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That afternoon, after Mia and I get home, I show her the new things I bought, and she squeals,“Mommy! I love them!” I know I made the right choice when she insists on putting them on and starts twirling in front of the mirror, her tiny skirt spinning like a carousel of joy. I turn on the fireplace, the warm glow filling our cozy cabin.
After dinner, I put Mia to bed. I read some pages of a fairy tale book we started last week, then sing her our lullaby:My Wishby Rascal Flatts. It’s become Mia’s favorite song. I sang it to her the first time the day she was born, alone in the private clinic atnight. She had been fussy and wouldn’t sleep. I looked at her and started to sing, meaning every word, and it became her personal lullaby right then.
She falls asleep halfway through, but I sing the whole thing anyway. Every word a promise, soft and steady, like a shield against the world.
I make my way over to my computer and start to look up videos of do-it-yourself Christmas decorations. I take notes, loving most of the things I find, planning to make them part of our new Christmas traditions. There is one where they make angels out of different sorts of pasta, then spray them gold or white. I just know she’ll love it, her eyes lighting up with every handmade sparkle.
I go to bed around ten p.m., the cabin quiet except for the gentle crackle of the fire. I drift toward sleep.
Suddenly, I am woken by the blaring sound of the fire alarm. Smoke curls in my room. Panic grips me, cold and immediate. I rush to the door, but the knob burns my hand, and I scream.“Mia! Mia!”
She’s in the other room. My heart leaps, fear tightening around my chest. I snatch my cellphone and call the fire department, hands shaking as the smoke thickens and the fire’s threat becomes real.
CHAPTER 3
Ethan
We’re killing time at the station after drills when Calvin sets down a tray of lasagna.
“Who the hell made this?” I ask, spitting the bite back onto my plate.
My colleagues burst into laughter.
“Courtney brought it earlier, just for you, Ethan,” Asher says, grinning like a devil.
I groan.“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I went on one date with Courtney last year. One. I didn’t even kiss her goodnight after she spent the entire dinner talking about her makeup routine and her follower count. I was relieved when it ended, but she clearly wasn’t.
Every week she drops something off at the station or“stops by” the ranch with an excuse to talk to my mama.
“That girl does not read between the lines,” I mutter, grabbing a soda to wash the taste out of my mouth.
“Did you tell her directly?” Calvin smirks.
“I told her more than once,” I say, cracking open the can.“Said we should be friends. Told her I don’t see her that way. Hell, last month I even told her I was starting to have feelings for another woman.”
Asher laughs.“Let me guess, she still didn’t get the hint?”
“Not even close.” I sigh, remembering that night at Midnight Rodeo. I’d gone after a long ten-hour shift, hoping, stupidly, that I might see Summer. She wasn’t there, so I was leaving when Courtney stopped me. I looked her dead in the eyes and said,I’m falling for someone else. I’m sorry.
Something flickered across her face, hurt, maybe, but it disappeared fast, replaced with the same practiced smile. Like I hadn’t said a damn thing.
“Ever since Cas got engaged, women in town have gotten bolder,” I mutter.“Everyone’s trying to catch the next Hawthorne.”
Calvin snorts.“Like you mind the attention.”
I shake my head.“I’ve got my eyes on someone else.”
Just saying it makes Summer’s face fill my mind, her smile, the curves I dream about, her soft baby-blue eyes that undo me every time she forgets to avoid looking at me.
“The only woman in town who doesn’t want you,” Asher says, cackling.
I throw a piece of bread at his head.“Shut up.”
“Summer? The coffee shop owner?” Calvin asks, grinning.
