"You can stay with me."
I shook my head.It was much harder to argue with someone when you couldn't use your voice.
"You can stay in the guest room.If Tom were here, he would insist you stay with us."Then he looked away."I promised him I'd look after you."
My stomach twisted.Is that why he'd come to my rescue?My brother asked him to protect me?I pulled off my mask."I don't need you to take care of me."
He sighed, replacing the mask."You have to keep this on."
I appreciated that he'd gotten me out of the fire and had come with me to the hospital.But I didn't like that it was coming from some misguided obligation to my brother.
"Tom wanted me to look after you.He'd want me to help you when he couldn't be here."
I'd never been this close to Morgan or spent this much time with him.And I wasn't sure how it would be living together.And it was clear that this was something he was doing for my brother, not me.
But I bided my time.I'd have this mask off soon enough, and then I could tell him what I thought of his sense of obligation.
At the same time, I didn't want to be alone.What if there was another fire?Would I wake up in time?Would I be able to get out?
A nurse came in to look at Morgan's hand, applying ointment before wrapping it in gauze.She gave him instructions on how to care for his wound and for my smoke inhalation.
It was the middle of the night before we were discharged.I just wanted to sleep, but my eyes and my lungs burned.I was still shaky from the whole ordeal, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to fall asleep, not after waking to the nightmare of a fire.
The nurse wheeled me outside, and Morgan pulled up to the curb with his truck.He lifted me into the front seat and leaned over to buckle my seatbelt, making my breath catch.
"Maverick drove my truck here, and Belle took him home," he said as if that was what I was focused on when he was standing so close.
I was more enamored with the beard that lined his jaw."That was nice of him."
"I'd just come out of the bar when I saw the fire.Belle told me you were upstairs asleep."He closed my door and rounded the hood.
The cab was clean and smelled good, surprising for a construction worker.
He got into the driver's seat and looked over at me."Are you okay?"
"I'm fine.You don't have to worry about me."
He gave me a look."You're Tom's sister, and he's not here.It's my job to worry about you."
I let out an irritated breath."I'm sure he doesn't expect you to take care of me just because he's not here."
"Every time he’s deployed, he’s made me promise to look after you while he's gone.He worries about you, especially since your parents retired and moved to Florida.You don't have any other family here."
I wasn't sure what to say to that.It sounded a little ridiculous but, at the same time, sweet.
"He'd never hold you to that, you know."
He glanced over at me."I wouldn't have made the promise if I didn't intend to keep it."
It was like he'd pricked my heart with a needle.I wasn't sure what it said about me, but I kind of loved that Morgan was a man of his word.I should be an independent woman, and I didn't like my brother interfering in my life."I guess that promise extends to pulling me out of burning buildings."
His fingers tightened around the wheel."I just happened to be there.Maverick said to wait for the firefighters.They have the gear, oxygen masks."
Everything he didn't have when he went into my apartment."I appreciate your heroics.But I promise that Tom wouldn't want you to sacrifice yourself for me."
"I'd like to think I would have done that for anyone, but when Belle said that you were inside sleeping, I didn't think about anything else besides getting you out.I couldn't wait for anyone else to do it.Every second matters in those situations."
As soon as he carried me out of the apartment, firefighters were already on the scene.I probably would have been okay, but I loved that he hadn't hesitated to rescue me.It struck some primal part of me that enjoyed the white-knight-in-shining-armor tale.The only snag in that fantasy was that he'd done it for my brother, not for me.I couldn't forget that.
