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His eyes were wide, and he stared at me as ifIwere the one who had enteredhishome uninvited. But in a flash, they darkened, and his face twisted as he took several breaths.

He kept his eyes on mine as he moved closer to my bed. Somehow, the way he stared made me too stunned to ask him what he was doing or why he was there. But my questions wereanswered once he leaned down, grabbed my phone from the floor, and put it to his ear.

“This is Lieutenant Brooks. The call is a false alarm,” he said professionally, then flashed the screen to me so I could see he was talking to an emergency number. “All clear.”

Without another word, he tossed my phone onto my bed and took a step backward, raising his hand in a placating manner. “We got a call about a fire,” he explained. “No one answered the door and?—”

Suddenly, I could hear more footsteps on the staircase. Lieutenant Brooks stopped talking, looked toward the open doorway, and yelled toward the noise. “Stand down, dammit. False alarm. Don’t step foot inside this room!”

“We didn’t get a—” Someone said outside my bedroom before being cut off by the man I now knew was Lieutenant Brooks.

“I hadn’t had the chance, but don’t you dareenterthis room. Head back to the rig and wait for me.”

Their grumbling got quieter as they heeded the warning. Meanwhile, I stood there with Max in my arms, looking like a deer in headlights. There was no longer a sense of fear or distress, just confusion.

“Ma’am,” he nodded, trying incredibly hard to keep his eyes on mine. He looked almost robotic in my dimly lit room. “I’m sure you’re wondering what happened, why I’m here, and when I’ll leave. And I promise I want to explain all of that to you. But the only thing keeping me from seeingallof you is the kid you’re holding, and I’m not sure I can?—”

My squeal cut him off as it finally dawned on me that I was haphazardly wrapped in a towel and nothing else. My first and only instinct had been to grab my son away from the stranger, and everything after that was forgotten in an instant.

Backing into the bathroom, I shut the door and set Max on the floor, then grabbed my robe from the hook and wrapped itaround me. Max just looked up at me with a quiet smile and a look of satisfaction on his face. He was only three and didn’t speak much, but I always seemed to know what he was feeling.

“Did you call a fire truck?”

He nodded and giggled, then clapped his hands together as I scooped him back into my arms. With my body covered and clearly aware that a strange man in fireman’s gear was standing in my room, I opened the door confidently and in control.

“Now,” I started toward the bed to set Max back down where I had left him sleeping before my shower. “What’s going on here?”

“Ma’am,” Lieutenant Brooks smiled and pointed toward Max. “I think he, um…” he scratched the scruff on his face and then wrapped a hand around the back of his neck before continuing. “I think he accidentally swiped right to call emergency services from your locked phone. We got a call from a young boy yelling for afiretruck and assumed he was calling to report a fire. I tried knocking, and when no one answered, we had to enter to ensure there wasn’t an emergency. That was when I walked in and saw him holding the phone. You walked out after that, and you know the rest of the story.”

“Geez,” I moaned, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Max was still looking up in awe at the fireman in our house, but I patted the bed and tried to get him to lay back down. Lieutenant Brooks quietly motioned that he’d be downstairs, and I nodded, hoping Max would go back to sleep so I could think clearly.

It took a few minutes, but he dozed back off, and I made my way downstairs. Lieutenant Brooks turned when he heard my feet on the steps. His eyes ran down my body as he tucked his helmet under his arm and cleared his throat.

“Sorry to make you wait.”

“That’s no problem.”

“Max must have woken up while I was in the shower and tried to play with my phone. I’m incredibly sorry for the false call.”

It wasn’t easy being a single mom, and the luxury of showering and even trying to bring myself pleasure backfired. He may not have known where my thoughts were, but the whole scene made me look incompetent, and the last thing I wanted anyone in my new town to think was that I couldn’t handle being a single mom.

“I’m just glad we found everything safe and sound,” Lieutenant Brooks smiled, making my heart skip a beat with his sincerity.

“He doesn’t speak much, but he loves fire trucks. I’m not surprised that was all he said when someone answered the phone.”

“He and I have a lot in common, then. I love fire trucks, and I don’t speak much either.”

Without meaning to, I blushed and turned away to hide my smile. He didn’t need to know that with one sentence, he made me feel less ashamed of everything that had happened.

“I guess it's safe to leave,” he spoke up behind me.

“Of course,” I spun around and stepped forward, finally feeling brave enough to look into his eyes again.

The light in the living room was brighter than it had been in my bedroom, and I could see how blue Lieutenant Brooks’ eyes were. He had scruff on his face and short brown hair that was disheveled in a sexy way. It was as if he had taken his helmet off, and the short strands got to choose individually which direction they wanted to face.

Sexy.

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