Page 61 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
Aaron could have been killed in that wildfire, or could have been seriously injured. And I had been stupid. So, so stupid to end things with him. To send him off to the fire without so much as a hint of how I really feel toward him.
“Go,” Summer says firmly. “Go to the hospital and take care of them. Noah is safe with me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Aaron
The ride from the wildfire up to Crown Hill Hospital feels interminable. The guys are mostly quiet, the ones who are still in the truck and heading back to the station. Nobody wants to make a huge fuss over Samson and me.
If they do, I would prefer that they fuss over him. He looks like he might have sustained some third-degree burns. Plus, they’re far more extensive than my burns.
He should have gone to the hospital hours ago, as soon as it happened. But he was determined that we all go home together.
A firefighter, through and through.
Maybe there’sonemore reason why the ride to the hospital seems to be taking longer than usual. Levi rides right beside me, neither of us mentioning that we’re hoping to see Paige when we get there.
Levi will check in with her and then race home to his kids. Me? I’ll be stuck there for as long as it takes the medical team to evaluate the wounds that I sustained while doing my job. Could be an hour, could be a day.
Having Paige take care of me will make the time go that much faster, though.
“You should call your family,” Levi says, filling in the silence.
“I texted my dad when the fire started.”
I always tell him when I go out on a major call. My dad, the man who saved me and took me in all those years ago, is my hero. And I want him to be proud of me. I want him to know that I’m going to do my best, just like he taught me.
Levi nods, then returns to staring at his folded hands.
Without the sirens on, it feels like we’re moving through the stickiest molasses. Our engine hits every red light between the outskirts of town and the hospital, but we eventually pull up beside the bay where all of the ambulances typically park.
A flurry of activity buzzes around the entrance, medical staff coming out to assess the situation. Samson gets loaded onto a stretcher and pushed into the emergency room. Must be a slow night, with the way nurses hover over him immediately.
“I can walk,” I tell the nurse who comes to assess me. I hold up a hand to keep her from motioning for the gurney at the door.
“Hospital policy,” she says firmly. “Can’t let you walk in. But I can spare you the bed for now. A wheelchair, then.”
Sensing that this is the best I’m going to get, I accept the chair with embarrassment. Levi laughs as he walks beside me, perfectly capable of getting into the ER on his own two feet.
“Don’t be upset,” he says between chuckles. “They know I’m Paige’s brother. And I’m not the one being treated tonight.”
They roll me straight past the nurse’s desk, where I see the one person I have been dying to see for days.
Paige.
Her eyes connect with mine. Everything else fades away, even Levi walking beside me. The embarrassment over the wheelchair fades. The only thing that matters in this world is the connection between us.
I thrill at the way her cheeks flush at the mere sight of me.
Eventually, she realizes that she’s in the middle of a bustling emergency room. Her training snaps into action. The magical spell between us shatters unceremoniously. She points to the room down the hall.
“Evans in room nine,” she calls, turning to write it on the board.
As they push me down the hall, I watch her write her own name next to mine. She’s assigning herself to my care.
Does that mean…?
Someone else’s name is scrawled next to Samson’s room. A room that I can’t help but notice is situated right next to the desk, while mine is all the way down the corridor.
