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  Nice and Easy

  Boys of the Big Easy book three

  Erin Nicholas

  Nice and Easy

  New Orleans firefighter, Caleb Moureu had to trade body shots and hot all-nighters for sippy cups and actual up-all-night fevers when his sister was killed, leaving his niece in his care. But two years in, he’s definitely got the hang of this fatherhood thing. Of course, he couldn’t do it without nanny-turned-friend and fellow single parent, Lexi. Because of her, things have always been pretty easy.

  * * *

  Getting pregnant and going it alone wasn’t in Lexi’s plans, but thanks to Caleb, she’s doing okay. He’s helped her out with everything from diapers to car repairs over the years. So, when she suddenly needs a place to live, of course Caleb steps up. That’s just what he does. This is a simple favor, like everything else.

  * * *

  Until a hot kiss, the very first night under the same roof–of course– changes everything…

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2019 Erin Nicholas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN: 978-0-9998907-5-2

  Editor: Lindsey Faber

  Cover design by Angela Waters

  Cover photography Wander Aguiar

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Easy Going

  About the Author

  Boys of the Big Easy

  1

  “Hey, I have something of yours here."

  Caleb shifted his phone to his other ear and pulled his truck keys from his pocket. “You do?” He hadn’t been at Logan’s for a few days and hadn’t been missing anything that he knew of. “Like what?”

  “Well, she’s a gorgeous brunette, about five-three, big brown eyes, amazing breasts, and currently drunk off her ass," Logan told him.

  Caleb stopped mid-stride. He cleared his throat. “That sounds a little like Lexi, except for the drunk part. And the you havin’ her part.”

  Logan chuckled. “So you do acknowledge the amazing breasts part.”

  He wasn’t stupid. Or blind. “Where are you?” he asked, instead of answering. Though he’d already turned in the direction of Trahan’s Tavern.

  Logan let Caleb avoid the topic of Lexi’s breasts. For now. Caleb knew that wouldn’t last. “The Tavern,” Logan said, confirming he was at the bar he and his brother Gabe owned in the French Quarter. “And it’s definitely her. Including the drunk part.”

  Caleb scowled. “What’s she doing there?” Lexi rarely went out to bars. Not even to the tavern owned by their really good friends. She definitely never got drunk.

  “She’s with the ER crew from St. Mike’s.”

  Caleb realized he was already partway down Decatur Street. The tavern was about a ten-minute walk. Eight if Lexi was drunk. Six if she was with the guys who worked the ER at St. Michael’s Hospital. Caleb knew the ER crew over there well, and there were plenty of guys in that group who would think Lexi was, well, all the things she was—sweet and gorgeous, with a great laugh and a way of making a guy feel like he was about a hundred times smarter, funnier, and more talented than he really was.

  Those bastards would think she was amazing.

  “What the hell?” Caleb asked, dodging a group of tourists who stopped to look over the novelty tees in the doorway of one of the souvenir shops.

  “They’re buying her shots,” Logan reported. “Apparently she did some amazing thing at work and they’re congratulating her.”

  Caleb rounded the corner and nearly mowed over a group of early-twenty-something girls who were coming out of the praline shop. He sidestepped just in time but was hit by a cloud of perfume. One of the girls gave him an overly friendly, I’m-in-town-for-a-wild-weekend-wanna-be-part-of-it grin. He gave her a wink but kept moving. He didn’t do tourist hookups. Unlike a lot of his friends who loved the female visitors who came to New Orleans looking for a good time with southern boys. Besides, those girls were young. They had to be barely drinking age. But then his scowl returned as he realized that they were Lexi’s age. And, while her age had kept him from acting on his occasionally inappropriate thoughts, it sure hadn’t kept him from having them.

  “I didn’t know she was working tonight,” Caleb told Logan, shoving all of those thoughts firmly to the back of his mind. “She was at my house, last I saw her.”

  Of course, that had been yesterday morning. On top of his usual twenty-four-hour shift, he’d put in another seven because of a four-alarm warehouse fire that had taken them all way past quitting time. He’d obviously let Lexi know he’d be late and the last he’d heard from her was “no problem.”

  Thinking about that, he pulled his phone from his pocket.

  And sure enough, she’d texted him. Eight hours ago. Called in to help in the ER. Bea’s got the kids.

  It occurred to him, just now, that she might have been called in because of the same fire. There hadn’t been any deaths but lots of injuries and smoke inhalation. So it made sense the closest ER might need some extra help. He’d have to get used to that. She’d only been done with nursing school and on the job for three months, but it was causing some need for scheduling adjustments and he suspected there would be more to come.

  He turned off of Decatur, hoping to find a thinner crowd on one of the less touristy blocks.

  Pretty much whenever he wasn’t at his house, Lexi was. They took turns taking care of the kids—his four-year-old niece, Shay, and Lexi’s two-and-a-half-year-old son, Jack—while the other worked. Bea was a sixty-something grandmotherly type—if your grandmother swore a lot, and had a terribly sarcastic sense of humor, and had no delusions about her grandchildren being sweet and perfect. She was, in fact, raising her four grandkids and was one of many friends he and Lexi shared from the single parent support group they belonged to. She was also one of their fill-ins when their work schedules overlapped. They had plenty of people able and willing to help out here and there, but Caleb and Lexi were the other’s support 99% of the time. They both had crazy shifts with long hours and the chance of being called in almost any time. When they’d found each other and teamed up to help with the childcare issues, it had been a match made in heaven.

  “Well, she’s a huge hit with these guys,” Logan said with a chuckle. “But I thought maybe you’d want to know what was up.”

  Yeah, he definitely wanted to know where Lexi was. Especially if it involved a bunch of other guys and a lot of liquor. “It’s five thirty-seven p.m.,” Caleb said.

  Though it sure as fuck didn’t feel like it. It felt like he’d been working for, oh, about thirty-four hours straight. Which he had. He scrubbed a hand over his face as he waited on the corner for an SUV to turn in front of him. Who was he to judge Lexi and the crew being already past drunk? Long shifts did that to you. The adrenaline of those shifts sometimes made a couple of drinks the perfect way to unwind, and celebrating as a team was an important part of the work they did. You had to trust the people who were working with you and make quick decisions about life or death. Partying and laughing and relaxing together could be a great team-builder. He and the guys
at Engine 29 did plenty of it. Or had before Caleb had become a single dad overnight.

  He shoved that away. Along with the stupid surge of jealousy he felt over Lexi having a great time with a bunch of other people. That kick-him-in-the-gut jealousy happened sometimes, but it was just a by-product of his strange, should-be-simple-but-really-didn’t-feel-simple relationship with the girl who’d been saving his ass for about two years now. Another by-product. There were many.

  Caleb finally crossed St. Charles and headed for the front door of Trahan’s. Gabe, Logan’s brother and business partner, spotted him through the wide-open French door and lifted a hand. Gabe didn’t seem surprised to see him, so Caleb assumed he knew Logan had called. Gabe pointed toward the bar.

  Caleb’s gaze followed Gabe’s finger. To Lexi. Where she was sitting on the bar. Laughing. And tipping back a shot. With three guys gathered around as if they were worshiping at her altar.

  Yep, jealousy was definitely one by-product of their relationship.

  Lust was another.

  And the most complicated one.

  Caleb just paused and took her in for a second. She looked fucking gorgeous. She was wearing a pale blue top that hung off of one shoulder, showing the thin strap of the white tank underneath, and her long dark hair fell almost to her ass in soft waves. That alone was enough to make him stop short. She never wore her hair down at home—at his home anyway—when she was there for twenty-four-plus hours with two kids under the age of five. She always had it up in a ponytail or a braid, whether he was just getting home from his shift, or she was dropping Jack off on her way to work.

  He hadn’t realized how long it was. He had, however, realized how much he wanted to run his hands through it. And how much he wanted to grab those ponytails so he could tip her head back and kiss her.

  Dammit.

  That kind of shit made him crazy. He wasn’t some dirty old man who could only get it up for sweet, young things. He did just fine…more than fine…with women his own fucking age. A couple who were even older than him, thank you very much.

  He started in her direction, but suddenly Gabe and Logan were both in front of him.

  “Before you get all pissy and weird with me, you should know that I checked her ID. She’s twenty-one, man,” Logan said. “She’ll be twenty-two in two weeks.”

  Caleb frowned at him. “No shit.”

  He should think it was funny that Logan felt the need to reassure Caleb that he wasn’t serving Lexi underage. But Caleb’s protectiveness of her was a well-known fact. And not really all that funny. It was serious. If someone did something that would potentially harm Lexi, he would be pissed. And he’d take it out on that person, no question.

  Logan frowned, too. “You knew that she was almost twenty-two?”

  Caleb lifted a brow. “Yes. I know how old Lexi is.” Young. That was how old she was. Seven years younger than him.

  Logan looked at Gabe. “I thought you all thought she was like nineteen, about to turn twenty.”

  Gabe nodded. “That is what I thought.”

  “You thought she was nineteen?” Caleb asked. Gabe had already been a member of the single parent support group when Caleb joined, a month after being named Shay’s guardian. Lexi had joined two months later when Jack, her baby, was a month old. He’d always thought it was interesting that they’d both lasted one month before realizing they needed support.

  “That’s what Addison told me,” Gabe said with a shrug. “I’d never really thought about it. I knew she and Ashley were both young.”

  Addison was Gabe’s wife, but first she’d been a part of the support group, too, right after moving to New Orleans. “Ash is nineteen, almost twenty,” Caleb confirmed. “Lex is older by a couple of years.”

  “Thought it was the other way around,” Gabe said, scratching his jaw. He looked at Caleb. “So why have you been so adamant about not starting anything with Lexi?”

  “You thought I was lusting after a teenager?” Caleb asked. He shot a glance around and lowered his voice. She was young, but holy shit. “Jesus, man.”

  “Well, in Gabe’s defense, that’s the first time you’ve admitted to the lusting after her part,” Logan said, grinning a grin that often made Caleb want to pop him in the mouth.

  Caleb ignored that. He had never admitted it, but his friends knew that he had a soft spot for Lexi that was a weird combination of protectiveness that he only felt for her and Shay and Jack, an addiction to how she saw him as her hero, and yeah, a dash of lust. Or a fucking gallon of lust. The girl was all soft skin and silky hair, with eyes the color of his favorite bourbon, and lush curves. She always smelled like a mix of bubble gum and grilled cheese. Maybe a weird scent to be turned on by—okay, not maybe—but here he was.

  “So all this time that you’ve been convinced that I have a thing for her, you thought she was barely legal?” Caleb asked. “For fuck’s sake, you guys.”

  He’d known Lexi for a little over two years. That meant these guys thought she’d been seventeen when they’d met and then eighteen for most of the time she’d been coming to his house and driving him crazy.

  “I thought that was why you weren’t acting on it,” Gabe said, putting his hands up.

  “She was my babysitter,” Caleb ground out. “She worked for me.”

  “She doesn’t anymore,” Logan pointed out, ever helpful. “You don’t pay her anymore.”

  Caleb sighed. That was true. He hadn’t paid her in over a year. He hadn’t technically paid her at all, but it had taken him several months to catch onto the fact that Lexi returned all the money he gave her. She’d either put it straight back into his wallet, or she’d leave it around the house in drawers, or put it in random envelopes and stack them with his monthly bills. When he’d figured that out, he’d told her to knock it off, so she’d started buying things. Mostly for Shay—clothes and toys and books—but sometimes for him, too. He’d find a shirt hanging in his closet he didn’t remember buying, or a package of steaks in the freezer that he didn’t remember grabbing at the store. When he’d figured that out and told her to stop, she’d insisted that he did as much for her and Jack as she did for him and Shay. They shared laundry duties, took turns grocery shopping, and obviously shared childcare responsibilities. Caleb also took care of her car and did minor repairs around the house she shared with her mom. She’d insisted they were more than even. So he’d finally stopped paying her. Grudgingly.

  But he still knew that he had some…power over her. He’d stepped into her life when she’d been a brand-new, young single mom and had helped her out with her piece-of-shit car. He’d offered her a job and free childcare when she was struggling to make ends meet. He’d offered a girl who had been raised by a single mom and whose baby daddy had bailed, a look at a decent, nice guy who she could count on. No way could he make a move on her. Did he think she’d say no? Definitely not. But any feelings she had for him were mixed up in gratitude and a little bit—or a lot—of hero worship.

  He loved being her hero.

  “She has me up on this pedestal,” he finally said to the guys. “I can’t take advantage of that.”

  Gabe nodded. “I guess.” He didn’t look convinced.

  “That does seem easier,” Logan agreed.

  Caleb didn’t appreciate Logan’s emphasis on seem. It was easier to keep his hands to himself where Lexi was concerned. No matter how much he’d love to put his hands on her. All over her. Over and over again. That’s not what she needed from him.

  He cleared his throat. “Yep. The way it is, taking care of her is easy.”

  And he really fucking needed something to be easy today. Work had not been. The call from the doctor’s office following up on Shay’s tests had not been. He really needed Lexi to be easy right now.

  He heard the laughter coming from Lexi’s little group of minions and he straightened. “Thanks for the call. I have a group of jackass ER dudes to disappoint.” He started in Lexi’s direction.

  Lexi saw
—or felt—him coming. She lifted her gaze from the guy right in front of her to Caleb’s when he was halfway to the bar. And her face lit up.

  There. That. That was what he wanted. He didn’t need anything more from her than that.

  Lexi was always happy to see him. He could be an asshole. He could be a hard-ass. He could be less-than-chivalrous. His work often required him to bark commands, physically move people out of his way, and tell people when they’d fucked up. He was the Lieutenant for Engine 29 and that meant he gave orders. Orders that he couldn’t soften up or explain in detail. It was “do it and do it now” stuff.

  And when it came to women, the ones he hung out with didn’t need, or expect, romance. They wanted a good time and he gave it to them, without a lot of sweet talk or gallantry required. He was pretty straight-to-the-point with women, too. And the ones who came back for more, liked it.

  But he was a different guy with Lexi.

  He was kind and patient and generous. He was fucking sweet to her. He had a hell of a time saying no to her, and when he was around her, he found himself buying the Caleb-is-amazing stuff that she so clearly believed. For a little over two years now, he’d soaked up her admiration and just how damned happy she always was to see him.

  Lexi was unlike any other female he spent time with. She was special. He needed to treat her that way.

  And lusting after her did, in fact, make him a dirty old man.

  “Caleb!”

  He came up behind one of the guys gathered around her, and Lexi hopped off the bar. She wobbled slightly when she hit the floor, but there were three guys right there to grab her and keep her upright.