“Gotcha, captain,” Jimbo said through his smile, took the containers and strolled away.

I moved closer to Mickey. “Captain?”

He stopped scowling at the departing Jimbo, looked down at me, hooked me with an arm and pulled me to him whereupon he laid a hard, swift kiss on my mouth.

He kept hold of me with one arm as he lifted his head and gave me a much nicer, “Hey.”

“Hey,” I gave it back. Then repeated, “Captain? Is that a nickname?”

“Rank,” he stated.

I felt my brows draw together. “Rank?”

“I command this company.”

I was no less confused. “You…sorry?”

“Chief is the Battalion Chief. He commands five houses in the five big towns we got across the county. Each house has a captain who commands the company, which is the rig and the men who work it. But also the house, which is everything to do with this department that isn’t handled by the chief. We got two lieutenants as well as me. Chief schedules it so each shift, I’m on it or one of the lieutenants is on it, takin’ charge of the equipment and the boys and managing shit if we go out on call, at least until the chief gets there. Don’t really got enough to go around for all shifts, so we got acting lieutenants with enough experience in to take shifts if that’s needed.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “So you’re kind of second-in-command head honcho.”

His eyes again started dancing as he confirmed, “Yeah.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” I noted.

His eyes warmed on his muttered, “Thanks, Amy.”

I lifted my brows. “So your chief commands five houses?”

“Yep.”

“Isn’t that a lot?”

“Nope.”

I tipped my head to the side. “It isn’t?”

“Not really. In a bigger city, a Bat Chief would command all the houses in that city.”

“Part-time?” I pushed and he gave me a squeeze.

“That would be a no.”

I did not like this. I didn’t like it because Mickey wanted this position and it seemed a lot more work, overseeing five fire departments in five cities across the entire county, rather than just Magdalene’s.

“Want a tour before dinner?” he asked, taking my mind off this.

A tour of a firehouse?

What girl would say no?

I focused on him. “Absolutely.”

That earned me another squeeze before he took my hand and guided me around.

They had a big red truck (obviously). On the lower level with the truck there was a bank of lockers down one side. They had a variety of equipment like axes, wound hoses and such mounted on the walls.