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Once they reached the back roads to her house, he visibly relaxed. “I don’t know. If you let me, we might have to make this the only home.”
She gave him a sidelong look. “What are you asking?” she said slyly.
“Well, I guess it’s kind of early in our relationship, but I want to do something permanent. It’s too early to get married…”
She giggled at that. “Maybe a tad. You don’t know me at all.”
“I know enough,” he said emphatically.
“Charlie, you really don’t. I have a drinking problem…”
“You didn’t have a chance to drink all month, so it can’t be that bad.”
“I thought about it every day, trust me. I’m going to open a bottle the first thing I do after I get you settled.”
“There’s nothing to settle. Show me your bed and then get ready.”
“Oh my God.” She giggled demurely. “You’re too much. You shouldn’t jump into anything.”
“The only thing I’m going to jump is you. Do you think I was blind while you were washing my face and rubbing my legs? Those back rubs almost made me grab you and commit hospital room perversion.”
Charlie’s irreverent sense of humor was coming out in full force. She’d only had a glimpse before the fire, and then each day as he began to feel better in the hospital it would show itself, especially if it involved nurses touching his body.
“We have to have a date first,” she said. “Get to know each other without worrying about the nurses catching us.”
He was really the alpha male again, and she couldn’t wait to be the beneficiary of whatever he had to give.
The engine strained on the trip up the driveway. “We’re almost home,” he announced to the dogs, who sat up, panting with excitement.
The sky was cloud covered, but the view to the ocean was clear. “It’s foreboding out there,” she said, pointing. “Usually on days like this I close the drapes. But now I want to sit here with you. It’s just a view, no threat at all.”
“Did you feel threatened before?”
“Not exactly. More insecure I would say, like I might fall off the cliff.”
“I won’t let you fall,” he said, taking her hand. “I’ll be right here next to you.”
“Thank you. Now I can’t wait.”
He walked around the garden with his dogs while she insisted on unloading the car. “You’re not supposed to lift or strain anything.”
After she put his belongings in the bedroom, she joined him outside, bringing a water bowl for his dogs. “Do you want to sit? I’m going to light the firepit.”
“That’ll be nice. I could use a cup of coffee, too. I’ll help you.”
She didn’t refuse his help, thinking it was probably good for him to get involved in the day-to-day minutiae again. The emotional scars he had were yet to be discovered, but she knew there was a certain amount of guilt that he hadn’t followed protocol and called a Mayday, and had endangered his team’s lives when they had to come looking for him. He’d mentioned it several times, and when firefighters came to visit, it was often a topic brought up, much to her dismay. Men were so weird, they didn’t hesitate to stir the pot, yet it was often women who were blamed for it.
Puttering together in her kitchen felt right as the mundane became almost worshipful; they were making coffee together, ostensibly starting their lives together after his was almost taken from them. He leaned over and kissed her as he fixed the coffee the way she liked it with sweetener and cream and the flavored syrup she had taken out of the cupboard.
“See if this is okay,” he said, pushing it to her.
She picked it up and sipped, proclaiming it was perfect.
Taking a slow, deep breath, emotions built up in Lila’s heart. This was a real relationship.
Through thick and thin. In sickness and in health…
Quickly wiping away a tear, she wasn’t fast enough, and he saw it and grabbed her wrist.
