Page 38 of Slow Burn

“Oh, little sister, you have no idea. One night, I had to hop a fence, and I still have a scar on my ass from it.”

“Oh my god, you are the worst. I’m hanging up now so I can get ready.” Georgia laughed as she ended the call and tossed her phone on the bed next to her.

She took a deep breath and relaxed.

Her date wasn’t with the smoking-hot firefighter she couldn’t stop fantasizing about, but this Dane guy did seem decent.

Maybe he would be the one to take her mind off Elijah.

IT WAS OUTRAGEOUS how determined Elijah was to ruin Georgia’s date.

He was a grown-ass man for fuck’s sake, and it wasn’t like he was going to give in to his desire and hook up with her again. And he was for sure not going to date her.

Elijah didn’t date.

It was too complicated in his line of work.

He remembered Miles Blackwood, his mentor when he first joined the fire academy back home off the south coast of Maine. When their station responded to a BOX alarm at an apartment complex, it was a raging, working fire. The operation to extinguish the flames took over four hours. Everyone was out of the building when the complex collapsed due to the structural damage.

Elijah leaned his head against the back of his seat in the car, closing his eyes as he remembered the search for Miles. He screamed out his mentor’s name so much, he wasn’t sure if he lost his voice from the fire or from trying to find his friend.

When Elijah realized Miles was actually in the building that had been reduced to rubble, the day forever changed him.

He’d never forget knocking on his friend’s door at three in the morning and sobbing as he told Miles’s wife how he didn’t make it. Miles died in the line of service.

He’d never forget holding her as she dropped to the ground, screaming and yelling, crying for her husband who she’d never see again.

He’d never forget the eyes of Miles’s fifteen-year-old boy, wide with worry as he took in the scene of his crying mom in Elijah’s arms.

The devastation shocked the family, shocked the station, shocked the whole community.

The imprint it left on his life, ten years later, was still strong.

Elijah didn’t want anyone else to go through what he did, what he saw Miles’s family endure. The moment he heard of the opportunity in Landmere, he didn’t hesitate to relocate from Maine to Maryland to get a better headspace.

A knock on his window brought him back to the present. Of course, it was Nash’s smiling ass.

“You plan on sitting in your car all night?” Nash goaded him while he opened the car door.

Elijah hopped out, shut the door, and locked his car. “Nah, just trying to prepare myself for dealing with you.”

Nash looped his arm over Elijah’s neck and scuffed his head. “Admit it, you love me.”

He pushed away from his friend and tried to calm down his hair. “Yeah, yeah.”

As they were walking to the front door of Zingos, Sloane joined them.

“Do you think it’s fucked up we are barging in on Dane’s date?” She asked, biting her lip.

Nash stopped. “Shit, is that what we’re doing? George is going to kill me.”

Elijah crossed his arms. “Why would she care?”

“Hey guys!” Benny greeted them as he joined the crew.

“I gave her shit about texting me when she got home, even if she was sleeping at Dane’s house. She’s going to think I’m intervening on purpose,” Nash huffed out.

“Why would she sleep there?” Sloane asked with confusion.