His grin got bigger as his body started shaking. “Then next year, I’m first to sign up.”
I leaned closer, enjoying his humor and that I gave it to him. I still felt it important enough to push.
If gently.
“So, seeing as I’m not properly equipped to get it, but I still get it, and a direct donation from me is out, would it be unacceptable if a certain someone leaned on some local businesses that sell electronics to get them to donate a new microwave and TV? These efforts being anonymous, of course.”
His eyes warmed and his arm squeezed. “You wanna put the effort into that, knock yourself out. This keeps goin’ where it’s goin’ and you meet some of the other wives and girlfriends and wanna arrange somethin’ like you did for the junior boxing league so the guys got it better when we’re hangin’ around waitin’ for a call, that wouldn’t be a problem either.”
So I could get someone else to donate or raise money. But Mickey Donovan’s wealthy new girlfriend was not going to become the Magdalene Fire Department’s patron.
Understood.
I let that go and asked, “Do women invade the sanctity of the firehouse very often?”
“Yeah, considerin’ we got one in the company.”
This surprised me. Not that firefighters couldn’t be women, just that what I saw appeared to be a man’s domain.
“Really?”
“Yeah. She’s tough. She’s good. Been with us four years. Name’s Misty.”
A firefighter named Misty was incongruous and humorous for several reasons.
I did not smile.
I mumbled, “Misty the firefighter.”
Mickey gave me one of his easy grins. “Yeah. She took a lotta shit about that girlie name while she was a recruit.”
“There aren’t a lot of women named Butch,” I pointed out and got another chuckle. “Was she okay with that?” I asked.
“She didn’t have a choice,” he answered. “You take it or you get the fuck out. She gets sensitive and pissy about gettin’ shit about her name, no way she has it in her to aim a hose at a wall of flame.”
I didn’t like the sound of that last part but I didn’t let on and instead queried, “So, how about wives and girlfriends?”
“It happens. They show. Necessarily, this is a family. You’re part of the family, you’re welcome.” He bent his neck to put his face close to mine. “But everyone knows, the men and their women, our woman and her man, there’s an unwritten rule. Dinner’s okay. Occasionally. Droppin’ in to drop shit off or have a chat, that too. The boys may look laidback but they gotta do that bein’ prepared. So we keep distractions at a minimum.”
I nodded.
Then I didn’t know why I did it, but I figured I did it because I had to know.
This being asking, “Have you fought a lot of fires?”
He lifted his free hand to curl his fingers around the side of my neck and used his thumb to stroke the skin under my jaw when he replied carefully, “Seen a fair few.”
I let that go because I didn’t want to delve deeper and changed to teasing.
“Rescue many cats from trees?”
“Yeah.”
I blinked up at him in surprise.
“I thought that was a myth.”
He shook his head. “Big cities do not rescue cats. You call a fire department in a city to rescue a cat, they’ll tell you to call animal control. We’re not a big city. We’re a small community and our commitment is to serve that community. So people call us about cats in trees and we do what we can. This does not include takin’ the rig out and using our ladder to rescue Fluffy. This includes sending a guy out to see what he can do to help. We also get calls about cats gone missin’. Dogs gone missin’. Kids gone missin’. Cats and dogs, we don’t roll out. Kids, obviously, we do. Then there’s domestic disturbances. Car crashes. Smoke alarms goin’ off. Someone fallin’ off a ladder cleanin’ their gutters. Someone slicin’ into their finger cuttin’ tomatoes. You name it, call comes in direct or they’re punted to us from 911.”
“Someone slicing into their finger?”
“Me, Jimbo and our two lieutenants are certified EMTs and Freddy’s doin’ his training. Doesn’t matter. It’s protocol for the FD to be called in the event of a household accident. But in Magdalene’s case, closest hospital is twenty minutes away, closest independent ambulance service is fifteen. Even with ambulances on the cruise, in most cases, our boys can get there faster. ”
I blinked again. “You’re an EMT?”
“Got outta high school, the next month went to firefighter school. Graduated, volunteered at MFD while goin’ for my EMT. While doin’ it, lived in the room over my best friend’s parents’ garage and worked my dad’s catches for money.”
Wow. Mickey really wanted to be a firefighter and all that entailed.
“Your dad didn’t get angry you didn’t join the family business?” I asked.
“Nope,” he replied, shaking his head. “He paid for my training. All of it. Said if I went to college like Sean, Frank and Dylan, he’d be payin’ for that so he paid for what I wanted to do. And he was proud of me. Fuckin’ seriously proud of me. Proud of all his boys and showed it. He didn’t want anything for me, or any of us, except to love what we’re doin’ and be happy.”
“I think I like your dad,” I murmured.
“Lot to like. Good man. Good dad. Good granddad.” Mickey gave me another grin. “He’ll like you too. He likes cute and smartass.”
I very much liked that he seemed sure I would meet his dad but it was on the tip of my tongue to ask if his father liked Rhiannon. I stopped myself because that was a question that would change our comfortable mood to an awkward one. Not to mention it wasn’t any of my business, and further she was gone, so it didn’t matter anyway.
I pushed closer, saying, “I knew you were impressive because you’re good-looking, a good dad and a good man. Now I know there’s a lot more to be impressed with about you, Mickey.”
He shifted his hand to cup my jaw and said through low chuckles, “Got my looks from my folks, Amy. That’s hardly impressive.”
“You don’t get to look at you all the time. Trust me, it’s impressive.”
He kept chuckling as he bent closer and started kissing me.
It felt great but it didn’t last long before he ended it and ordered in a whisper, “Go to sleep with your phone by your bed, baby.”