Love is a Fire Read online

  Love is a Fire

  Burning Lovesick #1

  Lyssa Layne

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, places, or events is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case the author has not received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Love is a Fire: Burning Lovesick #1

  Copyright © 2014 Lyssa Layne

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The copying, scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions, and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  “Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or burn your house down, you can never tell.”

  -Joan Crawford

  1 CHAPTER ONE

  Dr. Katy Malone sprinted down the corridor of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, adrenaline pouring through her veins, as she tried to outrun her fellow residents in hopes of claiming the best case coming into the emergency room. It was typically boots and leggings weather in early November in New York, but the temperature had drastically dropped overnight resulting in perfect conditions for the first snowfall of the season.

  The third-year medical residents had all received the same 911 page dictating them to report to the ER to receive victims from a ten car pile-up on the Henry-Hudson Parkway. Snow typically meant that drivers forgot all basics and fundamentals of driving and to the residents, although unfortunate, this was the jackpot of learning since anything from broken bones to heart attacks could waltz in the doors. Katy reached the ER before her other co-workers and bent over to catch her breath as the first rig pulled into the bay.

  As the ambulance doors opened, the paramedic called out, “Fifty-seven year old male, broken clavicle…” Katy tuned out as she saw the other rig pulling up and ran over hoping for something more than a broken collarbone. The second medic had already called out the vitals and Katy knew this was the case she wanted, a pregnant woman who had been trapped in her vehicle and cut out of her vehicle by the Jaws of Life. As Katy was about to stake her claim, Dr. Jeremiah Thomas, a five feet, eleven inch preppy Momma’s boy from the Upper East Side, and the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, stepped in front of her taking charge of the woman and shouting out commands. As he passed Katy, he gave her a sly wink making her cringe.

  This interaction made her miss the next rig which was a sixty-five-year-old man in cardiac arrest. The last ambulance informed them that the others had been sent across town to Mercy Hospital. This left her with the last victim to arrive, Mrs. Humer, a chatty forty-three-year-old woman who needed stitches on her left cheek. Katy sighed and followed her patient into the hospital.

  Katy tried to ask Mrs. Humer about her medical history but the older woman only wanted to talk about the accident. Mrs. Humer was the tenth car in the pile-up yet she saw the entire thing happen “right in front of her very own eyes” and knew exactly whose fault it was. Katy nodded, smiled, and added her words of concern where she was supposed to interject.

  As she finished up the last stitch, Mrs. Humer grabbed her hand, pointed to her name on her coat and said loud enough for the entire ER to hear, “Thank you so much, Dr. Malone. I was a little worried when I was assigned a ‘knockout’ like you. You know, thought maybe you’d just skated through med school on your looks. I was a little worried you didn’t know what you were doing but I think you did a mighty fine job.” Mrs. Humer beamed as she finished her statement expecting Katy to be beside herself by her “compliment.” Katy bit the inside of her cheeks which were turning crimson and quickly excused herself.

  As she turned, Katy walked right into the chest of Jeremiah. He put his left hand on her waist and the other on her chin lifting her head up to look at him. Katy squirmed uncomfortably, hating that of all people he was the one she ran into. He gave a slight squeeze with his left hand and grinned. “Great job on the stitches, Knockout. I’d love to check out your work but I’m headed into surgery.” He gave her another wink as he walked towards the operating room.

  Katy’s face which was already turning three shades of red was now on fire. Not only had she lost a prime case to Jeremiah, but he’d heard her patronizing patient call her by his pet name: Knockout. Katy had her parents to thank for the pet name because her initials were K.O. for Katherine Olivia.

  Today wasn’t the first time a patient picked up on this, thanks to her lab coat which said, “Dr. K.O. Malone.” Katy would’ve preferred that her coat said, “Dr. Katherine Malone” like the other residents, but apparently that was too many letters. Katy had been the first in her class to do a solo surgery so while she was removing a gallbladder, Jeremiah told the secretary it’d be okay to put K.O.

  There was truth to Knockout though. Standing at only five feet four inches, Katy drew looks from most men and women when she entered a room. It wasn’t her shoulder length chestnut wavy locks that elicited their attention nor was it her piercing aqua eyes. It possibly could have been her perky derriere that showed she ran five miles every day but no, it was the way she composed herself. When she entered a room, she exuded confidence but not in the cocky way that women would hate her and men felt she was a challenge. While coming across as a take-charge woman, Katy also had that down to Earth, best friend persona that drew people in.

  Katy and Jeremiah had history, and a lot of it. They had both attended Johns Hopkins for medical school. Jeremiah had laid the smooth talking on thick, but Katy insisted they stay friends. And they did, well, until the night before their anatomy final. It had been a long semester and this was the final test of the year. Katy needed a break from quizzing and Jeremiah had been a great study buddy the entire year despite him constantly trying to woo her. Their anatomy study session turned into a hands on session which lead to one night full of stress release.

  Katy saw a different side of him that night. He wasn’t cocky or full of himself, instead he tended to every one of Katy’s needs and whispered the sweetest things in her ear as they finished studying and from that moment on they were inseparable. Jeremiah followed her back to New York where they started as interns at St. Luke’s. They graduated tied for number one in their class at Hopkins although Katy was positive she had the higher GPA. However, when Jeremiah’s parents donated enough money for the library to be named after them, that’s when it was called a draw. They had decided to move to New York to be closer to Katy’s father after the attacks on September 11, 2001 and figured that St. Luke’s would be an excellent learning hospital.

  They settled into life as interns and sublet a studio apartment that cost more than the two of them made in three months. Thanks to Jeremiah’s parents, they didn’t have to worry about the cost. Jeremiah proposed after her first solo surgery with a two carat diamond ring. Katy said yes, although she would never commit to a date for the wedding. Jeremiah’s mother ended up setting their wedding date and planned everything from the location, food, to even what Katy would wear under her wedding gown. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Jeremiah, or that she was afraid of commitment; Katy was afraid of losing him because everyone she had ever loved ended up dying.

  Katy’s mother lived until she was two days old. On Katy’s second day of life, her mother stood up to walk to the nursery and fell down dead of an aneurysm at age twenty-eight. She never met her mother’s parents. The
y had blamed Katy for her death and couldn’t face seeing her so they never did.

  Katy’s paternal grandparents, Mimi and Poe, moved in with her father to help raise her. When she eight years old, Poe died of a heart attack in their living room while Katy watched, not knowing what she could do to save him. Then when Katy was only thirteen, Mimi passed away from lung cancer though she never smoked a day in her life. As Katy held her grandmother’s hand as she lay in bed dying, that’s when she decided she was going to be a doctor.

  Meanwhile, Jeremiah and she were happy living their dreams of becoming doctors in the big city. Then on an overnight shift, the month before their nuptials, her father came into the ER as a patient and he never left alive. Katy had lost the the man who raised her, her last remaining blood relative. She couldn’t keep doing this, loving and losing. She decided to protect her heart, so she gave Jeremiah his ring back and vowed that she’d never love again.

  ***

  A few streets over, Nick Garrity sat in the kitchen of Firehouse 58 chopping onions. He was used to smoke, he ran into burning buildings for a living, but he would never get used to cigarette smoke. The guys on his crew constantly had cigarettes hanging from their lips and the air around the firehouse could be cut with a knife it was so thick. He would never understand how they could walk out of a fire and the first thing they’d want to do was fill their lungs with more smoke.

  Nick usually stayed out of the kitchen since that was where the guys liked to congregate and puff on their cancer sticks. He always thought it was ironic since smoking was so unsanitary but he’d rather them smoke in the kitchen than in the living room or bunkhouse. Either way, it didn’t bother him because when they weren’t running calls, Nick spent his time working out on the free weights in the basement of the house, a place that none of the other guys even knew existed. Tonight he’d made an exception because he was helping the proby make dinner.

  Probys, probationary firemen, are at the bottom of the pole, more like the dirt under the pole everyone landed on. It was customary that the veterans always give the proby a tough time, the grunt work, it was another “test” they had to pass before officially becoming part of the FDNY family. It wasn’t in Nick’s blood to be mean to anyone, the crew always gave him trouble for it. He was constantly helping the proby with any task he was assigned and tonight included making dinner.

  The crew sat around the table chain-smoking, partially because they were addicted, but mainly because they knew it drove Nick crazy. Nick listened to them rag on him.

  “Garrity, when did you become a proby again?” Jesse O’Neil smirked.

  Jesse and Nick were like brothers. They grew up next door to each other, watching their fathers fight fires for the FDNY and knowing it was in their blood to do the same thing. Jesse had been by Nick’s side when Nick’s older brother, Ryan, died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. They were still in the fire academy at the time it happened.

  “Didn’t you know? Garrity and the proby are dating now.” Dan Murphy, the lieutenant of Engine 58, teased him. The guys roared with laughter as though it was the funniest joke they’d ever heard although Murph made the comment at least once during every tour. Nick’s father had been Murph’s lieutenant, but after Ryan and fifty-three other firemen he knew died on that apocalyptic morning, he decided it was time for him to retire.

  The proby, Patrick Doyle, took the onions from Nick and muttered, “I can finish up. Thanks for your help.”

  Nick slapped his shoulder and turned to the crew. “Doyle, don’t let these guys intimidate you. They’re just jealous that they aren’t as young and good looking as us.”

  As the guys started to protest, the alarm sounded signaling they had a call. They ran to the truck, pulling on their gear and jumped in the engine as they headed out to a car fire due to a pile-up on the parkway.

  As they pulled out of the garage, Jesse asked, “How’d it go last night? Get any action?”

  The two of them had gone to O’Malley’s, an Irish bar two blocks north of the station. Jesse insisted that they needed to find good Irish women. Nick always rolled his eyes at this because the girls Jesse picked up were good for him for a night at a time. Jesse was fine with picking up women at the bar for a one night stand and moving on to a different one the next, but it wasn’t for Nick. This isn’t to say that Nick hadn’t had his fair share of one nighters, but that was back when they were in the academy. Nick had always wanted a family with lots of kids and when the right woman came along, he’d settle down with her in a New York minute.

  Nick was a catch too; he was almost six feet, three inches with fair skin that burned easily from the rays of the sun, sandy blond hair, and baby blue eyes. When he wasn’t at the station or being Jesse’s wingman, he was hitting the gym. He visited his parents almost every weekend, stepped up to take the place of his fallen brother as a male figure for his nieces and helped all the probys survive the heckling of the veterans in their crew. All he needed was some lucky lady to become Mrs. Nick Garrity and be the mother of his children, but he had decided he wouldn’t settle. He didn’t have specific qualifications, no laundry list of requirements per se, but he knew when they met, he’d know.

  Nick shrugged at Jesse. “She was cute but only seemed interested because of the fact that I’m a fireman. You know how I feel about that.”

  Jesse shook his head. “Man, you’ve got to get over that. That fact alone will get you laid every time.”

  Nick laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Man, get off the future Mrs. Garrity thing. Live in the present and stop putting a deadline on things. You’re such a chick!” Jesse was good at calling Nick out on stuff, even when Nick hadn’t actually told him his thought process. It was the brotherly bond that they shared so Jesse always knew what was on his mind.

  Nick’s thirtieth birthday was coming up in a few months. Nick had been ready to get married seven years ago when he graduated from the fire academy. He’d wanted to have three or four kids by now, but instead he was living in a rented two-bedroom house by himself. There’d been a couple girls in the past seven years that he thought could have been Mrs. Garrity. The first girl couldn’t handle the stress of being alone while he worked his tours and would constantly call the firehouse to find out when he was coming home. Then there was Missey Brown, the other woman he thought was the real deal. But when he came home sick, the only time in his career, he found her in bed with one of his classmates that worked over at Engine 75 and realized she wasn’t the one. After he kicked Missey out, he knew it would take time to find the real Mrs. Garrity, but now that he was almost thirty, he wasn’t sure he’d ever find her.

  2 CHAPTER TWO

  After the car accident, the ER was slow. Katy had missed any chance of landing a case that would require surgery tonight so she was stuck on suture duty. She was leaning against the counter at the nurse’s station when Jeremiah stepped next to her and set a cup of coffee in front of her.

  He put his arm around her and smugly said, “Sorry you missed out. I was pretty amazing in the OR. How about you buy me breakfast and I can tell you all about it?”

  Katy smiled and bumped her hip against his leg. “I’m sure we’ll all hear about it for the next month.”

  Since their break-up, Katy watched as Jeremiah tried to act like it didn’t bother him, but she knew he had been devastated by it. In front of the other residents and nurses, he acted cocky and did everything he could to one-up her. However, every now and then, she noticed he’d purposely ignore a page so she’d have first dibs. It was obvious he wasn’t giving up on them yet.

  She appreciated the way he still tried to take care of her. He’d stop by her father’s house where she had moved into, even though it was an hour outside of the city. He would check in to make sure she was safe and had everything she needed. He’d bring her dinner when she didn’t have time to eat, coffee during their overnight shifts, and he’d still kiss her cheek and whisper, “I love you” when they’d leave the h
ospital.

  On more than one occasion, Katy wanted to grab his hand and go back to their apartment together. They’d been together almost an entire decade, and at times, Jeremiah knew her better than she knew herself. She was a point where she understood that she couldn’t though keep going back and forth with him. It wasn’t fair to let him think there was a chance for the two of them in the long run.

  Katy took a sip of the coffee and glanced at clock above the station which read midnight. Only six hours left until the end of her shift. She set the cup down and turned to Jeremiah.

  Before she could speak, he’d moved closer and gazed into her eyes. “You’re welcome. You know, if you need…” he trailed off and leaned down. Over his shoulder, Katy saw an ambulance pull into the ER bay. She sidestepped him and rushed to the doors to claim the case. He sighed and followed her.

  The doors flew open to the ambulance. “Twenty-two year old male, third degree burns to the left arm and torso.” Katy jumped into action checking his vitals. As she looked over his body and saw his bunker gear, she realized he was a firefighter. She hesitated for a second then returned to doctor mode. The nurses wheeled him into the ER and Katy followed behind. Jeremiah grabbed her arm. “Katy, are you okay with this?” She nodded and ran behind the patient before he could see the tears in her eyes.

  ***

  Katy spent the next three hours cleaning and bandaging Patrick Doyle’s burns. From what she gathered, his unit had extinguished a vehicle fire and afterwards, he’d carelessly lit a cigarette. He flicked his cigarette to the ground where the gasoline had leaked, lighting himself up. When would people learn that smoking is bad for you?

  Katy answered the page from the head floor nurse and her best friend, Tiffany Sanders.

  “Patrick is awake.”

  “Great, I’m headed that way.”

  At almost five, Katy walked into the room. Another firefighter sat next to the patient’s bed rubbing his eyes. His chiseled physique was all too noticeable through his too small FDNY T-shirt. She figured he probably knew better than to smoke.