16. Sam

“Who’s rattling the pans today?” Rodney asks from his favorite recliner. At this point, I’m pretty sure it has a permanent indentation of his ass on it.

“Taylor and I are. Why?” I ask.

“Please, for the love of God, tell me you’re making lasagna,” he whines.

“I’m making lasagna,” I deadpan.

Rodney narrows his eyes at me. “If you’re shitting me right now, I will knock your nose holes in.”

“That’s physically impossible,” Charlie pipes up from the table where she’s playing solitaire with an actual deck of cards. The weirdo.

Rodney ignores her and holds his fist up in a threatening gesture. I hold my hands up in surrender and stand from my chair.

I search for Taylor but don’t see him, so I decide to go ahead and start on lunch. Of course, I’m making lasagna. It’s the one meal I’m good at, and it feeds the lot of us for a minimal amount of money.

I get it into the oven quickly and set a timer on my phone. Let’s hope I don’t burn this one like I did with the one I made Carter.

I smile. Just the thought of him makes me happy. I’m a sappy asshole today, but I can’t help it. I spent the best two days with a man I’m starting to fall for. It doesn’t make any sense that I could feel this way about him so quickly.

I’m chalking it up to the fact that I know his family to a certain degree and trust that he truly is a good guy. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of dating Carter. I don’t have to wonder if he’s being genuine or if he’s lying to me for some unknown purpose. Which has happened to me.

I dated this guy in Greensboro who thought I could get him a job as an EMT if he dated me. Broke my little twenty-year-old heart, but I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t fall head over heels for someone without knowing their true intentions.

And if I’m not falling head over fucking heels for Carter, then I don’t know what I’m doing. What’s even stranger is I’m not scared out of my mind about it either. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m not going to question it.

The minute I pull the lasagna out of the oven, the fire alarm blares. At least I didn’t have to take it out before it was done.

“Engine 15, Truck 20, Ambo 6, house fire at 821 West 6th Street.”

The team comes spilling out into the bay as we all suit up and jump into the trucks in minutes. The siren blares as we make our way to the house. Once we pull up to find the structure with smoke billowing out of the lower windows, Tucker starts issuing orders.

“Sam, Charlie, and Brody, do a sweep. The fire was called in by a neighbor, so we need to make sure everyone is out of the house. Rodney and Rick, you guys are on the pipe. I want the spread minimized as quickly as possible. Daniel, be ready for a ladder rescue if we need it. That second story may be our only way in or out soon.”

Charlie, Brody, and I get our masks and air tanks on and make our way to the front door. Brody uses our swipe tool to gently open the door with minimal damage, and we clamber in, each of us shouting, “Fire department, call out!”

The smoke is thick on the main level. It’s overwhelming even through my gear. The three of us split up, Brody going upstairs, Charlie going down a hallway, while I head toward the back of the house. The heat is intense the further back I go until I find the epicenter of the flames. I click on my radio. “Cap, the fire is localized to the kitchen. Need the lines back here if we have any hope of keeping the second story from going up soon.”

“Copy that,” Tucker responds.

I lower myself down to see if I can find anyone trapped in here. The smoke is so thick, it’s hard to see anything until I catch a small form out of the corner of my eye. In the dining room, under the table, is a small body.

I take in my surroundings to decide how I can best get to them without endangering myself. “I’ve got a body in the dining room. Farthest room at the back of the house,” I report.

Deciding to crawl my way toward the victim, I get on my belly and use my elbows to pull myself across the floor. I move as quickly as my gear will allow me until I get up right next to them to find that they’re just a teenager.

I rub their arm to see if they’re responsive, but they don’t even react. Fuck.

“Cap, is there a way out from the dining room? I can’t see shit from here.”

“Affirmative. On the east wall is a window. Daniel is coming to get it open for you. Sit tight.”

“Make it quick. I don’t think our vic has very long.” I adjust my position to pick up what I can now see is a young girl.

What feels like minutes but was likely only seconds later, I hear Daniel over the comms. “Clear the area, Sam. I’m coming in.”

“You’re clear.” The tinkle of glass shattering gets me moving, and with the girl in my arms, I step up to the window. Daniel is on the other side with his gear on, and I hand the girl to him through the window. Then I step through the window, as well, helping Daniel get our vic to the ambo.

Taylor and Jason start to work on the girl while I report to Tucker. “Want me back in?”

“No. Charlie has cleared the rest of the main floor. Brody’s just about finished.”

Just as Cap finishes saying the words, Brody and Charlie come striding out of the house. Rodney and Rick have the water on the flames, and we all work to get the fire down to embers. The house is a mess and will likely need to be completely gutted.

“Were we able to get a hold of the homeowners?” I ask Tucker.

“Yeah, Chief made the call. They’re on their way to the hospital to be with the kid. He’s going to meet them there to give them an update once we have a handle on the fire.”

“I hope she didn’t have too much smoke damage. She was completely passed out under the table.”

“I’ll see if he can get an update on her condition when gets back to the hospital.”

After Chief James heads to the hospital, the rest of us work on getting the scene clear. Tucker gives us the all-clear a little while later, and we load up the trucks to head back to the house.

We run through inventory and get cleaned up so everything is ready to go for the next call. By the time we finish, it’s dinner time, and I pop the lasagnas back into the oven to warm up before showering off the smoke and sweat.

My body is still buzzing from the call, and I attempt to go for a run to expel the energy still in my system. After only a few minutes on the treadmill, I shut it off as exhaustion threatens to make my legs buckle. I guess that’s not what I need right now either.

I grab my phone and sit at the kitchen table while I wait for the lasagna to warm up. There’s a text from Carter that I open immediately.

Carter

How gross would it be to not wash my sheets since they smell like you?

Jesus, that was way creepier in text form than it was in my head.

Feel free to ignore those texts. In fact, if you could just delete them without reading them. That would be amazing.

My grin stretches across my face. He’s so fucking cute.

Me

No way am I deleting those texts. They made my night.

Carter

Ugh. So glad my embarrassment could entertain you.

Me

It’s only fair since I make a fool of myself on the regular in front of you, Daddy Carter. lt;eye roll emojigt;

Carter

Hahahaha. I forgot about that one. Okay, fine. You can keep those texts.

Me

How was your day? Did you find anything more about the problem with your project?

Carter

No, but I did get another letter in the mail. I’m beginning to think my ex might be fucking with me.

Me

That’s fucked up. I know Cooper is the police chief in Sonoma and probably can’t do anything about it, but you should tell him what’s going on.

Carter

I told Adam and Matthew. They have a private investigator who’s going to look into it for me.

I blow out a breath of relief. After my experience with my mom, I know how fast an angry ex-boyfriend can turn a situation ugly.

Me

Good. I’m going to need you to explain why they have a PI later, but I’m glad someone is looking into it.

My phone starts ringing with Carter’s name running across the screen. I answer it while the timer goes off.

“Hi.”

I can hear Carter’s smile. “Hey, Smoky. I figured if you were able to text me, you might have time to talk on the phone.”

“Now is perfect. I’m pulling dinner out of the oven for the guys.”

“Got a fire extinguisher handy?” he teases.

“You’re hilarious,” I grumble through a laugh. “I’ll have you know I didn’t need one, thank you very much.”

“We’ll make a chef out of you in no time. How was your day?”

Once I get the trays onto the stove to rest, I sneak off to my bunk to have a moment to myself.

“It was okay. We got called to a nasty house fire today, and I had to pull a teenage girl out. I haven’t heard if she’s okay or not, so I’m a little unsettled about it.”

“I’m sorry, Sam. That can’t be easy on you to have to be in the dark about the victims.”

“No, it fucking sucks. Especially when they’re young like her.” I notice the tightness in my shoulders easing as I tell Carter more about the fire. I never knew being able to decompress with someone could be this healing. The guys in the house were at the fire, so while they understand what I’m feeling, they’re going through the same things. Talking with someone separate from the trauma of being a first responder feels easier.

Tucker comes walking into the bunk room. “Wanted you to know the girl will be fine. She’s being treated for the smoke inhalation but will recover completely.”

Relief swamps me. “Thank God. Thanks, Cap.”

He nods and walks back out of the room.

“She’s going to be okay?” Carter asks in my ear.

“Yeah.” I blow out a breath.

“That’s great news, Smoky.” The nickname makes me smile.

“I probably should go feed the troops if they haven’t already dug in,” I say with reluctance.

“Yeah, Tucker’s told us you guys can be feral when it comes to good food. Don’t want to be the reason you miss out on dinner.”

I laugh. “No truer words. I’ll text you later?”

“That would be great. Bye, Smoky. Be safe.”

“I will. Bye, Carter.” I carry the warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest around with me the rest of the night. I’m falling hard and fast for a man I never dreamed would want anything to do with me. But a thread of unease tries to push through. His ex could be a problem. What if something happens while I’m on shift?