Firefighter Christmas Complete Series Box Set (A Firefighter Holiday Romance Love Story)

by Nella Tyler

  I couldn’t hear her name and not start grinning like the lovesick dope that I was. “We’re better than ever. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I’m not questioning it.”

  “I still can’t believe that Lacey went so far as to fabricate an entire pregnancy.” He shook his head. He’d always had a low opinion of Lacey, though he hadn’t shared that with me until after we broke up, but he tended to give people the benefit of the doubt when he could.

  Johnny, on the other hand, had routinely told me he didn’t trust Lacey. Even so, he was surprised by the game she’d played with faking the pregnancy. It was a low blow, but now she was completely out of my life, and I could move on with Sami.

  “I know,” I admitted. “But instead of being furious the way I should’ve been, I was thankful. Not to her, but just in general. The implosion of that huge lie broke the last of the dwindling connection between us. Now I’m free.” I grinned again, wider this time as I washed the side of the truck. “And literally right after I left Lacey’s place, I pulled into a gas station for a soda and Sami pulled in after me.”

  Hector kept his attention on the tire, scrubbing in a circular motion. “I’m telling you, it’s fate.”

  I was starting to come around to his way of looking at things. How else could I explain the universe seeming to conspire to make sure our paths kept crossing? That night at the bar. The fire. The grocery store after the first blowup with Lacey. And then the gas station. Either something was going on or this was one hell of a coincidence.

  “It’s something,” I said, not agreeing all the way, but not dismissing his suggestion all the way either.

  He shifted his dark eyes up to me again, the look in them thoughtful. “Do you love Sami?”

  I nodded, not even needing a second to think about it. “Yeah, I really do.” I really couldn’t stop smiling when her name came up. Hector was the one person who would understand. He got a giddy look in his eye whenever he was talking about Juanita or the kids.

  “I loved Lacey, too, but it was different, like I was settling because we’d been together for so long. This is real. I can feel it. I’m not having to convince myself on a weekly basis to stay in the relationship the way I did with Lacey. I can’t wait to be with Sami.”

  “I’m really happy for you, Blaze,” he said, keeping his steady gaze on me, his lips curled into a grin. “You deserve a good woman like Sami.”

  We scrubbed the truck in silence for several minutes, music wafting from the open bay doors. After we’d rinsed the soap away and returned the truck to its place in the bay, I turned to Hector, unable to hold back what I’d been mulling over for days.

  “I have to tell you something, Hec,” I said, dropping my voice though no one else was out here.

  He raised his black eyebrows as he stared up at me, his expression mildly inquisitive. “Shoot.”

  I blurted what I wanted to say, not even taking a moment to put the thoughts together, just letting them come. “I want to ask Sami to marry me more than anything, but I don’t know if it’s a great idea after all the shit that happened with Lacey.”

  “What’s your greatest concern about asking her?”

  “That I’ll fuck everything up. I know it wasn’t asking Lacey to marry me that messed up our relationship, but I can’t help the feeling that it did. We broke up only a few weeks later.”

  He nodded, his dark eyes never leaving my face. “The first step is separating the relationship you had then with Lacey from the one you have now with Sami.”

  “Things are going so well between us right now. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. But I also want her to be my wife. I just can’t decide what to do. We’ve gone through so much bullshit in the months we’ve known each other, everything seems like a risk.”

  “But you love this woman?” he asked.

  I nodded immediately.

  “And you want to spend your life with her?”

  I nodded again. “More than anything.”

  “Then you should take the risk,” he said with a shrug, a light smile rising to his lips. He had a way of cutting through the bullshit that I respected greatly. At times like these, it felt like he was actually twenty years older than I was, instead of just five. “That’s what life is about — finding what matters to you and going out on a limb for it. If you love Sami, then do whatever you can to build a life with her. I know it’s scary. Taking a risk always is, but if we were concerned about playing it safe, we wouldn’t be firefighters.” His grin widened, and I smiled, too.

  My nerves were no calmer than they’d been before I started the conversation, but I knew what I was going to do now. Having a plan was half the battle.

  Chapter Thirty Four – Sami – Early May

  I was still dazzled by the restaurant Blaze had chosen for tonight. He warned me ahead of time to make sure I dressed to the nines and wasn’t kidding.

  He showed up to my house looking sharper than I’d ever seen him, wearing a tailored black suit and shoes polished until they were shiny, beard trimmed, and auburn hair slicked back from his forehead and beaten into submission with a fresh cut and ample amounts of gel. I’d gone shopping for something new with Lisa and Amy a few days earlier, parading each potential dress in front of them while they gave it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. After a few hours of going from one store to the next, we all agreed on an ivory dress with gold accents that went well with my olive complexion and dark hair, which I wore loose down my back and shoulders. I was borrowing Lisa’s pumps again, gold like the accents on the dress.

  I must’ve done a pretty great job of cleaning up, as Blaze was stunned into silence when I opened the door to my place. Convenient, because I needed a few seconds to pull it together after seeing how handsome he looked.

  Now, we were seated across from each other at one of the nicest restaurants in town. I was having a mini anxiety attack just perusing the menu. The cursive was almost too flowery to read clearly and there were no prices listed! Blaze kept grinning at me and reminding me that this was our special night and that we needed to enjoy ourselves. After settling on our food and receiving our drinks — the bottle of white wine more expensive than the last twenty I’d bought to drink at home — I gazed across the table at him, smiling warmly at how gorgeous he looked. I liked him rough and tumble in his fireman’s uniform, but this was a welcome change.

  “How did you find this place?” What I really wanted to know was how he’d managed to snag a reservation, and on a Saturday to boot. This restaurant booked out several months in advance. It was a lot more appropriate than coming out and asking him if he’d needed an installment plan to pay for our food and drinks.

  Blaze grinned even wider. He hadn’t been able to wipe the smile off his face since he swung by my condo to pick me up. “I know the owner. I helped his family after an accident once.” His cheeks reddened the way they always did when he was forced into telling a story that made him sound like a hero. “I was driving by and saw their car turned over in a ravine. The accident had just happened. I got his wife and daughter out while someone else who stopped at the scene afterwards called 911.”

  A warm feeling flooded me. I couldn’t believe how fantastic this man was. “Blaze, that’s amazing!”

  His cheeks reddened a little more, but his green eyes were shining so brightly, I couldn’t look away from them if I tried. “Not really. I’m a trained EMT. We respond to car accidents all the time.”

  “But you saved their lives?”

  He nodded, smiling like it was no big deal. “After that, he said anytime I wanted a table, all I had to do was ask. He gave me a few free meals, too, but I pay my own way now. Or most of it, at least.”

  “That explains the bottle of wine on the house,” I said, with the lift of an eyebrow.

  His smile grew, but he didn’t have an opportunity to answer before the waiter arrived with our entrees, setting them down in front of us.

  “Enjoy,” she said and left us to our own devices.r />
  “I’m having such a great time with you tonight,” I told him, smiling moonily across the table. I kept needing to give myself a figurative pinch to make sure all this was really happening. I’d accepted losing him forever just a few short weeks ago. I hadn’t liked it, but I’d accepted it. And now we were sharing a meal at an amazing restaurant.

  “You can’t be having a better night that I am,” he said. “I’m here with the most beautiful girl in Seattle.”

  Now my cheeks were the ones glowing crimson, but I loved to hear him say things like that, even if I valued what was between my ears more than what was in front of them. “And, I’m here with a real live hero.”

  He laughed at that.

  “I mean it,” I insisted. “I’ve never been with someone like you before. You literally save people for a living, but you are one of the kindest, most humble men I’ve ever known.”

  He set down his knife and fork, abandoning his steak to reach across the table and take my hand. “I’ve never met anyone like you, either, Sami. You are an amazing woman. Funny, intelligent, sweet, and drop dead gorgeous. Yes, those were in order of importance.”

  I giggled, covering my mouth with my free hand. “You are on a roll tonight, Blaze Simmers. Keep up the sweet talk. You might get rewarded for all your acts of heroism after this meal.”

  He lifted a dark auburn eyebrow, his emerald eyes widening as he squeezed my hand. “Oh yeah?” I nodded. “I like the sound of that.”

  We dug into our meals, keeping up a steady stream of conversation as we talked over our plans for the rest of the weekend. Blaze had another 48 hour shift starting on Monday, so we wanted to enjoy his rare weekend off. After we finished and our plates were cleared, I was ready to go. I’d eaten much more than I should have between the appetizer and the main course, but Blaze only smiled when I remarked about being so full I could burst.

  “I took the liberty of preordering a dessert when I made the reservation,” he said, his grin widening at my surprised expression. “We can share it.”

  I sat back in my seat, one hand resting flat on my stuffed belly. “You are just full of surprises tonight, aren’t you?”

  Our waiter returned with a silver platter held high in the air. From where I was sitting, I could only see the very top of a fancy-looking small cake. It looked way too big for the two of us to share. I was about to crack a joke as the waiter put it down right in front of me, but then my eyes fell on what was lying right in the middle of the cake. A gold ring with a diamond that shone in the low light of the restaurant.

  I inhaled sharply and couldn’t breathe out again, my hands flying to my face only to dive back to my lap again, fingers twisting together. It took a moment to tear my eyes from the ring sitting on top of that cake. I looked up at Blaze, still unable to speak.

  He was staring at me warmly, but seriously, his lips pressed together instead of lifted into a smile the way they had been all night. Now I understood his grinning for what it was — a way to hide how nervous he was by what he knew was coming at the end of the meal. The hard part was over. Now he didn’t look at all like his heart was beating through his chest the way mine was, or like he was struggling to breathe. I just kept holding my breath as I waited for him to speak. I knew what this was, what it meant he wanted, but I had to hear him say it. Otherwise, it just wouldn’t seem true, not after all that had already happened between us.

  “Sami, I love you so much,” he began in a low voice, though I could feel all the eyes in the large dining room watching us. The waiter had made a big production out of bringing the cake out and setting it down on the table. He was also one of the ones watching, a big smile on his face that I could see from the corner of my eye. “I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone but you. I want to raise a family and grow old together. I want to be with you until the day I breathe my last breath.”

  I exhaled in a gush of warm air, my eyes widening and hands lifting to cover my mouth as the gravity of the situation hit me. This man was about to ask me to marry him, and I hadn’t even had the slightest clue beforehand.

  He plucked the ring from the top of the cake and then moved from his seat to the floor, getting down on bended knee next to my chair. Everyone in the dining room was now staring at us openly and whispering excitedly at our tables, but I didn’t care at this point. My eyes locked with Blaze’s, and I could see the love in them, the heat that spoke to a similar heat in me.

  I wanted this man. I wanted to spend our lives together doing all the things that were worthwhile, leaning on him when I felt beaten by the world and letting him lean on me when he was low. I loved him so much it ached. And now that I saw him here, on one knee, I could admit that I’d known from the first time I laid eyes on him that he was the one for me. The universe had conspired to push us together and even with all the pitfalls, it wouldn’t let us go our separate ways.

  “Sami Lace, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?” He held the ring out to me, offering me the rest of his life, if I would just agree to give him the rest of mine in exchange.

  My eyes filled with tears as my heart sped up, feeling ready to burst through my chest. But I couldn’t speak, couldn’t even move with how happy I was in that moment. I just watched him holding out that ring, the warmth in his eyes soothing. I couldn’t imagine myself with anyone else. I had everything I wanted and so much more.

  I nodded, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Yes!” I said, and the other patrons burst into applause. “Yes, of course, I’ll marry you!”

  He slid the ring on my finger and rose from the floor, bringing me up with him. We kissed to the sound of more applause. I was happier than I had ever been wearing his ring, and I knew there was so much more happiness on the horizon for us. Nothing was going to stand in the way of us being together ever again.

  Chapter Thirty Five – Blaze – Several Days Later

  I was in the bay going over the last of our two fire trucks, just checking the equipment and making sure everything was in good working order. It had been a quiet day, the second half of my 48 hour shift. Once I was done out here, I was going to grab some dinner inside. Hector had whipped up a few gallons of his famous firehouse chili. I couldn’t wait to sprinkle some onions and cheese over a huge bowl and dive in. I was eager to get home to Sami after my shift — we’d started spending all our time together, half at my place and half at hers, and we had some big plans for my time off this week.

  The klaxon went off just as I was finishing up with the truck, the sound blaring through the bay’s high ceiling. I jumped to action, my heart racing the way it always did as I ran around to the side of the bay just as the other guys were rushing out of the station, all of us in a hurry to get our gear on. Hector’s gear station was right next to mine.

  “What’s the situation?” I asked, as he was the one leading the team from firetruck one tonight.

  He answered while pulling on his gear, not pausing to look over at me, which was fine because I was too busy getting my own gear on. We had a solid routine down after working together for years.

  “Dispatch reported a massive multi-alarm fire at a food processing plant in the industrial district,” he replied. “Given the time, there aren’t likely a lot of civilians in the area, but we’ll have to assess the situation once we get over there.”

  We finished with our gear at the same time and got onto the truck, the rest of the team following suit. I locked eyes with Johnny and we nodded at each other, communicating an entire conversation in a few precious seconds. We didn’t need to speak to get our point across.

  The bay doors were already open. We turned on the sirens and took off. The industrial district wasn’t far from the station, and I could see the smoke billowing from the burning plant from several miles away. My heart beat a little faster, but a chilly calm had fallen over me, the ice moving through my veins so I could focus on and deal with whatever was coming.

  By the time we pulled up to the scene, my adrenaline wa
s pumping nicely and my heart thudding nearly out of my chest. I breathed in deeply once and was ready to file out of the truck by the time I exhaled. The multiple teams on site coordinated quickly, assigning certain teams to prepare to clear the building while the others got on the hoses and started the critical work of keeping the fire from spreading. Multiple people were believed to be trapped inside, despite the late hour, and the fire was quickly getting out of control. We didn’t have much time.

  We put on our self-contained breathing apparatuses and went in through the open double doors with Hector at the lead. Another team from our station was right behind us. Once inside, we would go towards the stairs to the second floor while the other team went in the opposite direction, sweeping the area for anyone still trapped inside.

  I was right behind Hector and Johnny was right behind me, but the smoke inside the building was so bad, I had to put a hand on Hector’s shoulder at times in order to keep from losing him while Johnny did the same to mine. The heat was incredible, like walking into a smoke-packed oven. It slammed into us the minute we stepped into the plant and within seconds I was drenched in running sweat from head to toe. We only had a limited search zone, and before long, were reaching the end of it.

  Johnny squeezed my right shoulder once, drawing my eyes to the right. There was a woman on the ground, her arm covering her face, lying next to a closed door. She wasn’t moving. Hector rushed to her and checked her vitals as I went around the side to look past where she was lying. I turned in time to see the firefighter behind Johnny, a new guy from Arizona named Greg, lean to pick up the woman, who thankfully seemed to be unconscious and not dead. The paramedics had just arrived after we pulled up, so they would be able to take care of her once we got her out of the building.

  Johnny motioned towards the door, clearly meaning to check in there for more people. Hector was facing Greg, bent over at the waist to check on the woman in his arms. Glancing back at the door, I noticed thick yellow smoke exiting the thin cracks around the door in puffs that resembled exhaling breath, only for it to be sucked back into the cracks again. My already thudding heartbeat quickened, that chilly calm rising into a hot panic. Johnny’s hand dropped onto the knob and turned it.