Finally, he comes to a stop and carefully lowers me to the ground. The blanket falls from my shoulders. The crisp night air makes me shiver.
“Penny,” he says urgently. He touches my face. My arms. My hands. When he sees the burn on my palm, he hisses out a low curse. “Where else are you hurt? Can you tell me?”
I want to reassure him that I’m basically okay. That the burn on my hand will heal. That thanks to his advice, I avoided the worst of the smoke exposure. That thanks to him, I made it out in one piece.
But I don’t say any of those things. Instead, I look into Mitch’s worried brown eyes and burst into tears.
His face crumples. “Penny, sweetheart,” he croons as he hugs me to him. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you to the hospital, get you all fixed up?—”
But a piercing siren drowns out the rest of his words.
And along with it, two firetrucks come roaring down the street, lights flashing.
As they pull to a stop and the first of the firefighters jumps out, Mitch calls out, “I need oxygen over here. Now!”
I tug on his shirt. “I think I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not,” he replies. He brushes the tears from my cheeks. His features are lined with worry. “You breathed in all that smoke. And your hand…”
“But I’m alive. Because of you.”
He closes his eyes for a moment. When he reopens them, guilt darkens his gaze. “It was too close. Too damn close.”
As a trio of firefighters closes in on us, I loop my arms around Mitch’s neck and press a kiss to his jaw. “But you made it in time.” I kiss him again. “You risked your life for me.”
He just stares at me for a second. Then he swallows hard. “Without question, Pen. I would doanythingfor you.”
Oh.
Why did it take so long to see what was right in front of me?
Tears fill my eyes again, but this time, it’s not from relief or fear.
It’s from knowing, finally, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mitch is the one I’ve been waiting for.
CHAPTER 4
MITCH
I almost lost her tonight.
If I’d gotten to her house a few minutes later, I probably would have.
The house could have collapsed into itself, trapping Penny inside. The flames could have breached the bathroom door and gotten to her before I did. Or she might have decided to jump from the third floor out of sheer desperation, risking a broken back or a traumatic head injury.
She couldn’t have waited for the fire department to arrive. The fire was spreading too quickly. By the time they got their ladders set up, it would have been too late.
Nausea rises. My stomach churns.
Shit.
The night just as easily could have ended in tragedy.
What if I’d left my rescue rope at the station instead of storing it in my trunk? What if I’d waited to change my clothes before heading over there, or decided to call to apologize instead of doing it in person?
I wouldn’t have been able?—
No.I’m not going to think about it.
