Hope Falls: Hearts Afire (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page A

well to not be caught by surprise. He spent the last ten years training and learning how to be prepared for any and all situations he encountered.
    That’s what he loved about his job. It was regimented. There was structure. While he knew the shit could hit the fan without warning, he was confident he had the skills to tackle anything that came his way.
    If that wasn’t possible in his personal life, it sure as shit was going to be at work.
    He hated that at times like these, when a woman caught his attention, he thought of Nicole. How she could still haunt him after all these years was nothing short of annoying. He knew it was stupid to harbor such hard feelings after all this time, but he couldn’t shake her.
    He had known Nicole since kindergarten, had been best friends with her since they shared lunches on the first day of school. And yet, she could do that to him so easily like their friendship didn’t matter. If she could use him like that, after all they’d been through together then he was sure that all other women would betray him too. It was just a matter of time before they did.
    That warped mentality was exactly why he was still single. He needed to get the fuck over it.
    Casey covered his face with a pillow and grunted into it loudly. When was he going to let it go? He had to hold the record for men who still agonized over the girl who had done him wrong in high school. If the guys at the station knew, he’d never hear the end of it.
    They didn’t know, thank God. He’d never told anyone what happened. He was too humiliated by the whole situation—by what she did and by how much it affected him. How much it still did.
    Saved by the bell, Casey uncovered his face at the sound of his alarm and decided to push the painful memories from his mind and get on his way. He was on shift for the next forty-eight hours, and he gladly welcomed the distraction.
    After showering and packing his bag—and double-checking that he had everything—Casey left to work early. He was in dire need of a trip to the grocery store and his stomach was growling. That only meant one thing: he had to stop at Sue Ann’s if he planned on eating before his shift.
    He hit the cafe before the morning rush for his favorite chicken fried steak. No sooner had he sat down than Sue Ann placed his routine meal in front of him.
    “Thank you, Sue Ann.” He offered her his usual smile, the one that turned her cheeks a little pink. There was no hiding the fact that Sue Ann and her friends liked to eyeball the younger men in town. It was harmless though—the eyeballing. To say Sue Ann or any of the other town mother hens were harmless was like saying everyone should own a pet mountain lion. The more experienced generation of Hope Falls was relentless. Somehow, they knew everything about what was happening in town.
    “I heard you put your big fat boot in your mouth yesterday,” Sue Ann told him.
    A simple “you’re welcome” would have worked just fine , he thought.
    “Did you now.” Casey had no idea why he was entertaining the conversation. Maybe it was the fact that she already knew about what happened and he wondered what else she was aware of. He was feeling a bit curious. “What else did you hear?”
    He took a bite of his steak before he said anything he might regret. The taste of the gravy had to be illegal. He had asked Sue Ann for her recipe many times, but she acted like if she told him she’d have to kill him.
    She smiled widely which had the wheels spinning in his head even more. Was she smiling so wickedly because she knew something or was it because she was satisfied by his love of her cooking?
    “Well, since you’re a good tipper, I’ll bite. I heard Miss Katherine thinks you’re hot and cocky, but too bad for you she has a thing against firemen.”
    The horror must have registered on Casey’s face, because Sue Ann immediately said to him, “I know. Weird, huh? Everyone loves firefighters. She must be an odd duck.”