“Damn,” Axel mutters from behind me. “Did the temperature just jump, or is that just Lieutenant Kane melting down?”
I don’t turn. “Go clean something.”
“Already did,” Axel grins like a menace. He leans against the doorframe with a mug in hand, smug as hell. “I was bored, so I cleaned the fridge. Want to see me die of boredom next, or are you gonna tell us why you look like you just saw a ghost in turnout gear?”
“She’s not a ghost,” Sawyer says, coming up beside them, eyebrows raised. “She’s very real. And she’s in our bay. Wearing our gear. And—correct me if I’m wrong—she just called you Lieutenant Kane like she was trying to keep herself from saying something else.”
The crew’s attention hits me like a spotlight. Great. Devil’s Peak Fire & Rescue: where privacy goes to die.
I hook my thumbs into my belt and force my shoulders loose. “She’s the chief’s daughter.”
“So?” Axel says. “We all know that.”
Ash’s grin widens. “We also know you dated her.”
“I did not date her,” I snap.
Three eyebrows lift in sync.
Sawyer takes a slow sip of coffee, looking amused in that steady, maddening way he has. “Uh-huh.”
I glare at him. “We were kids.”
“We were also kids,” Ash says, “and I never looked like I wanted to set a building on fire just because someone walked in.”
Axel makes a thoughtful sound. “Or like you wanted to drag her into the supply closet.”
“Axel,” I warn.
“What?” he says innocently. “I’m just saying. If you need the closet, I can clear it. For safety.”
I step toward him, and he lifts both hands, laughing. “Kidding. Kidding. Relax, Lieutenant.”
“That’s the problem,” Ash says, eyes bright with cruelty. “You look like you’re about to explode.”
I look past them toward the hallway, because my eyes do that now. Because my body does that now. Like it’s waiting for her to come back and prove this wasn’t a hallucination.
“She’s an intern,” I say flatly. “She’s here to learn. That’s it.”
Sawyer’s gaze sharpens. “And you’re her supervisor.”
My stomach drops like the floor moved under my boots. I already knew it. I just didn’t want to say it out loud.
Axel whistles. “Oh… that’s messy.”
“It’s not messy,” I lie.
Ash laughs. “Sure. Nothing messy about your ex being your boss’s daughter and your intern.”
“She’s not my ex.”
Sawyer’s mouth twitches. “Then what is she?”
I open my mouth. Nothing comes out.
What is she? She was the girl who handed me her heart and asked me to hold it while she chased the world, and I told her I would. She was the future I built in my head—quiet cabinmornings, her bare feet on my hardwood, my last name on her mouth. She was the sharpest loss I ever took without flames.
“She left,” I say finally, voice dull.
