I swallow. “You don’t have to make me feel better.”
“I’m not.”
The silence stretches.
The snow howls.
Finally, I whisper, “I hate that I care.”
His voice drops. “Then stop pretending you don’t.”
I turn away, staring out the window. “You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Say the thing that makes it impossible to ignore.”
He exhales slowly. “Maybe it’s time you stopped ignoring it.”
I laugh softly. “You’re impossible.”
He smiles. “You love it.”
The truck starts moving again.
“Firehouse is on lockdown,” he says. “Roads are closed.”
I glance at him. “Are you serious?”
“Blizzard’s official,” he says. “I bet everyone’s Valentine’s plans changed.”
My heart stutters.
“Guess so,” I murmur.
He pulls into the station, lights glowing against the snow.
As we step inside, warmth wraps around us, heavy with something unspoken.
I turn to him, voice barely steady. “Thanks for not letting me walk home alone.”
He steps closer. “Never.”
The word lands between us like a promise.
Or a warning.
And suddenly, being snowed in with Dax Hayes feels far more dangerous than missing a date ever could.
Chapter 5
Dax
The storm hits like a damn ambush.
One minute I’m checking chains on Engine Two, the next the wind screams so loud it rattles the bay doors. Snow slams sideways, white and violent, swallowing Devil’s Peak whole.
“Roads are closing,” Saxon calls from dispatch. “County just shut everything down.”
