Page 119 of When In Doubt

I give her chin a soft pinch. “You making fun of me for caring?”

“I would never.”

“I’m going to go help Mack set up for the show. You want anything before I go?”

She frowns. “What show?”

“Oh hell,” Joni groans, “he’s doing that?”

“Yup,” I confirm. Then, looking back to Freya. “Mack’s obsessed with fireworks, he puts on a big show any chance he gets.”

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” She looks around at the small crowd of people.

“You know you’re with a dozen firefighters, right?”

“So, you’re not going to burn the house down?”

“No, ma’am.”

“I wanna burn the house down!” Birdie yells, jumping off her mom’s lap and sprinting toward where Mack’s starting to mark out stakes.

“Thanks for that.” Joni chuckles, standing to go collect her tiny terror.

Freya stares up at me with a sheepish expression. “Oops.”

“It was going to happen at some point.”

“Is it a lot of fireworks?” I don’t miss the tension that creeps into her shoulders.

Oh fuck, I hadn’t even thought about the lights and all the noise, it’d be overstimulating for anyone, but for Freya… “Should we head home?”

She gives a quick shake of the head. “No?” It comes out more like a question. I watch her carefully. Is she just telling me what she thinks I want to hear? I notice her doing it a lot and every time it makes my skin itch like I’m getting a rash.

“We can go whenever you want. Mack can get someone else to help him.”

“No.” She nods, more assertive this time. “I want to stay. I just would have brought my headphones if I’d known.”

“If it gets too much, we’ll go, and I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“Promise?”

I brush my thumb along the smooth skin of her cheek. “Promise.”

She looks up at me like I just hung the moon and my heart clenches. When I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, it’s hard to pull away, but Mack’s waiting on me. The sooner we finish setting up, the sooner I can be back with her.

I bend down to kiss her forehead. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“See ya.”

Mack has a smug grin on his face when I approach and I’m holding up a hand before he even opens his mouth.

“You two looked pretty cozy.” He digs an elbow into my side.

“Fuck off.” I elbow him right back, but I’m not playing around the way he is. He yelps as I make contact and I snort.

“It’s cute. I’ve never seen you all loved up before.”

“You know we’re about to start handling explosives, right? You really want to piss me off?”