Page 6 of Her Ohio Old Flame

She snapped her head toward him, her face streaked with soot and sweat. She was half-carrying, half-dragging her father, who hung limp in her grasp.

“Thank goodness. Please help. Dad’s unconscious.” Her voice broke.

Zane closed the distance in a few strides, taking Harold’s weight from her and hoisting him over his shoulder. “Follow me. Now!”

They descended together, the heat pressing in as flames licked at the kitchen doorway. Zane’s focus was on the exit—he couldn’t think about anything else.

Outside, he lowered Harold onto the lawn as carefully as he could, pulling off his helmet and mask as Jack rushed over with oxygen gear.

Asha collapsed beside her mother, her shoulders heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

“Are you hurt?” Zane crouched in front of her, scanning her for injuries.

“I’m fine,” she managed to say, her voice trembling. “Just... Mom’s leg... and Dad—” Her tears spilled over.

“He’s in good hands.” Zane glanced at Jack, who was monitoring Mr. Williams closely. “The ambulance is on its way.”

The shattering of glass inside the house drew Zane’s attention back to the fire. The kitchen was fully engulfed now, the flames licking hungrily at the walls and spreading toward the ceiling.

“Stay with your mom and wait for the doctor!” Zane ordered, his adrenaline surging again. He grabbed his mask and helmet and jumped to his feet. “I’m going to assist my crew.”

Asha sat stiffly in the clinic waiting room, her mother slumped beside her. The antiseptic smell mingled with the faint aroma of lavender lotion her mother always used, a cruel reminder of normalcy amid the chaos.

Mrs. Williams shifted, wincing, clutching the armrest tightly.

“Mom, please,” Asha pleaded, guilt gnawing at her.

“I’ll manage,” her mother muttered. “We need to know about Harold first.”

A nurse appeared, offering pain medication with a kind smile. Mrs. Williams accepted with a quiet “thank you,” her hand trembling.

Asha exhaled, relieved her mother had accepted the pain meds, and her gaze drifted to the window. The sunlight caught on the soot streaking her shirt, a harsh reminder of the morning’s events—and of seeing Zane Parker again.

Her mind flashed back fifteen years ago, just a week before her life was uprooted.

They sat together on the wooden bench in the small park, the late spring air thick with the scent of freshly cut grass and the distant hum of cicadas. Asha swung her legs, her sandals brushing against the dusty ground. Zane leaned back, his arm stretched across the top of the bench, absently tracing the grain of the wood as he stared out at the cluster of trees in the distance.

“You know, I’ve been looking at pictures of the campus,” Asha began, keeping her voice light but edged with excitement. “Columbus is going to be amazing. The law library is massive—four stories high. I’ll probably get lost at least once a week.”

Zane smirked. “Knowing you, you’ll have the whole place mapped out by the end of the first month. You’ll probably even find some secret study nook no one else knows about.”

“Maybe,” she said, grinning, “but I’ll miss this place. And you.”

He turned to look at her, his gaze softening. “You’re really going to be something, Asha. A lawyer. That’s huge.”

“Well, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.” She tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “Four years for my degree, then another three for law school. Then there’s the bar exam.”

“That’s what, seven years?” His brow furrowed, though it sounded as if he tried to keep his tone even.

“Yeah, but I’ll be back for fall break,” she said quickly. “And every holiday. It’s not like I’m disappearing, Zane.”

“I know,” he replied quietly. “It’s just… it sounds like a long time.”

“It does.” She reached over to place her hand on his. “But it’ll fly by. And we’ll make it work. I’ll write you emails, and we can Skype on Sundays. You’ll probably be sick of hearing from me by the time I’m done.”

He chuckled, squeezing her hand with a care that showed he was mindful of their difference in strength and size. “Not likely.”

She smiled at him, her heart swelling at the way his thumb brushed lightly against her knuckles. “And it’s not like you’ll be sitting around bored. You’ve got that firefighter program starting, right? Didn’t you say it’s focused on wildfires?”

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