walls fell inward, and the roof seemed to disappear. I turned and shielded my face with my arms from the blast of smoke and debris. When I looked back, the Haven House was a pile of burning rubble.
I waited for what seemed like an eternity while they loaded Gavin on a gurney. Dad got up and went back to work. His eyes caught mine and with a quick nod, he pointed to the ambulance.
That was all the invitation I needed.
I rushed to the ambulance, still parked in front of the engine. The back doors were open and Gavin was sitting up, talking to the paramedic.
He smiled at me, a big grin that puckered his dimples. “Hey, Sky.”
“I believe some thirty percent of firefighter deaths are due to internal trauma from being crushed by falling debris,” I blurted out. “Did anything hit you?”
The paramedic got up and smiled at me. “He’s okay, Miss Stanley. Go ahead.” He climbed down and gestured for me to get in.
I took the hand he offered and got inside the back of the ambulance. Gavin watched me with an amused twitch of his lips. I sat on a seat next to the gurney, wishing I could throw myself on top of him instead.
But only if they’d already checked him for internal injuries.
“Nothing fell on me.” He held up a lightly bandaged arm. “Just some minor burns. It got too hot in there, even for my PPE. What are you doing here?”
“I saw the smoke.”
“Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. I wasn’t almost trapped in a burning building. Are you okay?”
His eyes held mine and he nodded. “Mostly.”
“Do the burns hurt?”
“No.”
“Then why mostly? What’s wrong?”
“I’m really sorry about the other day.”
“We don’t have to talk about that now.”
“I know, this totally isn’t the time. But I don’t care. Sky, I’m in love with you.”
I sucked in a quick breath and touched my fingers to my lips.
“I realize we were supposed to just be friends. I broke the rules, but I’ve never been much of a rule follower. And I’m so sorry for acting like a lunatic. You were right, the bridge scared the shit out of me. But that’s because I’m crazy fucking in love with you.”
Staring at him, a sense of elation poured through me. Gavin loved me. It was crazy love, but how else would Gavin Bailey love someone? That was who he was.
“Gavin, I’m so in love with you.”
His mouth turned up in a wide smile. “You are?”
“Crazy in love.”
He reached out to touch my face. “Wow, you made that so easy. I thought I was going to have to work a lot harder to convince you.”
I laughed. “Hardly. I’ve been in love with you for a while. I was just afraid to admit it.”
“Me too.”
Careful of his arms, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. He slid his hand in my hair and his mouth was soft but insistent.
Someone cleared their throat.
Oops. It was my dad.
He stood at the back of the ambulance. “You okay, Gav?”
“Yeah, Chief. Nothing serious. Did you get Sally out?”
“We did. She’ll be fine.”
Gavin let out a breath. “Good.”
Dad’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Gavin. “Don’t leave until they release you. And unless the entire town catches fire, you’re off for the rest of the night. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Chief.”
He hesitated, like there might be more he wanted to say, but he just nodded and walked away. My dad had always been a man of few words.
“I talked to him about you earlier,” Gavin said.
“You did?”
He nodded. “Not because either of us need his permission to be together. I just wanted to be up front. Tell him how I feel about his daughter.”
“What did you say?”
“That I’m in love with you.” He paused, his dimples puckering. “And I’m going to marry you someday.”
Little flutters of happiness pulsed through my body. I stared into his soft brown eyes and I knew. He was right. He was going to marry me someday.
“Ask me again.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Now?”
I nodded. We were sitting in the back of an ambulance at the scene of a fire that could have killed him, and none of this was textbook. None of it was normal. We hadn’t really dated, we hadn’t even known each other that long, and it didn’t matter at all. This was right. Every single bit of it.
I felt it, deep in my soul.
His face grew serious, his brow furrowing, and he reached over to take my hands