Wow, that was rude.
He was so not hot at all.
Harris smiled apologetically. “We’re having a bit of a busy day, if you don’t mind hurrying a little. We could get another call any minute.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jesse said.
He jogged up the stairs with Harris and Gareth, but this still put him behind Dom. In a position where he could clearly see Dom’s orange pants stretching across his tight ass.
Jesse very nearly tripped. Why the hell am I looking at his ass? He’s a bastard!
Worse, he could only smell that distinct blackwood scent now—Dom’s scent. It was complex, rich, taunting. Jesse wished he could stop himself from breathing it in.
Except, of course, they had to all settle down inside a meeting room, and close the door. More blackwood scent.
The three firefighters sat on one side of the long oval table, leaving the seats on the other side open to Jesse. “Have a seat,” Harris said pleasantly.
Jesse was secretly glad that he didn’t have to sit right across from Dom.
The interview started off just like Toni had said it would: introductions, questions about why Jesse wanted this job. Those, he could handle.
Dom shuffled a stack of papers. My resume, Jesse realized.
“It says here that you’ve been working at a burger place.” Dom tapped on a line that Jesse had painstakingly typed out on a computer. “You began this job nine months ago. You’re twenty. What were you doing before that? I see no mention of high school at all.”
A memory flashed through Jesse’s mind—a dark cell, and the white-hot pain of a needle. Countless needles. So much screaming, and no way to get out. His hands shook. He kept them clenched, pressed against his thighs so they did not betray him. Toni had advised him on this, too.
“I was off finding myself,” he said, his heart thumping.
“Does finding yourself involve collecting some scars?” Dom nodded at Jesse’s arms.
Was he being sarcastic? Jesse’s instincts rumbled with annoyance. This is an interview, he told himself. This is part of the job. I need the job. “What happened to my body isn’t for you to judge.”
Dom didn’t seem convinced. “It’s not a good look, bringing a gangster onto the team.”
As though Jesse would deliberately go out and pick fights like some common thug. Was that what Dom thought he was? Just like everyone else did? Didn’t Dom’s superhuman vision tell him anything?
“I’m not a gangster,” Jesse hissed before he could stop himself.
Dom met his eyes with a hard stare. “Short fuse. Not something we’re looking for, either.”
Holy gods-damnit, but this man somehow dug under Jesse’s skin faster than anyone else did.
“This is part of the test,” Harris said placidly, giving Dom a wry look. “We face a number of calls from distraught citizens. Keeping your cool is one of the most important things on the job.”
“You will be mistaken for a gangster,” Dom said flatly. “Either learn to deal with it, or forget about the job.”
That stung. Jesse took deep, calming breaths. Ignore him. Just ignore that bastard. Never mind that Dom had tricked Jesse into getting his hackles up.
“On to a better topic,” Harris suggested. “Tell us about your childhood.”
That was an unexpectedly personal question. But Jesse could answer it—assuming that The Bastard didn’t butt in with his comments again. “My dad’s an engineer. My mom’s a housewife. Last I looked, I had a sister—”
“Last you looked?” Gareth raised an eyebrow.
Jesse flushed. He knew he should’ve gone home. He knew he should’ve visited his parents the moment he was released. Hug his mom, say hi to his dad. But the way everyone else looked at him... It made him falter.
Jesse had tried to make friends at the fast food place. His coworkers had looked askance at his scars. At the grocery store, the shoppers gave him a wide berth. When he’d attended his evening classes for his GED, even the teachers were afraid to meet his eyes.
The more he’d returned to these places, the more alienated Jesse had felt.
He’d thought about going home and admitting to his dad, I was a prisoner for six years. They tortured me the whole time. And I couldn’t fight back.
He’d imagined his dad’s disappointment, and he just... couldn’t. Maybe Mom and Dad had had another kid in the time Jesse was gone, as a replacement for him. Jesse didn’t know. He didn’t dare look too hard on their Facebook pages.
So here he was, interviewing in Meadowfall, too afraid and ashamed to go home. Too much of a sap to live further from Highton, where his family was.
“I moved out,” he said lamely.
“Any particular reason why you haven’t been back?” Harris asked.
“I’m not sure they want me back.”
That was as much detail as they were going to get. He felt Dom’s stare on him, probably reading too much. Or misreading him, whatever. Fuck him. Not in that sense, but.
Jesse turned his attention back to Harris. “Anyway, my mom and dad are really happy with each other. That’s what I remember about my childhood—spending time with them. We used to garden together and everything. There was once my mom made a flower crown for my dad; she took a picture of him wearing it. Then she sent it out with all the Christmas cards, and everyone called him Flower Dad for the longest time.”
Just saying that—it made his throat tighten. Gods, he’d missed them.
Gareth smiled. Even Harris did. “So if we were to present you with a flower crown, you’d like that, too?” Gareth asked.
“Maybe,” Jesse said. He wasn’t sure. Did coworkers do that with each other?
“You tell Alec that, and he’ll bring you ten of those,” Gareth said dryly. “He’s one of our new guys. Very excitable. Loves a good prank or five.”
They seemed nice. Like people Jesse would get along with. Briefly, Jesse imagined what it would be like, to work alongside Harris and Gareth and that new guy, Alec. It felt like this could... become a second
