Love in the Light (Hearts in Darkness, #2)(3)
On the other hand, Caden was the furthest thing from normal. New people made him nervous as shit and he sucked at small talk. He never knew what to say, so he’d either clam up or end up with a foot in his mouth. Either way, he came off like an anti-social *. Much as he loved his ink and his facial piercings for a whole bunch of reasons, he couldn’t say he was unhappy with the fact that his appearance scared some people off. Because being alone was miles better than being rejected, left, or abandoned.
Been there, done that, got the blood-stained T-shirt. Thank you very much.
Makenna came right up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You look very handsome, Mr. Grayson.” Her smile warmed his chest, and damn if her touch didn’t make it easier to breathe. It had been like that from the start with Makenna—her presence easing his anxiety. He’d never had that with another person. He’d never even thought it was possible. “I hope you’re not wearing long sleeves to cover your tattoos.”
He was, though his dragon tattoo extended onto the back of his right hand, so there was only so much he could do about that. And they’d already had the conversation about his piercings—Makenna didn’t want him to take them out for the visit, though he’d offered. “Just wanted to look nice.”
Still holding one of his hands, she stepped back and gave him a long, slow once-over. Her gaze raked over his black dress pants and charcoal gray button-down shirt, a few of the nicer pieces he owned. A jeans-and-T-shirt kinda guy who worked in a uniform, Caden didn’t have much use for dress clothes.
“So nice I’m tempted to take all this back off again.” Her smile was pure temptation. “But seriously, I want you to be comfortable. Okay?”
Releasing a breath, he unbuttoned a sleeve and rolled it up. Repeated it on the other arm, revealing the whole dragon. Better already. On a roll, he undid another button at the collar. So much better. “There.” He gave her a questioning smile.
“Perfection. And don’t worry. They’re going to love you. I promise.”
He couldn’t keep his eyebrow from arching. Highly f*cking unlikely. “If you say so, Red.” He tucked a silky wave behind her ear. Makenna’s hair had been the very first thing he’d noticed about her.
Grinning, she nodded. “I do. Besides, with you being a paramedic and Patrick being a cop, I think you’ll have lots in common to talk about. All of them love stupid humor movies, too. So it’ll be just like us hanging out. Except with more penises.” Pushing up on tiptoes, she pressed her body against him and hugged him tight.
Chuckling, Caden breathed her in, and her scent made his shoulders relax and his heart rate slow. Get it together, Grayson. She needs this. “Then let’s do it,” he said, forcing as much enthusiasm into his voice as he could.
“Yay,” she said, with a radiant smile. “This is going to be great.”
Nodding, Caden collected their bags and slung them over his shoulder as Makenna grabbed some things from the fridge. Maybe he could treat this weekend just like he did a run in the ambulance. When a call came in, Caden was able to focus on the crisis at hand in a way that blocked all the other shit out. In those moments, all that mattered was the person in need and what he could do to ease their pain and save their life. Just like someone had once done for him.
Surely he could focus, hold himself together, and do this for Makenna. “Of course it’s gonna be great,” he said, “because I’ll be with you.”
CHAPTER TWO
“So tell me about some of the weird calls you’ve responded to,” Makenna said, smiling over at Caden. God, he was sexy sitting in the driver’s seat of his black Jeep, big hands gripping the leather steering wheel. Though they were going home to visit her family, he was driving—he found her car, a little silver Prius, more confining than he could stand. They were halfway between her home in Arlington and her dad’s place in Philadelphia and, as always, they never had trouble finding things to talk about. Heck, that was part of what drew her to Caden in the first place.
“There have been more than a few weird ones over the years,” Caden said, quirking a small grin as he looked her way. “Let’s see. There was the woman who got her hand stuck in the garbage disposal. Her sweater snagged on part of the internal mechanism. The sweater was cashmere and she was really pissed that we had to cut it.”
Makenna grimaced. “Why’d she put her hand in the garbage disposal?”
“Dropped a ring down the drain,” he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “We found it for her though.” He pursed his lips and his eyes narrowed. “Oh. And once we got a call that a woman was hearing a man yell and scream through her apartment wall. We showed up with the police ten minutes later and he was fine. Turned out he’d been, uh, severely constipated and having a hard time…going.”
Makenna burst out laughing. “That is gross. He must’ve been so embarrassed.”
Caden chuckled. “I don’t know. I think the woman who made the call was more embarrassed than he was. When we got there, she came out into the hallway with us because she was so worried about the guy.”
“That’s a big old case of TMI,” Makenna said, enjoying the conversation. Being an EMT meant Caden confronted a lot of intense and often tragic situations, things about which he didn’t always want to talk when he came home after a shift. So it was nice to learn more about this part of him.