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She caught me up against her bosom, her arms wrapping around my shaking body like a warm quilt. “Let him do his job, baby girl. He’s trained for this.”

Hudson sped off toward the fire truck, where he tugged on a fire-resistant suit and boots with practiced speed, his muscles flexing with urgency. Another firefighter tossed him a helmet, and I watched, stunned, as he transformed into someone fierce. A protector. A battler of fires. Someone who could walk into hell if it meant saving people inside of it.

“That’s the only home I ever had,” I whispered, my chest aching as hot tears streamed down my cheeks.

Mama squeezed me tighter. “No, it ain’t. Your home is in your heart.”

“But all the photos, my mom’s favorite blanket, her record player—everything’s in there.”

“Things can burn,” Mama said softly. “But your mama? She’s still with you. Always has been. You’ve been carrying her with you this whole time, even when you were a thousand miles away.”

My lip quivered as more flames engulfed the house, as if it were resistant to the water from the hoses Hudson and his crew wielded at it. “This is like losing her all over again.”

Mama pulled back just enough to look me square in the face, her warm, steady hands holding my arms. “Sweetheart, home isn’t a house, but the love you carry in your heart. The memories you cherish. The people who show up for you, standing by your side even when everything else falls apart.”

Before I could reply, a sudden boom shook us, cracking through the night. The roof fell in.

Everything stilled for one sick moment. Until the fire roared, shooting flames up into the sky. I wrestled with the weight of what had just happened. Then?—

“Man down! Presley’s down inside,” came a shout from a crew member, setting every nerve in my body on edge.

“Hudson?” I choked out.

He didn’t hesitate, tearing off down the smoky path and disappearing through the front door of the burning house.

“Hudson!” I screamed, trying to run after him again, but Mama yanked me back with surprising strength.

“Don’t you dare!” she cried. “He knows what he’s doing.”

But her voice trembled, and when I looked at her face, it was pale. Haunted.

“This is just like that night,” she whispered. “The night I lost my husband. Your daddy ran into the fire to get my husband out, and neither of them came back.”

My knees gave out, and we sank together onto the grass. My heart raced as the seconds dragged.

“I can’t lose him.” So much loss in my life, but, please, not Hudson, I prayed. Not when he just admitted he wanted more with me. That those fake kisses and flirty dances and loaded glances had started turning into something he wanted more of. Suddenly, soft places in my heart opened up that I didn’t know existed anymore.

If only I realized it sooner, if I could have told him that yes, I felt an attraction between us, too. So fast. A connection I didn’t expect when I drove thousands of miles to Texas.

But…

Could I love a fireman? Could I give my heart to someone who’d always run straight into danger while I stayed behind, praying he’d come back? Was I destined to become my mother after all—a woman who knew what it meant to love a man who’ddie for others? And what if I lost him and lived the rest of my days alone without him?

I recalled how Dad would dance with me in the living room, my feet on the tops of his sturdy shoes. The night after he died, Mom and I held each other on the couch and she cried herself to sleep, her head in my lap. Such tough times.

There were good times in the house, too, though. Like when I returned home from prom night and I stayed up late and told Mom I was going to marry Carson someday. That house had held every version of me... happy and sad, younger and older, and now it was gone.

A watched for agonizing minutes for any sign of Hudson to return, when another arm slipped around my back. I looked up, and my breath caught.

“Carson?” I asked, stunned. Beyond him, the other brothers had just arrived as well, each with panic on their faces and fists balled, ready to jump into the fire if needed to save their kin.

Carson’s blue eyes were steady. “I got here as soon as I heard. Lacey, I’m here.”

I buried my face into his shoulder and sobbed harder. But he wasn’t mine anymore. I knew that now.

Somewhere in the haze of smoke and tears, I realized I had come back home hoping to find Carson waiting for me. What I found with Hudson could be so much more. But was I strong enough to love a man who ran into burning buildings?

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