Page 25 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
Chapter Nine
Paige
Levi irritates me to no end. He makes it seem like he’s doing the big brother thing by coming to my house. Again. But I know that he will just hold this over me, reminding me that I should learn how to cook.
Reminding me that I need to learn how to take better care of Noah and myself.
We’ve been lucky up to this point to have friends and family. My mom pitches in to help watch him and often brings frozen casseroles to feed us on the nights she’s gone. Summer takes us out to dinner once a week.
If my mom and Summer take excellent care of us, Levi is the one who has really gone above and beyond. When his wife passed away, he had to learn to take care of his two kids. He was years ahead of me when I lost James and had to learn to become a mom on my own.
He says it’s nothing to make a little extra when he’s already in the kitchen, cooking for three. I have my doubts that cooking for five is easy, though. Especially when you have to drive it across town to feed two of the people you cook for.
“I’m always going to come when you call,” Levi says quietly. “No matter who else you have in your corner, I’ll always be your brother.”
My heart warms at his declaration of love, my fury softened a bit by the gentle words. Zachary sets Noah down on the grass, where he toddles over to Levi and wraps his chubby arms around Levi’s leg.
“Fire is contained,” Aaron announces from behind us.
Ever since he stepped off the truck, I’ve been hyperaware of his presence. Arguing with Levi, I never lost track of Aaron inside the house. I could hear him clattering around the kitchen. The smoke stopped curling through the window.
He comes up behind us slowly, laughter on his lips.
“I think our work here is done,” Levi says to Zachary.
They walk away to give Aaron and me some privacy. Zachary steps out of his gear, no longer needed.
“If you had just put the pan inside the oven, the oxygen would have been gone. The fire would have died, and you could have spared yourself a call to us,” he tells me.
The expression on his face tells me that he’s already figured it out. He arches an eyebrow and waits for me to spill the truth—which I almost do.
Instead, I skirt around it. “I knew it wasn’t dangerous. I just wanted to make sure, you know, because of Noah and all.”
“You have a reputation for starting kitchen fires,” he says. “I find it hard to believe that Levi hasn’t stocked you up with extinguishers.”
“Under the kitchen sinkandby the stove. Plus a couple more in the bedrooms for good measure,” I confess.
He leans into me. Too close for a professional call. Not close enough for a personal one. My weight shifts automatically to the balls of my feet, pushing me an inch or two closer.
My body seems to have a mind of its own, betraying me.
His cheek brushes against mine, so close that I can feel the harsh stubble on his jaw. The abrasion wakes up my nerve endings, lights up every receptor in my body.
His lips brush the shell of my ear until he whispers, “I told you not to set anything on fire. What happened to you being a good girl until our date?”
His words make me feel like a live wire has snapped inside of me. It isn’t just the warmth of his breath against my ear that makes me feel alive. It’s the way it tugs lower in my core, the way it pools between my legs.
I can’t feel this way while my brother isright there.
Aaron pulls back, a smirk on his face like he knows how that turned me on. Then he looks down at the pan in his hand, covered with the charred remnants of our breakfast.
“What was this supposed to be?” he asks, genuinely curious.
“Pancakes,” I mumble. “They’re well outside the repertoire of my limited cooking skills. I should have known better than to try to cook them.”
Aaron nods and studies the batter, caked in the bottom of the now-ruined nonstick pan. “I’ll teach you how to do that.”
“Teach me?” Laughter burbles up. “Do you know how many people have tried to teach me to cook for Noah?”
