He knew better than to let himself think about that scenario, about what might have been if he hadn’t gotten to them in time. Instead, he told himself he was glad for the reminder of what they were to each other.
Megan was the woman he’d saved. The one time he’d made the mistake of getting involved with a fire victim he’d saved, things had gone terribly wrong. All these years later, he could hardly believe what Kate had done when he’d broken up with her, that she’d—
“Gabe, honey, are you all right?”
At his mother’s hand on his arm and her soft, but concerned, question, he shoved the memory back down. Still, he needed to get his mother to understand that Megan wasn’t any different from any other fire victim, and that there was nothing special between them.
“She’s still processing the incident. It’s perfectly normal.”
“I suppose so,” she said softly, “but I didn’t expect her to apologize to me.”
He frowned. “She apologized?”
“She feels responsible for you getting hurt. She said if she had moved faster, if she’d just been able to hold it together better, that you wouldn’t have been where you were when the beam fell.”
“That’s bullshit.”
He didn’t realize he’d sworn aloud until his mother looked at him with raised eyebrows, but he couldn’t stand the thought that Megan blamed herself in some way for anything that had happened.
“She was incredibly strong. She should have been unconscious long before then, but she was fighting for her daughter’s life.” He closed his eyes for a brief second and he was right back there in the smoke. “You should have seen her.”
“Sophie is thrilled they’ve reconnected. I hope to see more of her.”
Only Zach knew that he didn’t date fire victims anymore—and the reason why. Which was probably why Zach thought it was safe to make a play for Megan, because he knew being with her would break one of Gabe’s hard and fast rules.
But his mother had never believed in matchmaking, thank God. So he tried not to read anything into her statement.
“What can I get you to drink, honey?”
Man, did he ever need something to take the edge off. The problem was, even though this wasn’t his official shift, the station was short staffed over the winter holidays and he’d agreed to be a backup on the roster. Which meant there’d be no alcohol for him tonight.
“Go ahead and entertain your guests, Mom. I’ll take care of my own drink.”
“Okay, and if you wouldn’t mind starting a fire in the fire pit outside, I’d really appreciate it.”
Any one of his siblings could have started the fire for her, but he knew she liked to have him do it because she—correctly—assumed he was more concerned with fire safety than the others.
“No problem.”
She kissed him on the cheek and moved back into the throng of old friends, but instead of heading over to the bar for a soda, he made a beeline for the woman he’d planned on staying away from the rest of the night.
Chapter Six
Why was Gabe looking at her like that?
Megan felt the slightest bit fuzzy from the glass of champagne she’d guzzled way too fast, but she wasn’t even close to drunk. So then, why was she all but wobbling in her heels as Gabe moved through the crowded living room toward where she was standing with his brother?
She’d felt him watching her while she’d been talking to Zach and Ryan—and maybe she’d let herself laugh a little louder than normal, if only to make sure he didn’t think she was at all interested in him.
“Call me tomorrow about your flat and I’ll take care of it for you.” Zach Sullivan followed up his words with a grin that had her flushing.
But not because she was attracted to him. Okay, so she was human, and out of all the Sullivan men, Zach was undoubtedly the best looking on a technical scale that measured height of cheekbones and distance between the eyes.
The thing was, for whatever teeny-tiny flutter that had happened as a result of Zach’s undivided attention, there was an earthquake going on inside her from nothing more than Gabe’s hot eyes staring a hole in her from across the room. An earthquake causing ruptures inside, threatening to break open parts of her that she’d sworn to keep locked down.
She opened her mouth to thank him for the offer, but before she could, Gabe moved between the two of them. “Get lost, Zach.”
Zach who? Megan couldn’t take her eyes off the gorgeous firefighter.
“Where’s Summer?” he asked.
Despite all the champagne, her mouth was almost too dry to answer. “Your mother introduced her to some of the other kids. I think they’re checking out the game room in the basement.”
“Good. We need to talk.” He gestured to the backyard. “Somewhere private would be best.”
Even though he was easygoing with her daughter, Gabe had always been intense around her. Still, he seemed more serious than usual right now. Something was wrong, she was sure of it. Only, she couldn’t figure out what. Not, of course, that she’d been able to figure him out at all, yet.
She headed through the French doors that led to the empty back patio, with Gabe close enough behind her that she could feel his heat keeping her warm as they stepped out into the cool air. She moved farther into the darkness, away from the crowd of people drinking and eating and laughing together.
He took off his leather jacket. “Here.”