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  He shrugged. “It depends, really. But I always keep extra clothes here, just in case, but this was my last set, so I’ll have to bring more in. If you end up working here, you should definitely try to have clothes on hand.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He shut his locker. “Since there’s not a call going on right now, let me take you to meet the captain before I show you around. Sometimes he gets too busy to really talk, but he knows you’re coming in tonight, so we should be good to go.” He smiled, but looked nervous.

  I didn’t really know what he had to be nervous about. I was the one looking for a job here. “Thanks again for letting me come in.”

  He waved me off. “No problem. Jax said you were a hard worker and everything, so I figure I don’t have to worry about that.”

  Those butterflies went crazy in my stomach at the thought of Jax talking about me and saying nice things. “Jax said that?”

  Symon’s brow furrowed again. “Yeah, he did. Anyway, you told me you have your certifications and everything, right?”

  “Yeah, I’m up to date with all of that. I took care of it as soon as I got back to Baltimore.”

  He stopped at a door and knocked. “Good.”

  A voice yelled, “Come in.”

  Symon smiled at me and opened the door. “Captain, this is Tanner O’Rourke, the guy I told you about. Do you have time to talk to him for a minute?”

  “Of course,” the gruff guy said before he stood and offered me his hand, which I immediately shook. “Come in and have a seat. Symon, shut the door, please.”

  Symon walked out the door and shut it while I sat opposite of Captain Terrence Callanan, according to the little plaque on his desk. He began talking to me, asking me a bunch of questions and telling me a little bit about the station. After several minutes, I realized I was probably having a real interview, not just a meet and greet, but luckily, by that point, the guy had made me feel comfortable enough that I didn’t freak out.

  Once Captain Terrence Callanan shook my hand again and told me he’d give me a call in a day or two about possibly starting in two weeks, I walked out of the room, meeting Symon in the hallway. He smiled immediately and asked, “How’d it go?”

  I blinked a few times. “Good. I think.”

  “I’m sure it went great, or he wouldn’t have talked to you for so long.”

  I looked at my phone to check the time and realized I’d been in there for at least forty-five minutes. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry. You didn’t need to wait for me.”

  “It’s okay, really. No big deal.”

  “Well, thank you, I appreciate it. I didn’t realize he’d be interviewing me tonight.”

  “Me either, but I guess he wanted to get it out of the way. I’m pretty sure that resume you sent me got his attention.”

  I blew out a breath; I had some nervous energy floating around after that. “So, uh, could I maybe take you out to dinner tonight as a thank you? I’m sure you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

  “I haven’t, but I’m supposed to meet Jax after we finish up here. Would you want to tag along?”

  I considered it for a few seconds. “Um, I don’t want to impose on your date.”

  “You wouldn’t be. Tonight isn’t a date, we’re just meeting up with a couple of his friends, anyway. I’m not sure if they’re still coming or not.”

  “Are you sure I wouldn’t be a third wheel or anything?”

  He shook his head and sent me a soft smile. “Nope. Let me finish showing you around and we can head over. Did you drive here?”

  I nodded.

  “Okay, you can follow me over, then.”

  He finished showing me around before the two of us walked out to our cars. I followed him to a restaurant called Timmy’s, and he waited for me before we walked in together. It took a minute to find our table, and when I saw Jax sitting there, laughing with one of his friends, the sight of him took my breath away.

  Jax

  My breath caught in my throat when I saw Symon walk in with Tanner. It was strange because part of me expected to feel some jealousy at knowing they’d been together and seeing them walk so closely to each other, but all I felt was… lust. Seeing both of them made me want both of them. But I shook off those thoughts and took a deep breath. I was happy with Symon; I didn’t need Tanner, too, even if it was a nice fantasy.

  When Symon walked over, he looked like his adorable awkward self that made me smile and like him even more. I stood up, waved him over to me, then kissed his lips quickly and whispered, “Hi, pumpkin.”

  His cheeks flushed immediately and my smile widened. He glanced to the side for a second before whispering, “Hi, Jax.”

  I kissed his cheek, then pulled out the chair beside mine and he sat down. Once I was seated, I saw Tanner walk to the head of the table to give Alex, my best friend and coworker, a hug. They’d known each other for a long time, but Alex hadn’t seen him since Tanner got back. Once introductions were made all around—including introducing Alex to Symon since they hadn’t met in the four days we’d been together—I leaned in close to Symon and asked, “How was your day today?”

  “It was good. It was a pretty easy day, minus being thrown up on.” I wrinkled my nose and he cringed. “Sorry, didn’t mean to say that.”

  I chuckled. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. If you were thrown up on at work and you want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”

  He smirked a little. “Good to know.”

  I nudged him with my arm. “What time do you have to be there tomorrow?”

  “Not till eleven. I’m mid-shift this week.”

  “Does that mean you could be persuaded to spend the night again?” He bit his bottom lip again and I couldn’t help but lean in to kiss and suck on it for a few seconds.

  He muttered, “If you’re trying to sway my answer, it’s working.”

  I laughed. “Good. Is that a yes, then?”

  “Yes.”

  I shot him a huge smile, then looked at my menu and decided what I wanted to eat. After a few minutes, I noticed that Tanner was really quiet and probably uncomfortable since it was my friends here and not his, so I looked over at him and asked, “How did it go today? You think you’ll be able to work there?”

  Tanner looked surprised for a split-second before smiling a little. “I think it went well. It seems that your boyfriend put in a really good word for me.”

  “That’s great, Tan. So what did you get up to this weekend?”

  “Nothing much. I’ve just been unpacking and getting my apartment set up.”

  “So you’re really staying?”

  Tanner looked down at the table with a sad expression. “Yes, I’m really staying.”

  “That’s… good, Tan.”

  He sent me a small smile, then looked at Symon. “Thanks again for today, Symon.”

  “You’re welcome. You don’t need to keep thanking me, though.” Symon wiggled in his seat a little, and I could tell that he was uncomfortable.

  I put my arm on the back of his seat and leaned in to whisper into his ear, “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m just… I feel weird being here with all these people.” He kept his voice low so only I could hear him.

  I leaned back a little to look into his worried eyes. “Do you want to leave? We can go home if you want. I mean, to my place, or yours, or… is it me?”

  He smiled a little. “No, that’s not it. Trust me, you are not the problem at all. I’m just… not used to peopling so much.”

  “You work with people every day.”

  “Yeah, but that’s different, that’s work. And usually when I get off of work, I go home and relax.”

  “Okay, well, let’s go then.” I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair, but Symon held my arm with a little laugh.

  “No, that’s not what I mean, Jax. I swear I’m fine. It’s just going to take me a minute to get settled with people I don’t know, okay?”

  I looked into his gre
y eyes and could see the sincerity in them. “Okay.”

  He shot me a little smile and when I turned around, I saw Alex smirk at me. I shrugged at him and kept my arm on the back of Symon’s chair, then placed my hand on Sy’s shoulder. He startled a little at first, but then he leaned into my touch a little and I smiled again.

  Tanner

  Seeing Jax and Symon together sent so many confusing emotions through my system, I was surprised I didn’t short circuit. They were truly beautiful together. Hot, sexy, delicious. And the thought of them kissing and fucking had my dick thickening in my pants. Thank god I was sitting at a table so I was covered from someone seeing the boner I was sporting. But at the same time, I also felt… jealousy. At first, I thought it was just because Jax was my ex, a person that I’d loved—still loved with all of my heart, honestly, not that he’d want to know that. But that wasn’t quite right, because as I examined the way Symon blushed and leaned into Jax, or the way he squirmed when Jax leaned close to whisper and his breath tickled Symon’s neck, every time I watched that, I realized that I was jealous of Jax, too. I was jealous that it was Jax making Symon squirm like that, blush like that. Because I wanted to be the one that made him do it. I wanted to be the one to see how far down that blush of his went. I wanted to be the one to see the faces he made, hear the sounds he made when someone fucked him.

  Those thoughts had me thinking about what it would be like to be between the two of them. What it’d be like to see and hear and feel both of them against me. I stifled a moan and pressed my palm over my dick, willing it to go the fuck down. I really needed to calm the hell down.

  “Tanner?”

  Jax’s voice grabbed my attention and I looked at him with wide eyes. “Yes?”

  Jax shot me a weird look. “Alex asked what you did in the army. It was the army, right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it was. I was a medic.”

  Alex winced a little, though I wasn’t sure why, but he cleared his throat. “That must’ve been tough.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess.” There was no way in hell I was talking about any of that in front of people I’d just met not fifteen minutes ago. I hadn’t talked to Alex since the day I’d called to make sure he had an extra room in his apartment for Jax. Don’t start thinking about all the asshole things you did back then. Fuck.

  Jax searched my face, then asked me, “So you took that training and applied it to be an EMT?”

  “Looks like it. I already have the certifications I was missing, so hopefully I’m a good candidate for the job.”

  Symon said, “Chief Callanan liked you. I’m sure you’ll get the call this week.”

  “I hope so. I’m getting kind of sick of being stuck in my apartment all the time.”

  Jax eyed me again. “How long have you been home?”

  I internally winced. “Um, over six weeks.”

  “Wow. That long.” Jax’s voice was icy and it pierced my heart when he spoke to me that way. I didn’t blame him, but it still hurt. I’d been in town for over a month and hadn’t tried to get in touch with him, he had every right to be annoyed with me. He had every right to be pissed at me for the rest of our lives.

  But I needed to apologize for everything I’d done. “Listen, Jax… I wanted to say that I’m sorry fo—”

  “No,” Jax cut me off.

  “What?”

  “I’m not talking about it. You are not talking about it. What’s in the past is in the past. I just want to forget it ever happened and move on. So no, I don’t want to hear it.”

  My heart constricted in my chest. I’d wanted to make things right with him, but maybe it was too late. If Jax didn’t want to talk about it, I suppose after everything, I owed him that much. I nodded to him, then looked away and blew out a breath, trying to force myself to relax.

  Jax basically dismissed me after that, because he turned completely in his chair and faced Symon, talking too low for me to hear.

  I watched as Symon cupped Jax’s cheek and whispered something back to him. I didn’t miss when Symon shot me a look out of the corner of his eye before he spoke to Jax again. I was pretty sure they were talking about me, and I assumed it wasn’t anything good.

  I blew out a breath and watched as yet another couple joined the table. They introduced themselves as Levi and Andy before they sat down on the other side of Alex and his girlfriend, Adeline. I sat there for several minutes, debating whether or not I should just cut my losses and leave since I was a third wheel… or more like seventh, but just as I was about to get up, Symon looked over at me and sent me a little smile. “Tanner, did you and Jax really steal a jet ski in high school?”

  I laughed a little at the memory. “Yes, we did. Oh my god, I can’t believe we didn’t get arrested.”

  Jax laughed and said, “You made up that ridiculous story about how you saw my canoe go down, and I was stranded in the middle of the river, so you grabbed the closest vehicle and came to my rescue. You know they didn’t buy that for a second, right?”

  “Well, it got us off the hook, didn’t it?” I laughed a little harder.

  “Yeah, but I think it was more of an A for effort type of thing. I think the police officer was too impressed with how much detail and arm flailing you put into that story to arrest us after that. We’re lucky we just got off with a warning.”

  “My dad would’ve killed me if I’d gotten arrested.”

  Symon was laughing a little. “I can honestly say that I’ve never done anything like that in my life.”

  “Oh, come on, Sy. You’ve never stolen anything?” Jax nudged his boyfriend with a teasing grin.

  Symon shook his head. “Nope, never.”

  “Not even a candy bar when you were little?” I asked.

  Symon grinned at me. “Nope. I’ve always been a goody two-shoes.”

  I chuckled at that. “I have no problem picturing that.”

  He rolled his eyes as Jax kissed his temple. The waitress came over with our drinks, and we placed our food orders now that all the couples were here. I’d barely looked at the menu, so I just ended up ordering the same thing as Symon—some weird chicken dish—because Jax ordered a steak and I wasn’t feeling it, and I didn’t want to hold everyone up.

  After the waitress walked away, Jax said, “I’m surprised you didn’t get a steak. I thought that was your favorite.” I used to get steak every single time we went out to eat together.

  I shrugged. “Eh, didn’t want one. So… how long have you guys been together?”

  I saw Alex turn to Jax with a weird look on his face that I couldn’t interpret. It’d been too long since I’d seen them together. When we were teenagers, I used to swear that they spoke telepathically. All Jax said was, “Not too long, but it feels like I’ve known him forever.” Jax nudged Symon again, and Symon shot Jax a shy smile. That guy was seriously the most adorable man I’d ever seen. I sort of wanted to wrap him up in my arms and never let him go. I wanted to protect him from everything, even though I knew he didn’t need protecting.

  “How’s your older brother doing, Tan?” Jax asked as he grabbed a roll from the basket in the center of the table.

  I followed suit and buttered my own roll. “Gallagher’s doing pretty good. He’s still in, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Jax nodded. “And what about Wiley?”

  I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to say about my younger brother. “He’s… good, I guess. He’s been doing little odd jobs here and there, but he has his own apartment.”

  “Is Wiley still living in Baltimore?”

  “Yeah, he’s still here.”

  “It’d be nice to see him sometime.” Jax smiled a little at me.

  “He’d like that.” I smiled back, then took a bite of my roll. It melted in my mouth and I closed my eyes. “Mmm, this is seriously delicious.”

  “They bake it fresh here,” Symon said. When I opened my eyes, he smiled at me before taking his own bite.

  The rest
of dinner went okay. I still felt simultaneously turned on and jealous every time Jax and Symon shared a whispered conversation or a little nudge or a little kiss. But I figured if this was the only way to have Jax back in my life, I’d just have to suffer through it. He was worth it. I didn’t care if all I got were little scraps of his attention; I just needed him back in my life. I’d missed him more than I’d ever admit to anyone. I needed him. In any way I could have him. And I wasn’t an idiot enough to think that I’d ever have him in the way I truly wanted again. That I’d ever be able to hold him in my arms and kiss him and claim him as mine again. I’d never have that, even if it was all I ever wanted.

  Chapter Five

  Symon

  I walked into the locker room at work and set my coffee cup on the bench, then stuffed my bag inside my locker. I had part of my uniform on, but only the blue pants with a white undershirt and my suspenders already over my shoulders. I didn’t feel like putting the short-sleeved collared shirt over top my white tee until I absolutely had to because I knew I’d be sweating soon, anyway.

  “Hey!” Tanner’s loud voice made me jump.

  I glared at him a little. “Hey.”

  I saw him frown at me, but I ignored it. He should’ve known by now that I was not a morning person. He’d been working with me for over two months, for fuck’s sake. He sat on the bench beside my coffee. “What’s up with you?”

  “Nothing. It’s early. Too early to be so,” I waved at him, “damn chipper.”

  He grinned, then stuck his bottom lip out at me in a fake pout. “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Symon.”

  I glared at him a little, but couldn’t help the grin that popped out at seeing such a huge guy sitting there pouting at me. He looked ridiculous. And cute. Not that I noticed or anything. “I’m not a sourpuss. And who says sourpuss, anyway. Hyper people aren’t allowed in my vicinity before my first cup of coffee.”

  Tanner grinned at me and jumped up, walking out of the break room. My eyes automatically went straight to his ass as he walked away, just like they did every time his back was to me. I may have been with Jax, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have eyes, right? I mean, it was normal to check out your friend and coworker when he was as sexy as Tanner was. I sighed at myself. I hadn’t actually wanted him to walk out, I’d only been joking. But whatever, he could do whatever he damn well pleased at this ungodly hour. I looked at my phone and sighed at myself. It was almost ten in the morning—not exactly the crack of dawn, but damn, it was close enough for me. I checked my texts and found one from Jax that made me smile.