Page 38 of Love Songs

I prayed to the universe that the sound had only been my imagination and climbed onto the ladder with an extra eighty pounds of dead weight over my shoulder.

Paramedics rushed to us at the bottom to take the kids while both of our captains railed at us—me for disobeying orders and Juno for going back when her team had been recalled.

An eardrum-busting boom cut off Burgess and Baraldi’s tirades, and the roof of the apartment building collapsed, shaking the earth under our feet. Flames exploded from the broken upper floor windows a good twenty feet out and thirty feet high. Shattered glass rained down on the ground, sending first responders running.

If we’d still been in there . . .

“You,” Captain Burgess pointed at me, his cheeks flush with anger or heat. Probably both. “Go help clean up and then start on-scene decon.”

“Same goes for you,” Captain Baraldi barked at Juno.

“Good to see you, sis,” I said as our captains walked away, and we headed toward our respective engines.

“Good to see you too, big bro,” she said, poking me in the ribs with her elbow, for all the good that did under our turnout gear.

“You know, we really have to plan our visits better,” I said, trying for levity but still wondering if I’d heard a voice when we were up there.

“So, what’s this I hear about you datingtheDallas Blade?” She looked up at me with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Christ,” I groaned and dragged a hand down my face. “How the hell did you hear about that all the way down in Grantham?”

“Please.” She snorted. “I’m only an hour away. Besides, Emma heard it from one of her patients, and she told Mom and Dad, and they told me.”

“Oh my God.” Our oldest sister Emma was the biggest gossip in the family, and being the only doctor in town, she got the scoop from almost everyone in Caldwell Crossing. “Mom and Dad know?Great.”

Any minute now, my phone would be buzzing with their calls, asking when I was going to bring Dallas around for them to meet, and before I knew it, they’d be including him in family get-togethers and all. Then Mom would head the wedding planning crew.

“Like they don’t already know everything going on with us anyway.” She laughed, and I snort-huffed in agreement.

She was right. I didn’t know what it was about parents, but they had some strange sort of sixth sense. When I was youngerand my imagination would run rampant, I used to wonder if they’d received some kind of magical drug at the hospital that gave them all-knowing superpowers.

“We are not dating,” I argued for the millionth time today. “He’s a big-time international rock star, and I’m a small-town firefighter. It would never work.”

She studied me for a long moment, and I fought the urge to fidget under her intense stare.

“What?” I asked finally.

“But you want it to work, don’t you?”

“Not answering that.”

Juno was quiet for a minute, but her smile may as well have been shouting through a megaphone.

“So,” she drawled. Soot streaked over the bridge of her nose and brows, making her look a bit like a racoon. “When do I get to meet this famous rock star you’re not dating?”

“Probably never.” I pulled my helmet off and ran a hand through my sweaty hair. “He’s leaving town tomorrow and I doubt I’ll see him again.”

“Hmm.”

I threw my arms up. “What doeshmmmean?”

She shrugged. “You know the saying ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’?”

“Did you forget that we’re firefighters? Smoke and fire are literally in our job descriptions.”

“And the flip side of that adage is ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’,” she said sagely.

I shook my head and playfully shoved her.Sisters,man.

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