The Firefighter's Fiance

‘He’s right,’ Dale said to Kirk. ‘Sure, he lives with Kelsey—but, nah, he doesn’t fancy her. She’s like his sister.’

‘Best friend, actually,’ Matt pointed out. ‘Off limits.’

Kirk rubbed his chin. ‘She’s not like Venus—too skinny, too tall, too serious—but, yeah, I’d buy the Trumptons’ charity calendar this year if Kelsey was on it.’ He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. ‘Especially if she was topless. Or better. I wouldn’t mind seeing her in nothing but a fire helmet.’

The reflex that had Matt’s right hand balling into a fist shocked him. He made an effort to relax his hand. ‘Kels wouldn’t do that sort of thing.’

‘Pity.’ Kirk’s grin broadened. ‘They’d sell truckloads if she did.’

‘Hmm,’ was all Matt trusted himself to say. And if Kirk ever asked Kelsey out, Matt would make damned sure that Kelsey said no. Kirk wasn’t good enough for her. Wasn’t anywhere near good enough for her. He didn’t want Kirk’s grubby paws touching Kelsey. Didn’t want anyone touching Kelsey, actually. But he shoved that thought to the back of his mind.

To his relief, there was a call on his intercom. ‘We’d better get going. I’ll drive so you can finish your coffee,’ he said to Dale. He climbed into the driver’s side of their ambulance and radioed back to Control. ‘On our way.’

‘You OK?’ Dale asked as Matt drove off.

Matt shrugged. ‘Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?’

Dale shifted in his seat. ‘Teasing you about Kelsey.’

‘Doesn’t bother me.’

‘I saw your hands,’ Dale said softly, ‘when Kirk made that remark about the calendar. Look, cut him some slack. He’s still hurting about his divorce. That’s why he’s desperate to date as many women as he can. To prove he’s not a complete loser.’

‘Hmm,’ was all Matt said.

Dale sighed. ‘Ow. I know. You’ve already been there. Not a loser, I mean. And not divorced. But you were as good as married to Cassie. And I’m putting my size twelves in it today, big time. I’m sorry.’

‘No worries. I’m over it now.’ It had taken Matt nearly eighteen months to lick his wounds. They’d healed. He and Cassie hadn’t been right for each other anyway. She hadn’t understood his job or why he didn’t mind the unsocial hours; and he hadn’t wanted to change and fit into her world, swap the job he loved for one where he didn’t feel alive and as if he was making a difference.

‘As for Kelsey—I mean, I like her. We all do.’

Matt heard what Dale wasn’t saying. ‘But?’

‘But you’re storing yourself up a hell of a lot of heartache if you’ve fallen for her, Matt. She doesn’t do serious relationships. She parties hard—she’s the first one at the end of a pizza night out to suggest going on to a club—but she doesn’t let anyone close. You know the score.’

Nobody serious since Danny. Most of the time Matt and Kelsey didn’t talk about it. But on the rare occasions when they did, Kelsey was adamant. She liked her life just as it was. And Matt could understand that. Life as it was suited him, too.

‘I haven’t fallen for her,’ Matt said.

Dale’s response was a measured ‘Hmm’.

And then they were at the shout so the conversation was lost.

By the time they’d checked out the woman who’d called 999 with chest pains, taken an ECG and then brought her into the emergency department for further tests and observation, it was forgotten about. All the same, Matt was thoughtful as he cycled home at the end of his shift. Had he fallen for Kelsey? Was she the girl of his dreams?

She was his best friend. His housemate. They swapped horror stories at the end of their shifts and they knew when the other needed a hug and a shared tub of ice cream. They shared the same set of friends, went out with the same crowds—the crews at the ambulance station all knew her, and the crews at the fire station all knew him. As Dale had said, Kelsey partied hard but she almost never dated—and when she did date, she didn’t stay out all night or bring anyone home.

Matt didn’t date much either, but it went with the job. Long hours, tough calls and a social life that sometimes had to take second place to your job. If you were in the middle of a shout when your shift ended, you couldn’t just dump your patient and tell them to wait for the next crew. That was the whole thing about being an emergency service. And if there was a major incident, even if you were off shift you’d go in and do your bit. It went with the territory. He’d already learned that the hard way when he’d had to make the choice between his fiancée and his job.

His job had won.

All the same…A picture of Kelsey flashed into his mind. Short hair, cheeky grin, sparkling grey eyes. Kirk had called her tall and skinny—no, that wasn’t true. Matt had trained in the gym with her enough times when they had been on nights and wanted to wind down at the end of their shifts. Tall, yes; slender, yes; but Kelsey definitely had curves. And the way she looked in a plain black swimsuit was enough to make any man’s blood pressure rise a couple of notches.

He shook himself. He was not about to wreck a seriously good relationship by dating her. Kelsey was his sounding board. The person he’d listen to at three in the morning if she needed him—and he knew that she’d do exactly the same for him. His best friend. His housemate. Dating each other would be a disaster. One of them would end up having to find a new place to live. No, it was best to keep things as they were.

The open windows told Kelsey that Matt was home. Good. So she wasn’t going to have to juggle her briefcase and the carrier bag full of take-away Indian food and use her frontdoor key at the same time. She pushed down the handle of the front door with her elbow and swung her hip to open the door. Perfect. She closed the door with another swing of her hips.

Matt appeared in the living-room doorway. ‘A normal person would ring the doorbell. Or at least accept help.’

‘You can help if you want to.’ She grinned and handed him the carrier bag. ‘Dinner is served, m’lord.’

‘Good. I’m starving. I nearly raided your chocolate stash.’

‘You’d better not have done.’ She set her briefcase on the floor and followed him into the kitchen. ‘I’m studying tonight.’Although the fire service had changed their training so you didn’t have to sit a raft of promotional exams any more, you still needed to know the theory and technical details, so you could prove that you knew what you were doing and met the competencies to go up to the next grade. Which meant studying. ‘I need that chocolate,’ she added. ‘It’s Friday night. Aren’t you going out?’

‘Not tonight. I want to do a couple of hours’ studying and then just chill.’ She smiled inwardly when she saw the neatly set table in their kitchen-diner. Typical Matt. All the other people she knew in the emergency services would just take the cardboard off the take-away foil container and dig in with a spoon. Matt was much, much more domesticated. Though, to look at him right now, with his shaggy hair and the fact he needed a shave, nobody would guess it. He looked more like a guitarist in a rock band than a paramedic. He looked sexy as hell.

And she really had to stop thinking about that before she screwed up their friendship. Matt was off limits.

‘So how was your day?’ he asked, taking the lid off the pilau rice and spooning the rice onto their plates.

‘OK. We had a quiet afternoon after that RTC—just a kitchen fire that was out by the time we got there. Did you know, there was a newspaper report today that most RTCs happen between four and seven on a Friday afternoon?’

‘I can believe it. Mixture of the “thank God it’s Friday” feeling and people being physically tired at the end of the week. Their concentration goes.’ Matt beamed when he opened the next lid. ‘Oh, you star. Chicken kashmiri. My favourite.’

‘And far better than if I’d cooked it for you.’

‘Yep. Means we don’t have to call your lot to put out the flames in the oven—or my lot to rescue us from the food poisoning afterwards,’ he teased.

‘Oh, ha, ha.’ She walked over to the fridge. ‘Two nights, then four blissful days off.’ Luckily their shifts were pretty much the same. Her night shifts were slightly longer than Matt’s, but at least one of them didn’t have to creep around the house on days off while the other was on nights.

‘Nearly twenty-four hours until I’m due back in at the station. I could go wild and have a few beers tonight. But I need a clear head to work on my fire management stuff. So I think I’ll stick to just the one.’ She uncapped two bottles and brought them over to the table. It had taken her six months to persuade Matt that cold beer tasted better from a bottle than a glass. And why make extra washing-up?

He finished dishing up the curry, then lifted his bottle in salute. ‘Cheers. Here’s to us. Top team.’

‘Top team,’ she echoed.

Which they were. Since she’d shared the house with Matt, she’d always felt she was coming home, not just going back to rented digs.

Not that she and Matt had that type of relationship. They were just friends. Best of friends. Had been ever since he’d moved into the house eighteen months ago, when his engagement to Cassie had broken up and Sarah—the paramedic who’d originally shared the house with Kelsey—had asked her if Matt could use their spare room for a few nights.

But it had worked so well that Matt had stayed. And although Sarah had moved out to live with her boyfriend in London a few months ago, Matt and Kelsey hadn’t bothered replacing the third person in the house. It was comfortable, just the two of them.

Cassie had been crazy, Kelsey thought. She really couldn’t have had any idea what she had missed. What she had given up. A smart, funny guy who was good at his job, respected by everyone—and was domesticated into the bargain.

Mr Perfect.

Except Kelsey wasn’t going to let herself take that last step. Been there, done that. She wasn’t giving herself the chance ever again to lose anyone who mattered to her. Besides, why wreck the best relationship she’d ever had for a short-term fling?