Into the Fire (First Responders 3)

Her eyes softened. “Yes, Chris. Everything.”

She’d changed her mind. He didn’t know what he’d said that had broken through, didn’t care. This morning things had seemed bleak and pointless. Other than Moose, he’d had nothing waiting for him. No work, no Ally…no reason to get up in the morning. And now here she was like a ray of sunshine. Her lips parted slightly.

“You mean it? Because if you do, Ally, I swear to God there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”

Her smile grew. “Like offer to leave the fire department.”

It would hurt, but he’d meant it when he’d offered it yesterday. She thought he didn’t understand fear, but he did. He also felt like it was important to step up and help people, to protect and preserve the community. But he could find another way. He would, if it meant she’d say yes this time.

“Like leave the department,” he confirmed.

She stood up on tip-toe and put her arms around his neck. “I don’t want you to leave the department,” she whispered in his ear.

“You don’t?”

She shook her head slightly. “I can’t ask you to be someone you’re not. You are the one who really encouraged me to look for my dreams lately. How can I ask you to give up yours?”

“I know you’re scared—”

“I’ll always be scared, Chris.” She lowered herself back on her heels and pulled back to look at him. She put

her hand on the side of his head, her fingers touching the skin just behind his ear. “You were right. My parents were right. You never know where trouble will come from. Look at my sister. She drowned. I was in that fire without intending to be in the middle of trouble. That girl last summer—she was just driving on the highway. My mom made me see that with the right person beside you, there’s nothing you can’t face. I’ll take any time we have together over giving you up and always regretting it.”

He closed his eyes and leaned down to touch his mouth to hers, wishing he could wrap both arms around her and pull her tight but settling for looping his right arm around her back and holding her as close as he dared without squishing his wounded arm.

“I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to keep Kendra Givens from knocking on our door at night.”

“You’d better.”

“And I’ll let you help me now, but you have to promise me one thing.” He caught her hand in his and squeezed. “You’re going to do what you want to do, and I’ll help in any way I can. If that means a new shelter, or going away to school, or a new business…then so be it. I’ll wait for you. I didn’t before and I should have. Now it’s your turn.”

“It’s a deal,” she answered, squeezing his fingers back.

“Can you wait here just a second? I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

Chris spun on his heel and slipped out of the garage, taking fast steps to the house.

He’d let her get away once before. He wasn’t about to let it happen again.

Ally waited inside the garage, curious as to why Chris had disappeared so suddenly but so incandescently happy that she didn’t care much. It was all going to come together. And yes, there would be scary times. There would be days she would worry and there would be rivers for them to cross.

But how could she have ever thought it would be easier to go it alone? Once she’d said the words, it was if something clicked into place inside her heart. That something had changed from being about what she’d wanted to be into what was to be. A life with Chris.

A world of possibilities and hopes and dreams. The kinds of hopes that Becca would never experience. But it was time for Ally to stop feeling guilty about surviving. Time to step out and claim happiness for herself.

Chris came back in, a little breathless. “Okay,” he said. “Come over here and sit down.” He patted a rolling stool and she obediently went to where he was and sat on it. He reached into his pocket and then braced his one good hand on her knee while he knelt on the hard concrete floor.

“Ally…” He looked up into her face. She watched as he swallowed hard, as his eyes gazed into hers. The cut and the bruise only made her love him more as she understood what was coming. As she welcomed it. This time she was looking forward to the future, rather than running away from it.

The seconds stretched out and then he finally took a breath and simply said, “Please say yes.”

He held out the ring.

The backs of her eyes stung. “You kept it?” she asked, so full of emotion, so amazed by what it meant that he’d held on to the ring all this time.

“I kept it. It belongs to you, Ally. And we don’t need to rush. We can wait until whenever you’re ready. If there are things you want to do first, that’s okay. I just want to know that in the end, it’ll be you and me.”