Page 5 of Memories with Fire

“You two know each other?” Nate asks, sounding as surprised as I feel.

Thankfully, I don’t need to answer. The alarm sounds, indicating a call. I don’t dare take my eyes off Luke. His own, wide with disbelief, don’t leave me. We’ve both been caught off guard, and I don’t think either of us knows what to say or do.

I’m more than grateful when the call turns out to be only for Quinn and me, but I can’t seem to make myself move, my gaze firmly glued to the man standing a few inches shorter than Nate’s six-one.

“Hailey, let’s go,” Quinn mutters, giving my shoulder a shove as she gets up from her seat.

It’s enough to pull me out of the trance. My head snaps in her direction and then I’m up, shaking out the cobwebs that seemed to have formed within seconds. “Coming.”

I don’t bother looking at Luke again, but I know his eyes are focused on me as we walk by Nate and him. I know because I can feel them. The same way I can feel my entire body tingling just from being around him. Just like it always did.

I don’t know why he’s here, or how he ended up in my firehouse, but I do know that my day went from bad to worse. I expected the new guy to create waves in the house with Mac leaving and all, but I didn’t expect this.

Luke Reyes. The first, and only, man I’ve ever loved. The only one to ever break my heart.

CHAPTER 2

LUKE

The same dangparagraph I’ve been reading the last fifteen minutes stares back at me. Mocking me. Laughing that I haven’t retained a single sentence, let alone a word.

My concentration is zero, and I need to get through this manual that Irene, the receptionist at the station, provided me on behalf of my new lieutenant, plus another one, before I can be considered fit for duty on the truck. My plan was to get through it today on shift, which I didn’t think was going to be a problem, but that was before I saw her.

Hailey Wagner. The prettiest girl I’d ever seen when I was eighteen and spent my summer in Santa Rosé.

Still the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen, even ten years later.

She looked good. Really good. Curvier than the last time I saw her, in ways that make my dick sing. Hailey was never what society would have considered small, and I loved that about her.

Her gorgeous copper hair isn’t as long as it used to be, now hanging just past her shoulders, with side swept bangs. The only thing that didn’t change was how straight it was, the same as the summer we met.

But it’s her eyes that my mind keeps coming back to every time I try to focus on a word in the manual. I spent hours that summer gazing into the identical murky green eyes that looked at me in confusion today. Confusion I know reflected back to her in my eyes.

She looked different, but she was also the same. I took comfort in the fact I could see the smattering of freckles that I’d adored, albeit lighter than the last time I’d seen her, as she walked by me.

Dang it. Stop. I need to stop.

I have to focus on this procedural book and get through the dry stuff so I can get back to doing what I love. Firefighting. I’ve been a firefighter for six years, and I will not let some girl from my past derail my train of thought so badly that I can’t get through a couple of manuals.

The heavy lifting getting a job with the Santa Rosé fire department has already been done; challenging the exams – both theoretical and physical – so I could transfer over from Waco, Texas where my life went to shit a few months ago. With the hoops jumped, I just need to get through the house procedures, and another safety manual for the truck, and I’m home free.

If I could just get a certain redhead out of my mind…

Why is she even here? How? This wasn’t her life trajectory. She was supposed to be a doctor at a hospital somewhere. Not a paramedic. Especially not one that I would meet on my first day, in my new firehouse, where everyone was watching and clearly curious how we knew each other.

Groaning, I lean back in my seat and raise a hand to run it through my hair, coming up with a handful of air. Still not used to that. I had a flow going on for a long while—nothing crazy, but my blond hair hung as long as regulation would allow—and I always used to push it back when I was feeling frustrated. But a new city meant a new, clean slate, and buzzing it off seemed appropriate.

Focusing is a nightmare. My mind drifts again, this time to thoughts of stretching and getting a coffee, when movement catches my eye. Walking through the conference room door are two guys from this morning—my new brothers.

The shorter one is carrying a mug that’s steaming, a smile for days plastered to his face. Immediately, I feel suspicious. The gesture looks nice, but firehouses are notorious for new guy dramatics and considering the scene between Hailey and me this morning, I’m worried about an ambush.

“Thought you could use some nectar of the Gods,” the man with the mug says. His name starts with an L like mine, I’m sure of it. Logan? Louie? Lee? Liam? Liam, that’s it.

“Thanks man.” Taking the mug from him, I give a nod of thanks, glancing warily between the two men.

Liam moves around the table, pulling a chair out beside me. In an act that I’m sure is meant to intimidate me, but doesn’t, he turns it around, sitting on it backwards.

The other man, the giant with hair whose length I envy, and whose name escapes me, pulls the chair out on my other side, giving me a nod before sitting on it properly without a word. He drops a couple packets of sugar and a stir stick on my open binder.

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