Page 8 of Hot Touch (Love To The Rescue #3)

FIVE

ALEJANDRA

“Do you think she’s a witch?” Jackie asked out of nowhere while I bent to tug up the joggers she’d brought me. I glanced down at them and frowned.

They were neon green. Very much my little sister’s style but not mine. Not. At. All.

“Who?” I asked, feeling slightly distracted even though I’d had the best sleep in what felt like forever. In a hospital bed.

Holy crap! I’d slept in the arms of a seriously sexy, older fireman with the prettiest eyes I’d ever seen! Nathan Benson.

“Liz,” my little sister replied, snapping me out of my hot-fireman-induced thoughts.

“I mean, she has to be at least part witch, right? Awe, our little brujita.” She clapped, and I stared at her for a moment.

“We should definitely call her that. Or get her a shirt with bruja on the front when she gets back!”

“Why would you say that?” I chuckled. My oldest sister wasn’t a witch.

Not even close. She might be jaded and skeptical of, well, everything and everyone, but she wasn’t a witch.

Holding the two choices of tops Jackie had brought me in my hand, I tried to make the decision of which was the lesser of two evils.

Much like my choice of joggers.

“Because she said the only way you’d meet a man was if your place caught on fire and a fireman came to save you, and BOOM! Just like that!” She snapped her fingers. “That’s what happened. Fire, which, totally scary by the way! And I’m glad you’re okay, but damn! Did she call that, or what?”

“I think it was probably an educated guess from whatever she saw at my place or building that I hadn’t last night. She seemed… spooked.” I shrugged.

“Maybe she can make an educated guess about me with some sexy, not too old, rugged mountain man billionaire for me?” I coughed to hide my laugh.

My baby sister was ridiculous sometimes.

I set the matching neon green shirt down and went with the white oversized shirt. Only to pull it up and over my head to find out it was a crop top. I was too curvy to pull this off.

“Ooo! That looks super cute on you! You should keep that whole outfit,” she complimented. I fought from making a face.

“I might have to.”

“Ale—“

“Depending on if any of my clothes survived the fire,” I muttered, glancing down at myself.

There were so many things I had to figure out, I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head of how this fire was going to affect everything.

My life. The everyday routine of it. I didn’t even want to think about my things.

My books. What survived and what didn’t.

No, I couldn’t go there. I had to stay positive. In the meantime, I’d focus on what was in front of me. Day by day, hour by hour.

My eyes dropped to the pants I was wearing. There was no way I could pull off this look. Where they looked wide legged on my little sister, they were fitted on me. Not hiding anything. Every curve was out there to show. My hand dropped to the front of my belly, and I made a face.

“Let me look at you,” Jack called out. I looked up at her, noticing her phone in her hand. “Smile for me.”

“Jackie!” I groaned, but she shook her head.

“Nope. Uh-uh.” She shook her finger with a bit of attitude.

“None of that. You just had some hunky, older fireman daddy wrapped around you all night long. One who carried you out of a fire, no less. That’s not the face of the girl who experienced that.

” My lips twitched because she wasn’t wrong.

I felt my lips tip upward thinking about the way he’d held me.

not just when he found me in my apartment but all through the night.

I remembered the promise I’d made myself. No regrets.

“Got it!” Jackie exclaimed. My sister stood next to me, leaning in to show me her cell phone. Right there was a full-body shot of me, smiling. I didn’t just look happy, I looked good. Curvy but confident.

“See, you look great!” I couldn’t stop staring at the picture.

My first instinct was to scrutinize every roll and curve, but I didn’t let myself. Jackie wasn’t lying. Somehow, the joggers that were more fitted on me looked good with the boxy crop top that might have shown a sliver of skin, but not a whole lot with the high waist of the pants.

“Thanks.” I smiled, tossing my hair down, about to adjust it back into a messy bun. Jackie’s hand took mine and stopped me.

“You should leave it down.” I blinked.

“What? Why? It’s a frizzy mess.” I shook my head, but she didn’t let go of my hand. “Jackie, I look like a lion.”

“You have great hair,” she said gently, almost like she was afraid I’d scoff off her remark. Maybe because that’s exactly what you do whenever she compliments you. “I’m serious.” Her tone was genuine. “It’s pretty. Wavy. Kinda wild.”

“I’m not—“ I stopped mid-sentence.

I’d made myself a promise. Take risks. Live boldly. No regrets.

“I can be wild,” I corrected myself, and my sister tried to mask the enthusiasm that brought to her.

“I know you can.” She winked with a wicked sort of gleam in her eyes as she glanced towards the shut door. “When do you think he’s going to come back?” I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about. I knew.

Nathan Benson.

My beautiful snoop of a sister had searched him on Instagram, and I’d acted disinterested when she showed me his profile and the images of him on our little mountain town’s fire department’s page.

It was scary what she could find in just a little while and a lot of determination.

She could give the FBI a run for their money.

“He’s probably long gone by now,” I mumbled and could have bet money Jackie rolled her eyes at me.

Not that I looked at her. I didn’t want to risk her seeing me sad about it.

He’d said he’d be back, but that had been a while ago.

Or had he? I shook my head. I was being silly.

He didn’t have to come back. Hell, I had probably somehow guilted him into cuddling with me all night.

I just hoped he didn’t get in trouble at work for staying overnight.

“Oh yeah, a guy happens to ride with you to the hospital?—“

“It’s his job, Jack,” I reminded her.

“His job!” she scoffed. “Hate to break it to you, but nowhere is it protocol for a fireman to ride with a patient and stay with them.” I ignored her. “I looked it up,” she added.

But I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I didn’t want to let myself believe that what I felt when I looked into his eyes, when I first saw his face, could possibly be real.

That those feelings, so strong, could possibly be reciprocated.

Instead, I got busy. I grabbed the extra clothes Jackie had brought, because my sister loved to give me choices, and put everything back in the hot pink duffle bag she’d been kind enough to bring for me.

I smiled at the array of colors inside the bag.

My beautiful, bright, bolder-than-life little sister could teach me a thing about the whole no-regrets thing.

My thoughts wandered as Jackie talked about some PR kit she’d received.

The sexy fireman, the man who looked like he had walked right off the pages of a romance book.

A real-life hero. My very own knight in shining armor.

He hadn’t returned after saying he was going to step out, and I was all about believing people when they showed you who they really were.

That was almost two hours ago now.

Two nurses had come in, and after taking my vitals, told me I was all good to go.

Go where exactly, I wasn’t sure. But I was being discharged, and I wasn’t going to get overwhelmed about the million things I had to focus on. I had to focus on the big picture.

I was okay.

I was safe.

All thanks to…

“Speaking of the fireman hottie!” Jackie obnoxiously greeted the man who had gone home to change, by the looks of it.

His hair damp from a shower, he wore a soft white shirt that showed off the powerful muscular body that lay beneath the cotton fabric without being showy.

He’d paired it with faded jeans that looked like they were custom made just for him.

If that wasn’t enough to make my brain fritz out a little, he was holding a bouquet of pink and white daises that had been wrapped up in butcher paper and were held together by a yellow-striped ribbon. Flowers. For me?

“Hey,” he greeted me with an almost shy smile. Did men get shy? One who looked like he did?

“Hi,” I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my joggers.

“I picked these up for you.” He handed me the bouquet.

“Oh!” I blinked and looked up at him as our fingers brushed. “Thank you.” My eyes dropped to the beautiful arrangement. Somehow, without knowing me, he’d picked my favorites.

“Well… I’m going to take this.” My sister grabbed the duffle bag from my hand. “And go get, a.. umm… snack. I will be back.”

“You don’t have to—“ I started to say, but I could tell she was up to something.

“Fewer things for us to carry,” she said with a huge smile on her face.

“Carry?” he cut in, and Jackie turned. I could tell by the way she was looking at him that she had something up her sleeve.

“To the car.”

“Oh, umm… I can take Alex home, if you would like.”

“Home?” She smirked. “Do you mean your place or?—“

“Wait, was my building cleared?” I cut in because I didn’t want to know what Jackie thought she was up to.

“No. Shit, sorry. Last night, while you were sleeping, your siter stopped by. Liz?”

“She did?” Jackie and I asked simultaneously.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it earlier. She said you can stay at her place. That you have a key.” I looked at Jackie. Something in her eyes softened.

“If you want to stay there to have your space, I totally understand. But if you want someone around, I’m here, too, and my place…” She kept talking, and I tried to listen, but all I could do was think about the last time I’d been there.

It gave me anxiety.

With four other roommates, her place was always too loud and too busy.

“I’m sorry.” I winced.

If I had to choose where to stay until I figured out my living situation, it would be Liz’s place. She’d be gone for at least a month anyhow. Maybe by the time she returned, I’d already found somewhere else to live or my building would be okay to go back to. Jackie squeezed my hand.

“Nothing to be sorry about.” She smiled before glancing over her shoulder at Nate. “Would you really be up for giving her a ride?” she asked with a salacious smile on her face. My face heated at the double-entendre my sister had used on purpose.

“Jack!”

“It’s just that I have a… meeting.” She was lying. I couldn’t prove it, but I knew her. She was definitely up to something.

“I’d love to.” He shocked me by agreeing so easily, stepping closer. When our eyes locked, it felt like everything and everyone around us disappeared. “I mean, if you’re okay with it.” My insides went all warm and fuzzy.

No regrets. Be wild. Take chances, a soft voice in my head reminded me of the promise I’d made myself. I’d thought the first thing I’d do would be to go get a haircut or change the color of it. Maybe even get a tattoo or a piercing?

Start off easy.

But as I stared at him, the hope in his beautiful blue stare radiating off and onto me in waves made me want to believe, too. To hope for more. To believe in whatever we were obviously both feeling and drawn to.

I guess I was going to do something really wild first, like putting my heart on the line.

It was insane and stupid, but I wasn’t going to overthink it. I was going to go with it because there wasn’t a thing I was going to regret from here on out until the day I died.

“Thank you,” I accepted softly. “I’d appreciate it.”

Hoping that somehow, this all wouldn’t blow up in my face.