Heroes Of The Dixie Wardens MC: Lights To My Siren Part 2

PD and Fat-baby weren't ones I knew well.

PD's real name was Dean Hargrove. He was tall, like six inches over six feet tall, and towered over my own height. He was the second best cook in the station. They started calling him PD after Paula Dean. The men liked to tease him about his b.u.t.ter fixation, and the name Paula Dean stuck.

Fat-baby's real name was Aaron Sims. Aaron received his nickname because he'd bought a pair of Fat-baby boots without realizing they were women's boots. From then on, the name had stuck. Although he'd been nice to me, he seemed a little standoffish, which wasn't too surprising when I'd become aware that he had a wife who was a jealous b.i.t.c.h. Apparently, before I'd appeared, Aaron's wife didn't like the fact that there were women in the same building where her man slept overnight. Which was even more of the case now that I was there practically every other night.

"Let's go, Bay! If we leave now, we'll get back to the station before s.h.i.+ft change!" Winter called from the bus.

I walked quickly to the truck. That was one thing I hated doing was going past s.h.i.+ft change. It didn't matter if the call happened after we were scheduled to be off. If dispatch called us for a call, and we were in the ambulance, we'd be going to the call. Then we'd have to stay after to write up the PCRs (or patient care reports) once we were back at the station. That was also if we were lucky we didn't catch another call in route to the station.

We were lucky.

Forty minutes later, we pulled up to the station, got out of the bus, and even walked inside to the table before another tone dropped. Even luckier, the s.h.i.+ft change happened five minutes prior, meaning we'd dodged the call. We still had to do PCRs, but those would've been done regardless. In turn, it meant we were out of the station only an hour off schedule, rather than our normal two or three.

Score!

"Do you want to meet at The Back Porch tomorrow for dinner?" Winter asked me.

I looked up from rifling through my backpack for my keys and looked at Winter. "Is this a girl's night thing, or is this a family thing?"

Winter smiled that devious smile of hers. "Well, the kids have a babysitter, but the youngest of the bunch will be there. Ember and Gabe's youngest, as well as James and s.h.i.+loh's. They're too young to be left alone in a group full of rowdy kiddos. h.e.l.l, it's hard to get Jack to leave ours alone and she's sixteen months now. With all that said, there's no reason it can't turn into a girl's night thing."

"Okay, well I have Katy tomorrow night. If you don't mind that she comes along, then I can come. I won't be drinking though." I said, before crying in triumph when I found my keys at the very bottom of my bag.

Yanking them out, Sebastian's black baseball cap flew out in my exuberance, and I caught it as if it were a piece of gla.s.s that would shatter if it hit the ground. There was nothing really special about the hat. It was completely black with orrah embroidered in black thread on the side of the hat. It had sweat lines, and looked extremely broken in, which meant that Sebastian must've worn it a lot.

Which, in turn, made me feel a little gooey in my center to know that he'd put a hat on my head that was most likely a daily wear for him.

"Geez, don't break yourself. It's just a hat." Winter laughed as I fumbled for the hat, nearly falling backwards when I tripped on my own feet.

h.e.l.l, I couldn't explain the attachment to the hat. I felt like the geek in high school who got to wear the letter jacket of the superstar jock that every girl drooled over. Then all the girls would envy me and call me a b.i.t.c.h behind my back because I got to sit with the most popular boy in school during lunch.

Without saying a word, I carefully put the cap back in my bag, zipped it closed, and walked over to my Cutla.s.s. "I'll see you tomorrow, text me what time."

Winter laughed as she crawled up inside her lifted Chevy Silverado. Her husband bought it for her a few months prior, and Winter joked that she could run over my car if I wanted to collect the insurance money for it.

I'd laughed.

The Oldsmobile Cutla.s.s wasn't the nicest car on the block, but it ran.

I'd received the gra.s.s green 1971 Cutla.s.s from my father for my sixteenth birthday. I hadn't minded; I'd wrecked my father's truck twice, and I was just happy to be getting a vehicle under the circ.u.mstances. He could've not gotten me anything, so even though the Cutla.s.s was an eyesore to the extreme, I used it.

The insurance on the big beast was affordable. It ran well, and it was safe. Those three things right there made me keep the vehicle. Only when it gave up the ghost would I get a new car. It just seemed a waste to me to get rid of a working car. Although every time I had to fill up the gas tank on the car, my heart palpitated.

I had to wait to get out of the station's lot because the tones dropped for a house fire in a residential district on the north side of town. The fire truck left first, followed shortly by the ambulance. I was glad I didn't catch that call. Fires were no fun, and they were time consuming. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting, which for me, was hard.

I had what they call ADHD. I was an awful child, and I fully admitted it. I couldn't help it though, and my parents knew that. I'd gotten help when I was young, and luckily, the medication had worked well on me. Allowed me to focus better. To this day, I still took medication. If I didn't, I couldn't function.

Some of the side effects of the disease remained, despite the medication. For instance, my inability to focus for long periods of time. PCRs were the absolute worst in my book, but over the years, I'd trained myself to get them done in between calls, which helped me at the end of the day so I didn't have to write out ten reports. I'd learned that the hard way.

Then there was my chronic lateness, distractibility, and disorganization. Those three things had cost me my last boyfriend.

My life with Jackson, my ex, was more like a soap opera. There were a few times, okay a lot of times, that I stood Jackson up for dinner. Not because I was doing it on purpose, but I became distracted either at home, or at work, and I just didn't realize the time. Then there were the times I was sitting right next to him, and he would talk, or explain something, and I just didn't hear him.

He thought I didn't care, and I got frustrated that Jackson refused to understand that I had a disease, not that I didn't care. I did care. A lot. However, Jackson lost the desire to try after I continued to be myself.

I was devastated the night, eight months ago, when I'd gone on a call to a woman who had an allergic reaction to shrimp, and found Jackson sitting at a table with a leggy blonde practically curled around him.

He'd had lipstick on his neck and cheek, and I'd died a little inside when Jackson saw me, knew that I'd seen him with the blonde. Then he proceeded to curl his arm around the woman, kissing her just like he'd done to me earlier that evening.

It took me a month of moping after I moved my stuff to realize I couldn't stay in Casper any longer. My father and mother had completely understood, and I'd gone to Texas, into the open arms of my big brother. Although I couldn't say I'd been happy here, I also couldn't say that I didn't like it either.

I'd been just drifting along for the last six months.

That is, until I'd barged in on a s.e.xy biker. This last week was the best I'd felt in months. Sebastian had woken something inside of me that'd been buried for nearly a year now, and I was ecstatic.

Chapter 3.

They know how to handle big...hoses.

-Why you should date a firefighter Baylee "You ready to go inside, pretty girl?" I asked Katy as I helped her out of her car seat.

I'd been adamant with Luke. Katy needed to be in a child safety seat at the age of four. Luke had argued with me that the doctor had said she didn't have to be anymore, and then I'd pulled out my war stories, relating what happened to children who weren't restrained properly.

I had many stories. With over eight years of experience in traffic accidents of all kinds, there were many things I looked at with detachment that it was comical.

Until it came to a kid.

Then nothing about the situation was comical.

The day I was no longer affected when it comes to a child, was the day I'd hang up my keys.

"Yes, LeeLee." Katy said, reaching her arms up high to be picked up.

I lifted the tiny little sprite of a girl into my arms, and then cursed when she couldn't find her cup. "Where's your cup at?"

"I dropped it." She said with her twinkly fairy voice.

"f.u.c.k," I muttered under my breath. "Here, sit in my seat. Don't play in my change tray, okay?"

At her confirmation, I dove into the depths of the backseat, searching for the elusive sippy cup. I found it, as well as the boots that belonged on Katy's feet, a twenty-dollar bill, a bottle of beer, and a can of Wolf Brand Chili.

I really needed to clean out my car. I hadn't done that since the move to Texas Pocketing the twenty, I backed out of the back seat, cursing soundly when my knee struck the middle console and made shards of pain radiate throughout the entire lower half of my leg.

"I wear this, LeeLee?" Katy asked during my haze of pain.

"Yeah," I panted as I continued to back out until I fell on the seat beside Katy.

"You need help?" A deep low voice asked from outside of the car, causing both Katy and me to scream.

The hat Katy was holding flew out of her hands and landed on the ground at his feet. A blush stained my face when I realized that Sebastian had to have seen my a.s.s in the air as I backed out of the backseat. Nor could he have missed the fact that I was wearing bright neon yellow underwear underneath my blue jean skirt.

My arms were full of a thirty pound four year old as I climbed out of the car, careful not to flash my undies at the man who was now stooped down to pick up the hat at his feet.

His smile said that I wasn't effective in hiding the undies, nor the blush that now burned all the brighter.

"You forgot your cup." Sebastian said as he settled the hat firmly on his head.

My heart wept when I realized he wouldn't be letting me keep it. Not that he should. It was his hat after all, but I somehow felt that I had a claim to it. That it should be mine now.

"s.h.i.+t." I said as I put Katy down on her feet, bent back in, rested one knee on the seat, and reached across the car for the sippy cup that had started it all. Too late, I realized that I'd flashed him...yet again. Jesus Christ, what was wrong with me today?

"Alright, girl. Let's go inside." I said, smoothing my skirt down, and reaching for Katy's hand.

Sebastian stepped in line beside us as we made our way to the front door. Katy spoke nonstop while I stayed silent. I continued to take inconspicuous peaks at the man at my side, and liked what I saw.

He was really tall, with long legs that kept up with our quick pace with ease. He was in much the same as he was the first time I'd seen him, only this time instead of a black t-s.h.i.+rt under his leather vest, he was wearing a white one. His jeans and boots were the same as well.

His hair was shorter than the last time I'd seen him. He must buzz it once it reached a certain length, because now I couldn't even make out the color where before I'd seen that it was a dark brown. His eyes were still the same honey brown, but with the sun setting as it was and s.h.i.+ning in his eyes, it almost made them look like melted chocolate.

"Your sun burn looks nice." Sebastian teased, as he held the door open for the two of us.

I looked down at my shoulders that peaked out from under the black halter-top I had on, and blushed. My skin looked horrible. The day after I'd worked on the deck, it'd been bright red. The following days it turned into a nice golden brown, but then started to peel and flake off as usual. Even after rubbing lotion on my shoulders, I could still see the peeling.

"Yeah, it hurt like a bi- I mean mother the next day." I confirmed.

He chuckled, but refrained from saying 'I told you so.'

I spotted the big group at the back of the restaurant that was reserved for large parties. The only two seats left were facing each other, which meant that Sebastian and I were very close.

"You made it!" Winter said as she got up from her spot and squatted down next to Katy. "h.e.l.lo, Katy girl. How are you?"

Katy was dressed in her usual of tight skinny jeans, mono-colored t-s.h.i.+rt, and cowboy boots. The outfit was easy, which was a necessity for a single man living with a young girl. Katy was lucky to be dressed most days. I was the one to buy and dress Katy in her first skirt.

Katy didn't have eyes for Winter though, her eyes were all for Max who was sitting down at the very end. Before Baylee could stop her, Katy leapt up on her chair, stepped onto the table, and made her way down to Max, expertly avoiding each plate and drink along the way.

Max was another member of Free. He, like the others of the Free family, had served in the army. Katerina was born under harsh circ.u.mstances, and it made me happy that Katerina and Luke were loved here. Max, in particular, was a favorite of Katerina's; they shared a special bond from the day that she was born.

Katy's mother was killed by an ex member of the team that the men of Free had been a part of. Katy's mom was, what you could call, promiscuous. I only had the pleasure of meeting Leah Water's once, and that was by pure accident. I'd walked into my brother's home to water his plants, as I usually did every other day, to find my brother letting Leah out of his apartment from what I'd guessed was a one night stand.

From what Luke had explained to me, it'd been a one-time only thing, and he hadn't spoken to her again. Nor had he heard from her again. It wasn't until the police notified him that he had a daughter, and that the mother was killed that Luke was even aware he had a daughter. That Leah had even been pregnant in the first place.

From that day forward, Luke had changed. He'd been extremely grateful to Max though, since he'd visited his daughter every day until he'd been able to come home from Iraq.

Max laughed as Katerina launched herself into his arms.

He caught her expertly, and the smile that overtook my face nearly hurt. I was happy that Katy had so many wonderful people in her life.

"Your daughter is cute." Sebastian's rough voice said from in front of me.

My head turned to regard Sebastian, who looked....blank. I would almost call it mad, but his body language didn't look mad, and he was fine just a second ago.

"Oh, she's not my daughter. She's Luke's daughter." I smiled at him.

His scowl became ferocious. "Who's Luke?"

The question was so sudden, so snappish, that I didn't answer him, confused by the barked question.

Winter laughed. "Luke Roberts, silly. You know, the police officer?"

"You belong to a cop?" Sebastian asked, exhaling slowly.

My brows furrowed at Sebastian's rough tone. "No...he's my brother."

Sebastian's face changed. One second he was scowling, and the next he was relaxed. "Good."

My gaze went from Sebastian's now blank one to Winter's sly smiling one. "What?" I asked the other woman.

"Nothing. I'm going back to my seat. You have fun up here." She said cryptically, before squeezing in between the chair and the wall to go back to her seat.

I sat awkwardly for a few moments, wondering what the h.e.l.l to say after Sebastian's probing questions, but he rectified my unease by asking me about the menu.

"What are you having?" Sebastian's deep voice asked.

I looked up at Sebastian, studying his face while he looked at the menu. His eyes didn't stop reading, but I knew he was aware of my perusal. Which might have been why he was doing it, knowing that he'd freaked me out earlier.

His hat was pulled down low, but I could still see his eyes, and the longer I studied him, the brighter they seemed to get.

When his eyes finally caught mine, he asked, "Well?"

I jolted. "Uhh, I haven't even looked."

Looking down, I s.n.a.t.c.hed my own menu from the table, thanked G.o.d that I took medication that allowed me to read the menu now, and decided on a burger right in time for the waitress to arrive at my side, wanting to know my order.

The server didn't even acknowledge me. Her eyes were all for the beautiful specimen of a man that was in front of me. "And what can I get you, miss?"

I suppressed the smile that tried to break free, and ordered a burger.

"What two sides?" She asked.

"Fries and a side salad." I answered, beginning to get annoyed with the woman's lack of manners.

"Drink?"