I would’ve followed him, too, but a flash of brown caught my eye as I saw the little reporter that watched me find the ring, dash around the corner of the living room.
I winced.
“The reporter’s here,” I said. “She just went into the back hallway.”
Two of the men in front of me split off in opposite directions while Nico called it in.
“Got a runner heading towards the back,” Nico said into the mic at his shoulder.
I walked along the side of the garage to the driveway and noticed that the entire street was now lined with police cars.
Down the street beyond the police cars sat the ambulance, far enough away that Winter and Baylee wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire if the situation deteriorated.
“You can put your hands down,” Nico said. “Just head towards Downy.”
I found the redheaded officer in front of one of the SUVs with plans spread out on the hood in front of him, and headed straight for him.
Right about that time two more black clad figures rounded the house with the cute reporter in tow.
“I didn’t do it!” She cried. “I was just here to say I was sorry!”
Funny, if she’d done that earlier, it might’ve been believable.
***
“I had absolutely nothing to do with anybody’s murder,” Candice Paige, the reporter for the Kilgore Times, said. “I was just there to talk to her.”
“Why?” Luke asked, sitting back in his seat.
“Because she had a lot of good stories. But I told her I didn’t want anymore. After yesterday, seeing how all the KFD team members worked together with civilians to find that firefighter’s ring…well, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I came to tell her I was done,” she said.
A commotion at my back had me turning in time to see Mia barreling towards me.
She was dressed in her scrubs, and it looked as if she’d dropped everything to get to me. She only had half a face of make up on.
“Tai!” She cried, tears clogging her voice.
“I’m okay,” I said, catching her and pulling her into my arms.
Her mouth pressed into my neck as her arms went over my shoulders. My arms went around her ribcage, as I held on tight.
“I’m okay,” I said again as I held her small, trembling body.
“You scared the daylights out of me,” she said.
I squeezed her tighter.
“I’m okay,” I said again.
“Don’t you ever do that to us again!” Mia growled.
My brows went up and I set her away from me.
“Us?” I asked.
She pointed behind her with a thumb, and I just shook my head.
Jack was there.
As were the rest of the men that worked with him.
“Jesus,” I grumbled under my breath.
“Do you think it’ll be like this every time you go into a SWAT situation?” Luke asked at my side.
I looked over at him.
“I sure as fuck hope not,” I said.
“You weren’t even hurt,” Luke observed.
“No, I wasn’t,” I agreed.
“Maybe you should start weaning them off your tit now,” Luke joked.
Mia growled and leaned around me to glare at Luke.
Luke took the glare and gave her one back of his own.
“I’m not on his tit,” she snapped once the staring contest went on for a while.
Luke’s eyes lit with mirth.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“Oh, trust me. If I was on his tit, both he and I would know it,” she snapped.
Luke laughed.
As did I.
And I couldn’t say it wasn’t a good one, either. Even if it was at the expense of my girl.
“Let me answer some questions, and then we’ll go home,” I said.
She sighed.
“Not in your truck we won’t,” she said, looking pointedly at the ruined tire of my truck.
I followed the direction of her gaze and winced.
No, I guess we wouldn’t.
Chapter 22
Unless she’s sitting on your face, her weight is none of your concern.
-Words of wisdom to any man dumb enough to ask a woman her weight
Mia
I walked onto the floor of my new job at the other hospital in Kilgore and immediately knew that this was the right place for me to be.
“You ready?” Masen asked.
Masen had switched jobs with me.
She hadn’t been getting the same treatment from the charge nurse and our fellow nurses, but she had my back, and I was appreciative of that fact
“Hey, you must be Mia and Masen,” a small woman about two inches shorter than me said.
I looked over at the woman’s nametag and smiled. “Yes, that’s us. It’s nice to meet you,” I said, extending my hand.
“Call me Payton. And this is Cheyenne,” Payton indicated a woman behind her.
I looked up to find Cheyenne, Sam’s wife, standing there.
“Hi,” I said, waving.
She grinned. “I didn’t realize that you were who was coming today.”
I nodded. “I am. We started last week, actually. But we had to go through orientation and all that fun stuff.”
She nodded and turned to Payton. “This is Jack’s brother’s fiancé.”
The light dawned. “I knew you looked familiar!”
We’d actually seen each other in passing quite a bit, but it was when either of us were coming or going as we went to visit Jack and Winter.
Cheyenne we’d seen quite a bit since her house was the closest to Jack’s house.
A lot of things had happened in the last couple of weeks.
Aaron ‘Fatbaby’ Sims was moved to a burn center in Dallas where he was currently recovering from the disfiguring burns that due to the wreck his wife had caused.
Aaron’s wife, Lynn, had been charged with attempted murder and would likely get sentenced to twenty-nine years in prison. My hope was for the death sentence, but Tai told me that was highly unlikely to happen.
Jenner’s Heating and Electric closed down, the news that one of the owners had been hiring people to exact retribution against those customers she felt had somehow wronged her didn’t exactly sit well with people, and their business dried up quickly.
The reporter, Candice Paige, lost her job and basically tucked tail and moved out of state.
The fire department had also filed a civil suit against her, but the word on that hadn’t gotten back to us as of yet.
Me, well my story with my old job wasn’t quite as cut and dry.
People had been all over the salacious details of my alleged crimes when that article first ran. They rushed to judge without looking into the facts. People were all gung ho about thinking the worst of someone. Sadly, the retraction didn’t make as big of a splash as the article had; it was buried within the pages of the paper, and it sure seemed like most people missed the fact that I had been a victim and was framed for a crime I didn’t commit.
I was still being treated like someone who got caught attempting to blackmail her ex.
Hence, the reason for the job change.
Tai, though, had been the one to suggest that I apply elsewhere.
I looked down at my hand and smiled at the diamond sparkling on my left ring finger.
It was so beautiful, and I remembered, just like it was yesterday, how happy and excited I was to see Tai get down on one knee…even if it wasn’t as romantic as I’d always hoped it would be.
***
Two weeks ago
“Want to go to breakfast before you have to be at work?” Tai asked me.
I applied the last swipe of mascara as I replied with an, “Of course. Our regular spot?”
“Where else is there to eat?” He asked, a smile in his voice.
I smiled down at my phone.
“I can be there early if you can,” I said, backing aw
ay from the mirror. I was wearing my headphones, so I dropped the phone into my pocket.
“I’ll be there in about twenty. That should give you enough time to get your shoes and socks on,” he said.
I looked down at my bare feet.
“How’d you know I was barefoot?” I teased.
I hated wearing shoes and socks.
I was a flip-flop kind of girl.
Which meant that my shoes and socks were the first things to go when I got home and the last things to be put on before I left.
“I know you like the back of my hand,” he said with confidence.
“Oh really?” I said.
“Really,” he confirmed.
“What’s my favorite color?” I asked, walking into the bedroom after spritzing on some body spray.
“That bright, eye-hurting green,” he replied. “The same color as your comforter.”
I smiled, running my hand over said ‘eye-hurting green’ comforter.
“What’s my favorite food?” I asked.
I could practically hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Tacos. But not homemade tacos. You like those gut-hurting Taco Bell tacos. The kind that make you run to the bath…”
“Hey!” I interrupted him. “We do not talk about that, Mister!”
He had the audacity to laugh.
He’d been very understanding about my bathroom…problems. In fact, I wasn’t even embarrassed about it anymore.
Well… maybe I was still a little embarrassed, so I guess I was more resigned to the fact that he knew all about it.
I knew there was no way around that little problem, and it was something I’d likely deal with for the rest of my life.
“What about my favorite book?” I tested him.
The line was quiet for a few moments while I heard him get into his truck and start it up.
I shoved my feet into my shoes and got up, making my way to the front door.
“That’s easy,” he said. “It’s the one that’s in your nursing bag. Twi-fight or something.”
I burst out laughing.
I couldn’t help it.
I knew for a fact that he’d read Twilight.
And he’d liked it, too.
I’d heard from Baylee that the two of them had had a lengthy conversation about the book.
He never indicated that he’d read it before, so I didn’t call him out on it.
“Twilight,” I said.
And yes, I did keep that book in my nursing bag on the off chance that I got some free time.
Most of the time, though, I didn’t.
Which was why I kept that book in there specifically, because I could pick it up even if I hadn’t read it in months, and know exactly where I’d left off.
“Alright,” I said. “Time for the tough one.”
“Hit me, baby,” he challenged.
I closed my eyes and grinned, nearly missing the step in my front yard and face-planting into the walkway. I squeaked as I saw my life flash before my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, startled.
“I almost fell on my face,” I giggled.
He sighed. “You missed the step again, didn’t you?”
I glared at the offending step and continued walking to my car.
I started it up and fastened my seatbelt in before replying.
“What is the one thing I do when you’re not here?” I asked, trying to tease him into saying ‘masturbate.’
He was silent for a long while, so long that I had to pick my phone out of my pocket and check to make sure that we were still connected.
We were.
“Tai?” I said softly.
He cleared his throat.
“Your favorite thing to do is look at old pictures on the bench Bowe made for you,” he said softly.
My heard skipped a beat, and I had to blink back tears.
“How’d…how’d you know?” I asked.
He hummed.
“You were doing it that night I came over to your place to pick you up for dinner with my brother for his birthday,” he said. “I just let you finish before I came inside.”
I closed my eyes and smiled.
The questions continued as I drove to our breakfast spot, and he got every single question I’d asked him right.
In fact, I was still on the phone with him when I got out of the car and saw him leaning against his truck with his phone in his hand.
He looked up at me as I got out and watched as I walked towards him from across the parking lot.
“Mia?” He asked.
“Yes, Tai?” I said, only about half way across the parking lot from him now.
“Will you marry me?” He asked softly.
I stopped in the middle of the lot, causing him to smile at me and my reaction.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Good,” he said. “Now are you going to come over here to me?”
I bit my lip and tried hard not to cry before I started forward once again.
He dropped down to one knee, in his fire department work clothes, with his beautiful black hair and two days’ worth of beard growth, and I fell head over heels in love with him all over again.
“I love you!” I blurted.
He grinned.
“I love you, too. But you’re stealing my thunder,” he glared teasingly.
I mimed zipping my lips and threw the key away over my shoulder.
This time when he opened his mouth, my eye caught on the massive rock nestled in the black velvet box in his hand.
“Oh, my God!” I said, jumping forward and dropping my head down so I could see the ring even closer. “Is that a pink diamond?”
His head fell forward, obstructing my view, as it came to a rest against my belly.
“Mia!” He said on a huffed laugh. “I’m trying to ask you a fucking question here!”
I held my hands up in the air. “Sorry, sorry.”
He sighed and pulled the ring out of the box, slipped the cool metal onto my ring finger as he was standing up.
“Well?” I asked once the silence went on a long time as he stared at me.
“What?” He asked.
“I was waiting for you to ask me,” I said impatiently.
He grabbed my hand and started walking us inside.
“I already asked you,” he said. “I was going to do it right, but then I realized it didn’t really matter how I asked since you already said yes.”
I smacked him on the ass.
“Do it right,” I ordered, shaking my finger at him.
He smirked, but, nonetheless, he dropped down in the little alcove that led into the restaurant.
“Mia, will you marry me?” He asked. “Make me the happiest man in the world?”
I grinned down at him and then threw myself into his arms.
“Yes. A million times yes,” I said. “Were you nervous to ask me?”
He shook his head. “No. I knew you’d say yes.”
“Pretty sure of yourself there, huh?” I challenged, leaning back so I could see his face.
His beautiful eyes.
His lush lips.
“Yeah. You just can’t resist me.”
I burst into a fit of giggles.
Then we ate breakfast.
Then I went to work, and he went home to bed.
And I would always remember that proposal and the security of knowing that this was the man that I’d spend the rest of my life with.
***
“I could’ve sworn the charge nurse said you were married.” Payton said to me.
I looked up from my ring.
“No, just engaged,” I said. “We’re getting married in six months.”
“Oh, that’s awesome. Do you know where?” She asked.
I shook my head. “No, not yet. My mother and I have been looking at venues, but we haven’t found the right one yet.”
I smiled at the memories I had of all that we’d tried to do over the last couple of weeks
. Tai had originally wanted to get married as soon as possible, but after discovering that most reception halls were booked at least six months in advance, we’d had to push it back. Because I was not having a shotgun wedding in front of a judge. Hell no. I was having the whole shebang!
“You should try the Gold Hall. That’s where I had my baby shower,” Payton said, smiling fondly at the memory.
My heart stilled as a memory assaulted me.
I didn’t have a baby shower because Colt came two weeks early.
And that was better than a baby shower any day.
I remember looking down into the bright blue eyes of my baby boy, with his messy, full head of brown hair and thinking, ‘This is the best thing I could ever have hoped for.’
I smiled as that memory pierced my heart.
As was becoming more common, I just rode the wave of sadness.
There was a time, not that long ago, where that memory would have me on my knees and in tears.
It wasn’t that the pain I felt was any less.
The pain was still fresh, but I was more accustomed to the sharp stab of it now, and I was stronger than I had been back then.
“Mia?” Masen said softly, jolting me out of my thoughts.
I smiled sadly at her concerned face.
“It’s fine,” I said, noting her concern.
She pursed her lips but thankfully chose not to say anything.
And hours went by as I enjoyed my new job.
The highlight of my day, however, was a visit from Tai during one of his many trips to the hospital during his shift.
His strong arms wrapped around me, I smiled as I buried my face in his neck.
“Hey, baby,” he rumbled.
I shivered in delight.
“Hey.”
“You doin’ alright?” He asked, running his lips along my neck.
I nodded in confirmation.
“Yeah, I’m doing alright.”
And I was.
And getting better all the time.
Chapter 23
If you stroke my beard, I cannot be held responsible for the pregnancy that will follow.
-E-card
Mia
Two months later
No.
No. No. No. No. No.
Please God, no.
I threw the white stick across the room like it was a poisonous snake attempting to bite me.
Shock Advised (Kilgore Fire #1) Page 19
