Page 17 of Feastin' with Fire
"Food and beer will be enough," I assure her with a smile. "And this way, you'll prove your parents wrong."
She kisses my cheek, the gesture surprisingly tender after what we've just done.
"I'd love to know your relationship with your parents," she says. "You mentioned your mother remarried, but..."
I never thought I'd be sharing my family history with someone I just met, especially while sitting naked on my couch, but if we both want more than just sex, I need to be honest. It's only fair after everything she has shared.
"My father walked out when I was twelve," I begin, the old pain dulled by time but never completely gone. "Never heard from him again. My mother remarried when I was fourteen to a mean drunk who used me as his personal punching bag. I moved out ateighteen, joined the fire department. Mom died of cancer a few years later."
I pause, remembering those dark days. "Haven't spoken to my stepfather since her funeral. Don't know if he's even still alive. Don't particularly care."
"I'm sorry for asking," Lily says, her hand resting on my chest, over my heart.
"It's okay. I've learned to live with it," I tell her. "Made my own family with the guys at the station."
She hesitates, fidgeting with her fingers before looking up at me with those big brown eyes. "Perhaps... I could be some kind of new family for you. A place you can call home."
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, but in the best possible way. No one has ever offered me that before. Family. Home. The things I've wanted but convinced myself I didn't need, couldn't have.
"We'll be each other's new family then," I say, pulling her close again. "Neither of us has to be alone again."
She settles against me, fitting perfectly in my arms like she was made to be there. For the first time in longer than I can remember, I feel something that seems dangerously close to hope.
The woman who came to me with nothing has given me everything I didn't know I needed.
Later, after we've showered together (and christened the shower in ways that leave us both weak-kneed and laughing), we lie in my bed. Our bed now, I suppose. Lily's head rests on my chest, her breathing even and peaceful.
"You know," she murmurs sleepily, "when I was standing in that burning shop, I thought I'd lost everything that mattered."
I stroke her hair, marveling at how soft it is. "And now?"
She props herself up on one elbow to look at me, her face serious. "Now I think maybe I had to lose everything to find what really matters."
I pull her down for a kiss, gentle but full of promise. "We'll rebuild your shop," I tell her. "But we'll build this first—us."
She smiles against my lips. "Thanksgiving miracle, right?”
“Exactly” I say.
Outside the window, dawn is breaking over Pine Haven, the first light touching the trees around my isolated house. For years, I chose this solitude, convinced it was all I needed. Now, with Lily warm and soft in my arms, I realize how wrong I was.
Sometimes it takes losing everything to find what you never knew you were looking for. Sometimes rescue comes in unexpected forms.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the people who walk through fire find exactly where they belong. Together.
Epilogue - Lily
One year later, I stand in the middle of my new shop, breathing in the scent of fresh-cut flowers and possibility. Petals & Blooms 2.0, resurrected from ashes like some botanical phoenix.
The grand reopening is tomorrow, and everything is finally ready. The display cases gleam, the coolers hum with perfect temperature control, and arrangements of spring flowers create bursts of color throughout the space. It's better than my first shop in every way—larger, better designed, with a small coffee corner where customers can sit while discussing their floral needs.
None of this would exist without Jimmy. My rescuer, my lover, my fucking husband. The plain gold band on my left hand still surprises me sometimes when it catches the light.
Jimmy and his crew from the fire department spent every weekend for months helping rebuild this place. Tommy and Conrad with his carpentry skills crafting custom shelving. Chief with his unexpected talent for electrical work. Even rookie Danny, always eager to help carry heavy loads and learn from the older men.
But the real shock came when the Outlaw Order MC showed up one Saturday morning, their Harleys thundering down Main Street like harbingers of the apocalypse. Turned out their president's daughter had ordered flowers from my original shop. He said they "appreciated good fucking business" and proceeded to have his crew of tattooed, leather-clad outlaws install the shop's security system and reinforce all the doors and windows.
Pine Haven. Who would have thought this small town would embrace me so completely?
