Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Pants on Fire

  Copyright

  Thank You!

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue One

  Epilogue Two

  Coming in April

  Books by Brynn Paulin

  Pants on Fire

  Steamy in Sweetville

  By Brynn Paulin

  Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Powered by Your Imagination

  Pants on Fire

  by

  Brynn Paulin

  Sweetville has a problem, and I've been brought in to solve it.

  As a federal firefighter, I'm used to fighting wildfires and even smoke jumping, but when a string of fires starts in my brother's new hometown, I get roped into helping. Though...roped might be too strong a term. I love visiting my family, but small town life can be a little dull. Diving into a blaze is just what I need. Getting to investigate and track down this firebug? Sign. Me. Up. I'm all for it.

  Until I get burned. I land in the ER and meet the woman who changes my outlook. Life in Sweetville just took a pulse-pounding turn. But as they say, it's all fun and games until it appears your lady love's brother is your suspect.

  Copyright

  © 2021, Brynn Paulin

  Pants on Fire

  Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-62344-326-9

  Published by: Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for your purchase of Pants on Fire.

  I hope you enjoy the story and will consider leaving a review or telling a friend about the book.

  I love hearing from readers! To keep in touch and follow my news, please visit me on my website at www.brynnpaulin.com.

  Chapter One

  ~ Ben O’Donnell ~

  Two years ago, I was headed toward happily ever after. Hell, I’d been ready to go buy the ring. Then the fire had come, one I’d run to fight because that was my job. One that left two people dead. It might as well have been three…four even if you included me. Because the girl I’d loved left me as soon as she recovered from the smoke inhalation.

  I dove deep into my job. Investigating. Fire jumping.

  Doors opened, and here, I was in Sweetville, the epitome of Small Town USA, to investigate a series of suspicious fires. And here I was in the local diner, Ella Eats, waiting for my to-go order and standing a few feet away from the girl who still owned my heart.

  I didn’t know this was where she’d escaped to when she’d left Chicago. What were the chances I’d end up here, where she was?. Obviously, she lived or worked in this town. I studied her tiny form in the dark blue scrubs. She’d just finished her nursing degree when I’d known her before. Apparently, she’d stayed with it.

  She turned with her order in hand and froze, staring at me. Kiah Sutton, my one who’d gotten away. Her green eyes widened, and her pink lips, devoid of anything but gloss, parted. “Ben?”

  I nodded, and she came closer, smiling, though it didn’t really meet her eyes.

  “Hey there, Dimples,” I said, calling her by the nickname I’d always used, because of those cute little divots that showed when she smiled. When she really smiled anyway, which she wasn’t now.

  “Oh my God, don’t call me that,” she groaned. “What are you doing here?”

  And there was the real reason she’d come over. “I’m consulting with the local fire and rescue.”

  “About the arsons?” she whispered. Obviously, she was cognizant that my identity, specifically the reason I was here, might need to be kept quiet. As far as everyone at the department was concerned, I was a transfer in, and all the time I spent closeted away? I was studying local regulations and code.

  I gave a single nod. “It’s really good to see you, Kiah,” I said, unable to stop myself. Just seeing her brought to the surface feelings I usually kept tamped down.

  Now, it was her turn to nod, but she didn’t return the sentiment about seeing me. “I need to get back to the hospital,” she said instead, lifting the two large bags in her hands. “Just picking up lunch for everyone. I guess I’ll see you around…with as small as this place is, probably…”

  “Bye, sweetheart,” I said to her retreating figure. She flinched, the only sign she’d heard me. Was that good or bad? Did she regret how we’d parted? I had no doubt she’d broken up with me as a knee jerk reaction after the fire that had killed her parents. After she’d told me she couldn’t see me anymore, I’d planned to give her a little time, a few days, a week at most. But when I’d reached out to her a week later, she’d left town, changed her number and left no trace. No one knew where she’d gone.

  Well, now, I knew, and I wasn’t letting her walk away again. I’d fight before I lost her once more, because Kiah was mine and we both knew it.

  * * * *

  “Do you know Kiah Sutton?” I asked my brother, Tristen. Since arriving in Sweetville, I’d been staying at him and his wife while I was here in town. They were still newlyweds, though, so while it was nice they’d opened their house to me, I was actually thinking of finding somewhere to rent short term while I was here. The fire chief had suggested checking into the Sanders’ lodge. Since the owner was a volunteer deputy a couple times a week, I’d considered asking him. But now that I knew Kiah was here, and I didn’t have a permanent roots anywhere else, maybe it was time to settle. My brother lived here. Kiah lived here. Maybe, Sweetville could become my home base.

  “Sure. She’s the guardian of one of our students. She works in the ER at the county hospital. Did you have to go over there?”

  He eyed me, looking for an injury.

  “No, I saw her at Ella’s Eats. Do you remember a couple years ago…when I told you I was going to get engaged?”

  “Yeah, and then you didn’t.” His gaze strayed over to his wife, who was making a pie in the kitchen. “Then you didn’t,” he repeated when his full attention returned to me.

  “Back in Chicago where we lived, there was a fire. It killed her parents—Kiah and Ty’s parents,” I told him, purposely using her little brother’s name so he’d know we were talking about the same people. “Afterward, she broke up with me. Because she couldn’t take me being a firefighter. I figured I’d give her a little time before convincing her otherwise, but she left town, changed her number. I never knew where she went.”

  “And that’s when she got custody of her little brother and turned up in Sweetville,” he finished, filling in the blanks. He’d always been the smart one. When we were foster brothers together, we’d been thick as thieves. I’d been the muscle and he’d been the brains. Not that it took a genius to figure this out.

  “Exactly.”

  “You had no idea she was here?”

  “No. Shocked the hell out of me when I walked into that restaurant and saw her today. I mean what the fuck, man? Of all the places in all of America, I end up in the same place as her. In this tiny town on the middle of nowhere.”

  “Not that tiny anymore. We’re growing like crazy, but yeah… That’s something right there.”

  “Fate, you think?”

  “If you believe in that,” he said with a shrug.

  I shoved his shoulder. He was being a dick. He one-hundred percent believed in fate, which was why he’d pursued Lexie so hard when she’d been opposed to their relationship. I should take a page from his book.

  “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “Well, the way I see it I have two choices. I can pursue her or I can go after your wife, who makes outstanding pie.” Lexie planned to enter some pie competition next month, and this was the third one she’d made since I arrived a week and a half ago.

  “You may be a hotshot smoke jumper, but I can kick your ass,” Tristen threatened. I raised a brow at him.

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  “You look at Lexie as anything but a brother, and I won’t be trying.”

  “I love how in love you are,” I told him, diverting what would have ended up with us wrestling. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t impress his wife, and we’d get no pie. “Happy looks good on you. So we both know I have one option. At least, it’s my only one as far as I see it.”

  “She’s a single mom now,” he warned.

  “Would you have let that stop you?”

  “Fuck no.”

  “I love you, too, baby,” Lexie called from the kitchen, letting us know that she could hear what we were saying. She smirked at me, further letting me know I wouldn’t ever stand a chance with her if I were ever so brain dead as to pursue my brother’s wife. Not a chance. I had my eye on the one girl who’d owned me since the day I’d met her three years ago. Since that day, no one else had hit my romance or lust radar. Until four hours ago, everything had been dead downstairs…my heart, my dick, my self-preservation. Okay, so the last one was mostly in my head, but it had been nonexistent, too.

  “So what are you going to do?” she asked, coming to join us now that her pie was in the oven. She moved to sit on the couch, but Tristen pulled her into his lap. Caveman move I couldn’t blame him for. I would have done the same. “Sometimes, she comes to girl lunch with us on Saturdays, if she’s not working. I put in a good word for you.”

  “I don’t want to wait that long. Do you have her number, maybe? Since Ty is one of your students.”

  “Sure. I’ll get it for you, but don’t make me regret giving it to you.”

  I looked at her, all the humor we’d been sharing slipping away. “I love her. And I know she loves me. She just needs to remember that.”

  “Crap. You’re going to be a total stalker, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged, not even denying it.

  Lexie still gave me the number.

  Chapter Two

  ~ Kiah Sutton ~

  Ben. Ben O’Donnell, my number one regret, was here in Sweetville. No. I didn’t regret him. I regretted how I’d reacted after that fire had ripped apart my life. How many times had I considered calling him? How many times had I been sure he’d moved on, so I didn’t pick up the phone? And here he was. Consulting with the fire department about a string of arsons. I didn’t like him running into fires…or jumping into fires as I’d heard he was wont to do. Did his investigative work put him in danger now, too?

  There wasn’t in day in the past two years I hadn’t worried about him. Sure, it was a worry I didn’t deserve to have. And that had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with him. I’d given up my right to be a concerned, fretting girlfriend, fiancée or anything else.

  He’d barely left my mind all yesterday afternoon at work, and now, the next evening, he was still firmly planted while I made dinner for me and my little brother, Ty. Ty had been a surprise baby, born when I was fifteen and our other sibling was thirteen. Now at nine, he ran me ragged, sometimes. He was in fourth grade and entirely sure he knew everything. He was fond of reminding me he was a big kid. I frequently had to remind him he still had to listen to me for eight more grade levels. Then we’d talk.

  He’d been doing his homework at the table, chattering at me the whole time, but he’d gone silent. When I looked over, I found him staring at me. He was barely harnessing his need to blurt out something. God only knew what.

  “What’s up?” I asked, indulging his excitement. That enthusiasm had been absent for much of the past two years since our parents had died and we’d lost everything else, too. Both of us had needed to start from scratch, physically and emotionally.

  “We had career day at school today,” he gushed. “And Mr. Bacca had his brother come in.”

  “Really? That’s exciting.” I knew Tristen had a brother because Lexie spoke about him occasionally. Something about his dangerous job and traveling all over the country.

  “But guess who it is! Guess who Mr. Bacca’s brother is!” he practically yelled, and my sluggish brain just barely connected the dots when my brother yelled, “Ben! And he remembered me and everything! And I think we should have him over for dinner. I miss him. He used to play video games with me.”

  I stared at Ty, nearly forgetting to stir the mac and cheese then pull the steamer packet of veg out of the microwave. We had very sophisticated palates around here.

  Ty had seen Ben. Ty wanted to have Ben over. Yes, yes, yes, part of my brain yelled. I ignored it.

  “Um, we’ll have to see,” I said. “I don’t even know his number anymore or how long he’s here.”

  Ty groaned. “You have Mrs. Bacca’s number, Kiah. You talk to her all the time,” he informed me in the dramatic, practically dying way only kids could do so well. “It’s so embarrassing that you have coffee and lunch with one of my teachers and her friends. And also Ben said he was going to be here at least until school is done this year. That’s forever!”

  It was a couple months anyway. A couple months that I could… No. I needed to get a grip. I broke up with him. Why would he want to rekindle what we’d had?

  “I’ll see,” I hedged.

  My brother groaned dramatically again and dropped his head into his arms on the table.

  “Ty.”

  “You always say I’ll see when you really mean no,” he muttered, not lifting his head.

  “I meant I’ll think about it,” I clarified, while dishing up dinner.

  “Same thing.”

  “Hey, sit up. I have your plate ready.”

  He slumped backward and eyed me. Some day, this kid would win an Academy Award. “Don’t you like Ben anymore?”

  “It’s not that. I… You know we broke up.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s personal.”

  “Fine,” he said, digging into his macaroni. He didn’t speak the whole time he scarfed it down, even when I tried to draw him out. That left me to plenty of time to think over my situation. “Can I be ‘scused?” he asked with a mouthful of pasta.

  “Finish what you’re chewing then yes.”

  A moment later, he stuck his dishes in the dishwasher, gathered his papers then took off for his room.

  “Where you going?” I asked.

  “Personal,” he spouted.

  Shaking my head at the kid who had way too much attitude, I finished my food then cleaned up the kitchen. Truly, I was too exhausted to deal with drama of any sort, familial or ex related especially. There’d been a run of people with the flu and two injury-involved accidents today, so it had been chaotic at the county hospital/urgent care. I was pretty much dead on my feet. If Ty wanted to sulk in his room, it was okay with me. I just wanted to sit on the couch and stare at a wall in silence for a little bit.

  I grabbed my phone from my purse and headed into the living room where I dropped onto the couch. To my surprise, there was a message notification on the screen…from Ben.

  Ben: Hey, I hope you don’t mind but I got your number from Lexie. I was wondering if you might want to go out some time. Catch up.

  I stared at the message that must have come in while Ty and I were talking about my ex. My heart fluttered with excitement, belying my reluctance to deal with Ben. There were so many ways I wanted to deal with him.

  Kiah: Ty told me you were in his class for career day this afternoon.

  I knew that wasn’t the answer he expected, but I needed a second.

  Ben: Yeah, Tristen twisted my arm.

  Kiah: How did I not know you have a brother? You said you have no family.

  Ben: Technically true. He’s my foster brother. He was in college; I was working. We didn’t know if we’d ever reconnect. But we have, which is good because he’s the closest to real family that I have. We decided to drop foster and just go with brother.

  Kiah: That’s actually very cool.

  Ben: So…?

  I knew what he was asking. If we could go out. I still hesitated. What if I got too deep. He wasn’t staying in Sweetville. I’d have to say goodbye to him again, but this time, it would be because he left.

  Apparently, I was a masochist though…

  Kiah: Sure. I’d like that.

  I closed my eyes and dropped my head back against the couch. What was I thinking? He’d said he’d be here until the end of the school year. That’s what Ty told me anyway. That was a lot of time to fall in love again and have my heart broken once more.

  Fall in love again?

  Then again, maybe, we’d go out once and decide it was best we remain old friends.

  Yeah. Like that would happen.

  Chapter Three

  ~ Ben ~

  This wasn’t looking good for my cred. Here I was, a hotshot firefighter and secret investigator, and I was in the ER. For a third degree burn on my thigh. Caused by a rookie who didn’t know you didn’t turn to talk to someone with a lit long-reach butane lighter in your hand. Fucking Rookie Ryan…

  My pants were toast. My leg…? I’d be okay. My pride…? Also toast.

  I was pretty sure the most gorgeous nurse I’d ever seen was hiding a smile from me. How lucky was I that Kiah had been on duty when I’d come in. Maybe, she’d wrestled down another nurse so she could have my case. I didn’t know. Didn’t care. She was in this curtained cubicle with me, and I was having a hard time keeping things under control in my briefs, the only covering on my lower half while she applied cream to wound that was high on my thigh. Her touch sent shivers through me. And those pretty blue eyes along with that long dark-brown hair in a sassy braid that swept over the top of her ass as she moved… I wanted to wrap it around my wrist while I pulled her to me and we—

 

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