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“Do you understand how I worry for my daughter? I see the way her eyes light up when your name is mentioned. I hate the idea of her holding her breath and worrying every time you go out on a call.”
“Forgive me, Mrs. Adams, but may I speak openly with you.”
She motioned for me to speak.
“I don’t see what the difference is if I was a cop, a banker, a bartender, a pilot, or a teacher. None of us is guaranteed anything. Does my job contain more risk? Yes, but did that make you love your husband any less? Would you have stepped back and let Captain Adams walk away merely to keep from worrying about him, or do you cherish every day you wake up next to him?”
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p; She narrowed her eyes at me, as if I was calling her bluff. “I did walk away from him. Once. But, yes, it only took me a few weeks to realize he was my everything.”
My brow lifted. How could she sit here and preach to me about me and Rory when she knew what it felt like to be in love?
Letting out a frustrated sigh, she looked out the window again before focusing back on me. “Finn, a couple of months is not a very long time to date someone and think you are in love.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Why isn’t it? Why is it so strange for me to know that when Rory touches me a weird feeling rushes over my body. Or that when she smiles at me I’d give my life to see that smile every single day. When she laughs, I experience a high so unbelievable I often think I’m addicted to it. The rush I get when I go into a burning building used to be my adrenaline rush. Now she is. Rory makes me want things I’ve never desired before in my life. I have dreams of her walking down the aisle toward me. The thought of her carrying my child…”
I stopped talking to regain a bit of my composure. This was the first time I had admitted these feelings out loud to anyone, including myself. “It’s something I never thought about before, until she first looked into my eyes. This is not a crush, Mrs. Adams. This is not about lust. This is about a woman I long to have in my life…forever.”
Mrs. Adams sat across the table with tears building in her eyes. Glancing away and out the window, she nodded her head. I was hoping that meant she understood, and that when the time came for her husband to find out, she’d be on my side.
Someone knocked on the door and she quickly stood. “It was good seeing you again, Finn.”
I stood too, and asked, “That’s it?”
With sadness in her eyes, she moved around the table and walked toward the door, but stopped next to me on her way.
“He’s not going to give her up that easy.”
I stood taller. “Then I’ll fight that much harder for her.”
With the first real smile I’d seen since she’d approached me, she placed her hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
And like that…she was gone.
I stepped out of the conference room right in time to see Colton and another firefighter emerge from the captain’s office. Turning, I headed back to the sink to finish this evening’s dishes. Zeb grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “What in the hell are you doing, man?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re still fucking the captain’s daughter.”
Rage instantly filled my body. “Don’t you talk about her that way, Zeb, or I’ll pound your damn face in.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Did this start with a bet between you and Colton? To conquer the one thing you couldn’t have?”
Flash growled at my feet until I reached down and scratched the top of his head. “Who is this guy standing in front of me? Because it sure as hell doesn’t sound like one of my best friends.”
Zeb sighed while pushing both hands through his hair in frustration. “Finn, if he finds out you’re gone. He’ll either transfer you or make it so miserable you’ll quit. I don’t want to see you lose the one thing you love.”
With a wide grin, I slapped him on the arm. “I appreciate you trying the tough-love approach, dude, but what I have with her is so much more than sex. And trust me, I have no intentions of losing Rory.”
His face constricted as confusion swept over it. “Dude, I was talking about your
