Page 82 of Rescued Heart

Firefighting he could do. He wasn’t sure about the Mary and Bianca thing.

Eddie stepped to the starting line beside Amelia.

Ridge held out the stopwatch. “You ready? On your mark…”

Amelia raised her arm. “The chief should count us down. It’s only fair.”

Ridge gave Amelia a glare. “Should he do the stopwatch too?”

Eddie gave Ridge a look. “Maybe you and Patterson should be racing instead.”

Bryce smirked. “As much fun as that would be for the rest of us, Patterson, the chief is busy. Foster races into fires for a living. Surely he can handle the time.”

Ridge raised his brows at Amelia and then to Eddie. “Ready? On your mark, get set, go!”

Eddie shot up the ladder.

On the roof, he was the first to his rescue dummy. Amelia only had hers hoisted onto her shoulder as Eddie had already started down the ladder. His boots hit the ground, and this time, as he neared the rain puddle, he went around it.

Amelia’s boots thumped behind him, but he didn’t turn, kept his sights on the goal—the ambulance ahead.

Zack waved him on from the sidelines. “She’s coming! Go, Eddie, go!”

Eddie sprinted hard and rested his rescue dummy on the stretcher placed at the rear of the ambulance.

His fellow rescue squad members lifted their arms in victory. Eddie pumped his fist and smiled.

Until he spotted Bianca.

She waited farther down the drive, dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. The wind blew her hair back, making her appear, even in her casual clothing, as if she were here for a photoshoot.

He unsnapped his helmet. After his short reply to her text, he was surprised to see her.

Zack jogged up behind him. “Why don’t you go and straighten out a few things? I’ll take care of the dummy and your helmet.”

Eddie handed over his helmet. He walked down the drive and stopped in front of Bianca, only then noticing the two familiar cups in her hands.

“You brought me a milkshake?”

“I’m sorry.” She set the milkshakes on the ground. “I don’t want it to look like a bribe. I passed the restaurant on the way here and…Eddie, I never should have assumed that it was okay to bring someone to you without asking. I keep doing that. I don’t mean to be self-focused, but I promise to try harder not to be. To think of your needs over mine.”

The sincerity in her gaze made Eddie glance down. Which brought his attention to her mouth. Which was bad because he didn’t need to be looking at her lips.

He stared at the grass to the left of the driveway and ran his fingers along his hair. “Before Mary left for jail that last time, she’d promised me that she’d become a better mother. Instead, when she was released, she stopped being my mother officially. Gave me up to follow her dreams of happiness.”

Tears swam in Bianca’s eyes. He didn’t even have a second to open his arms out fully before she fell against his chest and wrapped him into a hug he hadn’t even known he’d needed.

She tightened her arms around his back. “I’m afraid your milkshake is going to melt and be pointless.”

He set his chin on top of her head. “It’ll be all right.”

It would. Because God had his future.

Milkshakes didn’t exactly fix mistakes, but maybe it was time Eddie finally faced his past.

SEVENTEEN

One more dress fitting and then she could hide in her trailer. Maybe she’d go to bed early and dream of a way to fix her mistakes. Yesterday’s milkshake hadn’t exactly covered her actions with Mary. And with all the extra scenes and dress rehearsals, she hadn’t seen Eddie at all today to judge how he was doing.

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