Chest tight with guilt over the blissful ignorance he’d hidden behind for years, Danny quickly unlatched his seatbelt, threw open the passenger door, and got out of the Ranger. As he stalked around to the driver’s side of his truck, his future flashed before his eyes, and while he’d known it from the first time they’d met, it was never more clear than in that moment. All of the running he’d done, all of the danger he’d faced, all of the time he’d given—none of it filled his heart more than the woman who shared his life and his last name. She was the thrill he’d been seeking, and she’d been his for five years. Things were about to change.

Danny threw open the driver’s side door and growled, “Get out of the car.”

***

JULIE’S HEAD TIPPED back as her eyes met his. When she had offered to drive home from North Carolina in order to give Danny some much needed rest, he’d reluctantly accepted. His body had shut down within minutes of hitting the road. For two hours, the sound of his soft breathing brought her comfort as the miles ticked away. But awake, with raw determination blazing from his eyes, two things struck Julie. The first, it would take a lot more than a couple hours of sleep to remove the dark circles and soul-shredding grief from Danny’s beautiful face. The second, it didn’t matter how many flames her husband had fought; the fire burning in his eyes now had been missing for years. Shame on you for being so blind.

“Get…out…of…the…car. Now.”

Her heart beat faster with his command. She found something about the way his voice deepened and his eyes darkened sexy as hell. Her body always seemed to follow before her mind had time to catch up. Hopping out of the Ranger, she closed the door, then grabbed his hand and followed him to the other side of the truck, away from the open road. As sparse as the traffic might have been, her husband never took chances with her safety.

“Seems like we got ourselves into a bit of a situation, honey. Seeing as I believe I’m the one who started the mess, I’m gonna be the first one to pull out the mop and start cleaning. But you can bet your sweet ass you’ll be following me.”

“All right, Mr. Clean, let’s hear what’s got you so whipped up.” She smiled as she stood with her hands tucked into her winter coat pockets and her back pressed against the Ranger.

“Mr. Clean? Really? Come on, Jules, look at my hair. Hell, I have hair.” Danny chuckled. “Don’t look a thing like that guy.”

Relief had overtaken her the second he stated his intent to leave firefighting behind. She would never have asked nor suggested he give up the career he believed ran in his veins, but he didn’t seem to relish the job the way Allan and Neal did. She felt as if he was going to work halfhearted each shift. One didn’t fight fires halfheartedly. Therefore, each call he went on ramped up her anxiety even further.

The humor was gone from his eyes, replaced with something akin to regret. “Seriously, honey, I fucked up. You told me back when we were dating that you were uncomfortable with my career path, and while I heard you speaking, I didn’t listen to your words. I thought I knew it all. Had my shit planned out and found an amazing woman to be my life partner—”

His words gutted her. He hadn’t fucked up. He was following a path he thought was his. His brother’s death was devastating, but she didn’t want it to make him question his every life choice. Sure, she lived in constant fear, but her parents had always told her that the person who loved her would never try to change her. She loved her husband. “Danny—”

“No, baby, hear me out, please.” She nodded, and he continued. “You know where I went wrong? I didn’t treat you like a partner. A lover, yes. A best friend, sure. But my life partner? No, honey, I screwed up on that part, and the mess began. I knew almost from the start that we were gonna spend forever together. I knew what you’d gone through and the loss you’d suffered. We should have discussed my path. It should have been ours.”

Each word he spoke was balm to a piece of her soul, a piece that he’d unknowingly bruised years before, and was still tender to the touch.

With one hand on the truck’s roof, Danny leaned in closer. “I apologize. I’m sorry that I led you instead of walking beside you. Seeing that look on your face, knowing the fear you had almost every day for four years, makes me sick. Men and women are out there every damn day doing it, just like Neal. Heroes, each of ‘em. But it’s not me. It never was, and I put you through that for no reason.”

Tears welled within her eyes and gratitude swept through her as years of tension slowly unfurled from her limbs. “Danny…I…I want to kiss you. I also want to throttle you.”

And it was true—she was dizzy with conflicting emotions. She’d grown up admiring how her parents supported one another. They didn’t always agree, they weren’t always successful in their ventures, but they always backed each other. Looking back on the past four years, she wasn’t certain how she’d survived it, but she had.

“I’ll accept kisses and throttles, but, my love, this is where your hands get muddy.”

She knew. In that second, it all became crystal clear. But she let him spell it out because she deserved to hear it.

“Honey, you are not, have never been, and—if I can help it—will never be a quiet woman. You speak your mind, and you do it in a way that isn’t rude, condescending, or cruel. It’s truth how you see it and usually it’s truth—period.”

He wasn’t wrong. That was who she was, how her parents had raised her, and how she’d had to be during the year and a half she was on her own. It was who she still was, except when it came to Danny’s job.

“I didn’t listen back then, Jules, but you stopped talking. Don’t do that, babe. I’m a man—stubborn as hell, isn’t that what you say?”

Julie stifled a giggle.

“One day we’re gonna have kids, and if those little guys are anything like me”—he waggled his brows—“you’re gonna be talking all the damn time.”

The mention of future children sent warmth tingling through her body. They’d talked about having a large family when they first got married, and over the past year, they’d been actively trying without success. But both believed it would happen when the time was right.

“We could just as easily have a bunch of little girls, babe.” Julie snorted, throwing out the one thing that shook her husband to the core every single time. “Then it’ll be you doing all of the talking when they have you wrapped around their little fingers.”

Placing his muscled arms against the Ranger, one on each side of her head, amusement danced in Danny’s hazel eyes. “Only talking I’ll be doing is with the punks that try to date my daughters. But I won’t need words for that. My Louisville Slugger will work just fine.”

“Danny…” Julie sighed, flattening her palms against his sculpted chest. “I’m sorry too. I think I was so busy trying to support your decision, trying to be okay with it, that I forgot to challenge it. I forgot to be your partner and ended up being your ladder instead.” The lines between his brows told her he needed more of an explanation. “My fear of losing you in the beginning was debilitating. The last thing I wanted to do was push you further away by holding on too tight. I felt like you would have resented me if I expressed any disapproval about your career path. I was wrong.” Saying the words made them hit harder inside her chest. “You needed me to push a little. To question your choices when I saw they weren’t making you happy. And if we argued, then we would have worked things out the way married couples do…with lots of make-up sex. Trust me, Danny, I’ve learned my lesson. And I won’t forget it.” Even with the cold air whipping around them, the heat from his body warmed her from the outside in, melting the frost that had formed even before Allan’s life-altering phone call.