Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Aaron
The ride from the wildfire up to Crown Hill Hospital feels interminable. The guys are mostly quiet, the ones who are still in the truck and heading back to the station. Nobody wants to make a huge fuss over Samson and me.
If they do, I would prefer that they fuss over him. He looks like he might have sustained some third-degree burns. Plus, they’re far more extensive than my burns.
He should have gone to the hospital hours ago, as soon as it happened. But he was determined that we all go home together.
A firefighter, through and through.
Maybe there’s one more reason why the ride to the hospital seems to be taking longer than usual. Levi rides right beside me, neither of us mentioning that we’re hoping to see Paige when we get there.
Levi will check in with her and then race home to his kids. Me? I’ll be stuck there for as long as it takes the medical team to evaluate the wounds that I sustained while doing my job. Could be an hour, could be a day.
Having Paige take care of me will make the time go that much faster, though.
“You should call your family,” Levi says, filling in the silence.
“I texted my dad when the fire started.”
I always tell him when I go out on a major call. My dad, the man who saved me and took me in all those years ago, is my hero. And I want him to be proud of me. I want him to know that I’m going to do my best, just like he taught me.
Levi nods, then returns to staring at his folded hands.
Without the sirens on, it feels like we’re moving through the stickiest molasses. Our engine hits every red light between the outskirts of town and the hospital, but we eventually pull up beside the bay where all of the ambulances typically park.
A flurry of activity buzzes around the entrance, medical staff coming out to assess the situation. Samson gets loaded onto a stretcher and pushed into the emergency room. Must be a slow night, with the way nurses hover over him immediately.
“I can walk,” I tell the nurse who comes to assess me. I hold up a hand to keep her from motioning for the gurney at the door.
“Hospital policy,” she says firmly. “Can’t let you walk in. But I can spare you the bed for now. A wheelchair, then.”
Sensing that this is the best I’m going to get, I accept the chair with embarrassment. Levi laughs as he walks beside me, perfectly capable of getting into the ER on his own two feet.
“Don’t be upset,” he says between chuckles. “They know I’m Paige’s brother. And I’m not the one being treated tonight.”
They roll me straight past the nurse’s desk, where I see the one person I have been dying to see for days.
Paige.
Her eyes connect with mine. Everything else fades away, even Levi walking beside me. The embarrassment over the wheelchair fades. The only thing that matters in this world is the connection between us.
I thrill at the way her cheeks flush at the mere sight of me.
Eventually, she realizes that she’s in the middle of a bustling emergency room. Her training snaps into action. The magical spell between us shatters unceremoniously. She points to the room down the hall.
“Evans in room nine,” she calls, turning to write it on the board.
As they push me down the hall, I watch her write her own name next to mine. She’s assigning herself to my care.
Does that mean…?
Someone else’s name is scrawled next to Samson’s room. A room that I can’t help but notice is situated right next to the desk, while mine is all the way down the corridor.
Levi drapes himself on the recliner in the corner while the nurse who wheeled me in forces me into the hospital bed. She strips me of my jacket and my shirt, before handing me a backless gown to slip on.
“We have to be able to see what we’re treating,” she explains when my eyes protest the inconvenience. She looks away to give me some privacy as I do what she asks.
No sooner do I finish than the privacy curtain rips open and Paige storms in. She’s all fierce efficiency, silently and angrily setting up the monitors that will take my blood pressure and my oxygen levels.
I let my hands linger in hers a beat longer than I should. She refuses to make eye contact with me, but it has to mean something that she’s here. In this room. With me.
Levi clears his throat. Her head snaps up, as if she’s suddenly realized we aren’t alone in here.
“Just wanted to let you know I was okay,” he says, an amused smile on his face. “But it seems that you’re so focused on your work, I might as well head home.”
“Levi—”
“Paige, you have responsibilities here,” he interrupts. “I’ve got to go home. I love you.”
My jealousy spikes at the casual way he said that to her.
He crosses the room, whispers something in her ear that makes her soften, and leaves.
“This really isn’t a big deal,” I tell her when the door closes with a loud click. “You don’t have to take care of me.”
When Paige looks up at me, her expression is softer. She’s no longer storming around the room, moving with practiced efficiency. Instead, her actions are slower. She takes a deep breath, and her shoulders relax.
“It’s literally my job to take care of you. And anyone else who needs it in Crown Hill. I don’t get to choose,” she says.
“I’ve had far worse than this.” I gesture at my hands and arms, which are raw and sore but not beyond help. I swallow hard, bracing myself for what I want to say next. When she focuses on them, I add, “Your text, for example, was much worse than these burns.”
Paige sighs and sits on the edge of the bed beside me. I fight the urge to pull her onto the bed with me. Anything to lighten the moment. To make her smile and laugh like she used to with me.
I don’t know what happened, but I want to find out.
She opens her mouth to speak, but then shuts it. Her beautiful eyes dart around the room, looking for answers in the corners. When none appear, she takes a deep breath and answers me.
“It’s what I think is right. I told you from the start we should take it slow.”
“Slow?”
That’s different from the space she requested in that text. Slow implies that she still wants to be with me—casually, of course. Maybe I’m reading too much into the vocabulary she uses to describe it. Slow might just as easily mean ending things.
“Slow,” she echoes, her lips curling around the syllable. “I have a son—”
“Whom I adore, by the way,” I interject.
I can’t let her think that Noah is the reason we should call this off. If anything, he’s the reason I have been pushing harder into it. He needs a father figure almost as much as I need to be one.
She stares at me, trying to read meaning into my face.
“I just…” she trails off, her eyes never leaving mine. When her voice comes out, it’s lower and shakier. “I got scared.”
“You can be scared, but it doesn’t mean—”
I never get to finish my thought because the door bursts open. It startles Paige and me apart, like we were two teenagers doing something we shouldn’t have been. The magic of the moment is broken, and I know I’ll have to fight to get it back later.
“This room is not avail—” Paige says, but she’s drowned out by the shouts of the old man barging in.
“Thank God, you’re okay!” he exclaims.
Looking at him, it finally feels like I’m home.
Paige is here at my side. My dad has traveled all this way to make sure I’m okay. I feel loved, more than usual, for the first time in a long time.
I feel like I belong.
I would give anything for Paige to feel this, too.
* * *
Paige
I want to tell the man who just barged in that he isn’t welcome here. I haven’t assessed Aaron’s injuries yet because he wanted to talk before I could get to it. The doctor will be here any minute, and now everything is in chaos.
But Aaron’s gentle smile and the happiness he radiates make me pause.
“I’m fine, Dad,” he says to the elderly man with a casual eye roll.
The pieces click into place, but not fast enough. Aaron said he grew up in foster homes, but here’s the man he calls Dad.
The man’s eyes flicker back toward the door.
“Please don’t tell me you brought everyone,” Aaron groans.
The old man lowers his chin and gazes at the floor. He doesn’t immediately respond to Aaron’s plea. He purses his lips like he doesn’t want to say anything further.
Who could he have possibly brought on such short notice?
“You know how your siblings are, son. Don’t even get me started on your mother!” He starts to laugh as the rest of them come into the room uninvited.
It’s a loud mob of people, everyone jockeying for a spot beside Aaron’s bed. I find myself pushed to the edge of the room.
Son? Mother?
Are these the people who abandoned Aaron to bounce from one foster home to the next? I had thought that Aaron had no contact with them, that he didn’t want contact with them.
Or are these the people who brought him into their family?
I never get to ask because it’s clear that they are here to make sure he’s okay. Whoever they are, they clearly care about him deeply.
Two older men circle the head of the bed, punching him on the arms and giving him big hugs. A younger girl holds his arm, quietly murmuring to him. Her voice is lost in the din.
The only thing that I notice is how his smile warms his entire demeanor. I’ve never seen him look so peaceful. So open. He’s totally in his element, surrounded by all of these strangers.
Then, she enters the room.
She is a force to be reckoned with, pushing the children out of the way so that she has the best spot next to Aaron’s bedside. She places a hand on his forehead like she’s checking for a fever. She pushes stray hair off his forehead and fusses over his blankets.
“I’m completely fine,” Aaron says while she fusses.
“I haven’t hurt so much in my life!” she exclaims. “From the moment I heard you were in trouble. I haven’t hurt this much since I gave birth to you. I can’t lose my youngest son!”