start that. Yes, you’re my big sister and I love you, but if you’d just let us come down and help you, this could be done without a ton of money. Sei così testardo.”

I never knew if they were speak

ing Spanish or Italian or a bastardization of both, but I knew that one. Every single Ramos woman—and man, for that matter—were stubborn as hell.

“I don’t want Damien and Papa coming in here fighting.”

“The guys want to come in to help.” I held up my hand before the women had a chance to dismiss my offer. “This has become the fire station’s favorite bar. In fact, we had intended to help Sharkey before he got sick.” I moved to Freckles and took her hand. “Let us help you.”

“I don’t even know if I want to keep the bar. I don’t want you guys to spend money and all that if it’s just going to get torn down.”

I rocked back on my heels and dropped her hand. “So, Maitland has contacted you.”

“Of course, he has.” She paced away from me.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. “And your answer?”

“My answer is I don’t know.” She widened her arms. “This is a ton of work and I have a job already.”

“So you keep saying,” I muttered.

“I have a life in the city.” She put her hands on her hips. “I haven’t lived here in years, Jake. I’m just supposed to uproot myself and move back?”

Yes.

That was exactly what I wanted her to do. There was nothing to stop her—stop us. Danny was part of our past, but he hadn’t been a factor in my life since freshman year of college. I’d had no intention of sticking around to wait to see when or if he would propose to the woman I loved, and he hadn’t done much to prolong our friendship.

Made me think he’d probably done the same with their marriage.

I had no patience for waiting her out. But that was exactly what I needed to do. To show her that this place was exactly where she was supposed to be. “Then come back next weekend, and we’ll work on the place together.”

Her cheeks heated, and her gaze dropped to my mouth. I nearly groaned with the need to cross to her and show her all the reasons to stay, but my dick was going to have to take a backseat right now. I had to play the long game.

“I’ll round up the guys.” I turned to Gina. “You get your family to come down here, and we’ll see just what we can do with it.”

I stepped in front of Freckles, dragging my thumb over her swollen lower lip. I wanted more of her. I needed to make her see just how good we were together, but that kind of power play wasn’t the way to go.

Dropping my hand, I stepped away from her and her seductive scent. “Then you can make your decision.”

And I’d do everything I could to change her mind about Crescent Cove and this bar.

And us.

Eight

I pulled into the gravel parking lot on the following bright and sunny Friday afternoon. I’d managed to get out of work a few hours early, so I didn’t have to fight traffic out of the city. Of course, Manhattanites were more likely to head to Long Island or New Jersey for the weekend than to drive four hours to central New York.

I’d almost taken a flight, but I would have ended up coming in even later. So, here I was putting another couple hundred miles on my car.

But the trip upstate reminded me how much I liked driving, and I’d actually handled three meetings on the way, thanks to the Bluetooth in my car.

Now I could focus on the bar this weekend.

A half dozen cars were in the parking lot as I approached from the back entrance. An ancient pickup truck with more rust than paint full of lumber and tools was backed up to the loading dock. The back door of the bar was open, and a familiar redhead was smoking as she held the door for a trio of burly guys.