Someone taps my back and I turn, hoping and praying. Not Roman, but neither am I disappointed. This is someone I really want to see.
Alexandra Dempsey-Cooper.
“Hey, sister-in-fire, thought I’d better introduce myself officially!” She opens her arms and I find myself hugging a legend in the Chicago Fire Department. This woman made headlines years ago for (a) carving a big shot’s Lambo to ribbons with a chainsaw; (b) conducting a very public romance with the then mayor of Chicago, Eli Cooper; and (c) having her life loosely made into a movie by Oscar-winning actress Molly Cade, now Alex’s sister-in-law. The movie got a million things wrong about firefighting but I still watched it eight times.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come see you sooner,” I whisper in her ear, though I have to fight through a mass of dark curls to do it. “It’s been a wild month.”
She sets me back and murmurs, “I bet.”
“I brought you a little something.” I barely have time to raise the shopping bag at my feet and Alex is squealing loud enough to draw all eyes to us.
“Sweet Mandy B’s?” She peeks inside the shopping bag filled with a half dozen of Chicago’s finest cupcakes. “Oh, if I wasn’t a married woman I would be proposing to you right now.”
“You did say I had to pay the toll.”
“True, true. Following orders to the letter. You will go far, youngling.”
A bright-eyed, dark-haired little boy, about three years of age, tugs at Alex’s maxi dress, which by the way looks amazing on her. The woman is all va-va-voom curves.
“Mommy, I need to go.”
“Of course you do.” She looks around, her lips curving when she spots someone. “Go tell Daddy. He said he’d take care of all the potty breaks.”
“Daddy has the new baby,” he moans with another tug of her dress.
“You’re killing me, Smalls.” She turns to me. “I’ll be back in five. Be ready to dive into those cupcakes and tell me everything about your first month on the job, Sullivan.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ten minutes later, I’m relaxing in an Adirondack with a can of Grizzly Pear cider, a hot dog with all the trimmings, and a great view of the party—which does not include whichever spot is currently hosting a certain lieutenant.
“So Gage says you landed on light duty,” Alex says on the heels of an orgasmic sound after she bit into a chocolate cupcake. A smidge of frosting sits on her bottom lip and she darts her tongue out to capture it. “What the fuck happened?”
Kids are everywhere but Alex is obviously no-holds-barred. I’m guessing each of these impressionable youngsters will be swearing like firefighters before the day is through, if they aren’t already. I share my tale of woe, trying not to dwell on Roman’s part in it. I know he was doing his job and was obliged to represent the incident as it happened.
“Wozniak is such a lazy ass. You should have left him there.”
“Tempting. Roman—uh, Rossi—gave him hell. Wrote him up. Then somehow I got the short end of the stick.” Roman hasn’t been able to swing me back onto active duty just yet. Rubbing salt in that wound, Woz is here, currently yukking it up with a couple of guys from C-shift.
Alex smiles, a touch of evil in it. “You know, I gave my air to someone once against protocol and yada yada, I now have two children.”
Chuckling, I glance in the direction of Eli Cooper, former mayor, now hot-shot lawyer with a specialty in representing military vets. He’s holding his newborn son in a baby Bjorn and looking very, very fine. That Dad energy is sexy as all get out. I should know because another one is clamoring for my attention.
“Other than Wozniak being a useless dickwad, how’s it going on B-shift?”
“Really good. Of course, I have mighty big shoes to fill, Firefighter Dempsey.”
Alex kicks out her foot, wrapped in strappy sandals. “Size nines, but forget that. You’re forging your own path. What about your dad?”
“He’s waiting for me to fail. Says it’s because of what happened with my mom—how he couldn’t handle it if it happened to me. I want to be sympathetic but I can’t let his fears control mine.” I take a bite of my dog, and when I’m done chewing, ask, “You have four brothers in the service. Are they always trying to protect you?”
“You wouldn’t believe the crap they gave me when I joined up. Luke, especially. He took over as Dempsey dad when Sean died so he came out against it pretty strong. Even told me Dad wouldn’t have wanted it.”
“That had to be rough.”
“It was. And it makes everything harder. You’re dealing with family stuff and work stuff. How are you going to manage when you have to deal with sex-life stuff? The menfolk get all up in arms about that, too.”
I snort, and when I next catch Alex’s gaze, she’s looking at me all cockeyed. “What have I missed?”
“Zilch.” Roman is now talking to Eli and oh God, it happens. He takes the baby into his arms and starts rocking it like a hurricane crashing my ovaries. Too late for my composure, I look away.
“Is it that Sam guy? He’s pretty hot.”
“God, no. We’re just friends.” Sam’s talking to the Cleopatra lookalike who came into the Dempseys’ bar with Luke’s wife, Kinsey. She’s older than him but he’s definitely shooting his shot. I can spot the Sam Killian charm-a-thon from fifty paces. “Who’s that he’s with again?”
“Madison Maitland. The first Mrs. Cooper.”
“Your husband’s ex?”
“Yep. She’s pretty cool, actually. Practically one of the family.” She grins. “So, if you’re not otherwise occupied, I have the perfect man for you. Have you met Bastian Durand?”
“The hockey player?” He’s a power forward with the Hawks and the last person I expected to be hearing about during a family cookout.
“Yeah, he’s stopping by later. He and I are friends. He asked me out once but Eli was having none of it.” A fond memory lights up her face. “So, anyway he’s single and I think you two would be cute together.”
“I’m not much of a hockey person.” I’m pretty sure that Roman is now rocking the baby. I can’t actually see it because my eyes are working overtime not to travel that direction yet my whole being is acutely aware of top-notch Italian-American daddy action in my periphery.
“You don’t have to be,” Alex says in response to my hedging about hockey fandom. “He might prefer that, someone who’s not the usual puck bunny star fucker. I’ll introduce you guys later unless you have someone else on your radar.”
Ignore the man with the infant. Do not look.
There’s some sort of baby-babble coming out of Roman’s mouth. My ear pulls a muscle trying to hear it.
It doesn’t matter. He’s great in the sack, that’s all. Objectify!
When I smile vaguely at Alex, she doesn’t smile back. “Fuck, no.”
“What?”
“Listen, I’ve made so many mistakes. Witness me sleeping with the asshole mayor of Chicago and getting knocked up by him. Twice. But I have not done the doo-doo on my firehouse doorstep.”