Fighting for Love (Boston Love 2)

Rory: Stay safe, Finn. Please.

—

“Fire alarm, Engine 33 on-site. Smoke coming from two-story brick,” I transmitted back to dispatch.

A car pulled up and I saw Captain Adams get out. He quickly called in as fire commander. A lady ran up to me, crying incoherently.

“Ma’am, I can’t understand what you are saying.”

She started screaming and hitting me on the chest, then quickly turned and raced back into the building.

“Engine 33, resident ran back inside.”

Colton was next to me in less than two seconds as we took the fire hose and headed into the building.

This was my life. The rush I lived for. The one thing I needed.

My heart rate spiked like it always did and I hit my helmet three times. It was a habit I’d started the very first fire I went into.

Heading in first, Colton motioned with his hand to move forward. The second I stepped into the building, Rory popped into my head, and I came to a stop. Frozen in my tracks.

Colton turned and hit me on the arm. “Dude, you all right?”

The fear in Rory’s voice when the alarm tone went off earlier hit me full force, and my feet suddenly felt like they were melted into the spot I was standing in. What in the hell was wrong with me?

?

??Ward? Finn!” Colton shouted. I shook my head to clear it. Realizing I was standing there like an idiot. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s do this.”

—

Walking out of the shower, I stopped and looked at Colton. He was standing there with his arms folded across his chest.

“What in the hell happened tonight, Ward?”

I knew what he was talking about, but played dumb. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head. “When you froze walking into a damn burning building. Dude, you stood there for at least a good minute and a half before I snapped you out of it.”

With a shrug, I replied, “Not sure, but it won’t happen again.”

I knew that not only did my life hang in the balance, but so did the lives of all my brothers. The last thing I would ever want to do is put them in danger.

“Your damn right it won’t.” He stepped closer to me. “It’s Rory, isn’t it? Seeing her earlier today messed with your head. I saw you texting someone right before the tone went off. It was her…wasn’t it?”

My jaw clinched tight as I narrowed my eyes at him. Nothing ever distracted me on the job.

Nothing.

But today, it had. I’d been brought to a halt by the fear in the voice of this woman I hardly knew but whom I craved nonstop. And it wasn’t even to sleep with her. It was her touch. Her smile. The sound of her laugh that haunted my thoughts every fucking minute of the day.

Focusing back on Colton, I responded, “Fuck you, Harris. I haven’t been sleeping good with that damn dog. Hell, I couldn’t sleep before the tone went off, and who I was talking to is none of your damn business. It’s not like you’ve never froze up before. It was one moment—it won’t happen again.”

He stared at me, knowing the line of bullshit I was feeding him was far from the truth. “I sure as hell hope it won’t ever happen again. That one second might cost you your life, Finn. Or someone else’s.”

—

To celebrate Rory and I going out for a month, I made plans to take her on a canoe ride on the Charles River. Trying to coordinate when we were both off proved to be the hardest part of planning dates with Rory. So this would be a late evening date.