Relight My Fire: Piper Falls: Firehouse 49 Book 6 by Louise Murchie

Author:Louise Murchie [Murchie, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carxander Publishing
Published: 2023-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The Flame Goes On

㊋ Nick ㊋

Spending downtime with the squads helps me relax. They’re people I know, who have saved my life and me theirs. I haven’t shared with Abi that new people make me uncomfortable, thanks to that incident with Jessica.

I smile knowingly when I see Abi get roped into conversations with the girls, helping out, and she gets stuck in, just like she did when we were kids. Having Taylor running around adds to the fun, and Jaxon explains his nanny has the day off.

Caleb nudges me and grins. “How’s it going?” he asks, and I grin at him as Beau comes up to offer us a beer.

“Going good,” I tell him, being honest. “Feels like she’s been here forever.”

“She’s been close in forever—just, you wouldn’t admit you hankered over a girl we only spent one summer with,” he says, making me snort and Beau chuckle. The usually quiet, stoic, hard-nosed firefighter finally lets his guard down in casual settings, like he can dare to be himself.

“So what happened that summer?” Beau enquires, and I nod to Caleb, encouraging him to tell the story.

“We’d snuck onto the corporate ranch because, you know, the corporate lot owned it,” he begins, making Jaxon scowl. “Easy, boss-man, this is back when we were kids, they didn’t have the security systems back then and we didn’t think to come and ask here. Anyway,” he continues as he leans against the table, “Abi hadn’t seen horses up close before, so we snuck on and came to admire them. There was an Appaloosa that took a real liking to Abi and made such a fuss, it alerted their head ranch hand that we were around. We ran like the wind, but something happened and the stable block caught fire.” He shivers as do I when we recall the sounds and the smells. “They didn’t get all the horses out. The one that had a thing for Abi, they shot,” he says. “We learned later it had kicked up a fuss, knocking over a lit lantern.” He shivers again. “We never told her that they put the horse down for causing it,” he finishes, his voice low.

“The horse never caused that fire; the damn hands did for having a lit lantern in the god-damn stables. They shouldn’t have tried to stable it for the night if it was uptight. That’s what paddocks and blankets are for. Wish we’d known, damn rookies,” Jaxon spits.

“Who’s a rookie?” Estrella asks as the girls make their way over, led by Taylor who then hugs his dad’s huge legs. Jaxon scoops him up and tells him to calm down with this many people around.

“I was just telling Jaxon about the summer you were here.” Caleb nods to Abi, and she covers her mouth.

“That beautiful horse didn’t make it, did it?” she asks, and Caleb shakes his head.

“Sorry, ma’am, it didn’t.” Abi closes her eyes, trying to hold back some tears. He shoots Estrella and Aly a warning glance, to which Estrella nods.

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