Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
MORGAN
Morgan found herself in a strange setting a few days later.
While she’d met Thora and Kylie, she found herself invited to lunch on a Saturday when Palmer was on shift.
Kylie and a young woman named Aylin showed up to the apartment building to give her a ride to the low key event, but even as Aylin turned around to talk to her,“Have you had a lot of time to get around the city and discover different places around San Antonio?”
Morgan’s cheeks heated up with the memory that instantly popped up in her head. “I’ve seen the murals in the underpass.”
“Oh!” Aylin grinned at her. “You’ll have to tell me about that. Rook keeps telling me we have to go walking around downtown, but while I’m normally not a big walking for walking’s sake, I would love to see some murals!”
“They’re really lovely and so vibrant with color!” Morgan leaned forward and hoped that Aylin could see how much she’d enjoyed the sights. “Palmer heard about the area from Taco.”
Kylie, who was driving, gave her a quick look in the rear-view mirror. “Sorry, for a second I thought you were talking about an actual taco. I forgot that there was a firefighter who the others call Taco.”
“He was really sweet to tell Palmer about it. That night… Well, that night was amazing.”
Aylin and Kylie shared a knowing look as Kylie stopped at the red light in front of them.
“We’re so happy that Rhett found someone like you.” Kylie stepped on the gas pedal as the light changed to green.
“He’s a good man.” Morgan felt her heart swell when she spoke about him. “But he didn’t really find me,” she felt her tone soften even as she was barely holding back a laugh, “my brother
foisted me off on him.”
Aylin gave her a big beaming grin and laughed out loud. “I’ve never seen anyone foist anything on Rhett.”
“Well, he’s helpful. I don’t think Jacob gave him a chance to say no.”
Aylin reached out her hand and Morgan took it in her own, happy to feel Aylin’s reassuring touch. “Rhett’s been so different since he met you. My dad’s commented on it and I’ve been to the firehouse a few times bringing food over from my mom. I almost didn’t recognize him the other day.”
“Really?” Morgan asked. “How so?”
“He was smiling when I came around the corner, heading for my dad’s office. I almost tripped over my feet seeing him smile. And it’s all because of you.”
Kylie pulled into a driveway and Morgan looked out over a big grassy field toward a bunch of food trucks gathered around a large area of tables and benches.
Off to the side was a large movie screen.
“Oh,” Morgan gasped, “is this a drive-in theater?”
“Better,” Aylin grinned, “it’s a sit-in theater. We’ll set out blankets down on the grass and get food for the movie. My mom is already there holding a space for our group. We’re still waiting to see if Thora’s going to join us, but Sage is coming with her little boy.”
“He’s not that little,” Kylie laughed. “He’s grown up fast!”
“Sage?” Morgan tried to remember what she’d heard about Sage.
“Oh! She’s with the firefighter they call Fish. Right?”
Aylin nodded. “Callan Bass. The Fish nickname is pretty easy to figure out and he married Sage so they’re raising her nephew together.”
Kylie parked in a spot near the front line of food trucks. “Milo is a sweetie.”
The three ladies got out of the car and headed through the group of food trucks toward the grassy area.
Morgan recognized Aylin’s mother from the photos she’d seen in Chief Blaise’s office at the fire house.
Even though the woman who stood up from the blanket looked incredibly elegant, even in jeans and a wide-necked blouse, she welcomed Morgan with open arms and Morgan couldn’t believe how gentle Viviana Blaise’s smile could be. Gentle and filled with love for someone
she’d never met before.
“So you’re the woman who created such a change in Rhett’s life.”
Morgan didn’t know what to say besides the truth. “He’s made a world of difference in mine.”
Viviana’s gaze softened. “I heard from Ethan that you two were roommates first.”
Morgan flushed warm in her cheeks. “That’s true, but I’ve had a crush on him for years.”
“Auntie Vivi!”
Viviana stepped to the side as a ball of energy ran up and threw himself against Viviana’s legs. “Well, hello there, Milo.”
“I was trying to hurry Mommy Sage, but she wasn’t feeling well.”
The little boy’s voice was full of smiles as he reached out his hand toward the petite woman walking up behind him.
The gorgeous brunette hid her eyes from the group even as her pale cheeks flushed pink.
“Sage?” Viviana Blaise had her hand over her heart. “Are you okay?”
Morgan felt her heart going out to the young woman. “Do you need to sit down?” Morgan moved forward reaching out for the large bag that Sage had over her shoulder. “Here. Let me help.”
Sage offered her a grateful smile. “Thank you, it’s incredible what a little boy needs to bring to a movie… it’s like half of his room went into this bag.”
Morgan felt her heart go out to this young mother. She knew from Palmer that Sage’s sister had passed on leaving her son Milo in Sage’s care. And Fish, Callan Bass, had fallen for the beautiful
woman.
Milo appeared at Morgan’s side the moment she set the bag down near the edge of the blanket. “Hey.”
“Hey there.”
Morgan saw Milo’s face in her peripheral vision. “I’m Milo Bass. My Mommy Sage married Fish and now he’s my dad.”
Morgan held the bag open but before he could reach inside, she gave him a little look.
Milo looked back.
“I hear we’re going to eat pretty soon.”
He nodded, solemnly. “My stomach is hungry.”
“Your stomach is hungry?” Morgan grinned at him. “What about you? Are you hungry?”
Milo’s smile broadened. “I’m always hungry!”
The women surrounding them laughed as they settled on the blanket as a group.
“I bet.” Morgan nodded. “I heard we’re going to get food before the movie starts.”
Milo shrugged. “That’s what Mommy Sage said, but I really wanna play with a toy.”
Morgan grinned at his attempt at being nonchalant. “You know what the hardest thing for me was when I was a little kid?”
Milo dropped his chin and looked back at her with obvious doubt. “When were you a little kid?”
“Milo!” Sage sounded mortified.
Morgan laughed softly waving at Viviana and Sage so they could go to the trucks and get something to eat while she negotiated with the little boy. “I was a little kid a long, long-”
“Loooong,” added Milo.
Morgan laughed out loud. “Yes. Very long ago. Someday you’re going to be my age.”
Milo looked horrified.
“Okay, I’ll make you a deal.”
Milo’s head tilted to the side and he gave her a look that said he wasn’t all that sure he should make the deal.
“Your Mommy Sage,” she picked up on the way he spoke about Sage, with love, but likely a nod to how Sage and Fish were helping to keep Milo’s birth mother in the present for her son, “is getting food for you. I’m guessing that you don’t want to get your toys dirty.”
Milo shrugged, but he gave a longing look at the bag of toys.
She could see how much those toys meant to him.
“So, I’m thinking we find a toy that has a smooth feeling to it. That’s probably made of plastic and won’t get too dirty.”
Milo leaned closer and craned his neck to see into the bag. “I don’t want to get any of them dirty.”
Morgan nodded thoughtfully even though she was grinning on the inside. “That sounds like a great idea, but if you want to play with one while we wait, it’ll have to be something that we can wipe clean and take home.”
He thought about it for a moment and nodded. “I have a horse!”
“In that bag?” Morgan gave the bag a look that said she doubted his words. “That bag is too small for a horse.”
He giggled. “It’s not a real horse, silly.”
“Oh!” Morgan nodded. “I see. It’s a toy!”
“That’s right.” He looked at her and shook his head. “You didn’t really think the horse was real.”
She shook her head. “Nope. But I like to play along with people.”
He grinned. “Well, I’ve got two horses if you want to play.”
“Oh! Deal!”
Milo got down on his knees and reached for the toy bag.
By the time the others came back with food, Milo was good and hungry and Morgan? Well, she found herself taken in by this amazing group of people.
She couldn’t believe that in such a short time that she’d become a part of a community that she didn’t have up in Center City.
When the food truck area dimmed their lights and the projector turned on for the movie, Morgan had a full stomach and a full heart.
Being with Palmer was making her life better by the minute.
RHETT
Rhett looked at his phone and saw the photograph that Sage had sent him.
Morgan, sitting cross-legged on a blanket at the Drive in Theater with Milo sitting on her lap. The two of them were engrossed in the movie, so much that they probably didn’t even notice when their picture had been taken.
“What’s that, Rhett?”
Rhett looked up at their lieutenant, Noah Sadler. They called him Cowboy when they were on the job.
Cowboy had a way of reassuring everyone that things, no matter how dire they might seem, were going to be okay. They quite literally followed him through flames and out again.
“Sage sent me a picture of Morgan and Milo at the outdoor movie theater.” He turned the phone screen to face Cowboy. “Here.”
Cowboy leaned in to look and he was all smiles a moment later. “That’s sweet.”
Rhett nodded. “It really is.”
Cowboy leaned on a half wall that separated bunk areas and gave him a
curious look. “So, I guess she’s not going to be a temporary roommate.”
Rhett saw the raised brow and nodded. “I’m hoping she’ll stay with me. We’re… we’re good together.”
Noah nodded his head. “I can see that. You’re a different guy now.”
“I’m just the same man I was yesterday and the day before.” He wasn’t sure why he was pushing back on Cowboy’s words. Maybe it was just an instinctual thing. It was probably why they called him Rhett in the first place. He was a bit headstrong.
The look on Cowboy’s face said that his lieutenant didn’t believe him.
“You’re a good man, Rhett. I’m sure she sees it.”
Rhett’s smile couldn’t be stopped.
Neither could Cowboy’s pleasantly surprised reaction. “She’s brought out a new side of you that we haven’t seen before. You’ve always been a great firefighter. You’re a top notch EMT as well. Now, you’re just a happier person. I’m happy to see it.”
“She...” Rhett turned his phone back around so he could see the photo again. “She makes everything possible.”
Fish walked into the room and held up his phone so they could see. “Rhett, did you see the picture of Morgan and Milo?”
Rhett turned his phone around and smiled at his friend. “Sage sent it to me.”
Stopping beside Cowboy, Fish looked at the photo on his phone screen. “Sage was amazed at how easy Morgan got him to calm down and play while they were waiting for their food. I might have to take a lesson from her.”
Rhett sat up a little more, his shoulders dropping back and his chest puffing out with pride. “She is something.”
Cowboy nodded. “Fish, maybe you should give him some advice in the whole, ring situation.”
With a wink, Cowboy walked off toward his office.“Really?” Fish leaned against the half wall and folded his arms across his chest. “Things getting serious for you two?”
Rhett leaned back against the wall behind his bunk. “Everyone around here said I’m always serious. So, it’s not all that big of a thing, right?”
Fish chuckled. “Sure, if you want to look at it that way.”
Rhett smiled when he hadn’t intended to. There was just something so easy about talking to Fish. He was like the other smoke eaters, but on the whole, Fish was the most affable of them all. That gave him a special power with kids. He was the go-to guy for school or scout groups. He could have dozens of little kids listening with rapt attention when everyone else might fumble with the informational bits and pieces.
Grinning, Fish nodded. “I think it’s just… just a mellowing thing.”
“Mellowing?” Rhett wasn’t exactly comfortable with the way that sounded.
“Okay,” Fish shrugged, “probably not the exact word that I should use, but it’s how I feel.”
“You were already mellow,” Rhett gave him a smile. Fish was already a great guy, but when he’d met Sage and Milo, he’d become a complete and utter dad. Almost over night. “Sage and Milo make you happy. Morgan is the same for me, but I’m not sure how she’d react if I gave her a ring. She just moved here.”
“It didn’t take me long to realize that Sage was it for me.” Fish’s voice was soft and almost dreamlike.
“When I figured that part out,” he looked up toward the heavens even though they had a big, thick roof above them, “I was bound and determined to make sure that she knew how much I wanted to be in her life.”
Rhett took in his friend’s words and felt something move inside of him, emotionally.
“I think I’m just nervous that I’ll open that door and she’ll either shut it or maybe she’ll agree because she used to have a crush on me long before I even really knew who she was.”
“I don’t know Morgan nearly as well as you do, Rhett. But from everything I’ve seen and heard, I don’t think she’d say anything she doesn’t mean. She moved all the way from Center City here to San Antonio to teach. It strikes me that she’s a person who would go to great extremes to do things that she believes in.”
Rhett nodded. “It sounds like you know her.”
“It’s the same way we know you, Rhett. We know you by your actions.” Fish’s smile lit up his whole face when he looked back down at his phone. “Actions really prove who you are as a person.”
Sage went through hell to keep Milo safe from his father after her sister passed. I think I loved her for that alone, but getting to know her as a person, seeing the daily moments between them, being a part of that?
“That made me a better person because I wanted to be a part of their world. Their family. I’ll never forget what they bring to my life and I’ll never stop trying to be a better person because that’s what they deserve.”
Listening to Fish’s words, Rhett felt a whole rollercoaster of emotions twisting through him. He knew how he felt for Morgan, but now he was wondering what he could do to be more deserving of her.
He wanted her to love him and thank god he had that, but he also wanted to be her friend, her protector, her lover, and hopefully, someday, her husband and the father of their kids.
“You look like you’ve got some thinking to do, man. Maybe I should-”
The alarm sounded and Rhett was up on his feet.
“Station Seven. House Fire. Three Two Two…”
Rhett dropped his phone into his pocket, his heart swelling with love for Morgan as they rushed toward the apparatus floor.