Ignite (Firefighters of Montana Book 3) (17 page)

“I am. I’m done running.” He swallowed, even though he’d made the decision back in the airplane, it seemed bigger here. Scarier. With Jess in front of him and Lina behind her. It seemed to close in on him. Escape and run had been him for so long, how did he promise to give that up? How…

But his eyes glanced up and he saw Lina standing there, and he knew… Hell, she might hate him for walking away from her ‘I love you’, and she’d have a right, but he knew he’d finally learned how to be strong from her.

He turned his gaze back to his sister. “I thought it would be better for you without me.”

Jess shook her head, tears still falling at a steady clip, down her cheeks and neck. “You
idiot,
” she said, so many emotions wrapped up in that word—anger and hurt and…yet, underneath it all, he still saw the love she’d given him before.

Because Jess had always loved him when he’d least deserved it.

“I was.” He looked beyond Jess again, to where Lina stood next to whom Ace could only assume was her brother. The man had a hand on her back, but Lina didn’t lean into it. No, she stood tall, tears streaming down her cheeks and her fingers pressed to her mouth. “Until someone showed me I didn’t have to be.”

Jess finally pulled back, looking up at him, and then behind her where Lina stood. Something in Jess’s expression changed, her mouth softened, not a smile…but closer to that than a frown.

“She’s good at that,” Jess said.

“We have…so much to talk about, but can you give me just five minutes?”

Jess’s eyebrows drew together, but then she seemed to note the way he was still looking at Lina, and she gave a nod.

He stepped forward, crossing the yards between them, and he wanted to reach out. To hold onto her. He wanted to sink his mouth to hers and come up for air approximately never. But things didn’t work that way, and there was something he had to say—more important than all those things.

“Lina.”

She raised her chin, looking so… Somehow, with a tear-stained face, her nose red, her eyes still watering, she looked like a warrior. The strong, immovable thing he’d fallen in love with.

“I love you,” he said, firmly, certainly, holding her watery, blue gaze for all three important words.

She sniffed, though nothing in her expression changed. She brushed her cheek, getting rid of some of the moisture. “Well, I
knew
that.”

He choked out a laugh. Oh, Lina. “And
we
have a lot to talk about, but I needed you to know that before another second passed. I’m sorry I walked away. I’m sorry… You learn to run and it becomes…this pattern. Never in my life had I learned to stay until I came here, and it was easy because nothing was prompting me to leave. You were the difference though, because…I would have kept going in that pattern. I would have kept letting fear drive me away time after time, if I hadn’t seen the way you believed in something and held onto it no matter what.”

“I believe in you.”

He touched her then, unable to stop himself from drawing her against him. She wasn’t the first one to believe in him. God knew, Jess had put a misguided trust and faith in him as a teenager, but Lina was the first to get through his self-destructive bullshit to the man underneath.

Maybe he’d started building that before he’d met her, but she finished it off. She made it real. She made it stick. She made it all, and he was never, ever going to run from something hard again.

Because of her.

“God, you smell,” she squeaked, her head still buried in his chest as if she didn’t care at all.

“You’re going to have to get used to that smell, you know.” Because this was it.

When he pulled back, she was smiling. “I will,” she said, and it felt like a vow, an oath, and he knew he would do everything in his power to keep it.

There was work to do, hurts to face, apologies to make over and over again.

But he wasn’t running anymore. He was fighting. Just like he’d learned to jump into the biggest blazes and fight the most remote fires, he was slowly learning how to fight for the things in life that were worth it.

Family. Love. Roots.

And just like he’d succeeded at becoming
something
when everyone growing up—except Jess—had told him he’d amount to nothing, he’d succeed at building a life. With Lina, and Jess, and determination, he’d build himself that full life he’d never thought he’d deserve.

It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be his childhood dream come to life. Someone to love, who would love him back. A family to trust, to lean on, to be leaned on by them.

Dreams
could
come true. With love, with faith, and with the courage to believe in both those things.

O
n a snowy winter
day, Lina found herself back in Marietta. She’d been nervous. Nervous to see her father, nervous to set foot back in the place she’d left in order to find herself. Nervous to bring Ace with her, back to this place they’d both escaped and found better versions of themselves.

In the end, the nerves had been for nothing. As everyone was in a flutter over preparations for Jess and Cole’s wedding, followed by a big family Christmas, and Jess and Cole and Sierra happy to see her, there hadn’t been time to wither under her parents’ cool reception.

Though the MS hadn’t affected him much yet, her father did seem softer. He was participating in wedding things. He had no harsh words or looks for her, though he ignored Ace pretty wholly, it didn’t…matter.

She was happy with her life and her father’s approval, or lack thereof, was something she couldn’t bring herself to worry over anymore.

So, when she stood in a little room in the church, dressed in a dark red bridesmaid dress, as Jess fluttered and fussed over her hair, until Sierra snapped at her to stop, all Lina felt was…contentment. Happiness. Joy.

And hope, for Cole and Jess, for Jess and Ace and the relationship they were slowly rebuilding, and for herself.

“Where’s Ace?” Jess asked, her hands never quite settling their nervous flutter.

Even for Jess, the name Dean had never quite worked again. When Ace had built himself a new life, he’d done just what Lina had done—he hadn’t built someone completely different, he’d found his true self.

“I’ll go find him,” Lina assured. Though Jess looked nervous that he might have bolted, though Lina understood Jess still hadn’t come to completely trust her brother, Lina knew better.

Ace wouldn’t miss this.

She left the little church back room, to find Ace carefully pacing the hall. He looked lethally handsome in his suit. His hair was cut short and he was completely clean-shaven. Her heart beat
painfully
that he was hers.

Hers.

“Jess is looking for you.”

He glanced up, his blue eyes vibrant against the dark colors of his suit. He smiled, but she could see the uncertainty he was trying to hide.

“You’re nervous.”

He scowled at her. “I’m just…”

“Nervous.”

“Lina,” he growled. “I…” He shook his head. “I’m going to walk her down the aisle because she wants me to, but… I still don’t feel right about it.”

Lina rolled her eyes, though her heart ached for him. But she’d found Ace responded to her hard-ass a lot better than he responded to her sympathy, and thank goodness for that.

“Get to feeling right about it. You’re her family. She wants you to, and you should want to.”

“I do want to but—”

When she raised an eyebrow at him, he grunted.

Then she crossed the distance between them and, careful of her hair and makeup that felt foreign and strange on her, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Be happy that you can.” She kissed the corner of his mouth, making sure to wipe away the little dot of lipstick left.

His mouth curved into the sharp, lethal thing that still sent a shudder of inappropriate-for-church feelings through her. “I love you, Lina.”

It didn’t matter they’d said it to each other probably every day for nearly six months, it still filled her to near brimming with happiness. “I love you, too,” she replied, leaning against him.

“Would you marry me if I asked you to?” he murmured.

She jerked back. “I…what?”

“I’m not asking,” he said carefully.

Her eyebrows drew together and she stared at him. The bastard was half-smiling. “Oh. I… What?”

“I’m just saying…
would you
, if I asked.” Though he tried to keep his mouth a flat line, humor danced in his eyes. Humor and love.

“You don’t get to do that! You have to ask and see, you can’t…pre-ask.”

“So, that’s a yes,” he said, still trying to be serious.

“No, it’s a—”

“Yes,” he said, pressing a kiss to her mouth before she could argue further. He had to be ruining her lipstick, but it was a fleeting thought, because as much as he’d been teasing her, his question had also been genuine.

And the genuine desire and love and
rightness
between them poured through the kiss.

“Oh, come on!” It was Sierra’s voice cutting through the kiss. “Can’t you keep your hands off each other for five seconds? Lina, you’re going to be a mess.”

Lina sighed, stepping away from Ace. Yes, they had a wedding to accomplish, but after that and the reception, she got to go home with this man. And plan a future.

“You better get me a ring,” Lina murmured, feeling full and happy and…ready. Ready for the next step.

“You can count on it,” he returned before Sierra stepped over and started fussing with Lina’s smudged lipstick.

Then Jess stepped out, her eyes shiny, her smile a tremulous thing. She looked perfect in her simple, white dress.

Ace straightened, ready to do his duty to his sister. Though Jess could read the nerves in him, read that he was still dealing with feelings of not being
worthy
of this, he would do it. For Jess, for the future where they found that equilibrium.

“Ready?” he asked.

Jess nodded, linking her arm through Ace’s outstretched one. The church woman entered from the side, clucking about time and arranging everyone to walk through the doors to where the guests were waiting.

Sierra was to walk down first, followed by Lina, then the bride and her brother. The church lady opened the doors, and Sierra took her step forward.

Lina looked back at Jess and Ace, he was saying something to her, and she had the broadest smile on her face.

Lina drank that in. The joy, the happiness, the way the worst situations could turn into something beautiful if you worked at it, if you weren’t afraid to stand tall, to try again.

So, she would. She always would. With Ace, with her family, with all the love she could muster. She would always stand tall and try again.

And love. Most of all, love.

The End

Book 1: Smolder
by Tracy Solheim

Buy Now!

Book 2: Scorch
by Dani Collins

Buy Now!

Book 3: Ignite
by Nicole Helm

Buy Now!

Book 4: Heat
by Karen Foley

Buy Now!

Book 5: Flame
by Victoria Purman

Buy Now!

Heat

Karen Foley

Copyright © 2016 Karen Foley

T
he fire buzzer
catapulted him out of bed at dawn, the strident alarm blaring through the firefighting base that housed the Glacier Creek smokejumpers, hotshot team, and search and rescue team. In the dormitory, Tyler Dodson was on his feet and yanking his pants up before he was even fully awake, responding instinctively to years of training.

He’d been back at the base for less than twenty-four hours after jumping a wildfire in Idaho earlier in the week. He’d had just enough time to shower, eat, and hit the sack for some much needed sleep before this next call came in, but he wasn’t complaining. He needed the overtime pay if he ever wanted to break ground on the sweet piece of real estate he’d bought over on the north ridge two years ago. He rented a small apartment in Whitefish year-round, but he lived at the smokejumping base during the summer so he wouldn’t miss any calls. With the crazy wildfire season they’d been having this summer, it looked like he’d finally have enough money to finance the construction of the timber frame house he’d been dreaming about.

Tyler glanced at his watch as he made his way swiftly out of the dormitory to the ready room. When the fire buzzer sounded, the smokejumpers had just fifteen minutes to suit up and get their asses on the jump plane. He took the stairs leading from the sleeping quarters to the ready room two at a time. As he crossed the lobby, he tried not to look at the parachute that hung from the balcony of the three-story, vaulted lobby, a grim tribute to their former captain.

The outside doors pushed open and Vin Kingston came in, acknowledging Tyler with a nod as Vin fell into step beside him. Tyler had been a mentor to the younger man when Vin had gone through smokejumper training several years earlier. They’d both been close to their former captain, Russ Edwards, although that could be said of most of the team. Russ, with his easygoing nature, made everyone feel as if they’d been friends with him forever. After Russ had been killed in a jump accident the previous year, Tyler had thought Vin might quit the smokejumpers for good. He didn’t miss how Vin glanced up at the chute hanging over their heads.

Russ’s death had shocked the tightknit firefighting community, but had been especially difficult for Vin; even more-so when Russ’s widow, Jacqui, overcome with grief, had abruptly quit Montana and moved to Florida. Vin had surprised everyone by staying on, remote but determined to look after Russ and Jacqui’s dog, Muttley. But none of the crew had been surprised when Jacqui returned to Glacier Creek, thinner and more subdued than they remembered, and eventually succumbed to Vin’s charm. Only Tyler knew Vin had had a thing for Jacqui long before she became a widow.

Tyler was glad things had worked out for them. They needed each other, and while Tyler thought Russ and Jacqui had been great together, Vin had confided the marriage hadn’t been quite as perfect as they’d all believed. Tyler had to admit Vin and Jacqui made a damn good team. After what they’d both been through, they deserved some happiness.