Page 2 of From the Ashes (Redwood Bay Fire #2)

CHAPTER 2

Zahir

I was prepared to treat a drowning victim.

I was not prepared to have to pick up the pieces of my shattered heart fifteen years after it last broke.

“Del? Del?” I blink and realize that Yara is scowling at me. “Check her lungs.”

She’s always so sunny, but I can’t blame her for being unimpressed with me freezing up as soon as we arrive at a call. Our patient needs my full attention.

Colton Ross will have to wait.

“Is my daughter going to be okay?” the woman beside us tearfully asks as I press my stethoscope to the little girl’s back. She’s still coughing, so she’s not out of the woods yet. However, this is a hell of a lot better than being unconscious and not breathing.

“We’ll need to take her to the hospital to give her a check over,” I tell her. “But the fact that she’s woken up and is alert is a very good sign. I promise you we’re going to do everything we can for her.”

“She’s a fighter, I can tell,” Yara says warmly, speaking mostly to the little boy clinging to the girl’s mother. I’m guessing he’s our patient’s brother, but I’ve learned never to make assumptions in this job.

The girl appears stable enough to move. “Let’s get her onto the backboard,” I say, preferring to get her into the ambulance as soon as possible where we have a lot more equipment to monitor her vitals. I turn to the mom. “Do you guys want to grab your things so you can ride with us?”

“Yes, yes,” the mom says, blinking and taking a deep breath as she regains some composure after her terrible fright. “Come on, Dashel. They’re taking your sister to the hospital.”

“I want to stay with Nevaeh, Mommy,” the little boy says tearfully.

“We’ll watch him,” I promise the mom. She’s not going to be thinking straight, and I don’t want her to leave her phone or her car keys behind. “You can meet us by the ramp.”

“Do you want to hold my hand?” Yara asks Dashel. He nods and shuffles to slip his palm against hers, not taking his eyes off Nevaeh.

“Thank you,” their mom says, her voice still thick with emotion.

Then she turns to Colt.

“And thank you for pulling her out of the water. I had no idea she’d gone in that far!”

In that moment, I’m forced to look at the boy— no, the man—who I na?vely thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I’m trying to remain professional with every ounce of self-restraint I have. However, it’s impossible to keep my body totally under control. My skin prickles and my uniform feels too hot and too tight.

I almost can’t believe it, but he’s even more beautiful than I remember. I think of the dogeared strip of photos I have pressed into my yearbook. It’s living at the bottom of a box under my bed. I might not have looked at it in a very long time, but that’s not necessary to recall every tiny detail in my mind’s eye. Colt and I had been seventeen, and with the curtain closed on that photobooth at the shopping mall, we’d gotten brave.

In one of those little faded rectangles, I’m kissing my boyfriend, both of us smiling shyly. In another, it’s obvious to anyone who might see it that we’re looking at each other with nothing short of the deepest, truest love.

They’re the only photos I had of us as a couple. The only evidence that we were even together at all. No one else has seen them. No one else ever knew.

Colt has been frozen in time for fifteen years to me. I memorized every millimeter of his teenage image. It doesn’t matter that he’s changed with age. I could pick him out of a crowd of thousands today. As it turns out, that really wasn’t necessary.

As he stands there, dripping wet in nothing but his swim shorts, I feel a soul-crushing pang that I never got to see him grow into the man he’s become today.

Hopefully, I haven’t been staring at his body for more than a second or two. Nothing matters more than the wellbeing of my patient. But there’s no escaping the fact that Colt is fucking gorgeous. A little paler than I remember, suggesting that wherever he’s been living isn’t as sunny as California. But his body is muscular, his jaw sharper, and his blond hair thicker than ever.

He’s definitely a man now. Not a boy.

My heart and mind might very well remember the devastating grief I felt for months after he vanished without anything more than a note that simply said ‘I’ll never forget you,’ but my blood is already thrumming with desire. If I’d met Colton Ross as a stranger today, I’d be very interested in getting him naked as quickly as possible.

As it is, our gazes lock briefly once more before I force my feet to do the unthinkable.

Walk away without knowing if I’ll ever see him again.

It’s not like I ever left. He’s known where to find me all this time. What the hell is he even doing back in Redwood Bay now? I thought he’d left all this behind.

I thought he’d left me behind. Forever.

Of all the people that could have jumped into the fray and recused this young girl, of course it was him.

He always was a decent, good, and kind person.

It’s a shame that honesty was just that stretch too far.

“What the fudge is up with you,” Yara hisses as we carry our patient over the sand.

Nevaeh has an oxygen mask over her face and has mostly stopped coughing. Her brother is diligently trotting beside her, their hands clasped together as the four of us make our way back to the path where we can put the backboard onto the gurney and wheel our patient the rest of the way to the ambulance.

I sigh and shake my head. “Nothing.”

She laughs hollowly. “Oh, don’t think you’re going to fool me with that nonsense. Who was that guy?”

I should have known better than to try and slip my unfortunate reaction to Colt past her. I shake my head again and glance at the small children in our care. “Later,” I say simply.

She doesn’t look happy, but she nods, and we make the rest of the way to solid ground in silence.

Thankfully, I’m driving the rig like usual, so that leaves Yara in the back with Nevaeh and her family. My partner is excellent at her job, and manages to balance monitoring our patient and talking reassuringly with the mom. It means I’m left alone with my whirling thoughts, but at least I can avoid answering any awkward questions for the time being. I try to concentrate on the traffic and nothing else.

We make it to San Clemente General in good time and without incident. It’s nice to calmly wheel a patient through the doors rather than sprinting inside for a change.

“Who have we got here?” Samia Duke, the formidable nurse in charge, greets us warmly.

“Nevaeh Adams,” I tell her as we move into the bustling emergency department. “Eight-year-old female, submerged for approximately three-to-four minutes, given CPR and resuscitated on site. Alert and responsive en route, although still coughing sporadically.”

“The paramedics said she was going to be okay?” her mother says anxiously.

Nurse Samia nods, a hardened vet at dealing with panicky relatives. “We’ll run a couple of tests and keep her in for observation for a few hours. Also get a medical history to make sure that there’s nothing underlying that added to the incident. But with any luck, we’ll have you all home by tonight.” She smiles before glancing around the intake room. “Dr. Kidd, can you take Bay Three for me please?”

Just as the orderlies are about to wheel Nevaeh away, she shoots her hand out and grabs my wrist. Her fingers are so small they don’t even make it all the way around.

“Thank you, Mr…?” she croaks through her oxygen mask.

My heart melts. “Everybody calls me Del. And it was a group effort from the One-Thirteen.” I jut my chin to indicate Yara. “You focus on getting all better now.”

“Thank you,” her mom tells me as well.

Little Dashel waves at us. “Bye, Team One-Thirteen!” he calls after us.

I chuckle, and for the first time since we got to the beach, I feel some of the weight lift off my shoulders. Yes, it was tough coming face-to-face with the man who caused me so much heartache. But all that matters is that a little girl is still here with us to tell the tale.

I have to concede that’s mostly down to Colt saving the day, no matter how complicated it makes things for me personally.

During the ride back to the station, I can feel Yara glancing at me. But she takes the hint and allows me to keep all my attention on the road. We haven’t had a call from dispatch, so I’m not surprised that both the truck and the rig are parked out front when we return. It means I can get lost in the sea of people as soon as we hop out into the house.

“Hey, guys!” Lochlan calls from the dining table where most of the squad are crowding around. “You’re just in time for lunch! I made enchiladas.”

“You go,” I tell Yara sincerely. “I’ll do the restock. It won’t take long.”

She arches an eyebrow at me. “You sure?”

I nod. Technically, I’m the senior of us both, so it’s my responsibility. Sometimes, that comes in handy when I need to be alone and decompress for a while.

She claps my shoulder and grins. “I’ll save you some.”

I’m not sure how much longer it is when she comes to find me. I took my time putting the bus back in order, then filled out Nevaeh’s paperwork. I’m in the utility room, putting out some food for the station’s slightly feral gray cat, Smokey. Lochlan’s Dalmatian puppy, Rocky, is headbutting the backs of my knees, trying his best to also get fed. But I know for a fact he’s already had his own lunch as well as plenty of tidbits from the dining table that probably weren’t very good for him.

“So,” Yara says, taking Smokey’s dish from my hand and thrusting a plate of Mexican food into its place. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out you knew that guy from the beach who saved our girl. Your face was lit up like a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard telling a story of shock and mild horror. You either hate him, orrrr you used to like him, but something happened and now you hate him.”

Sighing, I turn around to lean against the counter, watching Smokey eating on top of the cupboard where Rocky can’t reach her. I twiddle my fork between my fingers, but there’s only so long I can procrastinate.

“I don’t hate him,” I say softly.

Yara folds her arms and leans opposite me, her expression sympathetic. “But you do know him?” I nod, unable to deny it after what she saw. “Did he break your heart?”

For a moment, I just focus on my food, even though I’m not hungry. I can’t lie to her, but I can’t out Colt either. That’s what got us in all this mess in the first place.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” I say eventually.

Yara makes a whimpering noise and stomps over to me, throwing her arms awkwardly around my side. “I get it,” she mumbles into my shoulder. “I know you’d never betray anyone, even if they hurt you. But I can read between the lines and assure you he’s obviously an asshole for doing that to you.”

I give up and put the plate down so I can return her hug. “He wasn’t an asshole,” I tell her truthfully. “He was just young. I understand what happened, even if it devastated me.”

“How long ago are we talking here? High school?” Her powers of observation never fail to amaze me. I grunt noncommittally, and she takes that as the affirmation it was intended as. “Urgh, teenage boys suck. Believe me, I know.”

I don’t doubt it. Her brother is almost a decade younger than her, and after they lost their parents, she’s practically raising him on her own. She loves him dearly, but, well…she’s right. Teenagers can be a lot to deal with.

She jerks her head back and blinks at me. “Wait…is this guy the reason why you never date?”

I scoff and gently push her off. Unsurprisingly, my unsupervised meal has already been cleaned by a very naughty puppy. But all I can do is shake my head and admit I should have put the now licked clean plate up higher. At least he didn’t swallow the fork.

“I date,” I say defensively. But I don’t meet her eye, instead reaching up to let Smokey sniff my fingers from where she’s having a post-lunch bath out of reach of certain misbehaving dogs.

“You hook-up,” Yara counters. “You take guys out to fancy places, you go home with them, then you’re gone before morning with no intention of ever seeing them again.”

I wince, regretting being so honest with her now. But she’s not wrong. I’ve tried long-term in the past. But I could never trust myself to get close to anyone and it would always fizzle out. So now I keep things simple so nobody gets hurt.

“I’ve just never met the one,” I say with a shrug.

Yara jerks her thumb toward the station’s open front. “And who was the Ken doll back on the beach, then?”

I think of the faded photos pressed in my yearbook. The rivers of tears I cried. The numbness in my chest that I managed to shrink down over the years but never got rid of.

“The one that got away,” I say sadly.

Yara whistles. “But he’s back now?”

I shake my head. “Nothing’s changed. I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”

My partner looks like she wants to protest that fact, but I get saved by the bell, literally. We rush back to the ambulance, this time with the rest of the One-Thirteen with us to tend to a house fire.

I know Yara’s a romantic. She wants to believe the best in people. But I know myself and I know Colt, for better or worse. And what’s better for us both is if we just let sleeping dogs lie. Anything else would undoubtedly be worse in the end.

My heart barely survived being broken the first time. There’s no way I’m going to risk it again.

Colton Ross is going to stay in the past, where he belongs.