Page 19 of When We Burn

This elementary school hasn’t changed much since I went here a million years ago. Before long, we step inside Dani’s classroom, and Birdie gasps with happiness.

Dani’s gone with a unicorn theme this year, and it’s bright and cheerful and as welcoming as the woman herself.

“Birdie.” Dani crosses to us and accepts Birdie’s hug, then smiles up at me. “Welcome to your first day. Are you excited?”

“Yes. Do I really have to call you Miss Lexinson?”

Dani laughs and tugs lightly at the end of my daughter’s braid. God, her smile lights me up inside. “No, you can call me Miss Dani. Lexington is a mouthful, isn’t it?”

“Kind of,” Birdie says with a giggle.

“Okay, I’m going to show you where to stow your stuff and where your desk is.” Dani turns to me. “Do you have any questions, Dad?”

“Her medications and stuff.”

“I’ve read her case file, and I know that everything is on hand for her at the office,” Dani assures me. “I have her rescue inhaler locked in my desk, just in case, and I know to call you if she has to use it so you can decide if you’d like to come get her.”

I nod, relieved that Dani read everything thoroughly. “Thanks.”

I shuffle my feet, not wanting to leave my baby, and Dani’s face softens as she squats by my daughter. Shelooks hot as hell in her black pencil skirt and white blouse. She’s not even trying to look like a seductress, and yet, she does.

“Birdie, your desk is right there, next to Callie. Why don’t you go ahead and have a seat, okay?”

“Okay.” First, Birdie throws her arms around my legs. “Bye, Daddy!”

And then she’s off, and I suddenly feel…emotional.

“Hey,” Dani says softly. She doesn’t touch me, but I can tell that she wants to, and damn it, I want her to. “She’s going to be great, Bridger. I’m right here, and I won’t let anything happen to her. I have your baby. Now, you go so she can settle in and get comfortable without you.”

I blow out a breath, grateful for her words. “Yeah, okay. Seriously, call me if you need anything.”

“Of course.” But I can tell by the smile on her beautiful face that she knows that she won’t need me. “Have a good day, Bridger.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Reluctantly, I leave the classroom and walk out to my truck and decide that even though it’s my day off, I’m going to go to the firehouse and work out. We have a state-of-the-art gym, and I need to sweat some nervous energy out of my system.

There are a few of my guys working out, lifting weights, and running on the treadmills. After changing at my locker, I decide to work on my back and shoulders today, so I cross to the pull-up bar and start with twenty pull-ups. By the time I’m done, the burn in my back is satisfying, and I make my way to free weights.

“Hey, Chief,” Diego Martinez, one of our younger guys, says. “I didn’t think you were on today.”

“I’m not, just here to work out,” I reply, grabbing dumbbells for arm raises. “I dropped Birdie off for her first day of school today, and I’m not excited about it. She did preschool last year, but that’s not the same.”

“I get it,” Diego says with a nod much wiser than I’d expect from a man his age. He’s a big guy, taller than my six-foot-three, muscular, with a lot of tattoos, and he’s always fending off female attention, but Diego’s a happily married man. “Our oldest started kindergarten last year, and I was shaking like a leaf when I left him there.”

I frown at him. “How fucking old are you?”

“Twenty-four,” he replies with a shrug before doing a deadlift. “Shandy and I had him right out of high school. Anyway, the first day is the worst. For you, not for her. She’ll have a fucking blast, and then it’ll break your heart that she didn’t miss you at all today.”

I grin at him, feeling marginally better than I did when I walked in here. “Thanks, man.”

“Sure thing.”

We go our separate ways, concentrating on our own workouts. When my muscles are screaming for mercy, I pack it in and check some emails—happily deleting the one from Evans, a disgruntled applicant who won’t give up—before heading home.

I spend the rest of the day cutting the grass, and then I cut Dani’s, too, since she’s at work and doesn’t have as much free time anymore. It’ll cool down soon, and wewon’t have to mow the lawn for long, but until then, I’ll do hers when I do my own. I edge, take care of weeds, and generally try to keep myself busy, and then take a shower to wash off the workout and the yard work.

When I get out of the shower, there’s a text from Dani, and my heart stops but then picks up again when I see it’s just a photo of Birdie, sitting at a short table with a bunch of other little girls, giggling over her PB&J.

Dani: She’s having a great day!

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