Chapter Four

“Tamsen, order up!”

Tamsen placed her last table’s dirty dishes in the bin by the industrial dishwasher. Normally the busser would handle clearing the tables, but they were a little short staffed today. Lucky for her, her coworkers were awesome, and everyone was willing to pitch in when needed.

She hustled over to where her table’s food waited under the warming lamps. “Thanks, Ty.”

The chef smiled, gracing those deep, dark dimples that made half the women, and men, in Denver lose their clothes. But Tamsen preferred to avoid any drama due to ill-conceived crushes on the job. She didn’t have time in her life for dating right now anyway.

She brought the meals out to her table, who were—thankfully—very pleasant and easy customers. The lunch rush had lulled, and there were a few hours until the dinner crowd came in. After her last table left, she headed to the back to catch up on some side work. Rolling silverware wasn’t the most exciting of activities, but at least she got to sit down while doing it. She winced as the pressure finally lifted from her feet.

Though she liked her job just fine, she wished she were in the studio today. The truth was she always wished she were in the studio, or her apartment, or anywhere she could pick up a paintbrush, or charcoal, or lump of clay. If only art paid the bills. She sighed. Someday it would—she knew it. All she had to do was work hard and keep creating. Her big break was just around the corner; she could feel it.

“Hey, Tamsen.”

She glanced up to see her coworker Jade stroll in with an armful of dirty dishes and…a half glass of lemonade filled with wadded-up napkins? People were gross and didn’t tip nearly enough for the crap servers had to put up with.

“Hi, Jade. How’s it going?”

“It’d be better if the campers at table seven would leave and the douches who graced me with a giant mess at table two would have left a fucking tip.”

Yup, people sucked.

“Want me to go hurry seven along?” Campers were the worst. They ordered a meal or sometimes just a drink and sat yammering on for far longer than should be humanly possible.

“Naw.” Jade waved away her offer. “They’ve paid and it’s quiet out there, so it’s not a big deal.” Sliding in by Tamsen, a bright sparkle in her dark brown eyes, Jade grabbed a set of silverware and a pile of napkins, rolling along with Tamsen. “Besides, I wanna hear how the party went last night.”

“It was great. The appetizers were delicious, the champagne was free.”

“Best kind there is.”

They clinked forks in agreement before continuing to roll.

“My dad looked really happy, and Victoria is really nice.” If not a little upper crust, but she didn’t hold that against the woman. If she didn’t mind the socioeconomic gap between her and her future husband, why should Tamsen?

“And I…um…she has a son.” Nerves fluttered in her stomach. The totally inappropriate and wickedly naughty dream she’d had last night involving Parker and his “fire hose” rose up in her mind. Heat burned her cheeks, and she ducked her head, hoping her friend was too busy with her side work to notice the blush on Tamsen’s face.

“Cool, so you’re getting a brother? How old is he?”

“Stepbrother,” Tamsen emphasized. The step was very important. “And I’m not sure, late twenties, early thirties would be my guess. But I…ah, I do know him.”

Jade paused in her rolling, eyes focusing on Tamsen. “You do?”

“Yup. It’s Parker.” At her friend’s blank expression, she explained, “The firefighter who rescued me from my…predicament.”

Jade’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Hottie Hero!”

She cringed at the nickname her coworkers had given Parker when she told them the story last week. Yeah, she might have mentioned a time or twenty how good-looking he was, but did they have to give him such a silly moniker just to embarrass her?

Duh, you gave them the ammo, Tamsen.

No mercy in the service world.

“Hottie Hero is going to be your brother?”

“Stepbrother.” Again, a very important distinction.

Jade’s lips rose in a wide grin, laughter escaping as she patted Tamsen on the cheek. “Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry. That sucks so much for you. But on the bright side, now you can introduce him to me.”

“You can’t hook up with my future stepbrother.”

One dark eyebrow rose as Jade crossed her arms over her chest. “And why not? Is he seeing someone? Married?”

She had no idea. She barely knew the guy. “I don’t know, but he’s going to be my”—she had to swallow past an uncomfortable lump in her throat—“family, kind of. It’d be weird.”

“Weirder than you having the hots for your new brother?”

“Step! He’s my future stepbrother. We’re not living together. The only time we’ll see each other is at family functions. No creepy incest vibes, and anyway, who said I had the hots for him?”

Jade snorted out a laugh. “You did, the other day when you told me how awkward it was that your nipples got all stiff and happy when he was saving you from the plaster disaster.”

She covered her burning face with her hands, muffled mortified words coming out between her fingers. “Oh my god, I am never telling you anything ever again.”

“Relax, girl.” Jade took pity on her, nudging Tamsen with her hip before returning to her rolling. “I’m just messing with you. Besides, I have another date with Hella Hot.”

Wait, Jade was going out with a supervillain?

“Who?”

Jade gave a very un-Jade-like shy smile, answering with a small shrug. “Her real name is Ella. She’s the lead Jammer for the Rocky Mountain Rollers.”

Right, one of the roller derby teams. Tamsen wasn’t really into sports, but she loved supporting her friends. She’d gone to a couple of bouts to see Jade play, and it was brutal yet oddly exhilarating. She had no idea how the women could skate so fast and not fall right on their butts. Well, they did fall, but usually only when someone hit them. She was still iffy on how the game was played, but she knew enough to know the Rocky Mountain Rollers were the rivals of Jade’s team, the LODO Maniacs.

“Why, Jade,” she teased, fluttering a cloth napkin at her friend. “Are you telling me you’re consorting with the enemy? Is this a case of skate-crossed lovers?”

“Shut up.” Jade tossed a napkin at her, but the smile on her face grew. “We’re just having fun. Nothing serious.”

Famous last words from every romcom Tamsen had ever seen. And she’d seen a lot.

At least one of them was getting some action. The last time she had anything resembling fun in the romance department was…far too long ago for her liking. But dating required time, and between the restaurant, her internship at the gallery, and finding those precious spare moments to work on her own creative projects, she had little to zero energy to hit the dating scene. Plus, every guy she’d started dating tended to get to a point where they wanted…more.

Tamsen wasn’t a love hater—like Parker appeared to be—but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go for all that happily ever after stuff. After all, she knew better than anyone that no matter how happy you were, life didn’t guarantee an ever after, and she wasn’t going to risk her heart like that.

The way her dad had.

Her entire life, watching the way he missed her mother with a melancholy heartache he always tried to hide, it kind of put the damper on the whole true love forever idea in her mind.

But now he’s with Victoria.

True, but two decades of loneliness and misery sounded like hell. No, thank you—she’d stick to fun, temporary times.

Maybe she should download one of those hookup apps. Swipe right for some sexual release. Eh, she’d never really been all that good at sleeping with random strangers. To each their own, but Tamsen liked to know a guy for a bit before she hopped into bed with him.

It was the artist in her. She had to feel that…connection.

Her phone pinged with an incoming text message. Even though they technically weren’t allowed to check their phones at work, their manager didn’t care as long as it wasn’t in front of the customers. Tamsen reached into the small black apron tied around her waist and pulled out her phone.

“Is hottie stepbrother asking for a date?” Jade baited.

“Stop it, and no. It’s Cora asking if we’re all still on for pub quiz tonight. She found a potential replacement for Cap Hill Bar.”

“I’m in.” Jade leaned around the corner to shout into the kitchen area. “Hey, Ty, Niko, you guys up for trivia tonight?”

The cooks shouted their agreement, so Tamsen texted her roomie back a thumbs up. Her trivia team, The Lumbersnacks, had a winning streak to uphold. They used to attend a pub quiz at Cap Hill, and since it closed its doors, they’d been looking for a new spot. None of the bars’ quiz times had worked out with everyone’s schedule until Cora discovered City Tavern had the same time slot Cap Hill used to.

“I’ll take these up to the host stand if you wanna grab the refills for the salt and pepper,” she told Jade as she scooped all the rolled silverware they’d finished into a clean plastic tub.

“You got it.”

The rest of her shift went smoothly, with a busy enough dinner rush that kept her mind occupied with specials and cocktail orders. No time to dwell on frustrating predicaments of sexy firefighters who were soon to be family members. She cashed out, tipping the kitchen before pocketing a nice hundred and ten in tips for herself. Maybe she could afford a call drink tonight at the bar instead of a well.

After running to her apartment to meet up with Cora and change into their team’s trademark plaid button-ups, she headed to City Tavern with her roomie to meet the rest of their team.

The moment she stepped through the doors of the dimly lit bar, she felt a sense of rightness. It was intimate but not too small. A dozen or so tables were scattered about the room, most of them filled with people hunkering down over sheets of paper, arguing over team names.

There looked to be another room off to the right with a pool table and dartboard. Good. The last bar they tried had the dartboard in the main room, and every time she went up to turn the answer sheets in, she had to dodge flying missiles. A decent-sized bar took up most of the left side of the room with a small jukebox tucked in the corner, currently off because trivia started in ten minutes.

“Looks like Jade already snagged a table,” Cora said, pointing to a far corner where a group of their friends sat in various colors of plaid shirts.

Tamsen waved, nudging her roomie. “You go sit and I’ll grab us the first round.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, you want a beer or rum and coke?”

Cora rolled her neck, and Tamsen cringed at the cracking sound indicating her friend had had a hard day at the hospital.

“Make it the strong stuff. Today was brutal, and I need to unwind.”

“You got it.”

She made her way to the bar, grateful most of the trivia participants were already seated with their drinks. Nothing was worse than coming off a long shift only to sink back into the chaos of a crowd. Once she snagged the bartender’s attention, she ordered a rum and coke for Cora and a sex on the beach for herself. Yeah, she liked froufrou drinks, and she wasn’t ashamed. They were tasty.

She paid, tipping very generously because solidarity, and headed back to the table where her friends sat.

As she moved through the small throng of people and tables, the person in the chair to her right suddenly pushed back to stand. She quickly pivoted to her left to avoid collision but ended up hitting a solid brick wall. The drinks in her hands sloshed, threatening to spill the delicious alcohol meant to help them unwind from a hard day, but years of working in the fast-paced world of serving kicked in. A little shuffle and clever balancing and the liquid righted in the glasses. Only a small drop spilled over the side of her drink and rolled down the glass.

“Impressive, Tamsen.”

Uh oh. She knew that deep, rumbly voice. She turned to the brick wall, which turned out not to be a brick wall at all but the very hard chest of one Parker Kincaid.

What the hell is he doing here?

“Parker! What are you doing here?”

He smiled, the sight making her thighs clench together.

“Same thing as you, I imagine. Drinking and pub quiz.”

“You do pub quiz?”

“Yup. The crew from the station goes every week.” He motioned to a table full of buff-looking men and women. “At least those of us not on shift.”

Well, this was just perfect. Here she’d been looking forward to a night out with friends to get her mind off the very man who just happened to be standing right in front of her. What the hell had she done to karma lately for it to be such a bitch to her?

“Oh, that’s nice. Yeah, my friends and I go every week, too.”

He cocked his head. “Huh, I don’t remember seeing you here before.”

“Oh, that’s because we used to go to Cap Hill, but then it closed down and we’ve been hitting up all the different bars trying to find the right fit. It’s hard because a lot of us work odd schedules, and finding a night that works for all of us is tricky. We’ve been doing it for over a year now and, not to brag, but we’re really good, so we don’t break up the team, and my roommate Cora found this place that holds trivia the same night Cap Hill used to, so it works out for everyone and…”

She trailed off when she noticed Parker’s wide grin as he stared at her.

“And I rambled again. Sorry. I tend to do that when I get nervous.”

Curiosity lit his eyes. “Do I make you nervous, Tamsen?”

“No,” she lied through her teeth. “I just feel bad because I’ve been too busy to text you about getting together to plan our parents’ party.”

He frowned at the mention of the dual wedding shower they were supposed to plan together. Jeez, what was this guy’s issue with weddings? Maybe he was just weirded out by his mom getting married again. She’d admit it felt a bit strange to her, too, because she’d only known her father as a single man, but she was happy for him. Wasn’t Parker happy for his mother?

“It’s been one day, Tamsen.” He pasted that carefree smile back on his face. “I think you’re off the hook, etiquette-wise.”

“I hope your team is prepared to get their butts kicked tonight,” she teased because she really didn’t want to talk about their parents, weddings, party planning, or anything that reminded her how off-limits this man was to her.

His tongue came out to graze along his top teeth, and she had to hunch her shoulders, hoping her nipples weren’t poking through her top. Good grief! One tiny glimpse of the man’s tongue and they were harder than diamonds. Perfect little turkey timers. Ding, ding! She was ready.

“Your team is that good?” he asked.

Dragging her thoughts away from the dirty, dirty gutter they were rolling around in, she lifted her chin. “The Lumbersnacks held the winning streak at Cap Hill for six months straight.”

He rocked back on his heels, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, did you say The Lumbersnacks?”

“Yeah.” She pointed to her shirt then indicated the table where all her friends sat. Staring at her and Parker with rapt attention, not even trying to hide their nosiness. That was going to be fun when she got to the table.

“Are you all woodworkers or something?”

She shook her head. “No, we thought we’d capitalize on the hipster culture with a funny pun. What’s your team called?”

“Most Extinguished.”

She laughed. Of course it was. “I get it, because you’re all firefighters.”

He tapped the end of her nose with a finger. “You got it.”

The simple touch sent a zing of electricity straight through her body all the way down to her good parts. If they ever touched in the way she fantasized, in the ways they did in her dreams, they’d start a fire even he and all the Most Extinguished members couldn’t put out.

“Well, I…um…better get over there.”

He nodded, winking as she moved to leave. “May the best team win.”

“Don’t worry, we will.”

His laughter followed her all the way back to her table where, judging by the eager expressions on her friends’ faces, she was about to suffer the inquisition of The Lumbersnacks.

Oh boy. Tamsen set down Cora’s drink and took a healthy gulp of her own as she sat, five sets of curious eyes all on her. She swore she could feel a sixth, and when she turned her head, sure enough, there sat Parker, across the room, his hot gaze trained on her. When he saw her looking, he lifted his own drink and…

Winked.

Her entire core tightened, and she took another drink to cool off the suddenly skyrocketing temperature in her body.

This was going to be a very long night.