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Chapter One

When he first entered ht of hi underneath h as it was, but the sight of hiht to be at least six feet four inches, and he was all man He wore a navy-blue Palainst hisboots His wavy hair was thick and full of gray He wore a thick mustache I knew he ht-brown eyes sparkled for a lanced my way

“Ma’am, we’re here about a rattler?”

“Oh, right” I blinked for a moment, then my skin crawled from the realization of why I had called 9-1-1 in the first place I pointed toward the barbecue grill that was against the side of ht and wasback and forth slowly I wanted to throw up “See… see, I wasn’t lying Pleasedo so”

The er fireer than me I was thirty-two years old

“Well,” one of the firerill “Holy crap! Captain, take a look at this!”

Captain Hottie walked closer to the other men, then exclaimed, “Holy shit!” He echoed the others but in a deeper, more mature voice

“What you have here is a king snake eating a rattler,” one of the younger men said

I clenched my stomach I felt bile rise in my throat “Ew,” I said

“It’s a good thing,” the captain explained “You want to keep the king snake in your yard It will keep the bad snakes out”

I shook my head adamantly “No!”

“Do you have kids?” the captain asked

“Yes”

“Then, you’re keeping the king snake back here Trust me,” the captain commanded

“But—” I started, but the captain shook his head, his eyes steady on mine

“Trust ain

My shoulders sagged in defeat, and I whispered, “Okay” Never mind that I feared all snakes

The two young firemen had reached into their pockets for their phones and started taking photos of the red-and-black-striped king snake eating the rattler

“I had no idea there were two snakes under there,” I cried I started to ju my hands back and forth, unable to control my anxiety In soether for as long as I had But, at the moment, I wanted to pee in my pants, barf, and crawl into a ball all at the same time

I had just come home fro of some trash when I noticed the tip of the rattlesnake underneath the barbecue grill I was just thankful the kids hadn’t followedmy son, he would have tried to reach for the snake without believing it could kill him

The captain noticed the panicked state I was in and approached me Noanted to pee for an entirely different reason Da, manly hand on my left shoulder My nipples i an overly padded bra so none of the men could see the effect the captain had on me

“Ma’am, are you okay?”

I shook my head no

“Do you need me to call someone to stay with you? Are your kids here?”

“I… no… I mean, no, you don’t need to call anyone Yes, my children are here”