Free Barefoot at Moonrise (Barefoot Bay Timeless Book 2) by Roxanne St. Claire Page A

just changed forever.
    Not her list of possible options for how involved he could be in the life of his child.
    Not anything but that dispatcher’s voice telling him what he needed to know to do his job. Possible house fire meant both the ladder and the pumper. Chief was gone by now, and the rescue crew would come along.
    A BFD that had men and women propelled into the action of gearing up to do battle with a blaze…seconds after he was delivered a mind-blowing, life-changing, heart-wrecking sucker punch.
    In the bay, he went through the motions of stepping into his bunker pants and boots and moving more from muscle memory than any real thought. In less than ten seconds, he was dressed and hoisted himself into the rig where his bunker coat, helmet, and SCBA gear waited.
    Behind him, the crew slid into place, with Hanrahan at the wheel. Ken reached for the radio mic to report their movement. For a second, nothing came out of his mouth. Nothing registered except the impossible reality of…
    A baby . His baby. His and Beth’s.
    “Captain, why are you smiling?”
    “Love this job, Irish,” he said, right before he pressed the talk button. “I freaking love this job.”

Chapter Six

    Beth’s ears were still ringing long after the deafening loudspeaker went quiet and the two engines screamed out of the garage. Now there was only silence.
    Even Sally had followed her master out, leaving Beth alone.
    The low-grade hum of life was suddenly gone, with only the aroma of something Italian in the air. She sat stone still, staring at the empty chair where, less than two minutes ago, she’d delivered life-altering news to a man who…
    I care like nothing I’ve ever cared about in my whole life.
    She dropped back, letting that reaction sink in. Well, what had she expected? A man who’d say, Not my problem, babe ? Of course not.
    Even though she’d spent only one short night with him and six months over two dozen years ago, she knew that honor and integrity ran through every vein in Ken Cavanaugh’s body.
    Those qualities were sure on display here. She closed her eyes and conjured up the man who’d stolen her breath when he’d come around the corner and walked toward her like he wanted to claim her.
    His uniform was so…oh hell. Call it a cliché because it was, but that uniform was hot. Who knew a blue shirt could look so good with that salt-and-pepper hair and suntanned skin? And all those bars and insignias on his collar and muscles in his shoulders could make her as dizzy as the day she’d nearly keeled over in the Super Min.
    When that alarm rang, he shot up like a soldier, marched off to his war, didn’t even hesitate to go running into a burning house or face down whatever life-threatening crisis that box was screaming about.
    A possible house fire. The announcement blaring through the loudspeakers still reverberated through Beth’s bones.
    Ken hadn’t even flinched.
    She closed her eyes as the ringing stopped in her ears and she could think again. She’d done so well compartmentalizing Ken after she’d last seen him. Except for a few long and achy nights when she gave in and remembered every sizzling detail of making love to him, she’d succeeded in not falling into the hole of longing.
    And then, two weeks ago, when her life tilted sideways and she found out she was pregnant, her thoughts about Ken changed completely. All that mattered was her baby…and the fact that it was his baby, too. She’d known how he’d react: possessive, happy, maybe a little proud. And of course he’d want—
    “Hello?”
    Beth whipped around as an older woman in a stiff blue shirt not unlike the one Ken wore stepped into the doorway of the office.
    “Oh, sorry,” Beth said, pushing up. “I guess I should leave.” Or should she? Did Ken’s warning of we’re not done here mean the conversation would continue between fire calls? She had no idea. “I was talking to—”
    “Captain Cav, I know. Every person in the station