Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,35
ask as we roll the stretcher out to the ambulance. “If you’re gone every weekend?”
“We’re not, like, exclusive, Romeo. We’re just talking, nothing big. Plus sometimes she’ll be working while I’m up there.”
I nod and we load the stretcher. I don’t know why I asked. It’s hard to act as if I don’t care, and I’m over talking about it right now.
“Lou!” Allie runs out of the hospital doors.
He crosses the short distance to her while I climb into the ambulance to get it ready for our next patient.
“Fuck, seriously?” Lou says. “That sucks. No, he’s been out for a while. Sure, yeah. I’m cool with it. I tried but…”
A loud truck with a bad muffler pulls in making it impossible for me to hear their conversation anymore.
He climbs into the truck. “That fucker Dr. Tiller pulled out of the house because he found his own rental. I never understood why he took a spot to begin with.” He starts the ambulance to drive us back to the station.
I secure myself in the passenger seat. “So what does that mean?”
“It means we each have to pay more. We were already short one person so unless we can find two people to fill the spots it’s gonna cost us. Someone mentioned something about renting out the spots for the weeks we don’t have as many people there or something, since we’re all on different shifts. I don’t want to deal with the specifics. I just want to drink, ski, and hot tub.”
I laugh, and we pull up to the fire station a few minutes later. Tank and Stump are sitting in the kitchen, playing cards.
“Slow night?” I ask, pulling a Gatorade out of the fridge and sitting down with them.
“Yeah.” Tank looks over and shrugs.
The fact that these two are close friends is comical. They’re like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger from the movie Twins. They act alike but look nothing alike.
“Did you hear about Dr. Tiller?” Tank says to Lou.
“Yeah, I heard.” Lou’s cell phone rings. “Give me a minute.” He puts up his finger and jogs upstairs.
“Why aren’t you coming?” Stump asks me. “You could be the meat the women come for, and then when you turn them down, they’ll come looking for some consoling. And these arms are like magic.” He holds out his arms.
“What can you fit in them? A Smurf?”
He throws a chip at me, and I laugh.
“That’s the difference between you and me, Romeo. I’ve perfected my game because I have to. You get by on those good looks, but your game is pathetic.” He puts his cards down face up on the table. “Gin Rummy, motherfucker.”
Tank shakes his head and brings all the cards into reshuffle. “Seriously though, Romeo, come on. I was all up for speed skiing and I can’t do that without you.”
Tank’s a smoke jumper with me in the spring and summer. The two of us are probably the biggest daredevils in our group. The entire summer while we fought forest fires, we talked about going speed skiing.
“Well…”
I mean, Stella won’t be there and Denver’s right. I shouldn’t go full steam ahead in my pursuit of her. Just figure out how to be friends first. Fuck, my mind is such a clusterfuck right now.
The only thing that really ever clears it is jumping out of a plane or something equally as crazy, so I look at Tank and say, “I’m in.”
“Fuck yeah, that’s awesome.” He smacks my hand with the handshake all the smoke jumpers have.
“Now you need to give all the women our address and tell them you’re single,” Stump says.
“I am single.”
“That’s not what I heard.” His eyebrows practically hit his hairline.
Lou comes barreling down the stairs. “Guess what?”
He clasps Tank’s shoulder and Tank shakes it off. The man hates being touched for some reason.
“I found us someone to take the spot. Well, I didn’t. But now we just need one more. Say thank you, Lou,” he says.
Tank laughs. “I found someone too.”
“Who?”
“I—” I’m about to tell Lou when Tank shakes his head.
“You’ll find out when we get up there,” Tank says.
“What the hell?” Lou sits down and eyes me to fill him in.
I put up my hands.
“This is so childish.” Lou shakes his head in annoyance.
Stump laughs, picking the cards Tank is dealing him up off the table. Lou grows more agitated throughout the game, and eventually we get a call to head back out. He leaves the kitchen first.