Page 23 of Hot to the Touch

Courtney smiled sadly and continued. “He was coping before the shooting. Barely. He needed one thing to send him over the edge, and I was afraid he wouldn’t survive when something finally happened. I’ve been warning him for years that if he went over the edge, he wouldn’t have custody of Kaitlyn anymore, but you’ve made all the difference, Chelsea. Whatever you’re doing is working. He’s not just surviving anymore. He seems like he’s getting back to living again.”

The words tore through Chelsea’s heart, and she nodded, not able to disagree with the fact that Redmond looked better. Acted better. Redmond had transformed before her very eyes in the last month, and she expected he’d keep charging down the same path of improvement.

“Thank you,” Chelsea whispered, unsure of how else to relay how she felt about the words Courtney spoke.

“No, thank you. For the first time since he got out of the service, I feel like I won’t have to take Kaitlyn away from him—like I’m always going to have the help I need with her. It’s refreshing to see him this way.”

Chelsea couldn’t agree more.

14

He had everything planned for their five-month anniversary of sorts. He didn’t know the date they’d become a couple, as it hadn’t been evident to either of them when it happened. Maybe it was the day he’d called her over for strictly sex, or maybe it was three days before the shooting when he told her that he wouldn’t mind giving her a drawer in his dresser for her belongings.

For all he knew, they still weren’t considered a couple, but he knew one thing for certain, and it was that he wanted her to be in his life for as long as he lived. With Chelsea, Redmond could finally move beyond his past. He could finally acknowledge that it was time for him to move past Claire’s death and find someone else.

Acknowledging that fact is what convinced him that Chelsea was it for him. And that’s the reason he’d marked on the calendar five months from the time he’d first met her.

It was why he’d made a few purchases for tomorrow night.

He walked out of the fire station after a long 24-hour shift with Aiden at his side. Sully and Shailene marched in the opposite direction, prepared to leave and go home together. Redmond didn’t understand the relationship they had, and he likely never would. They competed and bickered like an old married couple, but Redmond saw the love in their eyes—the protective streak that ran through Sully when Shailene did her job.

“Who is she?” Aiden asked.

Redmond furrowed his brow, thrown for a loop by his question. “Shailene?”

“No, dumbass. Who’s this girl who has you acting like a whole different person?”

Redmond realized for the first time that the brooding, quiet demeanor he’d always used had been a result of everything he’d been forced to endure. He hadn’t known Aiden before Claire’s death, so Aiden didn’t know the man he used to be—the quiet but joking man who could get away from his superior’s scolding with a well-placed joke. Aiden only saw the way Redmond’s burns had allowed him to fade into misery.

The only face that Aiden had ever seen was the one that was teetering on the edge of survival. Aiden only saw the Redmond who was days away from losing his child, his job, and his life.

“It’s not because of a girl.”

But was that the truth? Had he not hurt Chelsea in the way he had, and had she not forgiven him for such a horrible act, would Redmond have taken the initiative to better himself? Probably not. He’d have done the bare minimum, the same way he had for years.

“You’re telling me that you don’t have a girl in your life? I misread the situation that much?” Aiden asked. “Because I don’t usually misread situations, and Emily has been persistently mentioning you and Chelsea in the same sentences.”

Redmond scowled. Chelsea and his girlfriend primarily worked together. Chelsea represented Emily’s novels and received a decent stipend from their success. Outside of that, though, Redmond knew the women talked often. He had no doubt that Aiden heard the tail end of many conversations between them.

Why the hell would he ask a question he already knew the answer to?

“Donovan,” Aiden pushed. “I know you’re hiding something from me. Is it this?”

“We’ve been seeing each other.” He wanted to use the word ‘relationship’, and maybe add in ‘girlfriend’ for some flair, but he couldn’t do that without discussing it with Chelsea. She’d been more than understanding about a lack of titles on their relationship, but she deserved to know where they stood, especially with his hot and cold moods over the past five months.

“You gave me a piece of advice when I first met Emily. Do you remember it?” Aiden asked. His tone sounded more serious than before, and Redmond’s attention focused on the boy. “You told me not to fall for a girl who I saved from a fire. You said that it would just end in heartbreak.”

“It was good advice,” Redmond told him.

Aiden remained quiet for a moment as he leaned against the back end of his sports car and crossed his arms. “Isn’t that what you did with Chelsea?”

Redmond had thought long and hard about the implication of the white knight syndrome that had likely blinded her at the start of their relationship. He’d even done his best to push Chelsea away back then, but as he considered the beautiful, strong-willed woman with a slight English accent and compelling cloud-colored eyes, he knew that his feelings for her were more than passing ones.

He most enjoyed picturing her tied beneath him, moaning his name in the soft and sweet way she had.

“It is.”

Aiden shook his head. “That’s a dangerous game.”