Page 32 of Some Like It Hot
She backed away from the bed, her gaze on Riley, her fingers to her lips, as if still reeling from his kiss.
Well,yeah.
“Oh no.”
And right then, his heart might have stopped.
She looked at Riley, and he swallowed. What—?
“Really? Okay. Tell her I’m on my way.”
Her.
Riley held his breath as she hung up and walked over to the bed. “I have a problem. One of my patients is in labor. And I need to go see her before we go back to the ranch.”
Oh.
“Did you think—oh no. You thought that was about your team.” She pressed her hand to his arm. “Sorry.”
“I’m good. Let’s get out of here. Go check on your patient.”
“Really?”
“Larke. Wherever you’re going, I’m going.”
“As long as you end up back fighting fire, right?”
He grinned. “Oh honey, I like it when you talk that way.”
She grinned too. “Get dressed.” She took the cannula and dropped it into the medical waste box. Then she headed to the hallway, but not before stopping at the door. “And, thanks, Riley.”
“I’m getting out of bed now, ready or not—”
She laughed and left the room.
Yeah, maybe he could be the good guy after all.
* * *
Riley clearly wasn’tthe only one addicted to jumping into the fire.
Larke really was sitting next to the ghost of Freeman.
Not physically, really, because Freeman had been tall, dark haired, dark skinned, with a calm intensity about him that she’d needed overseas when chaos and destruction and daily danger kept her jumpy and on edge.
Riley might just be the complete opposite with his easy smile, tousled golden brown hair, the way he sat next to her in her truck, wearing aviator sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a clean black T-shirt tucked into his grimy fire pants. Riley was fun and flirt and charm.
But he and Freeman shared the same core. The fearlessness, the sense of duty, the determination to finish the job.
To rescue.
I like to jump into fire and do anything and everything I can to stop it and save lives.
Shoot, she was going to get really hurt here.
Because a gust of crazy relief had whooshed through her when Riley said he’d go with her to Alicia’s. Not because she needed him. And certainly not because she wanted to keep him from dropping out of the sky back into danger—although, yeah, that hovered in the back of her mind—but just because…
With him she felt like she might not be on the ground in pieces, listening to the gunshots, smelling the smoke, trapped and not sure how to get to safety. And sure, she was still outside the fence, but with Riley, maybe not alone.