“There it is.” The darkened sky grew brighter. “Do you see it? The sun has just crept above the horizon.”

“I see it.” He didn’t sound the least bit interested.

She glanced at him. “Okay say it.”

“I think you and I have a good thing going and I don’t want it to end—”

“Don’t—”

“Don’t, what? Say what I feel.” He hopped down off the wall and stood in front of her. “Are you trying to say you don’t feel anything for me?”

She clasped her hands together and stared at them. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course, it matters. It matters very much. I’m falling in love—”

She pressed a finger to his lips. Her heart was breaking. He was saying the exact words she’d longed to hear before last night’s fire drove home the reason they didn’t belong together.

He wrapped his hand around hers and pulled it from his lips. “Hannah, why are you fighting this? Don’t you care about me?”

She yanked her hand from his. “I care. I care too much.”

“What does that mean?”

Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. Why was he making this so hard? She blinked repeatedly. “It means I can’t go through that again.”

“What again?” And then his eyes widened in understanding. “You mean the fire. But everything turned out okay. Everyone is safe.”

“This time. My father was safe for years until he wasn’t—until his job killed him!”

“Hannah, it doesn’t mean that will happen to me.”

“The risk is…it’s too much.” She glanced down at her clasped hands.

“So you’d rather just throw away any chance we have at happiness?” Frustration rang out in his voice.

Her gaze met his. “Are you willing to give up firefighting?”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “I…I don’t know.”

The anguish reflected in his eyes was all the answer she needed. She swallowed hard, struggling to control her emotions. “We’re both kidding ourselves to think you and I could work out.” Her chest grew heavy with a deep sadness. “I…I can’t expect you to quit your job—a job you love. But I can’t stick around and worry every time you go out on a call. I’m sorry.”

She got to her feet. Her heart felt as though it’d sunk down to her sneakers. She turned and started walking.

“Hannah, don’t do this. Hannah, stop.”

As the tears streamed down her face, she kept walking. She told herself that he would be happier this way. He’d find someone who didn’t have an issue with his occupation. He deserved someone who could fully support him.

She wished it was her. She wished that when her father had died that something hadn’t broken inside of her.

Now she had to figure out how to be happy without Ethan. Was that even possible?

Chapter Twenty-six

She was so tired of fake smiling.

Inside her heart was broken.

As Hannah moved through the events of the day, she found herself looking for Ethan but he’d been absent from the Easter egg hunt. The whole time she’d been questioning her decision about ending things with him. Had she done the right thing?