Chapter 7

Millie

“So you’re really not going to tell me which guy this is?”

Jamie leaned against the doorway of my bathroom, ostensibly to watch me apply the last of my makeup. We’d decided on this flippy little satin dress. It was sundress adjacent, making it both sexy and casual at the same time. Red as blood, I slicked on lipstick the same colour and then stepped back to stare into the mirror.

This was as good as I was going to get.

The cut of the dress skimmed over my curves, just loose enough to hide my lumps and bumps. The colour made my eyes pop, and while I could pass it off as festive, no one was going to look past me in a bright red dress. I put the lipstick down and smoothed my hands over my hips, before turning back to face Jamie, only to find her smiling gently.

“Someone’s got you rattled.”

“No—” I started to say.

“Yeah, they have. You always look amazing, but usually you just drag something out of your wardrobe and make it work.” She looked past me to the bomb site that was my room. “Not go through every single dress you own, including that super ugly one your grandma bought you years ago.”

“Little House on the Prairie chic is in again?” I suggested, but she just shook her head.

“So, are you going to tell me who it is?” Her eyes searched mine and that had me walking out of my bathroom to find the strappy shoes I intended to wear tonight, spending way too long doing up the tiny buckles.

“It’s just?—”

“Some guy,” she finished for me, nodding slowly. I stared at her, mutely pleading for her to leave it alone. “OK.” Jamie pushed herself away from the wall. “I’m prepared to be patient. Go out, make this guy swallow his tongue looking at all your hotness.” She was just being supportive, but that didn’t stop my cheeks burning. I wanted, needed, to believe that was true right now. “And then when you’ve waltzed off with one, two of his mates…”

My bestie was trying to get a read on me, but I wasn’t ready for that, so I stood up and started searching for a bag to add to my ensemble.

“Hey, even three of them,” she said. I stopped still, betraying myself for a second before grabbing whatever bag was hanging up in my wardrobe. “You’ll give me a call and tell me what’s going on.”

I put on my social smile, feeling the way the lipstick sat on my lips before turning around.

“You got it.” I swept in, drank the rest of my wine glass down, then took a healthy swig from the remains in the bottle. Super stay lipstick for the win. My hands landed on her shoulders. “Now, thank you for being an impromptu fashion consultant today. I know you hate this shit.”

“Not for you.” Her hand curled around my wrist and gave it a squeeze. “Whoever it is, you’ve got this, Mills. Walk in there, make a statement, and ensure this prick rues the day he hurt you.”

Was that possible? I was about to find out.

I stared out the window, scanning the buildings as we pulled up out the front of the suburban fire station. The tinsel tacked up haphazardly around the door let me know I was in the right place. OK, it was go-time. Pay the driver, straighten my spine and then my dress before getting out of the car and?—

“Oh…”

“Millie?” My door was opened and Noah smiled down at me, looking like a picture of masculine perfection. Brown hair that was still wet was combed back from his face and broad shoulders stretched the seams of his button down shirt as he leaned closer. “Is that apple pie?”

“Mum’s recipe.” I hefted the pie plate sheepishly. “She’d kill me if I came empty handed. The wine was my idea.”

“Well, let's get them, you, inside.”

He took the pie from me, then tucked the wine bottle under one arm before offering me his hand, and for just a second, I stared at it. It was hard then, not to remember the last time he did that. When his smile faltered, I wondered if he saw it too, the moment when he led me to the place under the trees. No, I decided, if I was going to dwell, I wanted to on Jamie’s advice, not our teenage antics. I wrapped my hand around his, trying very hard not to notice the way his hand swallowed mine as he helped me out of the car.

Or that he didn’t let go of my hand once the Uber sped away.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come.”

That steady gaze of his had me counting all the flecks of green and amber in his hazel eyes, and right now the past felt like it threatened to rise up like some prehistoric beast and swallow us whole. It was all too easy to pretend that no time had passed, that he was still the cute, shy guy that sat next to me in class.

But I was not that girl anymore and therefore unwilling to get dragged into that crap again.

“To a party full of hot firefighters?” I asked. I pulled free to put my hands on my hips. “Are you kidding? So…” I could be the cool girl, the one that wasn’t still crushing on the out-of-reach guy from school. “You gonna be my wingman here, for old times’ sake?”

“Wing… man?”

Noah barely stammered that out, frowning slightly, and I admit that kinda pissed me off. I was no oil painting, but right now I was looking kinda cute. Cute enough for his friends if Charlie’s flirty smile was anything to go by. Then there was Knox’s big daddy act just after the fire.

“Yeah.” Fake it until you make it, that was my motto, so I shot him a cheeky grin. “I think every straight girl fantasises about making out with a hot firefighter,” I replied. “Introduce me to the single ones, and I promise I’ll help you get any girl you like.”

“That right.” There was something flat about his tone, but as his eyes narrowed, a slow smile formed. “Well, you better come in and meet the guys.”