By the time the fire department came, they’d gotten everyone out. Several people were injured enough to require several ambulances, which arrived right behind the fire department. Mallory was helping those lined up on the sidewalk. Near her, Matt was assisting the paramedics. Ty, too, looked just as comfortable in a position of medical authority. He had Ryan, who’d somehow gotten a nasty-looking laceration down one arm, seated at the curb. Ty was crouched at the vet’s side, applying pressure to the wound, looking quite capable.

Josh pulled up to the scene and hopped out of his car. Ryan was closest to him, so he stopped beside him first.

“He’s in shock,” Ty said quietly.

It was true. Ryan was shaking, glassy-eyed, disoriented. Definitely in shock. Josh went back to his car and returned with an emergency kit. Ty and Josh wrapped Ryan in an emergency blanket to get him warm, then made sure he was breathing evenly and that his pulse wasn’t too fast. Mallory took over then, sitting at Ryan’s side, holding his hand as she watched Josh and Ty work together in perfect sync on other victims.

When the paramedics were free, they took over Ryan’s care and Mallory moved toward Ty and Josh.

“The least you can do,” Josh was saying to Ty, “now that you’re cleared and still sitting on your ass, is hire on. You know there’s that flight paramedic opening out of Seattle General. That unit runs its ass off, no shortage of adrenaline there. And hell, look at how exciting Lucky Harbor can be.”

Ty ignored him and crouched at Lucille’s feet. “You okay?”

“Oh, sure, honey.” She patted his arm. “You’re a good boy.”

Ty smiled, and Mallory didn’t know if that was at the idea of him being a boy, or good. Then he straightened and turned to Mallory.

She wasn’t surprised that he’d known she was standing behind him. He always seemed to know where she was. “Wow,” she said with what she thought was remarkable calm. “Look at you.”

His eyes locked in on her cheek, and he touched the wound. With a wince, she batted his hand away.

He pulled her away from all the prying eyes and ears. “You need that taken care of,” he said. “Let me help—”

“No.” She needed more help than he could possibly imagine. “It can wait.” She didn’t know where to start, but she gave it the old college try and started at the beginning. “How is it that a mechanic knows how to treat trauma victims?”

His gaze never left hers. “I was a medic in the SEALS.”

“A medic. In the SEALs.” She absorbed that and shook her head. “That’s funny, because I could have sworn you told me you were a mechanic. A navy mechanic, who was doing similar work now.”

“No,” he said. “Well, yes. I work on cars. Sometimes. But that’s for me, for fun.”

“For fun.” She paused, but it didn’t compute. “I pictured you working on ships, maybe on helicopters and tanks. Not bodies. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He responded with a question of his own. “Why does it matter what I was?”

“Because it’s not what you were, Ty, it’s who you are.” How could he not see that? Or hear her heart as it quietly cracked down the center? “You’re going back,” she said. “You’re only here waiting to be cleared…” She stared at him as Josh’s words sank in. “Except you already are cleared.” Oh, God. He could leave now. Any second. “How long have you known? And why would you hide so much from me?” But she already knew the answer to that. It was because they were just fooling around.

Nothing more.

And she had no one to blame but herself. Horrified at how close she was to breaking down, she took a step backward and bumped directly into Sheriff Sawyer Thompson. He’d strode up to the soggy group and now stood there, hands on hips. “What the hell happened here?”

Everyone was still there. No one wanted to miss anything. Every able body in the pathetic, ragtag-looking group immediately gathered ranks around Mrs. Burland, the mean old biddy who’d never done anything nice for a single one of them. In fact, she’d made their life a living hell in a hundred different ways. But they all started talking at once, each giving their story of the drug theft, and how they’d ended up being dumped on by the diner’s sprinkler system.

Once again protecting one of their own.

Mrs. Burland still wasn’t having any of it. She stood up, wobbled with her cane toward the sheriff and held out her wrists. “Arrest me, Copper. But don’t even think about a strip search. I have rights, you know.”

Sawyer assured her that he had no interest in arresting her, because then he’d have to arrest everyone else who’d confessed as well. Looking disgusted and frustrated, he started over, talking to one person at a time.

The crowd began to disperse.

Mallory sank to the curb and dropped her head to her knees, exhausted to the bone and far too close to losing it. Ty, holding so much back from her…How was that even possible? She’d given him everything she’d had.

He wasn’t going to change now, and God help her, she was going to be okay with that if it killed her.

And it just might.

Two battered boots appeared in front of her, and she felt him crouch at her side.

Ty, of course. Her heart only leapt for Ty. He ran a big, warm hand down her back, made a sound of annoyance at finding her still drenched and shivering, and then she felt one of the emergency blankets from the firefighters come around her.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Yeah.” He sat at her side and pulled her in against his warmth. “Extremely fine. But that’s not what’s in question here.”

“What is in question?”

“You tell me.”

“Fine,” she said, and lifted her head. “I don’t get the big secret about being a paramedic.”

“It wasn’t a secret.”

“It feels like a secret,” she said. “That day you came to the hospital to get your stitches out, you could have done that yourself.”

“I wanted to see you.”

Aw.

Dammit, no aw. “Okay, then what about what happened next?” she asked. “When that patient coded out? You got pale and shaky, almost shocky, as if you’d never seen anything like that before.”

Ty was still balanced on the balls of his feet. He lowered his head and studied his shoes for a moment, then looked her right in the eyes. “Do you want to know the last thing I did as a SEAL trauma medic?” he asked, voice dangerously low. She wasn’t the only one pissed off and frustrated.

“I dragged my teammates out of the burning plane,” he told her. “Tommy was already dead, but the others, Brad, Kelly, and Trevor…” He closed his eyes. “I did everything I could, and they died anyway. Afterward, I couldn’t do it. I tried, but I couldn’t go back to being a first line trauma responder.”

Her gut wrenched for him. “Oh, Ty.”

“I was honorably discharged, and when I got work, it wasn’t as a medic. I turned down anything like that for four years. Four years, Mallory, where I didn’t so much as give out a Band-Aid.”

Until he’d come to Lucky Harbor. “Amy’s knife wound,” she whispered.

He nodded grimly. “The first time I’d opened a first-aid kit in all that time.”

And then today. Again, a situation that fell right on him, and he’d stepped into the responsibility as if into a pair of comfortable old shoes. She wondered if he realized that.

“My turn,” he said. “Your job? You lost your job?”

“Not lost. Quit.” She took a moment to study her own shoes now, until he wrapped his fingers around her ponytail and tugged.

She lifted her head and met his gaze. “Mallory,” he said softly. Pained. “Why?”

Why? A million reasons, none of which she wanted to say because suddenly, it was all too much. The job, the HSC, the diner, knowing how she felt about Ty and realizing he was going to leave anyway. Her head hurt, her cheek hurt. And her heart hurt, too. When her eyes filled, he made a low sound. Hard to tell if it was male horror or empathy. But then he wrapped his arms around her, and she planted her face in the crook of his neck.

She should have known he wouldn’t be uncomfortable with tears. He didn’t seem to be uncomfortable with much, when it came right down to it.

Except maybe his own emotions.

How had things gotten so out of control? All she’d wanted was to stretch her wings. Live for herself instead of for others. Try new things. She’d done that, and she’d loved it.

She loved him.

And therein lay her mistake. “The whole HSC drug fiasco is my fault,” she said into his chest. “No one else’s. I screwed up there.” She sucked in a breath as once again her eyes filled. “As for everything else, I always wanted to go a little crazy, but as it turns out, I’m not all that good at it,” she whispered.

He made a show of looking at the utter chaos of the diner. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think you’re better at it than you give yourself credit for.”

She choked out a laugh, realizing that no matter what she did, he had her back. He’d been there for her, one hundred percent. It was in his every look, touch, kiss. “I just wanted something for myself,” she said softly.

“And you deserve that,” he said with absolute conviction, warming her from the inside out. From the beginning, he’d treated her like someone special, from before they’d even known each other’s names. He’d shared his courage, his sense of adventure, his inner strength.

Once, she’d been a woman terribly out of balance with herself and her hopes and dreams. That had changed.

Because of him.

She was in balance now but even that wasn’t enough. Loving him wasn’t enough. It wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Nothing was going to get her what she wanted—which was Ty. She really needed to cut her losses now before it got worse, but God. How could she? “Ty.”

He pulled back to look into her eyes, his own going very serious at the look in hers.

She cupped his face. “I’ve screwed up. I’m falling for you.” She gently kissed his gorgeous mouth so that he couldn’t say anything. “Don’t worry, I know you won’t let yourself do the same.” She kissed him again when he went to speak, because it was in his eyes. Sorrow. “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered past a throat that felt like she’d swallowed cut glass. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you dumping me, Mallory?”

Was she? The truth was that he was the one going, and yet he hadn’t. She’d have to think about that later, but for now, for right now, what she had with him wasn’t enough for her. “You were never mine to dump,” she said.

Something crossed his normally stoic face, but he nodded and lifted a hand to her jaw, stroking his thumb over her lips in a gentle gesture that made her ache. She started to say something, she had no idea what, but someone tapped her on the shoulder. “Mallory Michelle Quinn.”

Only one person ever middle-named her. Her mom; just what she needed. She swiped at her eyes and turned, considering herself lucky to be so wet that no one could possibly tell if she was crying or not. “Mom, why are you here?”

“I heard about the diner. You’re hurt?”

“Now’s not a good time—” Mallory brushed her mom’s hand away. “Mom.”

“Don’t you ‘mom’ me! You have a cut on your cheek. And you let Jane fire you?”

“Okay, someone give me a microphone!” Mallory said as loud as she could. “Because I wasn’t fired, I quit. There’s a difference.”

Her mother stared at her for a long beat, during which Mallory did her best not to look as utterly heartbroken as she felt. Finally Ella nodded. “Well, I hope to hell you took Jane down a peg or two while you were at it.”

Shock had Mallory gaping. “You’re not upset?”

“She’s overworked you and taken advantage of your skills. The board’s already banding together to try to get you back. I suggest turning down their first offer. According to what I overheard, their second offer will be a much better deal.”

Mallory choked out a shocked breath. “Overheard?”

“Fine. I put a glass to the door of Bill’s office and listened in. But I’m not proud of it.” Ella hesitated. “What I am proud of is you. And Sawyer sent me over here to get you. He needs one last quick word from you for his report.”

Sawyer was already headed for her.

He gave her a look of frustration. “You okay?”

No. “Yes.”

“Good, because so far I’ve heard twenty different versions of what’s going on. Tell me that you’re going to come up with the right one.”

She told him the entire story the best that she could, then turned to look for Ty and found her mom talking to him. Ella was animated, her hands moving, her mouth flapping, and Mallory’s stomach sank. From the looks of things, she could be reading him the riot act, or…hell. She couldn’t imagine. “I’ve got to go,” she said to Sawyer.

Her mother saw her coming and met her halfway. “He has a way of looking at you, honey. Like you mean something to him.”

Mallory shook her head. “What did you two talk about?”

“Are you asking if I accused him of destroying your reputation?” Ella looked over Mallory’s shoulder and found Ty watching them. She sent him a little finger wave.