Page 58 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
Be safe out there. I love you, I text Levi.
He won’t read it until the fire is completely put out, but I feel better for having sent it. He’ll know that I was thinking about him. Worried about him.
We don’t always tell each other how we feel so directly. It will mean something to him that I said it, even if he doesn’t see it in the midst of one of the hardest calls of his career.
I open a blank message and debate sending another text to a familiar number. If I texthim, I could open a door to a conversation I desperately want to have. If I text him, I might give him the wrong idea about what I want, what I need.
What do I want?
More importantly, what do Ineed?
I fall asleep with the message blank, the phone forgotten beside me. But the only thing I can dream about is flames engulfing the man I was getting to know. The one who somehow managed to make it past my defenses.
And the answer to my question is murkier than it has ever been.
Chapter Seventeen
Aaron
The night passes in a haze of activity. The entire station is out here now, after the fire blazed for hours unabated. It quickly became crystal clear that our small shift team was in way over our heads.
Our remaining team was eager to get in on the action, upset that they hadn’t been called in sooner.
We take turns throughout the night, some of us closing our eyes for just an hour or two in the back of the truck. Finishing the job would be impossible for us without rest. The vibration of the hose, the weight of it draped over an arm, the constant anxiety and alertness—it wears you down.
Every time I step away from the fire, even for a moment, the tenderness of my burned skin sets in. My hands are bright red and raw, most of the skin covered in painful blisters that make it hard to flex.
As a seasoned firefighter, I know what third-degree burns look like: leathery, charred, black, impossible to stomach. Gratitude rushes in that, while painful, my hands will heal normally with treatment.
I stifle the thought of who I want treatmentfrom. Or I try, at least.
Even now, I can’t stop thinking about Paige. My life is on the line, and the only thought that cycles through my head while I’m applying a new coat of retardant is that I need to get back to her. To Noah.
I have vowed to myself a million times that I would return to her. I refuse to leave things between us the way we did, ending a burning hot romance over a cold, calculated text message.
Absolutely not.
A lot of people have left me behind in life. And I’ve let them, choosing to allow relationships to slip through my fingers when it feels easier for me. This time, it feels remarkably different. Itisn’teasier for me.
Crown Hill isn’t the type of place that you can just leave. I’ve worked too hard to be here—to earn my place as captain, to connect with the guys at the station who are becoming my family, to create a life I can be proud to claim as my own.
I’m not going to ruin the best thing that I’ve had going for me since the day my dad picked me up off that sidewalk and showed me that I had potential.
Next to being a firefighter, Crown Hill is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
I’ll get back to her. I know I will.
But first, I have to put my gear back on and relieve someone else so that they can rest. I have to stand in front of the flames and prove to Paige—and to everyone else—that I’m the kind of man who can stand amid the burning flames.
And make it all stop.
* * *
Paige
The knock on the door couldn’t have come at a worse time. Noah has just woken up with a blowout diaper. The coffee hasn’t finished brewing yet. And the dishes from last night sit there, mocking me.
I yell to the door from the bathroom, where I have Noah playing in a tub full of warm water. Summer has a key; she can let herself in.
