Page 109 of Whenever You Call

Maybe none of us did.

He made Livia feel welcome when the sky turned darker, too, and he lit the fire pit on the table under the canopy, talking to her as though she was as important to me as Bella. With every question he asked, Liv’s last remaining defenses crumbled until she became putty in his hands as much as I was.

We toasted marshmallows together, letting Bella lead the way with games she invented and tried to teach us, only for most of them to end in fits of laughter from the adults, while the youngest member of the group grew increasingly frustrated with our lack of understanding.

In the end, she’d laid down beside me on one patio couch, her head in my lap while I stroked my fingers through her hair, and she drifted to sleep with the glow of the firepit offering her warmth and light. Logan and Livia sat opposite us, each with a beer in their hands while soft background music played through the outdoor speakers, providing an ambience that made me feel more settled than I could remember feeling in years.

I couldn’t remove the soft smile from my face as I stared into the orange flames, and my thoughts slowly began to drift toward Cole.

To the last time I’d seen him.

That vacant expression on his face.

To how nights like this had been all I’d ever wanted from him, but the quiet, sedate life had been a nightmare Cole had never intended on living.

Looking up from the fire pit, I caught Logan staring at me as he brought the bottle of beer to his lips, the light from the flames casting shadows on his face that only made him seem impossibly warmer. When he brought the bottle back down to his lap, he flashed me a smile that made those damn butterflies in my stomach work overtime again, making me want to freeze this moment and stay in it forever.

Paramedic or not, Logan was born to keep people’s hearts beating. He’d brought me back to life without even realizing it.

Chapter41

LOGAN

I’d never been more nervous in my life.

Not in all my years on the job, while studying at UCLA, or when I made the move to the city alone with nothing but the suitcase in my hand.

Thanks to the adrenaline, I pushed my shoulders back and clasped my hands together behind me, staring out at a sea of inquisitive children that stared in waiting, ready to ask me a thousand questions I may not have the answers to.

I’d already given them a fifteen-minute talk about what a day in the life of an LAFD paramedic consisted of. I’d shown them some of the medical equipment we carried after Buck had agreed to let me bring some kit in—compression bandages, saline bags, oxygen masks, etc.—with him not knowing who exactly I was helping out, only that it was the child of a close friend who’d asked for me to step up in place of an absent father. Luckily, he’d been swimming in paperwork at the station that morning, and he hadn’t been in the mood to ask too many questions.

I’d shown the children models of the basic rescue ambulance versus the advanced version, and I could tell each one of them was desperate to get their hands on them and take a closer look for themselves. I’d talked about which stations covered which areas in the city, and how I’d had to work as a fire fighter/EMT for two years prior to being put forward for my paramedic training, which was where I’d always wanted to end up.

I thought I’d done a good job at keeping them entertained… until silence descended, and a classroom of innocent faces looked up at me, bored and impatient.

Several other parents lined the back of the room, some of them already having finished their talks, while others waited to get theirs over and done with.

Bella attended school in Beverly Hills, which meant I was perhaps the lowest-paid worker there, and I could see the looks some of the other parents were casting between Hannah and me. She stood at the back of the class, leaning against a small bookcase with her hands folded beneath her chest, a look of beautiful amusement aimed my way.

It killed me to tear my eyes away from that pale blue summer dress she wore that hugged her in all the right places, but I was here for the children, not her orthat, and I had to focus before I gave everything away to an audience of strangers.

“I think now is a good time to open the floor to any questions we might have, class. What do you think?” the teacher said beside me, her ass perched on the low window ledge while I stood frozen behind her messy desk.

I cast her a quick glance that saidGreat, thanks,only for her to smirk my way and shake her head before she looked back at the children and pointed straight at a young boy who had spent most of his time with his finger up his nose.

“Yes, Brax,” the teacher said.

Brax lowered his hand, his eyes on me. “Ever seen a murdered body?”

Murmurs erupted from the children, each of them looking at each other in surprise, their eyes wide.

I looked straight at Brax, quickly scratching the awkwardness away from the back of my neck before dropping my hand back down into place. “Being a paramedic, you see every kind of emergency, Brax. Especially the ones you wish you didn’t have to see.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“That’s a yes,” I said, trying not to react when some of the kids gasped.

“Was it gruesome?”

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