Page 61 of Slow Burn (Forbidden Heat 2)

“I’m so sorry. I really never meant to hurt you. I love you so much. I have dreamt of you incessantly ever since then. You have to believe me.”

I knew she was telling the truth. I could see it in her eyes. I could not stay mad at her no matter what. I just wanted her. I wanted our daughter. I wanted my family. This had happened for a reason, and even though she’d betrayed me and deceived me all this time, I could not help the way I felt about the love of my life. I knew I would forgive her, even if I couldn’t stop the anger in the moment.

Looking into her eyes, I knew that this was going to be ok. We would be together. And more importantly, I was the Chief now. I was in charge. If there was some policy here that would keep me from Shelly and my baby, then I would just overturn it.

I was going to have my family once and for all.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Shelly

One Month Later…

He’d popped the question. It had happened last night, but all I’d done since that moment was replay it over and over again in my mind, as if it was stuck some kind of loop. I just couldn’t stop looking at it. The ring was so beautiful. The moment was priceless. I would always remember it.

Gary had taken me to La Fleyer, a French restaurant that he’d heard about. The atmosphere was amazing, the music was amazing, and the food was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. Every single taste was like I’d taken a plane to Paris. That was how perfect it was.

The past month had been a bit of whirlwind. After I told Gary everything, he was very angry with me, which I totally expected. But after his anger had subsided, he was actually very gracious and understanding. We talked some things over and by the end of the conversation both of us knew that this was going to work this time. We held all the cards and we were going to do what was best for us and our family.

The moment that Gary had laid eyes on Amber was the most precious thing. He looked as if he might melt. The tears of total joy would not stop coming. He was sobbing so much that Amber kept asking, “Why is he so sad?”

Gary picked her up and held her as Amber showed him all the wonderful things in her room, and then they played tea party together for a bit. Gary fell right into the role and instantly fell in love with his child.

It was only a few weeks before Amber started to call him daddy. We did our best to explain to her that he was her real daddy and that he had been away for a while because of work, but now he would be there with us all the time. Gary moved into my house that week and we started to feel like a real family. It was wonderful.

And now we were getting married. The world had turned around into our favor, finally. It was miraculous to think about how it all came together. For so long I didn’t know what was really going to happen, or if I would ever actually get to see Gary again. I knew I would make that phone call eventually, but what would happen next was anyone’s guess.

Gary fell into his role as the new chief as well. He loved being the boss and he loved his new team. They really were a great team that he was working with. They were all surprised to hear that we were actually a thing and that now we were engaged, mostly because they’d never even heard me mention him before and now he was the Chief and my fiancée, all within a few weeks. Life would do that to you sometimes. You had to stay on your toes to get ready for whatever came next. That was one of the most important things I’d learned in my time.

I finished preparing the training class lesson plans for the next few weeks. There were some things we had to work on and some things that we had to do entirely differently from now on. That was the job, always changing. And I loved it dearly. I did occasionally miss being out in the field, but mostly since I’d become a mother, I was grateful that I had a job that never actually put me in harm’s way.

And I was thankful that applied to Gary, also.

But not today.

I bit my lip as I glanced at the time nervously. The team had been called about forty minutes ago to a large structure fire. It was bad apparently. And we were so short staffed. Several people were on vacation and several others had some nasty stomach flu that was going around. Gary had no choice but to suit up and take command out in the field. I was worried sick about him. I knew that I could never stand it to know that he was putting his life on the line out there every day anymore. I wasn’t sure how I did it before. But then again, he wasn’t my husband and he wasn’t the father of our beautiful little girl, either.

So, while I waited, I threw myself into finishing up the work for the day. I was a little bit behind, but with some drive and focus, I was well on my way to having everything back on track by the end of the day. Gary would be pleased to know that. I didn’t want to be lectured about it not being done on time. As much as I loved Gary, and as wonderful as he was a fiancée and a father, he was a strict one when it came to being Chief. At work, we separated our personal lives from the job as best we could. And for the most part we did a pretty good job of it, I would have said. But sometimes things did carry over from one to the other. That was something that couldn’t be helped sometimes.

I was almost done with filing the lesson plan in the computer when the phone call came in. It was Gary.

It was bad.

I couldn’t stand sitting there. I was watching my future husband, the man I loved more than anyone could possible explain, the father of my daughter, fighting for his life. He was stable, but there was a possibility that he would not recover. The doctor told me that the next twenty-four hours were crucial and it was up to him. They’d done all they could.

Lucy was holding Amber sitting beside me. I was too dist

raught to hardly speak. It was all crashing down now. I’d been so happy just a few hours ago.

And now… everything was up in the air. Gary’s life was hanging in the balance. How had we gone from where we were to here? I tried not to dwell on it. If I continued it might very well destroy me. Amber needed me to be strong here. Gary needed me to be strong.

He’d been so wonderful with everything. I couldn’t believe that he had actually forgiven me for everything I’d done. The choice was wrong. I knew that and if I really looked back to how I was feeling when I made that choice, then I would have seen that it was not the right thing to do. But I’d done it. Why? Why did I do this to us?

I wasn’t sure. I knew I had done it because in my heart I felt that it was the best option to protect Gary, but was that the entire truth? Was there some ulterior motive going on in my twisted little brain? I wasn’t sure. I just didn’t know. I’d apologized profusely to Gary and he had accepted my apology. He wanted to look to the future and not dwell on the past. Now it looked like he might not have a future.

What had happened? The other guys in the crew said that Gary had jumped out of the way of some fire burst inside the house when he was coming down the stairs. He’d helped get someone out to safety by handing them off to someone else, and then as he was making his way out of the house this crazy thing happened to him. It was one of those rare things, but they were known to happen.

Gary was knocked off his feet and went tumbling down over the rail to the floor below. At some point his mask was knocked off his face and he was half unconscious breathing in the toxic levels of smoke. He had severe smoke inhalation by the time someone found him.

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