Page 96 of Light My Fire

I don’t think it’s smart.

After I cry for a few minutes, I pick my phone back up and start typing.

I’ve been thinking and I don’t think we should text like this. I have feelings for you and it just makes me miss you and that’s too hard. Please, let’s just leave it at the goodbye we had on Monday.

I add a kiss emoji.

I delete the emoji.

I add it again.

Then I send it to Wyatt.

Copying it, I then also send it to Jackson and Luke.

Taking a deep breath, I wipe the tears off my cheeks with the sleeve of my sweater.

“You did the right thing,” I tell myself out loud. “You need to move on before you’re totally heartbroken.”

But I realize I might already be heartbroken.

I power my phone off and go to bed.

CHAPTER 25

Wyatt

Two weeks.

It’s been two fucking weeks since we got back from the cabin.

Two weeks of dog photos and videos from Jackson.

Two weeks of house and acreage photos from properties he’s considering buying. One week of house and acreage photos from the one he actually put an offer on.

Two weeks since I’ve actuallyseenhim, talked about anything else, or mentioned anything that happened at the cabin.

It’s also been two weeks since Luke and I talked about anything other than work. When we’re at calls, everything is normal. Our teamwork is completely unaffected. Of course it is. I trust him with my life and vice versa. He’s the best firefighter I’ve ever known, and he leads our fire house with integrity, firmness, and heart. There’s nothing weird at all when we’re doing our job.

But at the firehouse between calls, things are different. If I was going through something like I am about Brooke, I would talk to him about it. But I feel like I can’t with this because he’s a part of it. He might say otherwise. Hell, he might wish itwas different. But, like it or not, he’s part of the reason I’m not talking to her every day, not making plans to go see her. Not calling her my girlfriend.

Strangely, it’s not even that he fucked her. It’s that she has feelings for him. And I’m not mad about it, or jealous. Much. I just know that I need her to have everything she wants, and if that includes Luke, and he’s not into that, I’m not going to be happy knowing she’s not completely happy.

And, of course, more than anything, it’s been two weeks without Brooke. Two of the longest weeks of my life. I’ve only texted her that one night and that made it worse because she asked me to stop.

And I’m about to lose my shit.

It’s my day off. I’m at home, watching one of Jackson’s dog videos for the fifth time, and I want to hear her voice with an intensity that I almost can’t believe.

This is probably a terrible idea. But I do it anyway.

I press her number and let it ring.

She picks up after three rings.

My heart almost stops when I hear her voice.

“Hello?”

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