“Why the fuck are you here?”
A cocky grin slid across his face as I continued to gape at him. “That’s not exactly the welcome home I was expecting.”
“I called 9-1-1,” a woman said, rushing over to sit on the other side of me.
I did a double-take at the beautiful woman, then slid my gaze back to my brother, but never got the chance to ask who the hell she was because another coughing fit seized me.
“What the hell happened?” Jeff shouted, slamming his truck door as he raced toward the burning house.
Michael stood, facing our younger brother and blocking his path to me. Jeff skidded to a stop, the look of shock evident as he blinked several times as if he wasn’t sure it was really him.
“Did you do this?” Jeff asked.
“Excuse me?”
Shaking his head, he laughed. “Sorry, but…you’re here and?—”
“So, I must have set the fire because I’m here?” Michael snapped.
“No, that’s not…I was only joking.”
“Right, because there haven’t been enough accusations about my life.”
Forcing myself to stand, I nearly collapsed when the woman who appeared with Michael shoved her shoulder under my arm to steady me.
“He showed up…just in time,” I answered, my words peppered with a hacking cough I couldn’t shake.
That seemed to shake Jeff out of his stupor. Storming over, he hooked his shoulder under mine and carried me further away from the fire with the help of the woman.
“Is your life not fucked up enough? You had to try to kill yourself in a fire?”
“Didn’t set it,” I said. But I barely got the words out when a coughing fit seized my body.
I could hear the sirens in the distance, but the paramedics couldn’t get here fast enough. My lungs were burning and my skin was on fire, not that I could feel much at the moment. But I knew when the shock wore off, the pain would be excruciating.
“Not that I don’t appreciate the need to sleep comfortably, but you think you could have thrown on a few clothes before you rushed out of the burning building?”
Michael snarled at Jeff. “I had to pull him out of the fire. He’s lucky to be alive.”
“It’s not the first time he’s escaped death recently,” Jeff muttered, nodding to my wrist in the cast.
Jeff and the woman eased me down onto the bed of the truck, only releasing me when they were sure I could take it.
“I’ll grab some clothes for you,” the woman said, rushing away to a vehicle I hadn’t seen parked further back.
“Who is she?” I asked, choking back another round of coughing.
“She’s…Blake.”
“Blake?” Jeff asked. “As in…Blake of another heart? Blake of the friendly variety? Blake of a thousand lakes!” he jested.
Michael narrowed his eyes at our baby brother. “As in the woman I’m going to marry.”
“Ah, and so it comes out. You leave us and run off to find love in the arms of a devastatingly beautiful woman.” He held up his hands. “I know. I know. It was time you found your way in the world. Us sad sacks in the upper realm of the Montana kingdom are nothing compared to the wondrous beauty of the fair lady Blake.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Michael asked me.
I shrugged, barely paying attention in the first place.
