“So instead of going to college, you became a firefighter.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I blamed myself for my parents’ death. Becoming a firefighter and saving others was my way to make things right.”
The knowledge that Dane had carried the weight of his parents’ death since he was eighteen broke Lexi’s heart.
“Did it?” she asked softly.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I realized there was nothing I could have done for my parents even if I’d had the training and the equipment with me at the time,” he admitted. “Now, I simply do what I do hoping to keep another kid out there from losing their parents like I did.”
Lexi wiped a stray tear away from her cheek. “I have no doubt you’ve done that for a lot more than one kid.”
“I like to think so.” He looked at her, his mouth edging up. “Enough about me and my depressing past. How about you? Do you come from a family of paramedics?”
Despite how heavy the conversation had been, Lexi couldn’t help laughing. “In the category of the world being a really small place after all, I enrolled at Texas A&M, too.”
“Seriously?” Dane scooped up a forkful of beef burrito. “You’re an Aggie? What was your major?”
She finished chewing before she answered. Dane was right. The food was delicious. “I was planning to go to medical school, so my major was biomedical science.”
Dane did a double take. “You were going to be a doctor? Not that I’m complaining you decided to become a paramedic instead, since I got to meet you, but how the heck did that happen?”
She waved her fork. “College advisors are constantly on pre-med students to do activities outside the school environment to improve their resume for medical school. For me, that activity turned out to be EMT work. During the summer semester of my sophomore year, I completed an intensive nineteen-day training course to get certified as an EMT-Basic then took the Registry Exam so I could work with DF&R during the summers of my junior and senior years.”
“Wow. That sounds like an insane workload. I can’t believe you didn’t burn out.”
She shrugged. “I was young, and it was all about getting into medical school, which is what I always wanted. Or at least, that’s what I thought I wanted. But getting to ride on a rescue truck gave me a chance to see and do things I never would have otherwise. Not only did I realize I liked being a first responder, I also figured out I’d glamorized the work doctors did every day. As an EMS worker, I got to know a lot of doctors and nurses from the hospitals, especially those who work in the ERs. They were brutally honest about what they liked and didn’t like about the profession. It helped me see things differently.”
He glanced at her as he started in on his chicken burrito. “So you decided to not go to medical school?”
She nodded. “In the end, I realized I’d rather do a job I liked, even if I made less money doing it, than to do a job I disliked, where I made more.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“My mom and dad weren’t as thrilled with my decision,” she said. “They were over the moon about having a doctor in the family. More than anything, though, they wanted me to be happy.” She sipped her wine. “Luckily, all that pre-med made it easy to get licensed as a full paramedic, and the work I did during the two previous summers was enough to get me hired full-time at DR&F right away.”
Dane picked up his beer. “I’m guessing you still get a lot of people calling you crazy for walking away from the chance to be a doctor and make all that money, huh?”
She smiled. “A few people. But I usually don’t value their opinion very much, so I rarely listen to them.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Because I have it on good authority it’s always better to go with your heart on stuff like this and ignore people who try to convince you otherwise.”
“What do you mean?”
“My sister Skye used to work on Wall Street making butt loads of money. She walked away from it all for a chance to move back to Dallas and bake cupcakes. I thought she was out of her mind and told her so. She promptly told me what I could do with that opinion.” He finished the last of his burritos. “It’s a long story, but ultimately it turned out that she was right, and I’ve learned my lesson about following your heart.”
Lexi laughed. “She sounds like someone I’d like to meet.”
“She usually stops by the station regularly, but since she and Jax are getting married next week, she’s been too busy with the wedding. She’s already said she wants to meet you, too.”
Lexi lifted a brow. “You told her about us?”
Dane chuckled. “I didn’t have to. According to Jax, everyone in the station already knows. Apparently, our coworkers noticed something going on between us before either of us did.”
Lexi supposed she could believe that. She’d gone out of her way to ask the other female firefighters and paramedics at the station about Dane’s relationship status before transferring.
Dane pushed away his empty plate then rested his arm on top of the booth in back of her. “By the way, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
She wiggled a little closer, resting her hand on his jean-clad thigh and tilting her head to look at him. “What’s that?”
