Inevitable Love (James County Fire Rescue #2)

Prologue

Ten years ago

“ C an I kiss you?” I whisper as we linger in the shadows of Maggie’s parents’ porch. Light from the front window highlights her profile as she stares up at me, wide-eyed and innocently wetting her lower lip at my question.

Butterflies take flight in my belly with the idea of kissing her. She’s so pretty it makes my mouth water.

I haven’t been able to look away since the moment she descended the stairs in a fancy swirl of light pink.

Even though her mom and dad stood there, hovering like disapproving guard dogs—probably because she’s two years younger than me—I couldn’t help my idiotic gawking.

Pretty sure the thundering of my heart was the loudest part of the conversation, louder than the swish of those long skirts that rustled with each step she took.

Louder than my swallow as my gaze traveled up the flowing dress, across the sharp line where shimmery fabric met silky skin, up the delicate column of her throat, across pink lips that begged to be kissed, to wide eyes perfectly lined by long lashes.

For one heart-stopping moment, our eyes met and held. In their depths, I saw myself, and the recognition floored me. Two awkward misfits, barely breathing at the sight of each other. Then, a blush bloomed across her chest, up her neck, and over her cheeks, and I relaxed.

It’d been a risk to ask this beautiful girl to prom, one that had paid off over the past few weeks as we did homework together and got to know each other. My reward was the honor of being the guy by her side all night.

But for her to blush so prettily for me , T. J. Williams, the geeky misfit known only for being a math whiz, meant this was important to her too.

“You are so pretty,” I whispered later, while I held her as close as I dared, closer than allowed, on a dance floor covered with overheated, hormone-raging teenagers. It didn’t matter that the song wasn’t slow. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know all the cool dances to do.

All that mattered was she was there, with me.

Moving to small-town Georgia from California had been hard, and I had stood by for the last four years, trying to fit in.

Always on the outskirts of the popular crowd, always the misfit, the geek, the nerd.

Looking across an invisible chasm at what appeared to be a better world than mine, an existence more fun than I’d ever know.

But tonight, this beautiful girl made me feel larger than life.

It sucked that I’d found my balls so late, that I’d wasted the whole school year away.

At least I’d finally found them and had asked her, and now we’re here.

We have the few weeks left of the school year and all of summer to explore this soul connection.

And maybe longer, if she’ll promise to be mine while I go away to wildland firefighter school.

I’m already hers.

“Yes.” It was a breath, almost a gasp, the sharp hitch hitting me solidly in the dick.

“I’ve been waiting all night for you to kiss me.

” I’d hated the tux jacket from the moment I put it on, until I realized it was excellent at camouflaging the boner I’d had since the first moment I laid eyes on her.

Her fingers tighten around mine, like she knows how she affects me. Like maybe she feels the same way I do.

It should be perfect, this first kiss. She deserves the most perfect good-night kiss to end this perfect prom night. I take a step closer, my shoe disappearing under the pink layers.

Drawing our hands between us, I press hers right over my heart.

The same spot I held it all night as we danced.

My unspoken promise to her that I’m in this, that we’re in this together.

And all night, I’ve watched her bloom and grow from being too nervous to meet my eyes to holding my gaze as she smiled and laughed with me.

I’ve never felt so seen in my entire life.

The nerves drain away, and it’s the most natural thing in the world to slip my hand around her waist and pull her closer. So close that the corsage pinned to her dress is crushed against my rented tux. So close I can feel her breath on my skin.

And when I close the distance between us and our lips touch for the first time, when they meet again for a second taste, I know heaven. When my tongue brushes hers… pure bliss.

“Thank you for a perfect night,” I whisper against her lips, not wanting to leave her, even though we’re perilously close to her curfew, and any minute, her folks could interrupt. “Can I see you tomorrow?”

She peers back at me, swollen-lipped and glassy-eyed, and nods. My heart takes flight. I am suddenly invincible. The luckiest son of a bitch in the world.

I take her mouth one more time, because I can, then channel every bit of self-control I possess and step away.

The porch light flips on, my cue to see her into the house. But her smile as she looks back at me from the doorway… I’ll cherish it, let it carry me through the rest of the night’s events, until I see her again.

I float down the steps and to my truck. I’ll never forget this night.

“Dude, this is way higher than I realized,” I mutter to Jackson as the mid-May wind kicks up, sticking my thin rented shirt to my undershirt.

I peer over the ledge at the dark rippling water below, wondering why the hell I agreed to this.

Illuminated by the moon and occasionally a random flashlight, it shouldn’t be so terrifying.

Honestly, how bad could it be when everyone else is taking the leap like it’s nothing to jump out into a black void and plummet into unknown waters?

“It’s not that bad, don’t be such a pussy,” he replies. “You’re the one wanting to go jump out of planes and into fires and shit. It’s just like that, only into water.”

I don’t know when it started, but senior jump has become a rite of passage.

Every year, at the end of prom, the seniors meet at midnight at The Landing and jump in the lake.

Most of the guys still wear their prom clothes, but a lot of the girls have changed into something that won’t make them sink to the bottom of the lake.

For the first time, I’m glad Maggie’s not in my grade, glad she had to be home early and isn’t at this stupid event. I have a feeling she wouldn’t like it and wouldn’t like me doing it.

I’ll have to fess up when I see her tomorrow. Just the thought of seeing her, and maybe kissing her again, has me standing taller, even though I’m scared shitless.

Taking the senior plunge is tradition. It represents everything we’re jumping off into.

If prom is our reward for surviving our last school year, the plunge is our way of expressing our independence.

Essentially, we’re done—the only official high school stuff left is finals and then graduation.

Tonight, it looks like most of our graduating class decided to partake.

Good thing there are only forty-five of us this year.

As it is, half the class is on the ledge, and the other half has jumped and is queuing up to jump again.

Jackson glances over the ledge like he’s done it a dozen or more times before. Like this isn’t a nausea-inducing height. Heck, his tux is soaked, so he’s already taken a plunge and is back for another round.

“You can swim, right?” he asks, shuffling his hand through his shaggy hair and ruffling the water out all over me.

“Yeah.” Thank god it’s too dark for him to see my flinch at the lie.

I can swim a little; I’m just not great at it.

But I’m not about to tell the captain of the football team, the guy all the girls clamor to be around, the most athletic guy I’ve ever known, that I can do little more than dog paddle.

The only reason we ever became friends is because I’ve tutored him and helped him out so much with his homework that I’m probably the only reason he’ll graduate in the first place.

We don’t hang together all the time. We don’t play video games or text each other, but we have gotten to be good enough friends that he does give me a chin nod or fist bump when we pass in the halls.

He’s a genuinely nice guy, and we’ve shared a ton of big-picture dreams and goals during our study sessions.

“Look.” He turns back to face me and clamps a hand on my shoulder. “I can tell you’re nervous. You don’t have to do this.”

Only, I do. My pride won’t let me bow out.

“But if you want,” he says conspiratorially, “I’ll go down first and wait for you at the hole.” The hole . The natural ladder made by tree roots where everyone climbs out of the water. “If anything happens, I’ll be there for you.”

I look back and forth between the dark water and his earnest expression. He’s right; this is part of my future career, jumping off and doing scary, dangerous things. I have to face my fear at some point. It’s one jump. I can do this.

“Remember to go feet first when you hit the water, then kick hard when you go under, and use your arms.”

I jerk my head in a nod, even though I want to bolt out of here and hide. Blood pulses through my veins like I’m running a race. I can do this. I have to do this.

“Let’s go.”

A wide grin splits his chiseled face, and then he takes two running steps and leaps out into thin air. I wait until I hear his splash, try to gulp for air in a chest that’s too tight to expand, and don’t think about what could go wrong.

I jump.

But I’m not a jock. I don’t have body control like that. And my feet shoot out, and my ass dips low, and even though I flail my arms and legs, I can’t get my body to cooperate.

One heartbeat. The stars flash overhead.

Two heartbeats. Feet first. I have to be feet first.

Three heartbeats. Trees whizz by. I have to be close to the water.

Four heartbeats. I hit flat on my back. White-hot pain smacks the air out of my lungs, and water whooshes in as I sink.

Unable to move my body.

Unable to fight my way back to the surface.