Paul Rafferty stood by the door and watched the sandy blond haired man that sat in the corner talking softly on the phone. He was trying to be professional and not drool, but damn, the guy was simply gorgeous. Raff could eat him up.

The furtive glances the man kept sending him made Raff wonder if the man might be interested in more than a simple hello. He quickly looked at the man’s ring finger. No ring. Hopefully, that meant no significant other as well.

Raff didn’t do married man.

He watched the man hang up the phone and hand it back to Elijah. The two men talked for a moment before Elijah went running out the door. As close as he knew Elijah was to his secretary, Raff had no doubt the man was on his way up to the hospital.

When the man stood and grabbed his backpack off the floor, Raff knew he couldn’t let him get away without at least introducing himself. If he was lucky, maybe he could make a date to meet the man for coffee later.

Raff glanced around to make sure none of his fellow firemen were watching before approaching the gorgeous man. He wasn’t ashamed of his desire to meet the stranger but he was technically on the clock. Flirting while on duty was a big no-no.

“You did good.”

The man’s jaw dropped for the briefest moment as he looked up, and then snapped shut. His eyes rounded as if he hadn’t expected anyone to talk to him. “Thank you,” he said in a rather subdued voice. “I didn’t do all that much.”

“You probably saved her life.” Raff grew curious when he heard the man’s soft inhale when Raff smiled. “Where did you learn CPR?” Raff found himself riddled with curiosity when the man’s face paled. What was that all about? “Are you okay?”

Maybe he was suffering from an adrenaline crash?

“Here, why don’t you sit down?” Before he fell down, because he looked like he was on the verge of collapsing. Raff started to reach out and take the man’s arm to lead him to a chair when he caught a flash of white and red. “You’re bleeding.”

“Oh this?” The man held up his hand, staring at it as if bleeding was an everyday occurrence for him. “I was in a car crash a couple of weeks ago. I must have busted the stitches open when I was giving Sandy CPR. It’s nothing.”

“Here, why don’t you sit down and let me take a look at that.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Sit,” Raff said in a stern tone.

Surprisingly, the man sat.

Raff grabbed the medical case and brought it over, setting it on the floor before reaching for the man’s injured hand. “Tell me if this hurts,” he said as he began unwrapping the bandage wrapped around the man’s hand. “I’m Raff.”

“Noah.”

Raff grinned again. “Hello, Noah. It’s nice to meet you.”

The man blinked up at him. “Hello.”

He grimaced as he finished unwrapping the man’s injured hand. Noah’s fingers curled in toward his palm. From the way they were twisted, Raff wondered just how much use the man had in them. It didn’t look like much. There were also several small cuts sutured together, some of them bleeding. Raff cleaned them up and the covered the bleeding ones with butterfly bandages before re-wrapping the entire hand again.

“Are you new to Cade Creek?” As much as Raff wanted to keep Noah distracted with the random questions, he also wanted information. Like, did the man even like guys? From the way he stared and the occasional flaring of his nostrils, Raff was pretty sure he was on the right track.

“Um, sort of. I’m just here taking a care of some business.” Noah breathed in deeply and then kind of folded in on himself as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. “I’m not staying.”

Damn.

“That’s too bad. I was kind of hoping we could have coffee.”

Noah’s jaw dropped.

“Is that so strange?” Raff asked. “You are a very attractive man.”

“Do you know who I am?” The words were almost hissed out, the man’s blue eyes watering.

“You said your name is Noah.” Raff wouldn’t have forgotten that.

Noah stood, grabbing his backpack again before backing toward the door. Raff could tell he was going to run. Whatever was bringing tears to the man’s eyes must be so big that it was overwhelming everything else. Noah looked like he was about to collapse under his anguish.

“My name is Noah,” he whispered. “Noah Helmond.”

With that one name, Raff understood why the man had been so shocked by Raff’s interest. Jack and Hank were both enraged with Noah. They scowled every time they saw him or heard his name.

“And now you know,” Noah whispered with such rough acceptance of being the object of hatred that Raff ached for the man.

And then he was gone.