Page 10 of Return By Fire

Be sure of it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Present Day

“I’m not certain I’ve ever seen them look quite so like each other,” I remark to Maris.

Maris hums. “I agree. Their faces are carbon copies of each other.”

Our words release our friends from the spell they were cast under. It’s Rainey who sputters, “Jed? Our Jed? The man who used to come down dressed in body suits—”

“And have hair up to here.” Meadow lifts her hands as high as they will reach.

“—was ready to shake you down, Kara?” Rainey’s voice raises with every word. Her face is beat red.

Tickled, I point out to Maris, “The color of Rainey’s face reminds me of Silver’s when he’d try to out race Dean on the tower.”

Maris howls. “Do you ever wonder if that poor guy still has inadequacy issues a mile wide?”

We snicker at the memory of Dean’s story.

“Silver? Who is Silver? Was he some guy one of your brothers was dating?” Meadow wonders.

Maris doubles over. She flaps her hand at me, unable to do much more than that.

I roll my eyes. “Please. As if. Silver was so not my brother’s type. He was—is—a hero.”

“And that’s a problem?” Rainey probes.

I confide, “Dean has a thing for the villains.”

Indignant, Meadow exclaims, “Jed isn’t a villain.”

Maris and I exchange long looks. Love means knowing a person’s faults as well as their glories. Diplomatically, I state, “Jed was no white knight. Not in this story, not in any story.”

“Nor was Dean,” Maris reminds me.

“Very true.”

“Kara, did you ever date any of your brother’s colleagues?”

“No. God, it would have been like going out on a date with my big brother.”

“Not that they didn’t try... at first,” Maris snickers. She lifts her head and flutters her lashes. “All the hot firemen would hit on Kara. Dean used to bitch all the time when it happened.”

“You both were delusional,” I protest feebly.

“When a man says he’s willing to take the knock in rank so he can take you to dinner, he has the hots for you,” Maris counters.

I flush hotly. “It’s not like I took Axe”—or any of Dean’s colleagues who asked me out—“seriously.”

“Why didn’t you, Kara?” Rainey asks.

“I was pregnant and at that point only Maris and Dean knew it.” All the air in the surrounding forest is swept away as a hush comes over the room. My chest burns as regret surges through me. Then I give myself some grace. After all, being human means being tempered by the burns of the most destructive force on earth.

Love.

Wrapping myself up tightly, I try to navigate away from the part of the story that’s going to be the hardest to discuss—Jed’s reason for coming to Florida. “I remember coming to the station one day toward the end of my pregnancy because Dean was working three tens and he didn’t have another change of clothes. I hadn’t been there in a while and my stomach came through the door first. Christ, I was so big, I was beginning to speculate I was carrying twins.”

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