Wildfire Griffin (Fire & Rescue Shifters: Wildfire Crew #1)(32)

“Good.” His voice softened a fraction. “Look, Rory believes in you. And even if I occasionally wish to skin him and fashion his hide into a fetching hat, I trust him. Give me your best self, show me what he sees in you, and I’ll gladly eat humble pie and ask for seconds. Prove his instincts are right. Don’t let him down.”

Her fingernails bit into her palms. “I won’t.”

With a small nod, Buck left. She managed to stay standing until he was out of sight.

Then she folded into a huddled ball. She rocked in tight jerks, jamming her fist into her mouth to stifle her involuntary sobs. Buck’s implacable voice echoed like thunder in her head.

If you go, so does Rory.

If you go, so does Rory.

“Edith? Are you up here?”

She jerked upright in panic. The light through the windows had darkened into dusk.

She couldn’t be seen like this. Other people didn’t collapse, shaking from head to toe. Other people didn’t zone out and lose chunks of time. Other people didn’t have meltdowns.

Above all else, she had to be like other people now. She couldn’t afford the slightest hint that she was different.

Otherwise Rory would pay the price.

“Edith?” Blaise called again.

She scrubbed her hands over her face, putting her expression back in order. “Yes! I’m here!”

Blaise’s head popped up from the stairs. “There you are! Rory sent me to see where you’d got to. Why are you still up here? Couldn’t you find what you needed?”

“I-it took awhile,” Edith lied, ducking her head to hide her face. She gathered up her uniform. “But I found it all in the end.”

“Great. If any of it turns out not to fit right, don’t suffer in silence. Not good for anyone if your gear is giving you blisters out on the line.” Blaise hesitated. “Did you talk to Rory about whatever it was that was bothering you?”

“Kind of.” She was grateful for the pile of equipment occupying her arms. It stopped her hands from giving her away. “It doesn’t matter now.”

Blaise eyed her for a moment longer before shrugging. “Well, come on. I’ll show you where we stow our squad’s stuff, and then you still have to unpack.” The other woman bumped her, shoulder to shoulder, in a friendly fashion. “Assuming you’ve decided to stay after all.”

“Yes.” Edith set her jaw. Her fingers dug into the rough fabric of her folded turn outs. “I’m staying.”





Chapter 13





Rory was getting dressed when the call he’d been expecting finally came. Shoving his head through the neck of his t-shirt, he lunged for his cellphone. “Dad!”

Framed in the tiny screen, the grainy, juddering image of his father smiled up at him. “So I gather you’ve found your mate.”

The picture-in-picture video showed Rory his own big sappy grin. He didn’t care how much of a massive dork he looked. With Edith in his life, he thought he might never stop smiling.

“I’m sorry to give such big news over email,” he said to his father. “With the time difference, it was too late to call you last night.”

The fine lines around Griff’s golden eyes crinkled with amusement. Sometimes looking at his father was scarily like peering into a mirror and seeing his future self.

“Oh, I didn’t hear it from your email,” Griff said. “Though your mother is still poring over that, ah, extensive essay extolling Edith’s many virtues. No, I heard the news from Chase.”

Rory was taken aback. Chase was Callum’s father, one of his own dad’s fire engine crewmates. “Cal actually picked up a phone and talked to his family?”

Griff shook his head. “Alas, no. Chase got it from Ash, who of course learned it from Rose. Who in turn was told by your brother, since she overheard part of your phone call with him last night.”

That had been inevitable, he supposed. Rose owned the pub where Ross worked as a bartender. She was their godmother, so he didn’t really mind Ross sharing the news with her.

“You and Mom aren’t upset that I told Ross first, are you?” he asked. “It’s just that I knew he’d still be awake, closing up the pub.”

“Of course you told your twin first.” Griff waved a hand in dismissal. “But he immediately called up all your sisters, since he knew his life would be a living hell if they found out he’d kept such juicy gossip from them for even a minute. And they called your cousins, who called your aunts…with the result that Chase only managed to be the first to tell me the news because he wasn’t shy about waking me up at the crack of dawn. My phone has been going off all morning.”

Rory winced. With five siblings, seven aunts, and enough cousins to form a football team, he had a lot of relatives. And they were all impossibly nosy. Maybe Edith was right to prefer being an only child.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “Why haven’t they been calling me?”

“Ross made everyone swear not to hassle you. Said you were going to have enough problems winning your mate without your entire family peering over your shoulder and offering helpful advice.”

That was his twin. Combining incredible thoughtfulness with a back-handed insult. Thanks, Ross.

Rory folded himself onto his narrow bunk, cupping his phone between his hands. “Well, I could actually use some helpful advice. From one person, at least.”