“I’m her uncle. I wouldn’t be walking away. I’ll always be her uncle.” Even to his own ears, the excuse sounded weak.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

Wes pushed to his feet. “I know. And I’m here, aren’t I? You know me better than to think I could ever say no to what Chelle wanted, or to Jessie.”

His sister threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We’ll figure this out, brother. We’ll do it together. It’s been too long since you lived close to us. I’m so glad you’re here to stay.”

And though he loved being around them again, his gut filled with dread. He couldn’t let himself screw this up. Couldn’t.

Chapter Two

The fire chief eyed Braden from the other side of his desk. He leaned back, trying to decipher what the smirk on his face meant.

“I can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Bridges raised a brow. “You’re a damn good fireman, Roth.”

Braden winked at him. “Well, no shit. That’s obvious.”

The chief laughed. “Which is a little surprising considering that big head you carry on your shoulders. I’m surprised you can hold it up.”

Braden stood and held out his hand. “You’re a damn good chief, too.” He liked working for Bridges. That didn’t mean he never wanted to advance, though. Hence the reason Bridges had been looking around a little for him.

Bridges stood, too, and they shook. “Just because this promotion didn’t work out doesn’t mean the next one won’t. I’ll let you know if something else comes up.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m not in a hurry. Everything’s good.” They said their goodbyes before Braden walked out. He tossed his bag in the cab of his truck before climbing in and listening to the thing rumble to life. His muscles were dead-tired but his eyes wide awake. He’d always been able to go off not much sleep, probably because he had too much energy for his own good.

Oh, and he hadn’t been out in much too long. Cooper used to be his go-to guy when he wanted to go out and find a good time, but now Coop would much rather be home with Noah than anywhere else. Not that Braden could blame him. Well, that was a lie. Braden didn’t envy Cooper’s situation. He didn’t really work that way. He took life as it came to him, too excited about what was to come to want for things he didn’t have. But then, sharing a bed with a man like Noah Jameson or Cooper Bradshaw couldn’t be a bad thing, either.

I really fucking need to get laid.

Man or woman, he didn’t much care about that. Like he’d told Cooper when Cooper first started falling for Noah, the human body was a beautiful thing in all its forms. Braden enjoyed it all.

He glanced at his cell to see it was only 4:30 pm. It wasn’t as though he had a whole lot of options to go out this time of day anyway, so he headed to the grocery store to grab a few things.

He made it down two aisles when he noticed a headful of blond, messy curls sticking out from behind a display. Braden felt his lips stretch into a grin as he left his cart next to the meat case and ducked behind the display with her. “Are we hiding?” he asked.

Jessie looked up at him with wide eyes and said, “Uncle Wes is going to put me in karate, that way I can karate-chop strangers if they try to talk to me. I saw you watching Uncle Wes at Mommy’s funeral, though. Does that mean you’re not a stranger?”

It was Braden’s turn for his eyes to go wide. Holy shit. He hadn’t even thought about that. “Your uncle is right. You shouldn’t talk to strangers.” He didn’t want her to think he was a stranger. He also didn’t want to say he wasn’t one, because he sort of was. To her, at least. So what the fuck did he say?

Braden settled on, “I wasn’t watching him.” That made it sound like he was panting around the man like a dog or something.

“Yes you were.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.” Her curls flopped when she nodded. They weren’t tied back like they had been when he’d seen her two weeks before.

Jesus, how old was this girl? She argued as well as any woman he’d ever met, and none of his nieces or nephews would notice if a person watched someone or not.

“I was worried about him. That was very nice of me, if I do say so myself.” What the hell? How old was he? “Are we hiding?” he asked again, trying to change the subject.

“Yep! Uncle Wes doesn’t—”

“—Jessie! What are you doing? You can’t sneak away from me like that.” Wes seemed to pop out of nowhere, grabbing Jessie and pulling her to him. He hugged the little girl tightly.