Chapter 3

Charlie

Who the hell was the babe?

Putting out fires always had me bouncing. I’d been taken aside and people had been forced to have a few words with me about it, checking to see if my enthusiasm for the job had a sinister element, but I was no pyro. If I hadn’t become a firefighter, I would’ve signed up to be a cop or in the military, because sitting behind desks killed me. I needed to always be moving, like a shark, my dad observed.

“Let Knox know we’ve got this sorted,” Noah said, the guy’s vibe the complete opposite to mine. Always quiet, always sober, was Noah. Pretty sure that’s why we got teamed up together. He always had his eye on the prize, whereas I…

Damn.

Why’d she have to be so damn pretty?

I expected the manager to be some lady in her sixties, complete with a Victoria Bitter beer tattoo, not some freaking hottie in her late twenties. I drifted closer because I was supposed to be updating our lead on what was happening, but… I watched Knox step in, saw his hands go to her shoulders, and my eyebrow cocked up. Knox was smart, level headed, and a damn good fireman.

He was also not normally one to get up close and personal with the public.

Usually, I had to smooth people’s ruffled feathers. I was definitely the personality hire of the team, but as I stepped closer, I heard Knox trying to talk the girl down from a ledge.

“You’re safe, and you did everything you could.”

Her whole body seemed to go limp then, as if she’d put down a burden she didn’t realise she was carrying, and that had me moving closer. She nodded, beautiful eyes shining as she looked up at him with not a little hero worship.

Interesting…

“Knox!” When her eyes swung my way, I barely suppressed a surge of satisfaction. “Fire’s out. Noah’s checking the gas bottles, but I reckon we’re good.”

Seeing Knox pissed was no new thing for me. We butted heads more times than I could count, but that was usually because I’d done something dumb. Never due to a girl. We definitely had women buzz around us when they found out what we did. The Australian firefighter’s calendar had single handedly changed my love life, but each time I tried to help the grumpy prick enjoy the same thing, he shut it all down.

Not now, though. Pretty sure what he was doing would’ve gotten him a spanking from the team HR sent out, educating us on how to appropriately deal with the public. Of course, I could’ve left the big man to it, let him forge a connection, get her number, or… I grinned and stepped forward, offering my hand.

“I’m Charlie, and you are…?”

“Millie…” she replied. Nope, that couldn’t be right. Someone as pretty as her needed a queenly name like Anastasia or something. “Amelia McDonald.” I rolled that name around over and over inside my head, making sure I remembered it. “I manage The Stafford.”

When I smiled, she smiled, and I liked that. Her hand was small, warm, and perfect in mine, making me glad I’d pulled my glove off. My eyes followed the plane of her cheek down to that full little cupid bow of a mouth, catching the moment her lips fell open, but whatever else she had to say, it was cut off by Noah.

“Knox, we…” I heard his boots clumping on the asphalt, felt him approach, but right now, I was too caught up in the beautiful Amelia’s response. Women didn’t often look past me to Noah, but she did right now. Her hand was pulled free and she moved closer.

“Noah…?”

Oh, I wanted her to say my name just as reverently, but I didn’t even rate a second look as she took one hesitant step then another towards him. Maybe because his face lit up in ways I’d never seen before. If Knox had little game, Noah had none.

“Millie…? What the f—?” He stopped himself with a shake of his head. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Holy crap, was Amelia that Millie? The Millie. The woman forever enshrined in his heart, Millie. Goddess among women, I wondered how he hadn’t thrown himself at her feet and kissed those cute little toes, because I had heard a lot about this girl over the years. Whenever Noah got drunk or tired or whatever, we heard alll about the girl that got away.

And now here she was.