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“And Clay never became a dad to Max?”

“I held onto hope that he’d come around and be a man in Max’s life. Now I’m glad he’s not. But not having him around has shown me how strong I can be. It’s what has built this wall I keep securely around my heart.”

“That thing is damn near impenetrable,” Easton huffed. “If I ever see him, I’m gonna kick his ass just for making it so hard for you to see that I’m not like him.”

“Oh Easton,” I sat up, looking down into his bright blue eyes. “You’re nothing like him and I know that. But that doesn’t change how much I feel the need to protect myself and my son.”

“I know,” he pushed my hair behind my ears, holding my cheeks gently. “But I’m gonna keep trying.”

“What about you?” I challenged him, while also trying to cool the fire his words had created inside of me. “Gonna tell me more about your parents?”

“Well,” he nodded, letting me rest back on his chest to listen to his story. “As you know, they died when I was much younger, and at the same time.”

My heart squeezed in pain, thinking of losing both parents at once was hard to comprehend. Especially for someone so young.

“Mom left a candle lit in the living room and went to bed. It would have been fine and burned out, but our cat was a night owl and got into shit all the time. That night, I heard something fall from upstairs in my bedroom, but I wasn’t sure what it was and I was too young and scared to go look. I just hoped no one was breaking into the house. Turns out, the cat had knocked the candle over and it fell to the carpet, lighting the fibers. I smelled the smoke, I heard my parents screaming, so I woke Miles up and told him we had to go. Damn kid was a heavy sleeper and barely moved.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed, realizing how his story was going to end.

“I could hear the sirens in the distance and I picked Miles up, opening the door right as my dad made it to us. He took Miles from my arms and told me to run outside, that he was right behind me. But I could hear my mom in the distance looking for West.” He paused for a moment and I heard him take a deep breath. “West was a couple years older and had his own room, so I figured mom was getting him while dad got Miles and me.”

“But she wasn’t?”

“No,” he swallowed. “West wasn’t home. He had snuck out to hang out with a girl, but mom and dad didn’t know that so they were searching the house for him. Eventually I ran outside just as the fire department was pulling in and dad set Miles next to me. Then he ran back in yelling that he had to get my mom out, and that he had to find West. Miles and I hadn’t known West wasn’t home or we’d have said so. I thought West was in thehouse, too. So I picked Miles back up and took him to the first officer on the scene. He was an old friend, Officer Ellison…”

He gave me a second to let the name sink in and then I gasped, sitting up and letting the sheet fall from my chest. “Mr. Ellison? Ms. Ellison’s husband?”

“The one and the same.” His hand moved up, his fingers gently skimming the skin on my side, getting lost in the effects he had on my body while I was too stunned to speak. “He passed years later, but he was the reason Miles became a police officer.”

“And you became a firefighter?”

“We both wanted to serve in the community that saved us and helped raise us after mom and dad were gone.”

“So they never made it from the fire?” My voice was soft, so scared of his answer even though I already knew what he was going to say.

“They just kept looking for West. Firefighters weren’t able to pull them away from trying to find their son and eventually, the smoke was too much and the structure collapsed.”

My breathing was erratic, still sitting and looking down into his lost eyes as he re-lived that moment. It was a peek into what made him tick and why he and his younger brother chose the paths they had.

“Grams and Gramps are my dad’s parents. They lived near us and immediately took us in, raised us along with everyone else in town. We were three wild boys that got into trouble and caused a ruckus wherever we went. But we never lacked for love and compassion. We were disciplined by whoever caught us fucking up, and Gramps made sure we always learned a lesson in everything.”

“What about West? How did he—” I cut my question off, realizing that it may have been too personal. It wasn’t lost on me that had he been home, had he not snuck out, the outcomewould have been different for their family. I wondered how much of their story defined who he was now.

“I don’t really know. West is strong, quiet, and looks out for us. But he’s never talked to me about how he survived. In my eyes, he just kept moving forward.”

As I silently processed the story, Easton’s hands roamed over my body, pressing harder and dipping lower. It was clear that we were done talking. Now that our pasts had been shared and re-lived, it was time to fix each other. It was time to get lost, back in the space we had somehow carved into our lives for each other.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

EASTON

“Before you haveto go get Max from school, can I take you somewhere?”

“Where?” She mused, still blissed out from the orgasm I had just given her.

“It's a surprise.”

A place I liked to call heaven but was also sometimes hell. A place I only ever went to alone, anymore, yet taking Jesse felt important. I wanted to show her more about who I was and where I came from.

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