“Shit. Sorry, Devyn. Of course, we are friends,” I say quickly. What the fuck is wrong with me? I can be such a bonehead sometimes, as my sister likes to remind me of at every opportunity.
“Oh, good. You’re one of the only guys I can talk to in town,” she says.
“None of the other guys?” I ask, raising my eyebrow.
“Nope. I only talk to them about work.”
Well, that’s nice to know and it makes me feel a thousand feet tall.
Once the plane lands, we grab our bags and head to the hotel and check in. The conference starts tomorrow in the attached conference center. I try to put my game face on and get in the zone to work, but Dee is walking in front of me. I don’t think she knows just how good she looks in those tight ass jeans.
“You ever gonna do anything about that, man?” Alex asks as we walk down the hallway to our rooms.
“Of course,” I say, tersely.
“When?”
“Soon.”
“You better hurry. It’s only a matter of time before someone back home stops taking you seriously,” he says, stopping at his door. “See you at dinner. I need a nap.”
“Right. Dinner,” I reply, shaking my head. He slept for six hours on the plane.
Come hell or highwater, she’s coming home as my fiancée.
Chapter Two
Devyn McCallum
I’ve spent my entire life trying to prove to my father that being the first girl born in the McCallum line didn’t mean I couldn’t do what the McCallum line was born to do. Fight fires. For generations, my family has been one thing and one thing only: firefighters.
I was not going to let him down just because I had a vagina and breasts. I didn’t want anyone to think that I got the job because of who my father was so I packed a bag and moved halfway across the country to the cutest town I have ever seen. It seems that it was the only place where people didn’t know that I was the daughter of Fire Chief Jake McCallum, one of the most respected fire chiefs on the East Coast. I didn’t want to make it on a team back there or at the same station as my father because I would never know if it was because of him and his connections.
No, I am determined to prove to him that I can do this, that I am not a disappointment. Maybe that has to do with my mother leaving when I was little and never wanting to let down the only parent I have left. When she left my dad poured himself into work but still somehow managed to make time for me. I grew up at the fire station, if I wasn’t at school I was at the station. The firefighting part of the job was never my thing but mealtime, that was my favorite. I loved how there was so much laughter, good food, and even better friends. It was and still is my very favorite part of the job. I was totally prepared for my job and anything it could throw at me or at least that’s what I thought until I walked into Assistant Chief Jasper Reid’s office for my interview. It’s been thirty days since I first saw him and with every passing day the man seems to find new ways to drive me fucking crazy, with all his heated glances, accidental touches, and all of the unspoken promises. Two weeks after I moved to Heart Falls, I was feeling lousy because none of the guys at work would talk to me unless it was about work and I was feeling like they all hated me either because I was a woman or maybe they just didn’t like change.
Then I went to the bar in town and all of the guys there wouldn’t talk to me well except Frank Jones, the old geezer that spends his nights at Two Hearts Bar & Grill. I would have thought that the town just didn’t like newcomers, but all of the girls and older gents talk to me so that couldn’t be it. Then I find out from Laney that her husband told her that Jasper put the word out that I was off limits yet for some reason, he won’t make a move.
I should have been pissed that he did that but the whole caveman “she is mine” thing is hot as fuck. I’ve spent my life always being one of the guys and I have been fine as just that until Jasp came into my life and I started thinking about all of the deliciously naughty things he could do to my body.
I’m a twenty-four-year-old virgin who has never thought of anything but my career. Now, all I can think about is babies and happily ever after’s. I am in love with a man that is determined to keep me at arm’s length and I am about at my wits end with the man.