Firefighter On Base

She doesn’t know it yet, but keeping her safe stopped being my job the second it became my need.

Brooks

After the hangar fire that took my best friend, I stopped letting people get close.

I train new recruits. Run drills. Keep the flames contained.

It’s safer that way, until the day I walk into a bookstore full of soft music, quiet laughter, and a woman who makes the world stop moving.

Elorie Harper isn’t built for chaos. She’s steady, soft-spoken, a little shy when she laughs.

But when a storm hits and sparks jump from the wall, I’m there with my hands on her hips, my heart beating harder than it should.

She says she’s fine. I know better.

Every time I see her, the control I’ve built starts to crack.

And when a blaze breaks out at the Ridgehouse social hall, I realize there’s more than one fire I can’t put out.

Elorie

I came to Pine Valley to start over.

No more headlines, no more heartbreak. Just quiet mornings, coffee steam, and shelves full of stories that don’t end the way mine did.

Then Brooks Maddox walks through my door. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, the kind of man who carries calm like armor.

He keeps showing up: checking outlets, rewiring lights, fixing things that don’t need fixing. Including me.

Every look feels like a question I’m not brave enough to answer. Every touch feels like a promise I’ve been too scared to want.

But when the fire breaks out, and the world tilts into chaos, he doesn’t hesitate.

He runs toward me.

And when it’s over, the only thing still burning is us.