“What about the skin grafts? We have to make sure they don’t getinfected.”
“Right, I’ll need help changing my bandages, but I’ve got plenty ofsisters.”
“You have me.” He brushed a patch of hair across a bald spot over herear.
“I look hideous. It’s bad enough that you’re seeing me now.” She grimaced. “It’ll take months for my skin to heal, and my hair to growback.”
“You’re not going to stop me from seeing you.” He pulled up a chair. “I’m not going back to firefighting. I’ve decided to stay with Dogs for Vets, and if you’ll have me, I’ll work out of your office and live in your cabin while Irebuild.”
“But, wait, you never told me why you took a break in the first place. Was it Salem? Were you waiting for her baby to beborn?”
He pressed his lips tightly. “No, I believed her to be dead, but I promised Paul I would stay out as long as hedid.”
“How’s he doing now that he found out Salem was stillalive?”
“Shocked, but he’s going back to the fire lines, although not back to Redstone.” He didn’t want to tell her that Salem was in dire condition and barely hanging ontolife.
“And the baby? Is he Paul’s son?” Linx’s voice broke into a hushedcroak.
“No.It—”
Linx’s eyes widened and she reached for him. “We’ll get through it, Grady. It’s my choice to accept your son into mylife.”
“Wait, she lost the baby,” Grady quickly added. “As far as we can figure out, she made crosses for each of the men she suspected. Todd found more crosses at the artist’s cabin. She’d been squatting there, and she took Jessie there in her fairy wagon. She kept Betsy there, too, but Betsy got away when she set fire to my parents’place.”
“It was all about revenge?” Linx’s eyes poppedwide.
“She’s not talking, so we won’t know until she does. They’ve taken her to a prison burn unit, but Paul says he’s got a lawyer who’s going to use the mental healthdefense.”
“I hope she gets the help she needs.” Linx swallowed a lump in her throat. “Why did she hate us somuch?”
“She was jealous that you actually had my child.” Grady’s shoulders slumped. “Or at least that was Paul’s theory. This isn’t going to drive a wedge between us, isit?”
“Not as long as we communicate. Will you promise me we’ll always communicate? First priority?” she asked, her face so earnest and open, especially without her doubtingeyebrows.
“I promise.” He trained his gaze on her, beaming as much love and reassurance as he could. “Let’s decide that we will always communicate in person. No text messages and emails. We will always be sure who we’re talkingto.”
“Right, I agree. Always face to face or voice to voice.” Linx blinked at him, her eyes full of emotion. “How stupid I was to be fooled bySalem.”
“Hey, it wasn’t justyou.”
“True. What I don’t get is why she was so hateful? Why hadn’t she been honest with Paul, and gone back to him once she lost thebaby?”
“He said he’d told her his parents were freezing all his accounts until the baby was proved to be his,” Grady said. “When I told her he was going to propose, if only she’d figure out who the father was, it likely pushed her over the edge, and she purposely steered her chute into thefire.”
“She was always good at pinpointing a landingplace.”
“Right. She found a way into the black, where the fire had moved on. In the heavy smoke, none of us could tell where she’d landed. From there, she disappeared, but was able to rob Paul’s accounts. He’s so fricking rich, he didn’t notice until months later when he bounced acheck.”
Linx swallowed and shook her head. “I feel bad for the whole situation. I’m sorry if you lost your baby, if it wasyours.”
“The good news is that Jessie is mine.” His face broke into a smile. “We got the results, and the Pattersons alreadyknow.”
“I never had a doubt.” What was left of her eyebrows furrowed. “I never slept with anyone else, and the only drunken sex I had was withyou.”
“I knew she was mine, too,” Grady said. “But Becca said we needed the test for her toproceed.”
“Are you going to tear Jessie away from her parents? You should have heard her crying for her mommy and daddy.” Linx’s eyes watered. “I held her, thinking we would both die, and I told her to live for her mommy and daddy. I told her I loved her, but that she had to go back tothem.”
