by MJ Fredrick
Like after Jen left.
“What are you doing here?” He had trouble forcing the words out. “Finishing up your story?”
“No, it’s done.” She tried for a smile. “Is she okay?” She looked down at Kim, who lay glassy eyed on the floor.
“They’ll both be okay.” But he didn’t want to talk about that. He watched her, waited for her to look at him again. Needed her to.
She did, her dark eyes watery, pleading. “I know I hurt you,” she said, swallowing hard but not backing down. “I know I hurt you,” she repeated. “I was a coward. I was selfish. And I don’t deserve another chance. I freaked out, I know I did. Being in the hospital, being so scared—it brought everything back so clearly and it hurt so much and I had to get away before it could happen again. It was weird and it was stupid and it was not heroic at all. But you love me. If I’m right, I hope you can give me another shot.” Her words tumbled over each other, as if stopping for breath would give him the excuse to interrupt, send her on her way. Suddenly unable to meet his eyes, she studied her hands. “I wouldn’t trade a day Dan and I had together, no matter how it hurt when he died.” She turned back at him now. “Realizing it made me realize you and I deserve the same chance. Will you give it to us?”
She’d closed her hands over his arm as she spoke, her palms no longer as soft and smooth as they’d been when he met her. Tougher hands, tougher heart, tougher woman. And she wanted to be his. And damn it, as much as she’d hurt him, he wanted it too.
He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with her on his knees in a crummy cabin, while he was wearing a hospital gown. Candles—and at least underwear—should be required for declarations like this. “I left the fire service,” he told her quietly. “I gave Jen my resignation at the hospital. I was coming to Chicago tomorrow.”
She went as white as if he’d struck her. “You were coming to Chicago? Wait. You left the fire service?”
“Well, yeah. I knew you worried—”
“Gabe, you can’t do that!” Her voice was shrill in the small room, and drew the attention of the cops.
He held up a soothing hand. “Peyton—”
“You are not going to change who you are for me. You are the man I love, just as you are.” Tears streamed down her face, and she couldn’t seem to work her tongue around the words. “I don’t want you to quit.”
“I don’t want to be away from you for the summer,” he said, his own voice thick.
“You won’t be away from me. I’m going to get my red card renewed. I’m coming with you.”
His heart tripped at the words, and he couldn’t stop himself from touching her another minute. He smoothed her hair against her head, feeling the strands catch on his calluses. “Are you out of your mind? Your writing—”
“I can write anywhere, Chicago, a tent, Albuquerque. You tell me where, and that’s where.”
“You’ve lost your mind.” Emotion choked him as he pulled her close and pressed his face into her hair. “Jesus, we’ve both lost our minds.”
“Just kiss me,” she murmured against his throat. “And then it will be all right.” He eased back just enough so her mouth found his, hopeful, seeking, happy.
“Too bad Kim couldn’t have found a better man to love,” Gabe murmured, his arm around Peyton as he watched Devlin guide the girl into the car, careful of her broken arm. “Someone who could have loved her back, given her what she needed. All this wouldn’t have happened.”
Peyton nestled against him. “She found the best man she knew.”
He couldn’t meet her eyes after a declaration like that. “She loved an ideal.”
“You accused me of the same thing.”
He grinned and looked at her. “I stand by it.”
She didn’t say anything for a long time, and he wondered if she believed him. He couldn’t convince her if she didn’t.
“Gabe, I’ve been thinking about this whole hero thing. I get it now.”
“What do you get?”
“It’s not the danger giving you the rush, bringing you back. It’s this.”
He was afraid to ask. “What’s this?” he asked anyway. Hell, he was Gabe Cooper, and according to Peyton, not afraid of anything. Except losing her.
“Knowing you did the right thing, you were brave enough to make a difference. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
He chuckled and kissed her fingertips. “Damn, Peyton, you’re bit.”
“How can I have written about people who were so committed to their jobs they put their lives on the line without understanding that? How can I have learned all this about heroes without wanting to be one? I want to be the best I can be. I had two wonderful teachers, you and Dan. It just took me awhile to learn the lesson.”
He kissed her forehead. “If you want to be a Hot Shot, I know a good teacher.”
Epilogue
Peyton straightened from digging line, tossing her braid over her shoulder, and looked at her crew boss. She wasn’t used to answering to the name yet; she’d only had it four months, since they married in January. Besides, around here, everyone who used that name meant Gabe. Howard stood with his hand on one hip and held the radio toward her impatiently.
“The IC wants to talk to you.”
A grin tugged at Peyton’s mouth as she stepped gingerly around flames to take the radio. “Cooper,” she acknowledged into the mouthpiece, her lips close, intimate.
Gabe’s voice rumbled through the static. Jen had submitted his name to take her place as incident commander when she left the service to have her baby, and he’d shocked them all by accepting, then loving it. Why wouldn’t he—he got to boss everyone around now. “The edits on your book came today.”
Her heart thudded against her ribs. She’d done it, written a book, had sold it, and each step made the dream more real. It had all happened so fast, thanks to her magazine editor and her contacts. “How do they look?”
He grunted. “Like I would know. Probably some work here. Lots of comments. Hell, I’d rather punch line than do this.”
She had a feeling she might, too.
“I’ve got a shower reserved for eight, can you make it?”
She laughed. Idiot. Didn’t he realize others could be listening? “I don’t know—five minutes in the shower isn’t much incentive after a two-hour hike.”
“I can make it worth your while.”
“Not in five minutes you can’t.”
“Maybe since it’ll be two of us we can double the time.”
“Ooh. Ten minutes. All the difference in the world. I’m there.”
“Peyton.” His serious tone carried over the walkie. “Come home safe.”
Home. A tent in a fire camp she shared with Gabe. And she wouldn’t be anywhere else. “I will,” she said. “Cooper out.”
About the Author
MJ Fredrick knows about chasing dreams. Twelve years after she completed her first novel, she signed her first publishing contract. Now she divides her days between teaching elementary music, and diving into her own writing—traveling everywhere in her mind, from Belize to Honduras to Africa to the past.
She's a four-time Golden Heart Award finalist, and she won the 2009 Eppie Award with Hot Shot and the 2010 Eppie with Breaking Daylight. She was a 2012 Epic Award finalist with Don’t Look Back.
Connect with MJ online.
Website: http://mjfredrick.com
Blog: http://mjfredrick.wordpress.com
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1hf1goB
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/16D4kvK
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJFredrick
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