Page 15 of When We Burn

I brush her hair back from her face and smile down at her. She really is the cutest, sweetest little thing. And she looks just like her daddy.

“Will you stay with me? In here?”

“Of course, I will.” I lean over and press my lips to her forehead, and it’s not long before the little girl is sleeping soundly again.

I creep out to the living room to fetch my pillow and blanket, and when I return to Birdie’s room, I lie down on the floor.

It’s where I’m most comfortable most of the time anyway.

I curl up on my side and pull the blanket over me, but realize that in my tank and shorts, I’m too chilly, even with the blanket. I should have changed my clothes before I came over here, but I was in too much of a hurry, and I didn’t feel cold at the time.

Now, I do.

I stand and quietly return to the living room and spy a hoodie hanging by the front door. Bridger’s hoodie. Without overthinking it, I snatch it off the wall and push my arms inside, wrapping it around me, and I can’t help but tug it up to my nose so I can breathe him in.

He smells sogood.Like citrus and a little woodsy and that unmistakablemanness that makes me go all gooey.

I can already tell that I won’t want to give this up tomorrow morning, but I shrug and pad back into Birdie’s room and lie on my makeshift bed, snuggled up in Bridger’s hoodie. It’s wild to me how different the dynamic between Bridger and me is after one day. After just two conversations, he went from restrained to wanting tokiss me.

He’s still broody and a little quiet. But he’s always been that way.

This feels fast.

It also feels so dang good.

I sigh, snuggling down, and let my eyes close.

Chapter Three

BRIDGER

Tonight wasbrutal.

I wasn’t supposed to be on call, but this fire was so big, it was all hands on deck. It’s a good thing I never even finished that one beer at the pool party, because I had to have all of my wits about me as we fought that motherfucker.

The Campbells are a young family of six, with four kids under the age of five, and now, they’re homeless, and it makes my chest ache for them.

It also pisses me the fuck off.

I know that they have family to stay with, and it’s not my responsibility to prevent every single house fire in Bitterroot Valley, but it always makes me fucking sad because nine times out of ten, it was preventable.

But tonight’s fire was different.

Because someone set that shit ablaze on purpose.

With just a couple of hours before the sun is due to come up, I plan to take a shower and sleep until it’s timeto get up with Birdie, but first, I have to check in with my sexy babysitter. If she’s sacked out on the couch, I won’t wake her. She can stay.

I’d much rather have her in bed with me, but having her here in my house is a good place to start. Now that the fire is out, and I’ve had time to think, I feel horrible that, of all the women for me to have gotten tangled up with, no matter how briefly, it was Dani’s high school bully.

What are the odds of that? And a niggling part of my mind now wonders if Angela orchestrated the one-night stand because she knew Dani had a crush on me in high school, and she was vindictive enough to sleep with me to get one over on my friend.

Honestly, knowing what I do now, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was exactly what happened. Angela just didn’t plan to get pregnant. Neither of us did.

But Birdie’s mine, that I know for sure. As soon as Angela found me and told me she was expecting, I had testing done to confirm that the baby was mine.

And I can’t regret it because Birdie’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I love her more than anything.

I just hate that the whole situation hurt Dani, even a little bit. Because damn it, Iamattracted to her, and not just physically. She’s fucking smart and sweet, and I’ve always loved being around her.

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