Hot For You by Jessie Evans Read Free Book Online Page A

up for a serious relationship, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he’d acted on New Year’s. He’d thrown himself into looking after Faith, kissing Faith, teasing Faith, holding Faith’s hand as they walked down the street with the enthusiasm of a guy who’d been trolling Cobb County Cupid looking for a girlfriend. And not the casual kind, the kind of girlfriend you took care of when she was sick, visited at work, texted multiple times a day, and made plans with a week in advance because you were so eager to be with her.
    It would be easy for Faith to get the wrong idea, but it didn’t feel right to hold her at a distance. He felt relaxed around her, free to be himself in a way he hadn’t been in…
    In a way he might have never been, he realized with a start, the thought stopping him dead on the sidewalk outside the fire station.
    Until Bridget, he’d been too nervous around girls to be himself. He’d gotten a late start at the dating game and been busy playing catch-up the first year of college, struggling to learn rules everyone else seemed to have down pat. And even in the beginning with Bridget, when things were good and Mick had been happy and comfortable, he’d still never been able to completely let down his guard. Bridget was always in the midst of some crisis—big or small—and needed Mick to be the strongest, most serious, most responsible version of himself.
    Even before she became dangerously fragile, Mick’s ex had been the kind who was in perpetual need of saving. Whether it was needing strong arms to carry her groceries up to her apartment, or a last-minute study partner to finish the homework she’d neglected all semester, Bridget didn’t hold up her end of anything. Not even a serious conversation. Every time Mick had tried to talk to her about something he would like to see change in their relationship, Bridget had fallen to pieces.
    At first, being her hero had made him feel important. Special. Mick knew he had a touch of knight-in-shining-armor syndrome. He liked to help people; he liked being needed. But in the end, he’d only wished Bridget was strong enough to survive without him. By then he’d learned it was impossible to rescue someone who had no interest in saving themselves, and Bridget had made it clear she didn’t even want to try.
    Mick didn’t want to be a hero anymore; he’d had enough rescuing damsels in distress to last a lifetime. And he wasn’t ready to fall in love again, either, not by a long shot.
    He let out a ragged sigh and ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t stand here on the sidewalk like a freak, torn between heading into the fire station, and making a run for it. He had to make a call and get moving.
    But before he could make the decision between fight or flight, Faith flung open the fire station’s creaky front door and waved an urgent arm his way.
    “Come on!” she whisper-shouted. “The coast is clear. The rest of them just hit the showers.”
    As soon as Mick’s eyes landed on her, taking in her black spandex pants, red, short-sleeved shirt, and swishy blond ponytail, his angst faded away. When in Faith’s presence, it was impossible to feel anything but drawn to her.
    He was a fighter ship, and she was the Death Star…the cutest Death Star ever.
    She grinned as she watched him move up the paving stones toward her, setting Mick’s heart to beating faster even before she took his hand and pulled him into the station. They jogged down the long hallway, footsteps squeaking lightly on the tile as they passed the men’s locker room and slipped into the firehouse’s weight room.
    Inside the gym, the space smelled of feet, decades of dried sweat, and the metallic scent of weights starting to rust, but Mick was so happy to be spending the hour with Faith he hardly noticed.
    “Okay, what do you want to do first?” she asked, turning back to him with her hands on her hips. “I usually start with jumping jacks and a few stretches, then do