Free Remember by Karen Kingsbury Page B

forced herself to focus. “What?”
    “I’m moving.” He worked his thumb over the back of her hand. “I was looking for a chance to tell you before I got hurt.”
    Ashley was unable to breathe for a moment. Landon was kidding, lying. Trying to get back at her for not loving him the way he loved her. She felt suddenly awkward holding his hand. Her fingers eased free, and she crossed her arms again. “Moving where?”
    “New York.” Peace came over Landon, and he settled back against his pillow once more. “Jalen’s there. I told you about him, right?”
    Jalen? The name was vaguely familiar. Ashley’s mind raced. She was struck by how little she’d really listened to Landon since she’d been home from Paris. She’d been so determined not to fall in love with him that she’d barely heard him. “Vaguely.”
    Landon smiled. “Jalen and I met at the University of Texas as freshmen. He’s the one who convinced me to get on the volunteer fire department in this little town outside Austin. When we left school he went to New York City. I came home to Bloomington to train and get in the department here.”
    Ashley felt sick to her stomach. “But New York, Landon? Isn’t this kind of . . . I don’t know . . . sudden?”
    “Not really. I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” He shrugged. “Jalen and I talk once a month or so, and he’s always in the thick of things. Saving people, rushing into burning high-rises, that kind of thing. In New York City, fighting fires is a passion. Here in Bloomington it’s more of a pastime.”
    “So you’re moving to New York to fight fires with Jalen because there’s not enough excitement here? Is that it?” Ashley gestured at the cast on Landon’s leg, the bandages on his back and thighs. “Haven’t you had enough excitement for a while?”
    “It isn’t the excitement, really. It’s making my life count.” He stared at her and, for an instant, he allowed his emotions to surface as they had before. “After hearing your voice when they brought me in here, I actually had doubts about going. That’s why . . . I don’t know . . .”
    “Why you’ve been so quiet?” It all made sense finally—the awkwardness she’d been feeling, the strange uneasiness between them. Landon was moving. He had been looking for a way to tell her, but then he’d been hurt. And as he lay near death, her words of love had made him wonder if he was making a mistake by going.
    He nodded. “Exactly.”
    “I’m sorry, Landon.” She reached for his hand again. “I had no idea.”
    “I know. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have read so much into what you said. It’s just . . . when you told me you loved me, I had to know what you meant. Because if you meant it—well, if you meant it the way I’d hoped, I could never leave.”
    There it was again. Landon’s true feelings laid out before her like an open gift. If only she could love him the way he loved her. “Sometimes I wish I were normal. Like other girls.”
    Landon laughed and leaned over, gently brushing his fingers across her brow. “You could never be like other girls, Ashley. It would be wrong to try.”
    “You have a job there? In New York, I mean?”
    “I flew out for an interview a month ago. They ran me through a week of tests and drills.” He shrugged. “I made the cut. I was supposed to start the first of August.”
    Ashley looked again at the cast and the bandages. “That’s three weeks from now.”
    “I know. I called them this morning.” He grimaced. “They’ve rescheduled my start date for November. That way I’ll have my cast off and time to get my leg back in shape.”
    A wave of acceptance washed across the shore of Ashley’s heart. “So you’re really moving to New York?”
    “Yep. It’ll be Jalen and me, fighting fires and saving lives right there in the heart of the Big Apple. Action and more action every day we’re on duty.”
    Ashley nodded, suddenly concerned. “How long will