Page 75 of The Firefighter's Fate

“You want me to help?” I call after him. “I’d be happy to.”

The man stops at the doorway and turns around to me. He’s smiling.

“No, stay here on the porch and relax,” he purrs. “I want to do this for you. I’m going to make you a meal, Ember.”

He makes me pork chops with sweet potato and Brussels sprouts. He glazes the chops with maple syrup, cooking it all in the cute little cabin kitchen. The delicious smell wafts out onto the porch and makes me practically salivate while I sit outside and wait to be served.

As well as chopping wood, it seems the man also knows how to cook.

And cook so freaking well...

“Come in,” he finally announces when it’s done and served up.

I get up from my chair eagerly and dash into the cabin.

“Thank you, Connor.”

He turns away, so damn shy.

We sit together.

Quite simply, the meal is divine.

“I love this,” I tell him as I’m scraping up the last bits of pork. I’m telling the truth.

“You don’t have to say that,” the firefighter replies, blushing.

He’s so cute when he’s vulnerable.

“But I do,” I say. “It’s delicious. I can’t deny it even if I wanted to.”

“Thanks.”

“Where did you learn to cook?”

Connor shrugs.

“When you’re on your own for a long time, you just get bored. One day I was over being bored, so I went to the library and took out some old cookery books and started experimenting in the kitchen.”

“You didn’t watch anything online? Learn some recipes from searching the internet?”

Connor shakes his head.

“I try to live offline. Well, as much as I can.”

“So, you like doing things the old-fashioned way?” I ask.

“I think you could say that, yeah.”

After the meal, Connor makes a fire outside. We bring out deckchairs and sit around the flames as the sun disappears and the night sky full of stars rolls in over our heads. I wrap up in a warm blanket and feel at peace.

Sitting here in nature with this man. What more could I ask for?

“Look up,” Connor tells me in a whisper.

I do, and I get what he’s getting me to look at - I see all the stars so clearly. Sometimes it’s hard to even make out stars when you’re in the city, but out here they are crystal clear. A whole canopy of twinkling lights above us...

“All I can see are the tops of the trees and the stars,” I remark. “It’s so beautiful.”

---