The last time she’d seen him in person, he’d knelt on the edge of her bed to kiss her goodbye before he left for work. He’d told her he loved her and that he’d see her later. Whenever the confusion and hurt in his voice when she’d told him on the phone they were done tried to fill her mind, she pictured that morning instead. It still hurt, but it was easier to remember the happy times with him.
She didn’t want the expression on his face before he walked away from her tonight to be her new last memory of him.
“As soon as we’re released from the scene,” Cait said, interrupting her thoughts, “I’ll stop in and see how you’re doing. I don’t think you’ll need to be admitted, honestly. And I have tomorrow off, so I can sleep in tomorrow if Gavin doesn’t wake me up after his shift.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“So you already have somebody else who’s going to help you out?” Cait folded her arms. “Who is it?”
“What? I don’t...”
“Maybe I didn’t know you as well as I thought I did, but if I had to bet, I’d say you’ll be alone at the hospital and when they release you, you won’t have anywhere to go, but you still won’t pick up a phone and call any of us.”
Since she’d plugged it in to charge before collapsing on her bed, Wren didn’t currently own a phone, but she knew that wasn’t the point.
“Am I wrong?” Cait insisted. When Wren refused to answer, she nodded. “That’s what I thought. So I’m just going to show up.”
Tears blurred Wren’s vision again, but this time they had nothing to do with the smoke. She didn’t deserve this kindness. She’d done a shitty thing to a man Cait considered family, but she still wouldn’t turn her back on her. Maybe it was the EMT in her, but Wren could see the concern and caring in Cait’s eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“It’s going to be okay, Wren. Whatever happened before and whatever’s happening now, it’s going to be okay.”
She had to believe it would be okay. Maybe she was just being paranoid. The building was a dump and she didn’t need an expert to tell her it wasn’t up to code. It could have been an electrical fire. Or a toaster mishap. There was any number of things that could have started the fire.
It didn’t mean Ben had found her.
Chapter Two
The beef stew they’d reheated after leaving the scene filled the void in Grant’s stomach, but it did nothing to warm him up. The hot shower once they’d returned to quarters hadn’t helped, either. Nor would crawling into his bunk once they’d finished their delayed supper.
The chill from seeing Wren had settled into his bones and he couldn’t shake it.
There wasn’t a lot of conversation in the station’s kitchen tonight, which didn’t surprise him. They were exhausted and the rest of the guys—the guys whose chills could be cured with hot water and a warm meal—were getting sleepy. If they were lucky, the alarm wouldn’t tone again and they could sleep until the next crew came in to replace them.
As tired as he was, Grant didn’t think he could sleep.
What the hell was Wren doing in a place like that? That was the question that kept spinning in his brain, maybe because it was the least painful to dwell on. But there were others. Why had she left him? Why did it still hurt so much? And why did seeing her still make his pulse race and his mouth go dry?
On the table between Gavin and him, Gavin’s cell phone buzzed, startling him out of his thoughts. It was probably important, since it was almost one in the morning, but he couldn’t see the screen.
After several message exchanges, Gavin set his phone on the table and the look he gave Grant made it obvious whatever those text messages had been about involved him. “Was that Cait? What’s up?”
“Yeah, that was Cait. She’s finally home. And if I tell you, you have to promise not to hit me.”
“Why do you make it sound like I go around punching things? I can’t even remember the last time I hit anybody. Well, somebody who wasn’t on skates, at least.”
“Okay, good point. But if you were ever going to hit me, it would be now.”
Grant wasn’t sure things could get much worse than seeing Wren at the scene and he hadn’t hit anything then. “Just tell me whatever it is you have to say.”
“Wren’s staying at my place.”
He was still, trying to process that information without feeling anything. He knew he was wrecked emotionally at the moment and it would be too easy to get hung up on where loyalties should lie and say something he couldn’t take back.
Gavin was a firefighter. Cait was an EMT. Helping people was in their nature. And Wren wasn’t a stranger. She’d almost been family.
He nodded sharply. “Your place is a one-bedroom. Is she sleeping on the couch?”
