by Hart, Taylor
He got out and went around and helped her out.
She was freezing.
He went to the back of his Jeep and pulled out a big camping blanket. “Here.” He hesitated for a second and then opened his arms.
She moved into them.
He pulled the blanket around her.
They stood there, staring out at the stars, and she smelled his fresh rain scent. She closed her eyes and realized that, somehow, Damon Freestone was different.
Without wanting to, she looked up and saw he was looking down. Their eyes seemed to pour out their souls to each other. “I have to tell you something,”
He swallowed. “Okay.”
“I think you chose the right profession.”
He sighed. “I’ve been doubting that lately.”
“Don’t.” She insisted.
He shook his head. “Easy for you to say. You don’t know me yet.”
Her heart fluttered, and she wondered if this was how it was when her parents used to talk about falling in love. She distinctly remembered being eight and finishing a fairy tale and sitting with her dad and asking him when he had fallen in love with her mother. Her mother had come into the room, and her father patted his lap. She walked over and sat on it. He hugged both of them and stared up at her mother with this look she still remembered to this day and said, “Since the day I met her.”
“What?” he asked, searching her eyes.
It was a memory she’d never shared with anyone. Something she kept locked tightly inside of her. One that gave her hope when she was in her darkest moments. She smiled. “When you were telling me that story, I thought what a waste Harvard would have been for you.”
He smiled. “Yeah.” Then he blew out his breath and smiled wider. “I wish you could have told my father that.”
She felt him tense, and she knew without asking that was the reason he hadn’t been back. “Sam.”
Hearing him say her name that way, in that so intimate tone, made her stomach flutter. “Yeah?”
“Don’t think I’m crazy, but I kinda believe in your witchy power.”
Warmth fill her, starting from her chest and radiating outward. “You do?”
He nodded. “Yeah.” Gently, he pushed her hair behind her ear and then brushed his hand down her cheek. “You’re so beautiful.”
She shook her head. She knew she was pretty, okay. But the way he looked at her, like she was magical, she knew she didn’t deserve that. “No, don’t say that.”
“What?” He stroked her cheek again. “You’re beautiful. Do you have a more flowery way you want me to say it? Maybe with all your education you know French and could teach me to say it that way.”
Letting out a light laugh, she smiled at him. Her heart raced, and she couldn’t let this happen. She could feel it happening to her, and she had to stop it. “Wait.”
He waited only a moment then said, “We’re just friends, right?”
It suddenly struck her as funny that here they were, wrapped up in a blanket, staring at the moonlight, baring their souls, saying they were just friends. “Right.”
“Right.” He nodded. Then, without asking or without him needing to ask, their lips were together.
She was soaring. His hand cupped the back of her head and pulled her closer. His other hand was on the back of her waist, and his strength was overwhelming.
More than that, his soul seemed to hook and intertwine with hers. She knew she was lost.
He trailed kisses down her cheek and down her neck, and she pushed her cheek against the scruff of his face.
No longer did she worry about Zoey or think about jerk face Luke or wonder why she was here or how she would pay off loans. She was just here. With him. In the moonlight, circled by his strength. In this moment, she realized there was nowhere she ever wanted to be except with this man. It’d happened so fast. It felt like she was falling, but it wasn’t like she was worried about where she would land.
When he pulled back and stared down at her, she asked without wanting to, “Is this a dream?”
He shook his head and pushed her hair away again, gazing at her. “All I can say is if this is a dream, then I don’t want to wake up.”
Later that night, after he dropped her off at the front door and kissed her for another fifteen minutes, she slipped inside, feeling all gooey and warm and happy.
For the first time that night since she’d left to go out with him, she looked at her phone. It was almost one in the morning. Immediately, all her worries over Zoey assaulted her, and she pressed her number, but then she felt better, knowing Zoey was actually home.
“I’m not partying, are you happy?”
Her voice was groggy, and it did make Sam happy. “Yes.”
“How was your date?”
She wanted to protest and tell her it wasn’t a date, but thinking about all the kissing made her not do that. It was a position she couldn’t defend.
“Aha, it was a date,” Zoey said, her voice coming to life.
Moving to her kitchen, she pulled out a glass and filled it. “It was nice.”
“By nice, do you mean the food was good? Or do you mean his kissing was good or something more?”
“Zoey.”
“I know. I know. You’re waiting for marriage.”
Obviously Zoey hadn’t waited, giving herself to the druggie a long time ago. It was a topic they avoided because Zoey didn’t like to be lectured.
Sam took her grandmother’s quilt and sat on a stool by the kitchen counter, staring at the painting she’d done the other night. Then she stood, looking past the flower, and she picked up a pencil and started outlining Damon’s face. “Zoey, it was the best date I’ve ever been on.”
9
The next day Damon got up and felt better than he’d felt in a long time. After lacing up his shoes, he drank a protein shake while he started a load of laundry and thought about his date last night. Thought about kissing her. Thought about holding her. Thought about the lemon and strawberry smell.
It was strange to him. He’d had girlfriends on and off, but he’d never … it’d never been like this.
The thing he liked most about her was the more he got to know about her, the more he realized how smart and caring she was. He liked that.
It wouldn’t serve him well to think about her too much today. He had to go for his run and then go train at Pineapple’s with Jake. Captain Castro had been pretty specific about winning.
The truth was that he did look forward to teaching Tommy a lesson, but he didn’t look forward to beating Nick. He thought of Sam and wondered if she’d come to the match. It motivated him even more. He did wind sprints to start, up and down the trail.
It was nine in the morning, but Park City was perfect because it stayed cool until the afternoon when it heated up. As he did his drills, he realized he had missed this place.
Boston was hot and muggy in the summer and muggy and cold in the winter.
It was ironic to him that yeah, he missed the fire station, missed the busyness of a station that got a lot of calls. He’d liked the guys and the training, but this life was starting to feel like it fit more and more.
All warmed up, he hit the trail. It was five miles in, then five miles back. He set the timer on his watch so he could keep pace. A six-minute mile was what he was shooting for today.
Usually, he tried to clear his head. Sure, if he had to, he always kept his earbuds handy. If he needed music to pump himself up, he would pull out the buds and blast old school rock. But today, he wanted to think about her. He relived the date, going through it like a prosecutor and disassembling every part of the case. In his bachelor’s program, he’d been on the debate team. It was his experience with debate that had pushed him to think he wanted to be an attorney. When he discovered law school wasn’t for him, and firefighting was, it was interesting as he moved up the ranks from firefighter to lieutenant to captain, how much his old debate experience and pulling apart issues and problems and t
hen putting them back together had helped him. It was the thing that had given him an edge when they’d promoted him to captain, citing the fact that he was a good problem solver.
Now he did that with his date. Starting at the beginning and running it all through his mind, he took apart their conversations. He relived the moments at the top of Park City Mountain and looking down on the resort and the town. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, the way her hair was soft, but he thought he might prefer to see it all curled and crazy like the other day when she’d come back from her run.
Shaking his head, he told himself not to get too invested this soon. He felt like he was stepping into quicksand, and he was already pulled in. He didn’t think he wanted to get out. It might be okay to just let it consume him for a bit. Not a long while. He wasn’t ready for a serious relationship.
Plus, she was leaving Park City after she paid off the loans, going to be near her sister, right? So obviously, it was fine. The more he convinced himself this was just a part-time thing, the more he thought of all the things they could do together. All the things around Park City that would be fun for her to try. Had she done the simple tourist thing? The zip-lining and extreme tubing at the Olympic Park? The hot air balloons? When was that festival again? He tried to remember. Or had she ever ridden the lift up and hiked down? He grinned. Had she biked down the mountain? That would be fun.
When he finished his run, it was irrational, and he knew it, but he was smiling. Smiling even as he panted for breath. He discovered he hadn’t even thought of all the problems back in Boston. Maybe this could be different. Then he flashed to Jamie’s face, lying there in the hospital, and he felt awful again.
Getting back from his run, he changed the laundry and grabbed his gym bag. He had to leave so he wouldn’t be late for his training.
Ten minutes later, when he got to Pineapple’s, the pit of his stomach tightened as he saw Tommy coming out of the front door. It looked like he’d just finished, his hair was still wet, and his bag hung over his shoulder.
Damon got out of the truck and started toward the door, intent on doing everything he could to ignore him.
“Boston.” A rippling laugh came out of Tommy. “H-hey. Guess you’re here to train. Well, I’ll tell ya. I’m entering this fight too, and we have a match the day before the match with the cops. I’m going to kick your butt.”
He didn’t slow his speed. “Sure.”
Other guys were heading into the building, and he thought he recognized one of Nick’s old friends from high school that he knew was on the police force too.
Tommy swerved and intercepted him. “Did you hear me?” He pushed his shoulder against him.
Damon stopped and looked Tommy in the eye. The man was the same stink head he had been in high school. The same idiot who had taken that girl to prom and left her there alone.
Damon focused on him, trying to keep his expression neutral and his ego in check. “Listen, we’ll talk in the ring then, won’t we?”
Tommy stared at him then let out a laugh, poking him hard in the chest. “I told Sandra, but I’ll tell you too. I don’t want to see you two talking or hanging around each other.”
It was completely asinine to think Damon would talk to Tommy’s now wife, so Damon poked him back. “If you poke me again, this fight’s gonna happen right now.” He set his jaw and was totally prepared to make good on his threat.
Two other guys from C platoon walked out of the building. Damon recognized one of them, Link.
Tommy sneered, but pulled back, putting up his hands. “Look, it’s just a game, right? It’s all for fun.” Then he turned and started razzing the other guys.
Damon ignored all of them and went around to the back of the restaurant where the makeshift boxing ring was set up. A few other guys were doing various boxing exercises in the area.
Jake was standing on the sidelines. He looked down at his phone when Damon walked up. “Good, you’re here. We gotta get going so we can get in all the drills I planned for us.”
Damon smiled, thinking it was funny and liking that Jake took his role as personal coach so seriously.
Two guys Damon didn’t recognize vacated the ring, and he and Jake stepped in. Damon pulled on his gloves and then began prancing back and forth.
He’d boxed a bit in Boston, had actually won one of these fireman versus cop matches back there, but he hadn’t wanted to admit it. He wondered if maybe the captain knew that and that’s why he’d been so insistent on him doing it. He grinned. Captain Castro was savvy, and he wouldn’t let the other guys bulldoze his men.
“Okay.” Jake held up some pads on his hands. “Ab, quick, quick, quick.”
For the course of the next half hour, they ran through the drills Jake had lined up. When their time was up, they left the ring, and Jake pointed to the corner with the punching bag. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Jake held the bag and took Damon through more drills: uppercuts, hook, jab, crossovers. Then Jake made him do jumping jacks, and he did them with him. He even had Damon do some old-fashioned jump rope.
Jake grinned. “I figure if it works in the Rocky movies, it can work for us.”
Damon laughed, finally a bit out of breath. “Is that where you learned your training tactics?”
Jake flashed a grin. “Why do you think I’m tired?” He stopped and went to his bag and pulled out a notebook. “I stayed up most of the night taking copious notes from all five Rocky movies. Oh, I also watched a bunch of old Tyson fights, so if you want to do some ear biting, I’m okay with that.”
Damon smiled and kept jumping the rope, loving the way his body felt when he pushed it to the max. The sweat dripping off of him felt good.
He was barely done, getting ready to hit the shower, when Nick stepped into the gym. There was a scowl on his face as he approached Damon. “So you’re going to be my match this year, huh, bro?”
Damon winked at him. “Brotherly love, man, brotherly love.”
Nick set his jaw, and Damon realized he had never seen him so competitive.
Nick put his gym bag down and glared at his brother. “Hey, you weren’t around for stuff like my life in high school and college, so you better understand, bro, that I’m going to take you to task.”
The other firefighters and police around them were howling and laughing, relishing a good competition, now made even better because there were two brothers involved.
Damon wondered exactly how Nick thought he would beat Damon, but he thought he should just can the trash talk and not tick off his brother. He’d actually felt himself gaining more and more respect for Nick as a man. Nick had helped him. Dragged him out of the mental pit he was in. Physically brought him here. Got him on with the FD. So if he wanted to think he would beat him, Damon would let him. “Okay, bro.”
Nick winked at him, showing his playful side and then stepped closer. “Pizza. Tomorrow night. At the usual spot.”
It had been a tradition with the Freestone men since their mother died that Saturday nights were pizza and drinks at Sicily’s downtown.
Damon shook his head. “No. Way.” It would not be his cup of tea to have pizza with his brother.
Nick cocked an eyebrow. “The Rockies are playing. C’mon.”
Damon shook his head and pulled his gloves off. “No.”
Nick pulled some tape from his bag and began wrapping his hands. “You owe me.”
Damon let out a little laugh. “Ya know, I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, and I’m gonna tell you I don’t accept your invoice.”
“What?” Nick looked stunned.
“I will take over the stupid cabins, clean them up, do this stupid fight and whatever I gotta do for my crew, but pizza and drinks with Luke? That’s crossing a line.”
Nick shook his head. “He’s not as bad as you think.”
That made Damon really laugh. “Yes, he is.”
Nick shook his head again. “Fine. But you better be ready for me to beat your butt next wee
k, and that’s a promise.”
Damon grinned. “Looking forward to it.”
Damon and Jake agreed to go home and shower and meet back in half an hour for lunch. It wasn’t lost on Damon that he was actually beginning to like Jake, which was odd because he’d been determined not to like anything about his new crew.
Half an hour later, Damon ordered a low carb, high protein double-chicken sandwich on lettuce. He sat at Pineapple’s bar and waited for Jake. Admittedly, it was nice to have a moment to himself and reflect. He thought about the upcoming fight and wondered if Nick really thought he had a chance. It made him smile to think about teaching his brother a lesson.
Tyler and Heather, a couple of firefighters from his crew walked into Pineapples and immediately went to his spot and sat next to him.
“Hey.” Tyler cracked a menu. “Jake texted and said you guys were meeting here.”
Right then, Jake walked in and moved toward them, nodding to Tyler and Heather and taking the seat next to Damon. “Sup.” He opened a menu. “I’m starving.”
Damon had to admit it felt good, real good, to be back in the saddle, so to speak. To be around other firefighters, feeling like he had purpose again. Not having them all look at him like he was damaged goods.
They ordered, and Tyler turned to Jake. “So is our guy good?”
Heather leaned over. “Yeah, can he take Tommy?”
Jake let out a ripple laugh and slapped his leg. “Oh, man, I’d be placing major bets on our boy if I were you guys.”
Tyler nudged him. “Do you train like all the time? I mean, for something? I picture you winning those fireman competitions and stuff.”
Damon wouldn’t tell them he had won a couple of those competitions. The food was put in front of him, and he picked the sandwich up, pausing before taking a bite. He looked at Tyler and then Heather. “I’m training to save lives.” He knew it sounded cliché, and gave them an exaggerated wink as he flashed a smile.
Heather let out a laugh. “Super hero type. Nice.”
Jake bumped his shoulder. “No, Rocky type.” He began humming the “Eye of the Tiger.”