Chapter Three
Out. Gabe Sullivan wanted out of the damn hospital bed. He wanted to yank the IV out of his arm, too, and was just about to do that when his mother walked in.
“Don’t you dare take that out.”
Mary Sullivan had already been in to see him earlier in the day, but this time she’d returned with two of his brothers and their significant others.
Nicola ran forward. “Oh my God, I was so worried about you!”
When Marcus’s pop-star girlfriend had heard that the city’s stations were facing heavy budget cuts, it had been her idea to play a show to raise money for them. But at the tail end of her acoustic benefit concert, Station 5 had been called out to the three-story building on Conrad Street.
She threw her arms around him and he purposefully pulled her closer as Marcus looked on. The way his brother shook his head said he knew exactly what Gabe was doing. Any other time, Marcus would have had him up against the wall for getting this close to his woman, but evidently being stuck in the hospital had some bonuses. Like the fact that Marcus was too happy Gabe was alive to lose it over the placement of his hands just above the curve of Nicola’s hips.
Still, Gabe knew he could only push things so far when Marcus wrapped his hands around Nicola’s waist, growled, “Get your own damn girlfriend,” and yanked her back against him.
Gabe got exactly why his oldest brother had fallen for the pop star. She wasn’t just easy on the eyes and talented, she also had a huge heart. It had been years since Gabe had been with anyone like that—a woman who had all those qualities, someone with whom he could actually imagine having a long-term relationship rather than just a few hours between the sheets.
Fortunately, a moment after Nicola was pulled away, Chloe was taking her place in Gabe’s arms.
“Damn it,” Chase muttered, “now he’s got mine. Nothing like being a hero to make women throw themselves at him.”
Clearly, they were all so glad he was okay that they’d let just about anything slip right about now. Everyone except his mother, who was staring at him with eagle eyes.
“I just spoke to the doctor and he’s informed me that you’ll be staying here for another night so that they can make sure no internal bleeding has started in your brain.”
“Aw, Mom,” he said, sounding more like a fourteen-year-old boy than a twenty-eight-year-old grown man as Chloe moved back toward Chase. “I feel fine.” His head ached like a son of a bitch, but he’d suffered hangovers nearly as bad.
“Since I’m sure the beam to the head has knocked out what little common sense you have, I’m going to trust the doctor.” He barely stifled his groan at being stuck in one place for so many hours on end as his mother added, “And so are you.”
Chase was doing a pretty good job of acting like the bandage on Gabe’s head wasn’t that big a deal. But Marcus, who had stepped into their father’s place when he’d passed away more than twenty years ago, was clearly concerned.
“How did this happen, Gabe? You’ve always been smart out there, but from what the news reports have said about the fire, the building wasn’t safe to go into.” His expression tightened even further. “Not even close to safe.”
At eight years his senior, Gabe had figured Marcus would be the one to call him on what he’d done. But although the rescue had almost ended in disaster, Gabe wouldn’t have done a damn thing differently. Not when he could still see the helpless little girl in her mother’s arms, her big eyes pleading with him to save the person she loved most in the world.
“The building wasn’t empty.” It was the only explanation that mattered.
“You could have died, Gabe.”
He held his oldest brother’s gaze. “You’re right. I could have.” He waited a beat before saying, “But I’m still here.”
Marcus blew out a hard breath. “How many goddamned lives are you going to burn through playing hero?”
“Marcus!” their mother exclaimed.
Wanting to break through the tension in the hospital room, knowing this was just all part of being a firefighter’s family, Gabe said, “It’s okay, Mom. This is Marcus’s way of showing he cares.”
Fortunately, Nicola helped thaw things out in the room by laughing. When Marcus glared at his girlfriend, she merely grinned at him and said, “We all know you’re like one of those hard candies with a gooey center, Marcus.” He turned the full force of his scowl at her, but when she went up on her toes and kissed him, he stopped scowling.
Before Marcus—or anyone else—could start in on Gabe again, he yawned big and loud. One sibling after another had been in and out of his hospital room all day. The nurse had even said at one point, “How many of you are there? My patient needs his rest.” Of course, when Ryan had flirted shamelessly with the woman, the no-fail effect of his too-pretty face meant she’d pretty much agreed to bend visiting hours as much as she could for the Sullivan clan.
Picking up on his signal, his mother began to shoo them out, kissing him on the cheek before leaving. “I’ll be by your house with food tomorrow.”
He could take care of feeding himself, but he knew helping him like that made his mother feel better about what had happened...or, more to the point, about what had almost happened. She’d never been crazy about the dangers that came with his being a firefighter, but she’d supported him anyway.
“Thanks, Mom.”
They left and he had just closed his eyes for a few minutes when another knock came at his door. His captain, Todd, stepped into the room.
“How’re you feeling, Gabe?”
“Good, Captain.”
He moved to sit up straighter on the bed and Todd shook his head. “You’re fine just like that. I know your skull must hurt like hell.” He nodded back to the doorway. “Are you ready to see Ms. Harris and her daughter, Summer?”
No, he thought, he’d be better off never seeing those eyes again.
He’d thought about Megan and her daughter one too many times for comfort. Not just because he was reviewing the rescue, trying to look for what he could have done differently, to have gotten them out faster and more safely—but because he hadn’t been able to forget her strength, how hard she’d fought to stay conscious, and what a fighter she’d been every single second of the harrowing journey from her burning apartment.
Still, he understood that fire victims often felt compelled to say thank you to the men who had saved them. Especially in a case like this, where they’d just barely held death at bay.
“Sure.” He began to nod, but a sharp shooting pain stopped him halfway into the movement.
Catching his grimace, Todd said, “I’ll ask Megan and her daughter to come back later.”
Her name fit her, Gabe had found himself thinking one too many times. Megan was pretty and strong all at the same time. It would be better to think of her as Ms. Harris. Although, he had to wonder, was there a husband? And if so, where had he been during the fire and why wasn’t he here with them now?
“No,” he said, “it’ll be better if I see them now.”
She’d say thank you, he’d tell her he was happy to see her and her daughter doing so well, and that would be that. No more being haunted by her eyes, by the surprising strength she’d shown him as she’d crawled on the floor of her apartment and down the stairs.
A couple of minutes later, Todd walked back in with the mother and daughter. Ignoring the pain in his head, Gabe sat up higher and forced a smile on his face.
And then, his eyes locked with Megan’s and his smile froze in place.
My God, he found himself thinking before he could shove the thought away, she’s beautiful.
The last time he’d seen her face it had been through a thick haze of dark smoke and the knowledge that one wrong move meant their lives were over. Her eyes were just as big and pretty, her limbs looked as lean and strong as they had when he’d been helping to move her along the floor, but now he could see the softness in her, the sweet curves of her breasts and hips in her T-shirt and jeans. He couldn’t stop staring at the startling green of her eyes, the silky dark hair falling across her shoulders, and the way her pretty young daughter was a carbon copy of her, the only difference their hair color, one dark, one light.
She seemed just as stunned as he and for a long moment, the two of them just stared at each other in silence until her daughter ran over to him and threw her arms around him.
“Thank you for saving me and Mommy.”
The little girl’s arms were just as strong as her mother’s. “You’re welcome, Summer. How old are you?”
“I turn seven on Saturday.”
She beamed at him and right then and there he lost a little piece of his heart to the pretty little girl with the two missing front teeth.
“Happy birthday.” He’d have to remember to have the station send her a gift.
Movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Megan was moving closer to him and, yet again, once he looked up at her, he couldn’t seem to pull his gaze away. Without realizing what he was doing, he scanned her left hand for a wedding band and found it bare.
“Mr. Sullivan, I can’t even begin to tell you how much what you did means to me.”
He almost told her to call him Gabe, but he knew his name would sound way too good coming from her full lips. Already his brain was wanting to spin off into a fantasy of what it would sound like to hear her say his name in distinctly different circumstances, with one less child and fire captain in the room...and a hell of a lot less clothes.
As it was, he couldn’t take his eyes off her gorgeous mouth, which was wobbling slightly. She clamped her lips tightly together as she quickly brushed her fingertips over her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a small laugh that held no actual laughter in it. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.”
“She keeps doing that,” Summer told him in a stage whisper as her mother worked to win the battle with her tears.
He whispered back, “It’s perfectly normal.”
“We needed to come say thank you.” Megan’s eyes moved over his bandages before she added, “And to make sure you were okay.”
His voice was much gruffer than usual. “I’m okay.”
“I’m so glad.”
“How are both of you? You inhaled a lot of smoke.”
She gave him a small smile that did crazy things to his guts. “We’re both fine.” She put her hand to her throat. “The doctor said I’ll only sound like a frog for a few more days.”
“You’ve got to hear her ribbit,” Summer told him. “She sounds exactly like the frog we have in my class at school. Do it for him, Mommy.”
This time Megan’s soft laugh was closer to a real one. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear me ribbit, Summer.”
The power of her smile, the way her eyes lit up and a sweet dimple appeared in her left cheek, rocked all the way through him. He could get drunk on her smiles—was already feeling like he’d been knocked off center by just one.
If Megan were someone he’d met at a coffee shop or bar, if she were one of his siblings’ friends—if she were anyone but someone he’d rescued from a fire—he would have not only been working on ways to get her to stay longer, but also to charm her phone number and a date out of her.
But the only reason she was looking at him with her heart in her eyes was because he’d saved her and her daughter’s lives. He knew better than to let himself fall for her and her pretty little girl.
He didn’t have to force his expression to harden at the memories of what an idiot he’d been in the past when he’d ignored professional boundaries and—stupidly—got involved with a fire victim.
“Of course he wants to hear it,” the little girl said, and then, when he remained silent, turned to him and said, “Don’t you?”
In the end, Gabe couldn’t let the kid down. “Sure,” he finally said in a tone that implied just the opposite. “Why not?”
But Megan read him loud and clear, pulling her daughter away from him and into her arms.
“We didn’t mean to bother you,” she said in a slightly defensive voice.
He didn’t tell them they hadn’t been a bother. It was better for them to think they had. That way they wouldn’t come back. That way he wouldn’t see either of them again.
At his curt nod, she said, “I appreciate you letting us come to see you today,” then took her daughter’s hand to pull her out the door.
“Do we have to go already?” the little girl protested. “I bet he has some really cool stories about all the scary things he’s done.”
In an instant, he saw in Summer the same desire for excitement and adrenaline, to live every single ounce of life, that he’d always had in himself.
Megan turned back to him, wary now. “I’m sure Mr. Sullivan needs to get some rest, baby.” She forced her lips into a false smile that made his chest feel like a hundred-pound weight had just landed on it. “Say goodbye now, honey.”
Summer frowned, with a mini-press of the lips that perfectly mirrored her mother’s. And then instead of saying the goodbye her mother had insisted on, she said, “Do you think maybe we could come by the fire station some time? You know, so you could show us around?”
Megan didn’t give him a chance to say a word, saying, “Summer,” in a clear warning that had her daughter sighing in resignation.
“Goodbye, Mr. Sullivan.”
He wanted to smile at the sweet little girl, wanted to let her know that the way he was acting didn’t have anything to do with her, and everything to do with knowing better than to let himself fall into something that would only end up hurting all of them in the end.
Instead, all he could say was, “Goodbye, Summer.”