Page 6 of Dueling Flames

He shook his head. “If you don’t mind bringing me my bags, I can handle the rest.”

“Sure thing.”

Chapter 4

Thorne

I woke up the next day with a warm body lying on my chest. It felt nice. When was the last time I’d woken up with someone in my arms?

My eyes popped open, and I looked down to see a head with a blonde braid cuddled up to me. I held my breath and took stock of where all my limbs were. My legs weren’t wrapped around her. Check. My arms, however, were. One of my arms was under her torso; my hand held her lower back. My other hand rested on her arm, which was wrapped around my torso.

My brain went into overdrive trying to remember my location.

Lissa’s. I’m at Lissa’s. Lissa is lying on top of me.

I spent the next few minutes slowly rolling her off me, silently praying she wouldn’t wake up.

The next few days started the same, with me untangling us from each other.

Lissa said nothing, so I followed suit. It wasn’t a hardship waking up with a beautiful woman in my arms, even if I annoyed her during waking hours.

Outside of the waking-up situation, the first few days passed rather quickly. I rarely heard her strong Chicago accent, which I counted as a win. I almost forgot that she didn’t always replace the ‘th’ with a ‘d’ in words like ‘the,’ ‘that,’ and ‘there.’

The way we settled into a silent rhythm surprised me. I honestly thought I’d need to be more self-conscious of my actions. Maybe living together would finally give us a chance to smooth out our professional relationship.

Thorne

Lissa walked into the apartment after her first day back at work. I couldn’t be happier. I was bored and fidgety. I tried to will my bones to heal every thirty minutes. Worse yet, I couldn’t sleep past 7 a.m. I honestly thought I’d sleep more. But finally, Lissa walked in at 8:30 a.m.

The doctor released her for full duty two days ago, and she’d danced around the apartment since. She tried to be subtle, but I knew dancing when I saw it.

Now she looked withdrawn. She walked in slowly and dropped her bag at the front door.

“Welcome back,” I said with a wave from the couch. Lissa looked like she was moving in slow motion.

She glanced at me and continued to the kitchen without a word.

“Busy shift?” I asked. With such a small apartment, I knew she could hear me. That and I’m a bit loud.

She shuffled out of the kitchen with a glass of water and sat on the couch. “Three runs with barely enough time to reload the truck between each one.”

She downed the water and leaned back on the couch. The usual sparkle in her eyes was missing. After a busy shift, she usually couldn’t stop moving side to side with a little bebop move. She’d look tired, but her eyes smiled. Lissa loved her job and everyone knew it. She looked like a shadow of that now.

Without another word, she pushed herself off the couch and meandered toward the bedroom. I stood up and followed her as fast as my crutches could move me. Stopping in the doorway, I saw her sitting on the bed with her back leaned against the headboard, eyes closed, with a pillow hugged to her chest.

“Want to talk about it?” I asked, crutching over to the bed. I sat down and mirrored her position.

The way she stared at me almost made me leave. Her face screamed at me to go. I stayed, like I always did.

“You sure?” I asked. “We’re partners. We’re supposed to help each other out.”

“At work. We’re supposed to help each other out at work.”

“Well, I bet this is about work. Promise I won’t tell.”

“Ugh.” She buried her head in her pillow, then looked back at me. Tears gathered in her eyes. She blinked and turned her head to stare at the closet door.

“On the first run, I started setting up the hoses.” She gripped the pillow harder. “Everything was normal. Textbook even. But I flinched every time I thought I saw something fall in my periphery.”