by Amie Denman
“Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks,” Brady said. “Sometimes we empty out the station and we’re back in fifteen minutes.”
Brady heard more sirens and he clenched his jaw as he saw one of their older fire trucks speed past. It was usually a backup truck that only rolled on the most desperate occasions.
Bella got out of her seat and stood next to him, slipping her small hand into his. His phone beeped with a familiar tone that could only mean one thing. The station was calling in off-duty firefighters and volunteers. He pulled it from his pocket and confirmed the message. His heart sank and he swallowed hard. The fire was at a nursing home, and there were possible entrapped victims. That was as desperate as it got.
“Hate to ask this,” he began, his voice deadly serious.
“What do you need?” Kate said. “Are you okay?”
Brady ran a hand over his face. “I need to go help, but I need a ride to the station and someone to take care of Bella until my brother comes to get her. I can’t believe I’m asking...you don’t have to do this. Maybe they’ll get enough help with the volunteers...it’s just that it’s a bad—”
“Of course I’ll help you.” Kate swung her attention to Bella. “Would you mind being my partner while your uncle goes to rescue someone? I need someone to ring the bell at every stop.”
Bella looked up at him, and her face almost broke his heart. She looked worried. “Will you be okay?” she asked.
“I sure will, honey,” he said. “And my friend Kate will deliver you to your daddy as soon as he’s finished talking to someone about a new job.”
Bella smiled. “Okay.”
Brady sat down and pulled Bella onto his lap. “You’re going to have so much fun ringing that bell. I’m really jealous.” Bella giggled and Brady held her close.
Kate did a U-turn in the street and headed in the direction of the fire station. She didn’t blow the stop signs or speed, but she also didn’t waste any time. Holly moved up and sat behind Brady. “I love kids,” she said. “I’ll help Kate keep an eye on Bella.”
Brady turned and smiled at her. “Much appreciated.”
“But I’m taking a picture and posting it on the app,” Holly said.
What?
“I’m making your day, aren’t I?” Holly explained.
Brady nodded congenially, but he was looking at Kate and knew she hadn’t even thought of the game. She hadn’t asked what the emergency was, just offered her help. Kate was a prize all by herself, no matter what happened with the employee app at the end of summer.
“I’m texting you my brother’s number,” Brady said as Kate drove. “Is it okay with you if I text him yours, Kate?”
“Yes.” Kate rolled to a stop in front of the station and pulled the bell. She smiled. “All firefighters have to get off here,” she called, trying to be cheerful, he could tell, for Bella’s sake. “Watch your step.”
Brady put Bella on the seat and kissed her hair, gave Kate’s shoulder a quick squeeze on the way by and dashed down the trolley steps. All the doors to the fire station were open, most of the trucks gone. He saw volunteers suiting up as he ran for his locker. In his five years on the department, he’d been out on dozens of fire calls that came in as possible entrapments. He and his partners always hurried as fast as safety would allow, but knowing someone could be perishing behind a wall of flame had them pushing the trucks and punishing the sirens.
He jumped into the back seat of a truck that was already running, joining two volunteers and Charlie Zimmerman.
“About time you showed up,” Charlie said with a quick grin. “Don’t tell me you were home watching house-hunter shows on television.”
“Babysitting my niece,” Brady said. “Had to make a quick arrangement.”
Charlie’s expression sobered. “Hope the entrapment call was out of an abundance of caution and we find five dozen old folks under umbrellas in the front yard drinking coffee and watching us put out the fire.”
Brady nodded. He finished snapping up his coat and worked his arms through the air pack mounted on the back of the seat. Charlie was doing the same thing, both of them planning to be ready to run as soon as the truck stopped at the fire scene. The rain fell in sheets, and the sky was dark even though it was midmorning.
The volunteer firefighter driving the truck sped through downtown Cape Pursuit, siren blaring. Brady looked out the side window and saw the Cape Pursuit trolley pulled over for them to pass. He couldn’t see inside the trolley because of the rain, but he hoped Bella would be okay. Would his brother understand, or would he be angry that Brady had turned her over to someone else to go fight a fire?
The thought sent a twinge to his heart, but he had no doubt Kate would ensure Bella’s safety and well-being. He tried not to think about the fact that Kate might want to step back from her tenuous summer romance with him because being tied down with a family was clearly not on her wish list. Asking her to babysit his niece would likely drive that point home.
As he saw a maze of flashing lights ahead and felt the truck slow down, he put thoughts of Kate and Bella out of his mind. He’d made his choice, and he had a job to do.
CHAPTER NINE
KATE ASKED HOLLY to drive so she could take the narrator’s job and sit with Bella. She also made the executive decision to reroute the trolley so their path would not take them past the fire scene at what Kate discovered was a nursing home. No wonder Brady had seemed so serious. Any fire was sobering, but one at a facility housing senior citizens could be deadly. If something terrible had happened, she didn’t want anyone on the trolley to be a witness.
“Your uncle is a hero,” she told Bella. “Rushing off to save people.”
“Uncle Brady,” Bella said with a smile. “He’s nice. He’s letting us live at his house while my mommy tries to fix my grandpa.”
Kate had wondered about Bella and Brady’s brother. So they were all living together? Kate had never been to Brady’s house, but she knew which street it was on and knew the houses on that street were mostly former cottages that were now rentals. Space had to be tight with two men and a little girl.
“I’m sorry your grandpa is broken,” Kate said.
“He’s at a hospital trying to get better.”
“I hope he does.”
Kate sat back, not knowing what to say to a four-year-old girl, and not feeling right about prying into Brady’s family affairs. As open and honest as he was, he would probably tell her everything if she asked. Holly pulled up to a stop and Kate told Bella to stay seated while she helped people on and checked their tickets. Only two people boarded on the rainy day, and Kate hurried back to her seat with Brady’s niece. No way did she want to disappoint him by shirking her responsibility as a babysitter. She loved her freedom, but she also tried never to let people down. Her parents...they were disappointed in her life’s choices, but she hadn’t made them any promises.
Kate had never been a babysitter as a teenager and, in fact, had never held a job at all until she left home right after graduation. Her parents were blessed financially, and they didn’t want her to risk grease burns at a fast-food restaurant, get sunburned working as a lifeguard at the local pool, be required to work evenings and weekends in retail or have any part in the typical jobs available to teenagers. Although she was grateful for her perfectly kept home, her own room and parents who were always available, Kate had been anxious to leave home and get her hands dirty. She didn’t want to be treated as a priceless object or a princess any longer, and she certainly never wanted to be married off at the country club as she’d seen happen to the other girls in her class.
Her parents never understood the jobs she took and the life she chose to lead. If they could see her babysitting a coworker’s niece on a trolley in the rain right now, they would think she needed pot roast, new shoes and a peaceful evening at home.
Her phone chimed
and she looked at the message.
Is this Kate Price? the message said.
Yes, is this Noah?
Kate was glad they had briefly met before, so she would recognize him. There was no way she was handing Bella over to a stranger. She arranged a meeting place two trolley stops away via text message and told Bella her dad would meet them soon. The little girl smiled as if it was a great adventure. She seemed to have the same sunny attitude as Brady and take things in stride. Was it a family trait? Kate’s own parents considered a deviation from the expected to be just that—a deviation, which was bad.
“Thank you,” Noah said when he stepped on board the trolley and his daughter rushed him for a hug. “You’re a real hero, just like my brother. You two are definitely made for each other.”
Kate had no idea what Brady had told his brother about their relationship, but his words caused a balloon of nervousness to expand in her chest. Made for each other. Kate was operating on the philosophy that she was made for herself and the life of adventure she had planned.
“Just trying to help,” she said.
Late that afternoon, Kate was back in her small apartment. Holly had gone out with a friend for dinner, but Kate had put up her hair, pulled on sweatpants and a cozy sweater and put on her reading glasses. She had a paperback novel about a woman who followed her dream and became a tour guide, traveling all over Europe, meeting new people, seeing castles and waterways, churches and mountains.
Before she opened her book, she checked the employee app on her phone. She wasn’t scheduled to work the next two days because she had traded some shifts to grab some time off for a short trip. She hadn’t mentioned the trip to Brady because she wasn’t sure she could get the two days she needed, and she wasn’t sure now how to say it. He wasn’t exactly her boyfriend and she didn’t owe him an explanation of her time. And she probably wouldn’t see him, anyway, before she left early in the morning. There would be time to tell him about it when she got back.
She heard the hallway door outside her apartment slam. It often did that when it was windy and whoever was entering wasn’t familiar with the door’s quirks. She listened. It was a heavy footstep, not Holly’s, and then she heard a knock on her door. Kate peeked through the hole. If she didn’t know Brady, she might not have opened the door. His hair was sticking up all over, his face was streaked with dirt and his shirt looked as if he’d worn it for a week.
She opened the door. “Are you okay?”
He attempted a smile. “Filthy and I smell like a three-day campfire, but I’m fine.”
He certainly was fine. Brady was heroic, attractive, funny and sincere. Most women would be tossing a rope around him and dragging him into their apartments. “Were the people at the fire all right?” Kate asked. “We drove by and I saw it was the nursing home, but then I rerouted the trolley to stay out of the way and so Bella wouldn’t see.”
“Thank you. You were a real lifesaver.”
Kate swung the door open wide and waved for him to come in. “Says the man who actually saves lives all the time.”
“Not today,” he said.
“Oh, no, did someone—”
“No, I mean we didn’t have to save them. The staff at that care facility did a great job getting everyone out. The initial report said they were missing someone, but it turned out he was in the bathroom.” Brady gave a tired smile. “They’re all okay, but it’s going to be a long rest of the day as they find new places for the residents to stay. Only one wing of the place is seriously damaged, but there’s smoke and water throughout. It’s no place for someone to live right now.”
Kate smelled smoke and sweat and dampness on him, but she didn’t mind. What bothered her was the exhaustion in the lines of Brady’s face and a thin red cut across his cheekbone. She reached up and touched his cheek just below the cut. “What happened?”
“Stupidity,” he said. “I was pulling down a section of ceiling when the fire was mostly out, and a piece of metal got me. It’s minor.”
Kate closed the door and pointed to two stools in her small kitchen. “I could heat up some soup or make you a grilled cheese sandwich,” she offered. “Coffee?”
Brady shook his head, and he didn’t sit down. “We had pizza at the station that someone sent us. People are nice like that, and food seems to come out of nowhere just when we really need it. I’m on my way home to shower, but I had to stop and see you first.” He took her hand in his large rough one, but his touch was gentle. “There aren’t many people I’d trust with my niece, even some people I’ve known for a long time. But I never had a doubt about her safety leaving her with you. There’s something special about you, Kate.”
Kate didn’t speak, but she put her free hand on his shoulder and waited. He was the special one, and he deserved someone who would be around to appreciate it.
“I want to hold you close, even though I know I have to let you go at the end of the summer,” Brady said. He leaned in and put a soft kiss on her forehead. Kate tilted her head and her lips found his as she closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the sensation. She’d never met anyone like Brady, never been so tempted to settle in for the night with a good man who wanted nothing more than to be there the next day and the next.
“I have to go,” Brady said.
Kate wanted to ask why, but she knew it was wiser to say good night. She kissed him once more, and he smiled at her and left. She went to the window and watched him head toward his truck. He moved like a man who was physically exhausted, but the rain had stopped and a streak of sun lit up his hair as he climbed in.
She wished he would have stayed for a cup of coffee, and her apartment seemed lonely and empty after he left. Kate tried to ignore the faint smoky smell he left behind as she grabbed her small overnight bag and started packing. Before she went to bed that night, she had her clothes picked out and her route planned.
The next morning, Kate went out to the parking lot before the sun came up and put her purse and one piece of luggage in the back seat of her two-year-old Ford Escape. Both the name of the car and its size had appealed to her when she bought the car new. Kate had saved her money and paid cash because, without a permanent address or much credit history to speak of, she wasn’t a good candidate for a car loan. Her parents would have helped her out and insisted she buy a more expensive car, but she wasn’t going to ask them. She would have been just as happy buying a cheap used vehicle, but she drove for Uber whenever she stayed in a place long enough to learn the geography, and for that she needed a nice car. The money in chauffeuring people around was decent, but she usually only drove when she really needed the cash. When she returned from her trip to Florida, she planned to take up Uber driving in Cape Pursuit for the rest of the summer—if her trip went well and her dream of being a flight attendant became reality.
Kate got on the highway and headed south. The Daytona airport was a twelve-hour drive, and she had a hotel room near the airport reserved. Her appointment with the admissions office at the flight attendant school was early the next morning, and if all went as planned, she would be back on the road by noon and back to Cape Pursuit by midnight tomorrow. She’d told Holly she was going to Florida to check out a school, but Holly had been engaged in a lengthy text conversation with some man she met on the beach, and Kate suspected her roommate had hardly heard a word she said.
It didn’t matter. Kate was used to being on her own and not having anyone checking on her or waiting up for her. The twelve-hour drive stretched before her like a delicious plate of appetizers. The road signs, freeway on-ramps and mile markers invited and urged her on, and she relished hitting the cruise control and seeing the trees and buildings fly past. She stopped twice for gas and once for food, and she checked into her airport hotel before sunset.
The next day, Kate put on a nice dark-blue skirt and a crisp white blouse, the kind of thing she’d seen flight attendants wear. She put up
her hair, slipped into low heels and even tied a jaunty scarf around her neck before she marched into the recruiting office. Her tour included training areas for flight attendants, classroom facilities and mock-ups of airplanes simulating the job environment. Kate felt right at home in an occupation that was all about getting away, and when she sat down with the admissions representative, she completed the paperwork with excitement blossoming in her heart.
When the admissions representative offered her financial aid applications and suggested a scholarship might be available, Kate turned it down at first. She wanted to do this on her own, and with the cash saved up from her previous job and the extra hours she was putting in during the summer, she’d be able to do it. Had to do it. However, the admissions representative had insisted and told her that at least a one-thousand-dollar scholarship was standard, offered to everyone by a corporate sponsor, and she’d only be cheating herself if she didn’t fill out the brief application.
In the car on the way home, Kate listened to the lengthy playlist of music she’d put together two years earlier as she crossed the continent while working for the freight line. She called the playlist “road music,” and it usually made her feel as if she could drive forever. However, driving north toward Cape Pursuit felt...different. She didn’t usually look forward to the destination as much as the journey, but she wanted to tell someone—Holly, George...Brady—about her enrollment in flight attendant school and have someone to share her excitement with.
She couldn’t call Brady. He would probably be at work at the fire station or even on the trolley.
Kate decided to call her parents instead. It had been easily a month since she’d heard their voices, even though she did text with them every few days to check in and say hello. She loved them, and she knew they loved her even if they would never understand her choices and they asked her to come home every chance they could.
Her mother answered on the third ring and she sounded slightly breathless.
