Off The Clock: First Responders, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

was large and tender and she was still having trouble holding Nathan on her left side when he nursed. Sometimes her whole body ached, and because she was nursing she was trying to refrain from any pain medication.
    “I’m glad you’re here, Gabe. Everything was so mixed up the other night. First the accident and then Nathan coming…they only gave me a single dose of morphine but at the end things seemed pretty fuzzy.”
    Gabe’s face changed, erasing the smile from his lips and the warmth in his eyes cooled. Oh goodness, that hadn’t come out right. She didn’t mean she’d forgotten the kiss. She certainly remembered that with fantastic clarity. And yet she couldn’t actually say that, could she? Not without revealing how she truly felt about it while he clearly didn’t feel the same way. She fumbled for the right words.
    “I just mean…I couldn’t thank you properly. For helping me at the scene and riding in the ambulance with me. If I’d been alone…”
    If she’d been alone she could have gone into labor. The fact that the other driver had sped off still amazed her. They’d left her there without even checking to see if she was all right. What kind of person did that?
    “It might have been a very different outcome,” she said quietly. “By the way, Constable Givens was by. They have the driver of the car who hit me. Again, thanks to you it seems.”
    Gabe shrugged. “I got a partial plate.”
    “Which they matched to a description you gave and found the car. And the driver. She said the driver copped to it after two questions.”
    “I heard. Just a kid, barely twenty,” Gabe replied. “Probably scared to death at the time. But if I hadn’t been there, maybe he would have stopped. Maybe he’d have done the right thing and called 911. Really, it was no big deal.”
    She tried to keep her mouth from dropping open. She also held in the question that shot through her brain. Did he see himself like the kid in the car? Because Gabe had done the right thing, hadn’t he? He’d called 911 when there was no one else to help Brandon, when everyone else had fled the scene rather than get into trouble. The doctors had told them later that Gabe had done CPR until the ambulance arrived. Then, like now, Gabe had brushed off his involvement.
    “It’s a big deal to me. I don’t know why you’re so determined to brush it off.”
    “I just came to see Nathan and check in on how you’re doing. I should probably go now.”
    Carly paused, wanting to say more but not knowing exactly what or how. The plain fact was she was a single mom two days post-partum whose personal life was a mess. She was incapable of flirting and what man in his right mind would be interested in her right now anyway? But she and Gabe went way back. And he’d kissed her. Maybe she’d had some morphine but it hadn’t felt like a brotherly sort of kiss. Not on the lips. Not like that . He’d been warm and caring and she’d felt so close to him, only to have him go 180 degrees in the other direction now. Why?
    “Did I do something wrong, Gabe?”
    He turned to her and she was gratified to see his brows pull together. At least it was some sort of reaction.
    “Of course not.”
    “Then why…” She swallowed against a lump in her throat. When she’d been hurt and afraid, he’d called her darlin’. His voice had been soft, intimate—like the Gabe she remembered. He’d always been laughing as a teenager and she’d fussed with her hair and put on makeup trying to get his attention. Even though parts of Friday night were kind of hazy, at times he’d seemed like the old Gabe again.
    But since Brandon had moved, Gabe had distanced himself from the family. She understood Brandon’s anger, but she’d felt betrayed at Gabe’s sudden absence. It was her own stupid fault to hope that after Friday perhaps whatever barrier had gone up between him and her family was gone. It wasn’t, and she didn’t know how to fix it, or if it could even