Sunday afternoon and our entire crew and Gio are sitting around Rhodes’ backyard, having our monthly potluck get together. Rhodes, Zach and I started it a few years ago as a way of keeping our fingers on the pulse of the group as a whole. We may spend a lot of time working together during the week, but when you trust your life in each other’s hands on almost a daily basis, the friendships and camaraderie we have as a group is just as important as the trust we need to have on the job. Besides, it’s also good to just let loose among friends now and then. So we rotate these BBQs at each other’s houses, and all bring food and drinks, talk shit, unwind, and often, decompress.
I’m still on a high after an incredible night and half the day with Renee. I’d love to rip her ex a new one, but had he not been an asshole and screwed her over, I wouldn’t have my shot now—and that’s something I’m eternally grateful for. Except for the fact that someone—namely, Gio—has obviously opened his big mouth and spread the news of my new relationship around the group.
“Scotty, I’m telling you. We’re not going to be related.”
“But if you seal the deal with Renee, and Hayley returns my calls, then I could be your brother from another mother,” he says sounding far too into the idea.
I lean in, my lips quirking up. “Scotty, if a woman isn’t returning your calls, she’s just not that into you.”
He scoffs. “Yeah, right. Women love the Scottmeister.”
I meet Gio’s amused eyes across the table from me as he joins in on this ridiculous conversation. “Here’s a tip, Scottmeister. Women aren’t into guys who call themselves anything-meister.”
I snort, as do Rhodes and Jake beside me.
Scotty pulls his phone out of his pocket and scrolls through his contacts. “How about I call any one of these hot chicks in here? They’ll all vouch for just how much they liked it.”
Jake screws his face up and holds his hand in the air. “This conversation just went above my classifications rating.”
“Says the kid discussing the pros and cons of free and paid porn with me just last night,” Rhodes scoffs, earning a chorus of chuckles around the backyard.
“Smartass,” Scotty grumbles, making us laugh harder.
“How about we change the subject and get back to talking about the lieutenant and his realtor. How are things going with the lovely Renee?” Skye asks, sitting in Cohen’s lap and looking my way.
“Or not,” I mumble, lifting my beer bottle to my mouth.
“Well, she did stay last night,” Gio adds, not helping.
My sister lights up. “So, things are getting serious then?”
Rolling my eyes, I send pleading eyes to Rhodes to save me. He looks at me with a “What do you expect me to do?” expression. He’s as private as I am about my life, the difference being Rhodes’ life is all about work, Jake, and that’s about it.
“Marco? You didn’t answer my question,” Skye says in a singsong voice that tells me she’s enjoying this far too much.
“Yes, brat?”
“Is it serious?”
“It’s something, and that’s all you’re gonna get.”
She pouts. “You’re no fun.”
“And you’re far too much fun.”
“That’s what he says.” She leans her back against Cohen’s chest, his arms wrapping around her waist.
“Hold up,” Luca calls out, peering around Zach and narrowing his eyes on our sister. “Why are you touching her stomach?”
All eyes turn to Cohen and Skye, and his hands cradling her abdomen. He goes to move them to her hips but Skye stops him, a slow-growing grin curving her mouth.
“Brat?” Gio asks.
My gaze softens as my baby sister looks my way.
“We’re having a baby!” she announces.
A round of cheers and applause fill the air. Gio gets up first, gently pulling Skye off Cohen’s legs and wrapping her up in a huge hug. Luca follows, doing the same thing, and I’m stuck staring at the little brat who—try as I might—I still see as a little girl with blond pigtails and a pink ballerina dress who would always follow me around and look at me like I’d hung the moon and arranged the stars.
I’m the last to offer my congratulations, needing the time to swallow the lump in my throat. I’d never live it down if Scotty saw me choked up, even if it was for a damn good reason. I stand and make my way around to the now emotional Skye, who even with tears in her eyes and wet cheeks, still manages to pop a hip and narrow her gaze. “If you make me cry, Marco, I’ll make your life a living hell,” she says, absolutely no malice behind the words.
I pull her in for a big bear hug and bring my mouth to her ear. “Brat, I’m so happy for you,” I murmur. “You’re going to be an amazing mom.” I move back but she stops me before I can step away.
“Uncle Marco has a nice ring to it,” she says with a smile.
“My favorite Uncle Marco sounds more like it.”
“That too.”
“I love you, brat.”
“Love you too, big brother.”
“But now, we need to go deal with your husband because I don’t care if you’re married, we now have proof he’s touched you and—”
Her eyes bug out of her head and her mouth drops open before she quickly recovers. Then she grins. “Oh, okay,” she sighs, melodramatically. She’s used to us three Rossi brothers riling Cohen up. Besides, he brought a lifetime of it when he broke the rule and hooked up with our sister. He’s just lucky that I already knew he was a good man before he threw himself on his sword in front of us to tell Skye he loved her. “Just don’t hurt the important parts. I may be pregnant, but I’m not dead.”
“Hey, wife! I heard that,” Cohen says, appearing at her side and wrapping his arm over her shoulders.
Skye gazes up at him, looking happier than I’ve ever seen her. “You were meant to.”
Cohen scowls back but with those two, it’s probably just foreplay. Eww.
“Does this mean we don’t get to rough Cohen up this time?” Luca calls out from where he’s now manning the grill with Rhodes.
“Marco always spoils our fun,” Gio moans. “Just let us get a few licks in. It’ll do the boy some good.”
“I’ll show you, old man,” Cohen says, him and Gio circling each other with their fists up like they’re sparring, both with huge grins on their faces.
“You’re all a bunch of teenage boys,” Skye says, laughing as she sits down and leans back, watching our brother and her husband.
“Leave him alone, G,” Zach says, chuckling as he brings out the BBQ meat from inside. “As someone who did get punched in the face by my wife’s brother, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“What about that time when you were too busy getting it on and you set your apartment on fire? Would you wish that on anyone?” Rhodes says, smirking at his new grill partner.
“Fuck,” Zach replies, shaking his head. “Will I ever live that down?”
“No,” every single one of us says in unison.
“Damn.”
I move back to my chair, finding Jake with his head down, his attention on his phone.
“Hey. You good?” I ask, sitting next to him.
He looks my way and gives me a chin lift. God, it’s scary how much he’s like Rhodes . ”Yeah, Uncle Marco.”
I nod to the phone. “Who’s that?”
“Dee Duncan. She’s this big YouTube chef who’s going viral at the moment. Dad watches her with me. I even catch him cheating and watching her new videos before I do.”
My brows go up. “Really?”
“Yep. She likes doing traditional dishes in new and healthy ways and making it all from scratch, not out of a box.”
“So no Kraft mac ‘n’ cheese then?” I ask, nudging his arm.
Jake’s lips twitch. “I haven’t had that since I was ten when you let me try and make it by myself.”
“It was just lucky you had your fireman uncle nearby to limit the damage, huh?”
He rolls his eyes but I don’t miss his half grin. “Whatever.”
“Rhodes, Jake whatever’d me,” I say, sounding like a petulant teenager.
“Jake,” Rhodes calls out. “I’ve told you not to tease Marco with your superior intellect. You know he just can’t keep up with us.”
Jake sighs melodramatically. “But he makes it hard sometimes.”
“I know, son,” Rhodes says, nodding sympathetically. “But he seems to keep coming around so we must entertain him. Call it a humanitarian effort.”
I chuckle, shaking my head and flipping them both off.
Jake stops the video and looks over at me with a contemplative gaze. “So, you and Renee?”
Smartass Jake has left the building—now I’ve got the good-man-in-training that Rhodes and I have worked hard on molding. Although, if I’m honest, he’s probably the one who’s had an effect on the two of us more than anything.
“Yeah,” I say. “There’s a me and Renee.”
He smiles. “Good to hear you haven’t screwed it up yet.”
I bump his shoulder with mine. “Not yet. But give it time. It’s still early days. We’re just dating.”
“You never ‘just date.’ You’re not in or all in. There’s no middle ground. So you’re all in with her, aren’t you?”
I swear, the kid is smarter than Rhodes and I combined. ”Yeah. As of last night. Absolutely.”
Jake must see something in my face because he screws his up. ”Okay, TMI. I don’t want to know anything because I may have been raised right, but that doesn’t mean I want to blush when I meet Renee—which I will, by the way. I won’t be able to hide the fact I know you’re sleeping with her and then I’ll ruin the cool points you’ve got going with her, and probably the ones I’ve got going with her too.”
“She’d never embarrass you. I might, but Renee won’t,” I reply with a laugh.
“Just to be safe, let’s just end it with ‘you’re dating.’ You’ve got a girlfriend now. And we’re waiting for the first screw-up so that I can counsel you on how to grovel appropriately and adequately so that she stays your girlfriend. Right?”
My eyes are near on bugging out of my head but even still, I find myself nodding.
“Good,” he says, a satisfied grin on his face. He glances up towards Rhodes then back to me, leaning in and lowering his voice. “Now, let’s talk about how we’re going to get Dad a date because you’re not such a lost cause anymore, but he’s not even trying.”
My eyes soften. “Jake. He’s got to be ready for it.”
“And he is. I know he is. But I’ve only got a few more years at home if I go out of state for college, and I need to know he’s going to be okay and have someone other than the two of us before I go. So we have three years in which to—”
I snort. “Marry him off?”
“Or at least get him dating. I want to hear about him getting laid as much as I want to hear about you doing it—which is not at all—but I’d like to at least know he’s trying. Know what I mean?”
Fuck, this kid is more fucking onto it than most people I know. He makes Scotty look like a toddler, and there’s a twenty-year age gap between them.
“Yeah, Jake. You need me to help you with that goal, I’ll be your wingman.”
He snorts. “You probably need to be his wingman, not mine. I have absolutely no issues getting the ladies.”
“TMI, Jake.”
He rolls his eyes at me. ”Whatever.”
Then I decide a little payback is in order. “Rhodes, Jake’s working his way through the female population of his school.”
Rhodes looks our way, his eyes crinkling as he switches his gaze between us.
“Dad, Marco even said he’d be my wingman,” Jake retorts, making my mouth drop open. Rhodes snickers and turns back to the grill.
I meet Jake’s amused eyes and shake my head. “You’re such a little shit.”
“Yep. But you’re proud as hell of me.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
The following night, we’ve just finished up at a multi-vehicle accident where we were the first engine on scene and therefore, as the highest-ranking officer on-site, I automatically took control of the management. Just my luck, the second engine to respond was from Firehouse 22, which meant Lieutenant Nick Pierce had to cede his authority to me and follow my instructions.
Thankfully, he has a good crew; they just have an attitude problem when it comes to Firehouse 101. At least they never fail to put that aside when we’re all at the same incident, and tonight was no different. But the big cloud of animosity floating above Pierce’s head could not—and was not—missed by myself or any of my crew. We’re just professional enough to ignore it and get on with our jobs, which tonight involved using both the K12 and the jaws of life to extract two patients trapped in two of the cars involved in the pile-up.
We’ve just finished clearing the scene when Nick walks up to me. I hold out my hand to him. “Lieutenant Pierce, thank you for your assistance. Engine 22 can stand down and return to base.”
He looks down at my outstretched arm and then back to my face, nodding at my instruction but also twisting his lips up in disgust at me. “You can stop puffing your chest out now, Rossi. Do you know how to do that? Or do you need a demonstration on how a real lieutenant should conduct himself?” And there he goes, pushing my buttons needlessly.
I’m too tired and sick of his over-the-top macho bullshit to turn around and walk away like I should, like my Captain has told me to do countless times before. Instead, I just shake my head at him. “There’s never going to be a time when I need a demonstration on anything from you, Pierce. Maybe it’s you who needs to stand back and watch how I conduct myself. That’s okay, though; we’ll just wait until we kick your ass at the Tough Mudder.” I hate that I let this guy get under my skin. I try to be the bigger, better man, but he makes it so fucking hard. Assholes see as assholes do, and this guy really brings out my inner asshole.
“And by all means, Lieutenant, if you want to flop your dick out too just to convince yourself that your shortcomings aren’t all in your head, let’s go,” Luca says, taking my back.
Nick’s eyes move from over my shoulder back to mine. “Oh, look. Need your brother to fight your battles for you now, Marco? My, how the mighty have fallen. The department’s golden boy needs his baby bro to defend him.”
“I don’t need shit, Pierce, especially from you. You’re the one with the problem—not me, not my brother, and not my crew. I have my entire Firehouse at my back but I see you don’t have any behind you. Maybe it’s because they find it hard to respect a man whose big head makes it hard to walk into the damn firehouse.”
“You’re a real piece of work. I can’t wait to be there when you fall from grace. It’s way past time you were brought back down to earth. You’ve had higher-ups kissing your ass and sucking your dick for far too long now.”
“If I’ve had anybody kissing my ass, it’s because I fucking earned it, Lieutenant,” I grind out. “And to suggest otherwise is just downright insulting. Some of us don’t need our dicks sucked to feel good about ourselves.”
Nick’s smirk widens. “Good to know you can’t even get some, Rossi. I’ve never had issues there.”
I feel Luca’s anger without needing to look at him. I can also feel my squad watching from the truck, and I know they’re already more than willing to wade in if I need them to.
“What you’ve got, Lieutenant Pierce, are issues—a lot of them. Maybe counseling could help. Maybe an ass-kicking could, too,” my brother says. He’s walking a fine line because he shouldn’t be addressing a superior like that.
“Luca . . .” I warn, wanting to stop him before he goes too far. My brother doesn’t have many faults but if he had one, it would be his temper. Especially when it comes to defending those he cares about.
Pierce steps forward and drops his voice for my ears only. “You’ve been a thorn in my ass since the academy, Rossi. I can’t wait to bring you down at the Tough Mudder.”
I shake my head because I honestly don’t know what’s crawled up his ass. Whatever it is, it’s been there for fucking years. I’ve never seen a firefighter—a lieutenant, no less—with a god complex like Nick Pierce. It’s not even that warranted. “Nick, I don’t have a problem with you. My issue is with your attitude toward me as your commanding officer on-scene. I don’t give a single flying fuck about you as a person. I didn’t at the academy, when you were always coming third behind me and Rhodes, and I still don’t. Now, if you’re finished with this little pissing contest of yours, my crew and I are leaving, because it’s been a long fucking night and I’d rather be anywhere but here.”
I turn around and leave, not missing the shit-eating grins on all of the guys’ faces except for Rhodes and Zach, who look concerned. Rhodes knows how much of a pain in the ass Pierce is and always has been, and the entire crew at Firehouse 22 has rubbed our firehouse the wrong way since Pierce has been there. It seems their sole goal is to beat us to each scene—and for all the wrong reasons. I’m worried that one day this unofficial ‘rivalry’ he has with me is going to cause a major problem. But right now, coffee and some food sound really fucking good.
What would be even better would be crawling into bed with Renee as soon as my shift ends in a few hours, but given her nine-to-five day job and my seven a.m. finish, that dream is going to have to wait until the weekend.
“Take us to the station, Luca,” I say, grunting as I drop my body into the seat and close the front passenger door to the truck behind me.
“I’m sorry, Mar. I couldn’t just stand by and watch him talk shit.”
“I know. But he has every right to report you. You’ve got to watch yourself.”
“Wouldn’t ever trust that guy as far as I could throw him.”
“Makes two of us, but he’s a good firefighter. He’s just got a me-sized chip on his shoulder.”
“Then maybe it’s you that should watch yourself.”
“Always do, brother. Always do. Now, who’s up for some food? ‘Cause after that job, I’ve worked up an appetite.”
“Hear, hear,” the guys in the back answer.
I shoot Luca a smile as he starts the truck and we leave the scene in our rearview mirror. “You heard them, Firefighter Rossi. Your choice of takeout but I suggest you choose wisely because you’re paying.”
“What?”
With a smirk, I turn and lift a brow. “Are you questioning your lieutenant?”
“Are you acting as my lieutenant right now?”
“You bet your ass I am, especially if it means free food. What do you guys think?” I look over my shoulder and meet Rhodes’s amused gaze.
“Aye, aye, Lieutenant,” Luca grumbles, making me laugh. And just like that, Nick Pierce and his asshole complex are left behind and forgotten.