Page 91 of In Safe Hands

Although she nodded, her insides were still unhappy.

“The training room, then?” Ian asked, reminding her of the direction the conversation had been headed before she’d been distracted by broken windows.

“Sure.” It wasn’t until she was leading the three men into the gym that she remembered the mess she’d made with her improvised barricade. When Junior gave a low whistle, she cringed. “Sorry about this.” She waved her hand at the scattered weights. “I usually keep it neater.”

“This is awesome.” Apparently, the whistle had been in admiration of the room, not condemnation of its untidiness. “Man, I’m jealous. If I had this nice of a gym in my house, I probably wouldn’t leave either.”

Chris, who’d dropped his hands from her shoulders when they’d moved into the training room, stiffened and put a hand on her lower back. Daisy gave him a reassuring smile. Junior’s comment was probably the least upsetting thing that had happened in the past few hours.

Oblivious to Chris’s irritation, Junior grinned as he waved her toward a weight bench. “Your throne, gym princess.”

She smiled and took a seat, but Ian cuffed the back of the other fireman’s helmet.

“Watch it,” Ian growled. “Jennings is ready to rip off your”—he paused with a quick glance at Daisy—“face.”

She ducked her head to hide her amusement. Hovering behind her, Chris made a wordless sound confirming Ian’s warning.

Junior didn’t seem too concerned, judging by the wink he gave her as he wrapped the blood-pressure cuff around her upper arm. He did keep his comments to himself while he took her vitals, although that might have been his professionalism kicking in.

“Everything’s within normal range,” he told her as he unclipped the oximeter from her finger. “I’m assuming you don’t want to visit the hospital?” When she shook her head, he continued, “Medical’s outside, so I can have the paramedics come in and check you out, if you want.”

“Won’t they just check the same things?” she asked.

He grinned at her. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“They don’t need to come in, then. I’m fine.”

“Daisy…” Chris said in his I-know-better-than-you tone, and she turned her head to give him her best no-you-don’t glare.

“I’m fine,” she said firmly. “Thank you, Junior.”

“Anytime.” As he put his equipment away, his eyes roamed the room. “Although if you really want to show your gratitude, you could let me use your gym once in a while.”

“Of course.” She frowned. “Although we might have to start a new training group, since it’s already a pretty tight fit with eight people.”

“Eight?”

“Yes.” She ticked each person off on her fingers as she named them. “Me, Chris, Ian, Rory, Lou, Callum, George, and Ellie.”

Junior whipped around to scowl at Ian. “You’ve been working out here with a bunch of hot chicks and haven’t invited any of the rest of us? Way to hold out on your fire brothers, Beauty.”

“Thanks, Daisy,” Ian groaned. “Now we’ll never keep him out of here. There’s a gym at Station One, Junior.”

“Yeah, with crappy equipment and zero hot chicks. I want to come here.”

“We could have firefighter training days,” Daisy suggested, twisting to look at Chris. “They could just come and use the equipment, so you wouldn’t have to give up more of your time to coach.”

“Nuh-uh.” Junior shook his head. “I want the coed training time.”

“Don’t make me have to smack you again.” Ian raised a hand, but he grabbed the back of Junior’s coat instead of hitting him that time. “Get your bag. Let’s go.”

“You okay, Daisy?” Rory’s voice brought everyone’s attention to the doorway where she stood.

When she saw the other woman, Daisy felt her earlier guilt resurface. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Rory took a few steps into the room. Her bunker gear was obviously new, almost painfully clean compared to the guys’ soot-darkened coats and pants.

“For beating up Ian and almost getting him blown up,” she admitted in a rush, swallowing back the tears that wanted to break free.