Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Stace

"You're still thinking about her?" my brother Torrin asked incredulously.

He bumped my shoulder with his, trying to knock me off balance as we walked into the diner to get breakfast. We both had the day off, so we were eating together before heading to our little brother's soccer game. We both had decided we needed blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, and lots of strong coffee before heading over to the field to watch.

"I am not," I said as he put our name at the counter of our favorite diner and grabbed the pager the server handed him. We crammed ourselves into a corner to wait since there was nowhere else to stand. The diner was an absolute circus, but that was to be expected on a Saturday morning.

"Yeah," he said, grinning at me and bumping my shoulder again. "You are. You know you could find her."

I rolled my eyes. In the three weeks since the fire at the yoga studio, Tor and I had had this conversation multiple times. Any time my mind would wander, he'd accuse me of thinking about her.

Hunter.

The woman I'd carried down the stairs. She'd been panicking about getting everyone else out and not worried about herself, even as she been coughing from the smoke. That wasn't surprising, but what was surprising was just how otherworldly beautiful she was. I'd barely been able to focus on doing my damn job after she'd looked at me. Big blue eyes that were luminous in the flashing lights. A face crafted by a master with skill and hair that was pulled back but curled in gentle golden wisps around her face, making her look like an angel. An actual angel that had fallen from the sky and into my arms.

She'd barely spoken to me, but that hadn't mattered.

"Stace. You're obsessing."

I knew I was, but I couldn't help it. That moment with Hunter had changed my life, and I couldn't make anyone else understand that.

Everything had gone out of focus around her until she was the only thing I could see. Every cell in my body reacted to being close to her. I'd never experienced anything like that before, but the intensity of it rocked me to my core.

She was someone. She was someone to me . I didn't know how or why, but she was important. I just knew that she was. I knew it like I knew I loved my brothers. I knew it like I knew I was going to be a firefighter when I was seven. I knew it like I knew my dog, Buck, was mine the first time I saw him at the shelter and he'd run over to lick my face.

Tor continued to tease me as we ordered so much food that the server raised her eyebrows. Tor and I were not small people. We worked out constantly to keep up with our jobs, me as a firefighter, him as a paramedic. To say we could put away a few calories was a massive understatement.

"I haven't seen you this twisted up about someone in a long time," Tor said as we sipped our coffee and waited for our orders.

"I'm not twisted up," I said. "I don't even know her." And I didn't. I didn't know this woman. And I probably wouldn't. She was the person I'd think about when people talked about "the one that got away." Because that kind of spark, that feeling? It only came around once, or twice if you were very lucky.

My mom's first marriage hadn't been like that, but her second? When she'd met Tor's dad in a grocery parking lot because she was screaming at a bigot and he went to defend her, they'd known. They'd both just gotten out of bad marriages and were single parenting on their own. Tor and I were only a few months apart in age and as soon as they brought us all together, we were an instant family. Tor and I always joked that we were twins who were just separated by DNA. Years later our two youngest brothers, Elias and Carson, had made us a complete family of six.

The server brought our plates and they nearly covered the table, but soon all of them were empty.

Tor and I fought over the bill and he ended up winning the arm-wrestling match, so he paid.

We stopped to pick up some waters and mandarin oranges for the team at the grocery store before making it to the field and finding our parents and Eli in the stands. Tor dropped the water and oranges off to the coach and winced as he sat on the bleachers.

"Finally. All my children are here together," Mom said, giving me and Tor hugs.

"We are together literally all the time," I said, taking the seat next to her as Tor sat next to Dad. While another man had given me half his DNA, this man, Hamilton Thomas, was my father in every way that mattered.

"I'm bored," Eli whined. He was twelve and well into his tween stage even if I still thought of him as a baby.

"The game's going to start in a few minutes and you'd better be paying attention and cheering for your brother," Mom said, giving him a look.

Eli huffed and I reached over and mussed his light brown hair. He was just grumpy because he wasn't allowed to bring his gaming system with him. He still had his phone, but it was a stripped-down model with very few apps on it, which was a crime if you asked him.

Finally, the teams took the field and started the game, the kids looking adorable in their little uniforms and cleats and shin guards.

"Go Carson!" we all cheered and hollered as he ran around the field and actually did chase the ball, unlike several of the other kids. Getting a bunch of seven-year-olds to focus was a monumental task.

We lost our minds when Carson scored a goal and did a little cartwheel before doing a ridiculous dance that he'd probably stolen from some video online that Eli had showed him.

"I have no idea where he gets that from," Dad said with a laugh.

"You're gonna have to talk to him about what appropriate dance moves are," Mom said, patting him on the shoulder as she tried not to laugh. "And I'm pretty sure I've seen you dance like that a time or two."

The game ended with Carson's team, the Tigers, pulling out a win. He was over the moon when we went to grab him to give him hugs and tell him what a good job he'd done.

"I'm so proud of you for trying so hard, Carson," I told him, crouching down so I could meet his eyes. "Winning is nice, but doing your best is better."

He nodded, and I could tell he heard and understood me. As the oldest, I took my responsibilities as a big sister seriously. I'd been there the moment that both Eli and Carson had been born and I'd changed their diapers and babysat and helped them both learn how to ride a bike. They needed a big sister to make sure they didn't turn into little assholes when they became teenagers and beyond. I was be there to make sure that didn't happen.

Carson's team always went out for pizza after they won, so I said goodbye to my family and headed to the gym for a workout. I was meeting Rivera and Cooper from my firehouse. The three of us had started around the same time and we'd formed a tight bond being some of the only female firefighters at the station. There were still pockets of men who wished that we could go back in time when women weren't allowed to do things, and it could wear on you.

I met them in the locker room and since it was leg day, we ran on the treadmills first to warm up and then hit the machines and weights.

The three of us did our own workouts but broke often to chat and tease each other. I had my favorite playlist going, and I'd just moved up weight on my leg press and squats when I felt like someone had called my name. Sitting up and pulling out my earbuds, I looked around. Rivera was filling up her water bottle and Coop was doing Romanian deadlifts in the mirror. Huh.

Still feeling weird, I glanced around and that's when I saw her.

Hunter .

Hunter

Teaching classes at a gym like this wasn't my first choice, but they'd been so gracious about adding me on their schedule. A few of my regulars had followed me, and there were some new faces, so I was adjusting to a new schedule. The owners of my other studio were still dragging their feet and I had the feeling that they might just cut their losses and close, so I needed to find a new home anyway. I already had a few friends and contacts at other studios, so I wasn't all that worried about finding a place to teach.

I'd just finished an intense power class and was wondering what to order for dinner when something made me glance to the right, where the weights and machines were.

At the same time, a blonde head turned, and I locked eyes with someone I'd only seen once, weeks ago, but who I'd recognized instantly.

Stace. The firefighter.

For a moment, I couldn't move. As if someone had hit Pause on the entire world.

While I couldn't move, I guess she didn't have the same problem. Stace rose to her feet from the machine she'd been sitting at and crossed the room. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

On the night of the fire I hadn't been able to get a sense of her body under all that bulky gear. Sure, I knew she was strong, but seeing her wearing a tank and shorts that didn't leave much to my imagination was another thing entirely.

This woman was jacked . Absolutely and totally jacked. She looked like a walking ad for muscles.

There was just so much of her to look at. My memories had made her shorter than she was. She was actually taller. Or maybe she looked taller in fewer clothes. Was that a thing?

While I was trying to figure it out, she reached me, nearly knocking me over with a smile that made both of her dimples pop.

"Hunter, right?" she said, but I knew that she remembered me. Probably not as well as I remembered her.

"Stace?" I asked, as if I wasn't sure.

"That's right," she said, crossing her arms and giving me an eyeful of biceps and forearms that made my mouth water. I never knew I was into women with muscles, but Stace was doing all kinds of things to my libido. I was already warm from teaching, but my internal temperature kept going up, up, up.

"How are you doing?" she asked, leaning closer and looking me over, as if she was checking for injuries.

"Much better. My ankle is fine." I looked down and twirled my foot to demonstrate.

"No lingering effects from the smoke?" she asked in a concerned tone.

"No, I'm good," I said, wondering where the hell this odd conversation was going and still stunned that we had found each other again.

"Great. That's great," she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Now that my initial shock of seeing her had worn off, I was noticing more about her. Including her ears. They were big and stuck out just enough in a way that was so… adorable on someone who was so jacked that a warm feeling bloomed in my chest. I bet she got teased for those ears when she was growing up. Bet she still did.

"I'll, uh, let you get back to your workout," I said, still completely off balance. I wasn't normally so conversationally tongue-tied.

"Yeah, of course. I should let you go do…whatever," she said, her cheeks going a little pink and it wasn't fair.

None of this was fair.

It was time to go, but my feet wouldn't move. I couldn't think of a single reason why I needed to leave.

"Stace!" someone yelled across the gym and she turned and shot a look at a woman who tapped her wrist.

"You should go," I told her, because she'd have to be the one who left first. My body was just not going to do it.

Stace swore under her breath. "It's good to see that you recovered and everything."

"Thanks. Oh, and thanks for carrying me. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't found me."

She shrugged one shoulder. "Someone would have carried you out. Just happened to be me."

Another person called her name and she made a frustrated sound and did that nose-rubbing thing again.

"Bye, Hunter," she said, walking backwards two steps so she was still looking at me.

"Bye, Stace."

She gave me one last tight smile and turned around to rejoin her friends.

"You want me to find her? I can totally find her," Cade said that night when she and Reid came to hang out with me. Cade was so busy now with Eloise that we had to be strict in scheduling our times to hang out. Before they'd met, I'd seen Cade nearly every day. Now if I wanted to hang more than once or twice a week I usually had to drive out to the suburbs. Eloise's house was absolutely stunning, but still. I felt like an intruder there.

"No, I don't want you to find her, if I wanted to find her, I could do that in a few seconds. It doesn't matter."

Why had I told them about seeing Stace at the gym? What was wrong with me? Now they wouldn't shut up about trying to find her and writing some story where we were destined for each other. Well, Cade was, but her brain was currently poisoned by love. Reid was just living out her fanfic dreams through me. Reid might have a crusty exterior, but she had the heart of a romantic. Cade and I had been sworn to secrecy about her writing or else she threatened to stab us with one of the knives she used to slice limes for the bar.

"Hunter, we can see that you like her. We know you," Cade said, nudging Reid, who agreed. We were all in my apartment eating various desserts. Cade had brought cake that Eloise's friend had made, I'd baked some cookies (from frozen dough), and Reid had been in charge of drinks, as usual, but she'd also brought some crispie treats that she'd made for some reason. They were good, full of gooey marshmallow and she'd mixed the crispy rice cereal with the fruity kind. I was actually impressed, even though they weren't that labor intensive to make. Reid worked as many shifts at the bar as she could, and as a result she was nearly always too exhausted for things like making desserts.

"I don't like her. I don't even know her! She's literally just a firefighter who carried me out of a building. I'm grateful. That's all."

Angrily shoving a cookie in my mouth, I glared at my two best friends, hoping they'd drop it.

"You know, your glare is only good on people who don't know you well enough," Cade said, smirking at me and leaning over the island to snatch another cookie from the plate I'd set out.

"Reid, back me up here," Cade said.

"She's right," Reid said, pointing at Cade. "You like her."

I clenched my teeth. I really needed to get a handle on this.

"Fine. I will admit that there is an attraction, but I'm attracted to a lot of women. That's nothing new. Attraction happens all the time." It was meaningless.

Cade grinned as if she'd won some sort of contest and I rolled my eyes.

"Can we please discuss something else? You two have been on this for way too long. Reid, tell me you have some good bar stories."

She thought about that for a moment, chewing on one of the treats she'd brought.

"Okay fine. There was a fight the other night and it turned out to be some kind of throuple drama that ended in everyone hugging and making up and sharing a three-way kiss."

Now that I had to hear about.

Monday was another busy day and I barely had time to eat. I had another class to teach at the gym and I wondered if I'd see Stace. I didn't think that I would. What were the chances that she'd show up again at the same time as me?

That didn't stop me from jumping and my eye twitching every time I saw someone with blonde hair and biceps. Even guys. One or two thought I was checking them out and I had to quickly grab my phone and pretend I'd gotten a message or call.

Of course, one of them came up to me as I was leaving my class and gave me what he probably thought was his smoldering smile. If I liked men, it probably would have worked on me.

"Hey, haven't seen you around? You new?"

That was his opening line? Even if I wasn't a lesbian, that was pathetic.

"Yes," I said, trying to throw him "get away from me" vibes.

"Aw, are you shy?" he said, leaning closer to me. Okay, this one wasn't going to take a hint.

"Excuse me, I have somewhere to be," I said, starting to move past him, but he stepped in my way.

"Come on, maybe I can book a private yoga class or something with you. Can I get your number?"

I opened my mouth to tell him he could go fuck himself when another voice spoke first.

"I think that's going to be a no." Both me and the Blond Guy turned to find an extremely tall man with brown hair and bulging biceps standing a few feet away. He had colorful tattoos all over both arms and looked like he wasn't messing around. Plus, he was taller than the guy shooting his shot with me.

"It's a no, right?" he asked me, and it took a second for me to understand that he was intervening on my behalf.

"I've got this, thank you," I said, putting my hand up to ward him off.

He grinned and it was a much friendlier smile. "Oh, I know. Just thought I would lend a hand," the new guy said. The original guy was quiet, as if he was waiting to see how this played out.

Silence fell and Blond Guy's confidence drooped. "Listen, I was just—"

New Guy cut him off. "We all know what you were just. Leave her alone. This isn't a dating app."

This was too much.

"If you two want to get your dicks out and start swinging, be my guest. I'm out of here."

I pushed between them and started walking to the locker room.

Fortunately, neither of them followed me and I thought I was in the clear until I heard someone say, "hey wait!"

Expecting the first guy, I turned around and prepared to read him the harassment clause that he had signed to use this gym, but it was the guy with the dark hair who approached me.

"I'm sorry. About that. And about him," he said, jerking his thumb backward.

"It's fine," I said. "You didn't have to get involved."

He nodded. "I know. But I saw someone in distress and my rescue gene kicked in. I'm a paramedic. I guess I can't help saving people."

Okay, that was charming, I had to admit. He seemed like an actually nice guy.

"Got it," I said. "Well, I guess thank you then."

"I'm Torrin," he said, putting his hand out. Friendly, this one.

"Uh, Hunter," I said. "I teach yoga here sometimes."

"Oh, great. What kind of yoga?"

I told him and he seemed legitimately interested.

"I need to do more yoga. I work out for my job and I feel like I get stuck only doing weights and cardio and forgetting about things like yoga. I'm glad I ran into you. You've given me something to think about," he said.

Good for him. I was happy to help.

He pulled his buzzing phone out of his pocket and read a message before typing out a response.

"Sorry, my sister was just checking in. She's a firefighter and she's on call tonight. We always check in with each other when we're working."

His sister. A firefighter.

No, surely not. He looked nothing like Stace, apart from having huge arms.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him his sister's name, but I didn't.

"That's sweet," I said instead. "Listen, I've got to get going. It was nice to meet you, Torrin. Hopefully I'll see you in one of my classes."

He nodded. "Yeah, you definitely will. Have a good night. Hopefully without any more annoying people."

I laughed reluctantly. "Thanks."