Amongst The Flames: A Contemporary Christian Romance (Embers and Ashes Book 1) Read Free

to be alright?” I asked as he helped me down the stairs.
    “She’ll be okay,” Kane said as we came out of the building. I nodded as I tried to walk on my own. An unbearable pain weighed on my bad arm, giving me the sensation of being pulled down.
    “Ahhh…” I grunted, grabbing my forearm to help ease the pulling feeling.
    A paramedic came over to me and said, “I need to take a look at you.”
    “I’m fine,” I replied as I wiped my face of sweat with my good arm. I could feel the soot from the building smear across my forehead. “Just make sure that little girl is okay.”
    His eyebrows went up as he looked at my arm and all the blood my jacket was soaked in. Glancing down at where I was hit, I saw my Kevlar jacket was no match for whatever hit me; it tore through the material with ease. Whatever ‘it’ was it managed to slice through all the layers and straight into the muscle of my arm. Suddenly I felt light headed, and everything went black.
     

     
    Lying in a hospital bed was the last place on earth I wanted to be that afternoon. The rest of the guys were back at the station getting ready for the next call to come in. Being idle, motion-less and like that of a vegetable was absolute torture for me. I felt useless lying in that bed and everything was out of my control. This injury didn’t need an operation in my mind, but the doctors and nurses insisted otherwise.
    My wife Megan was three hours away in Yakima visiting a friend, but she headed here as soon as she got word that I was hurt. She overreacted, as usual. Last year I fell off a ladder and scraped my arm, and for a month straight she told me to be careful every time I left for work. She was always worrying about me.
    Walking into my hospital room, Megan began crying immediately, as our eyes met on her way over to my bed. Those tears that live in my wife’s eyes were no regular tears at all. They had the ability to cut right through me when they made their appearance.
    “Honey, don’t cry. Please? Save those tears for the next time you want something at the mall. Don’t waste them here and on this little injury,” I said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.
    “How can I not cry? You could have died, Cole!” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.
    “I wasn’t even close to dying, love,” I replied, bringing her hand up to my lips. Planting one on her hand, I looked up at her and smiled.
    “You should really take Luis up on that offer in California. Me, you and the boys can all just have a normal life and you can work a normal 9 to 5 at MyTech.”
    Shaking my head, I said, “I can’t do that to the guys at the station. We’ve been over this…”
    She pulled her hand out of mine and said, “You hadn’t been hurt before, though… Not seriously anyway… I don’t want you to end up like my uncle.”
    “That was a freak accident and he’s one of only twelve guys who have lost their lives at the station since 1914 when it opened.”
    “I know… but it’s still a dangerous line of work.”
    “You knew that when we got married. Heck, I met you at the fire station!” I began laughing.
    “I know… but you used to have passions that led me to believe you might want something different than this all your life.”
    “What’s wrong with saving lives? I saved a little girl in that burning building today. She might not be alive if it wasn’t for me finding her in time.”
    “I know… And that’s really cool, babe… I… I just worry.”
    “I love you, baby, and I’m sorry I got hurt,” I said grasping onto her hand tightly. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

CHAPTER 2
    A couple days into my recovery at home and I was already going out of my mind. Megan was constantly hollering at the boys, and a pungent smell of poop and pee seemed to fill the air in every room. I was more than ready to get back to work pronto.
    One morning my cell phone buzzed on the nightstand next to me. Reaching over, I grabbed the remote for