Page 95 of Between Hello and Goodbye

“I noticed you and Silas had a long chat in the kitchen,” she said, her head tucked under my chin. “Everything okay? Seems like you two hit it off.”

“We got our shit sorted.”

She relaxed against me. “I hope he didn’t give you a hard time.”

“Not much. He wanted to run a background check, criminal record…”

She laughed. “He’s protective. It’s sweet.”

I pulled her closer. “I’m glad you have him.”

Someone to take care of her when I can’t.

Faith could take care of herself, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to protect her. Keep other people’s negative bullshit off of her and let her be who she wanted to be. Because I knew it could be something special if given half a chance.

But not in Hawaii.

The island had put her in crutches, and her time there was spent in pain, sweaty and struggling. Here, she was effortless—elegant and sexy in designer dresses and heels. Cabs screeched to a halt for her, and men broke their arms hurrying to open doors. She was alive and vibrant in a completely different way than she was in Kauai. This city was her natural habitat, and I snuffed out whatever unspoken hope may have been lurking in my heart.

It wasn’t fair to her to do anything else.

“Here we are again,” Faith said two days later at the Departures terminal at Sea-Tac. “We’re stuck, aren’t we? Trapped somewhere between hello and goodbye.”

I nodded, my arms around her waist.

She gazed up at me searchingly. “What do we do?”

I thought about what Silas had said. “We just keep going. Make it work the best we can.”

“A long-distance relationship?” Faith frowned. “More like long-distance relationshit.”

“Let’s just take it day by day and see what happens.”

She nodded, her green eyes searching mine. “A relationship means…”

“No fucking around with other people,” I said. “I won’t, Faith. I promise. I think you’re…”

I think you’re it for me.

“I won’t,” I said again.

Her smile was beautiful and kind of broke my heart because I knew no one had given her that kind of consideration before. It made me glad it was me.

“I won’t either,” she said. “I don’t think I could anyway. You’ve set an awfully high bar, firefighter.”

“Same, woman.”

I bent and kissed her, and we said our goodbyes.

Again.

And as I walked away from Faith, I had a deep certainty that there weren’t too many more times I was going to be able to do that.