A Home for the Firefighter

by Amie Denman

  I just need two Band-Aids for my feet, she thought, not wanting to read too much into her reaction as she rounded up her small team and shared the good news. They began walking back toward the police station, and with each step Kate faced something she had been unwilling to see all summer long.

  Being in one place and connecting her heart with another person didn’t have to be a trap. It could also be a source of strength that would let her soar. Was it possible, somehow, to become a flight attendant but establish a home base nearby? There were airports within an hour; Norfolk was even closer. She tried to imagine coming home to Brady after a long day of flying around the world. There was only one way it could work—if Brady loved her enough and she was willing to take the greatest risk of her life.

  She quickened her steps, anxious to see Brady at the end of the search and perhaps even give him a glimpse of her feelings. Maybe it was the emotions of the wedding and the search party, but she felt vulnerable and willing to take a risk.

  Kate and her team came across Brady and the elderly man on the way back to the station, and she saw Brady step into the back of an ambulance. Even from a distance, she knew him for his broad shoulders and dark hair, and also the fact that he was wearing a suit. Was he going to the hospital with the man?

  A small crowd of family members stayed behind as the ambulance pulled away, and Kate had to avert her eyes. They stood together, their arms around each other and their shoulders shaking as they cried together. Their relief mixed with joy hit Kate’s vulnerable emotions like a truck, and she said a hasty good night to her group before turning to walk home.

  She’d almost told Brady that giving her heart to someone and someplace was worth the risk, but seeing the emotionally exhausted family members of the elderly man reminded her why she was probably better off if she kept her hands on the steering wheel and her view pointed to the horizon. With great love and security also came the risk of losing it all. Maintaining her freedom meant a life free of painful heartaches.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “I’M NOT USUALLY on this end of the fire,” Brady said as he lit a pile of logs on the beach near the trolley company’s office.

  “That’s why I thought you were the perfect man for the job,” Kate said. “It’s good to get out of your comfort zone. That’s what you told me when you made me go surfing.”

  Brady added some kindling sticks and coaxed the flame as he knelt in the sand. He looked up at Kate, who stood over him with a to-do list in her hand. “I like my comfort zone,” he said.

  Kate nodded, and Brady wished for the hundredth time that summer that she would let down her guard and let him in. It was already the second week of August, and he knew the inevitable end of the season was approaching. Everything seemed to be changing rapidly, and Brady felt the same frightening insecurity that had made up most of his childhood. The shifting sand under his knees was a metaphor for his life, and he was tired of it.

  “Hey,” Kate said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “This is supposed to be a party, but you seem so serious tonight.”

  Brady reached up and put a hand over hers as it lay on his shoulder. Only hours earlier, Noah had told him that he planned to get a house of his own in Cape Pursuit. His new wife’s family had offered financial help, and Noah had already contacted a Realtor in town. Brady’s heart had sunk as he realized he would be alone again in his own house, alone in his plan to buy something permanent and provide for Noah.

  Noah didn’t need him now. In fact, his younger brother, whom he had always looked out for, was suddenly getting all the things Brady wanted for himself. Noah had a wife, a beautiful daughter and would soon have a home.

  Brady bent back down to fan the flame and arrange the sticks, unwilling to let Kate see his face. He wasn’t jealous; it wasn’t something ugly like that. It was more a feeling of being...adrift. No one needed him, and that realization left him with the blank slate of his own feelings. What did he want?

  “The caterers are here,” Kate said as she walked over to them across the sand. Brady sat back on his heels and watched the small fire grow. In less than an hour, the other summer employees from the Cape Pursuit Trolley Company would arrive for a beach party complete with food and a live band, and for the first time, they would be joined by the employees from the new company George was acquiring in a bold business move.

  It seemed everyone was reaching for their dreams. Brady glanced over to Kate and watched her talking animatedly with the caterers and then helping them carry tables and cooking equipment to a setup on the beach.

  It was a mistake to tie his dream to one person. He’d watched his mother chase the elusive happy ending with one guy after another, and it had nearly destroyed her. She’d kept hoping the next boyfriend would be the one...but he never was. Brady couldn’t allow himself to go down that road and pour his heart into chasing something he couldn’t have.

  Kate had already said no, as often and as nicely as she could. His brother had found his own happiness. Brady took his eyes from Kate and turned to watch the waves rolling in on the beach. Cape Pursuit was his home now. It wouldn’t be easy to afford the blue house without his brother’s income, too. It wouldn’t be the same living there by himself with no playset in the backyard for Bella. But he owed it to himself to buy the house and settle in, anyway, even if he was by himself.

  * * *

  KATE HAD TWO weeks left in Cape Pursuit. The beach bonfire almost felt like a going-away party for many of the summer employees who would soon go back to high school or college as the summer wound down. The weather was perfect, the food smelled great and there were so many employees from both George’s old and new companies that it was impossible to be lonely in such a crowd.

  Brady still looked lonely. Kate was busy managing and organizing the party as a favor to George as his very temporary and part-time office helper, but she still kept an eye on Brady as he drifted from group to group. She watched him pick at a plate of food before tossing half of it into a trash can. He smiled and talked with some of the other summer workers, probably joking about the silly things that always happened when tourists, sunshine and alcohol mixed.

  But he still seemed apart from everyone else. Maybe it was because most of the summer workers were moving on to something else at the end of the season, but he was staying put, right there in Cape Pursuit where he would continue saving lives and taking care of other people.

  Kate checked on the caterers, who were transitioning from barbecue food to s’more offerings, made sure the band members had fresh bottles of water and helped hand out marshmallow roasting sticks.

  “You haven’t stopped working for almost two hours,” Brady said as he appeared by her side with an orange soda, which he held out for her. “Take a short break or you’ll be worn out before the flames subside.”

  “Have you been feeding the fire?” Kate asked.

  He shook his head. “Not in a while. We want it to burn down low for roasting marshmallows, and I can’t leave until I’m sure it’s no threat.”

  Kate wanted to ask if he was in a hurry to leave, but she was afraid she already knew the answer to that question. Brady, with his usual ready laugh and smile, didn’t seem as if he was having fun tonight. He was a few years older than the other summer workers; maybe that was it. Or maybe it was because instead of raking in summer cash so he could get out of town and go off to college or adventures, he was saving money so he could stay right there. It was a big difference.

  “I doubt a beach fire is likely to spread,” Kate said.

  Brady glanced over at the party scene on the beach. “Any time you play with fire, it’s dangerous.”

  Kate was sure there was more to his words, but what could she say? She had tried hard all summer not to burn Brady. She’d been truthful. How could she help it if he had a different plan for his life? Her hand around the bottle of soda was freezing, but she didn’t want to ta
ke a drink. The lump in her throat would choke her, and she felt frustrated and out of things to say.

  The music from the band stopped, and she heard her boss on the microphone asking everyone to approach the makeshift stage for some announcements. Kate knew what was coming because she’d helped him write his remarks and make sure he didn’t forget to thank anyone.

  “I have to go help,” she said. Brady nodded and forced a smile, and Kate felt him behind her as she walked over to the stage. She put her bottle of soda, Brady’s sweet offering, on the edge of the stage platform so she would have her hands free to applaud George’s announcements and remarks.

  A circle of nearly fifty people stood around, some of them still eating finger food from plates or sipping soda, as George talked about the partnership of his own company and the new one he had purchased. He welcomed all the new employees under his umbrella and talked about his excitement about moving forward and providing the best tourist experience for visitors to Cape Pursuit.

  It was all exactly as she and George had scripted.

  “And now I have to thank the person who made tonight possible by organizing it all,” he said, turning to Kate and pointing to her. Even though his words had not been part of the script, Kate gave a smile and little wave to the crowd to acknowledge their polite applause. Brady had faded back into the summer workers, and she was alone. Being alone was nothing new for her. Ever since she’d left home and pursued her own way across the country and back, Kate had been comfortable in her own skin and calling her own shots.

  But she still wished Brady hadn’t stepped quite so far back into the crowd.

  “Kate has been invaluable to me this summer,” George continued, and Kate felt her empty stomach clench as she wished he would stop talking and drawing attention to her. “She’s a second-year employee, and I was darn glad to see her back this year. I hope all of you choose to come back next year, too, and become part of the Cape Pursuit family. But Kate didn’t just drive the trolley for me this year. She stepped up when I needed office help, she was there when another one of our workers needed some help and she even joined the rescue effort for a missing person in town last week.”

  Please stop talking, Kate thought. He was trying to make her sound like some kind of a hero, but she wasn’t. The real hero had disappeared so far back into the crowd that she couldn’t even see him.

  “You can imagine how disappointed I was when I offered the full-time manager’s role to Kate and asked her to stay on permanently and she turned me down.” George pointed to Kate with the microphone. “I wish you luck, but I sure wish you’d change your mind and stay.”

  Kate smiled and shook her head, hoping George would move on to the prearranged list of people he was supposed to thank. Kate risked a glance into the crowd to find Brady, but she only saw his back as he walked across the sand toward the parking lot. She’d never told him she was offered a good job right there in Cape Pursuit. There hadn’t been any point, and it wouldn’t have changed anything.

  Still, she wished he had heard that from her instead of being blindsided with the information at the beach party.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE FIREFIGHTERS AT Cape Pursuit didn’t usually celebrate birthdays unless it was a milestone one that gave them the opportunity to razz someone over turning forty or even fifty. However, Brady’s new sister-in-law had stopped by the station with Bella and a sheet cake that said Happy 25th Birthday, Brady, and he was never going to live it down.

  “It’s your turn to cook tonight,” Tony said, “but you could buy us pizza instead since it’s your birthday and all.”

  Brady laughed and took a paper plate with a slice of the cake on it.

  “I picked out the cake,” Bella said.

  “Nice job,” Brady said. “It’s perfect, honey. Thank you.”

  Corrinne handed him a plastic fork from the box she’d brought. “You should be glad it didn’t have a princess or a pirate on it. I talked her into the one with just balloons and hearts.”

  Brady smiled at his new sister-in-law. Corrinne seemed happy and content, and ready to put down roots there as a family. His brother had gone from a precarious relationship built around co-parenting Bella to marriage and a solid future in less than one summer. Brady’s summer had been eventful, but his brother had upstaged him completely.

  “We can’t stay,” Corrinne said. “We don’t want to be in the way, and we’re meeting Noah during his lunch to look at a house.”

  Brady nodded. His brother was wasting no time trying to find a home for his family. Brady had done everything he could to make his home welcoming and encourage his brother to stay as long as he wanted to, but he understood his brother’s decision. It’s probably what he would do, too, and that’s why he’d given Noah the list of houses that were affordable but nice. Most of them Brady had already looked at himself, so he shared all the inside information with Noah and Corrinne to make their search easier.

  “Thanks for bringing cake for the department. They’ll give me all kinds of crap about it, but that won’t stop them from eating the whole thing before the evening shift gets here.”

  As Brady inspected trucks and worked on a troublesome backup pump on the rescue truck, he thought about what it meant to be twenty-five. He knew his parents had met while they were young, so his father—whoever and wherever he was—probably had two children by the time he was a quarter century old. What would it have been like to grow up with both parents in one house? Would he and Noah have such a tight bond, and would Brady have become a rescuer if he’d enjoyed an idyllic childhood?

  He would never know. What he did know was that each year was getting better. A home and a career advancement were within sight, and his feet were on solid ground—except for his relationship with Kate, which was, at best, up in the air.

  Brady and two other firefighters got called out on a small fire that they quickly quenched. It was a grass fire at a campground outside of town that grew out of an unattended campfire. It was immensely satisfying to put out the fire, talk with some kids who gawked at the fire trucks and go home knowing he’d done something useful. It was even better than blowing out birthday candles, even though he hadn’t paused to make a wish first. As dinnertime approached, Brady took Tony’s suggestion and ordered pizzas for the five guys on duty. When he went outside to meet the pizza delivery car in front of the station, he was surprised to see Kate driving slowly past. When she saw him, she pulled into the small lot next to the station. What was she doing there?

  Brady paid for the two large pizzas and handed them off to Gavin inside the station, and then he went back outside to meet Kate. She still wore her trolley uniform, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He’d thought her attractive the previous summer, but his feelings for her had gone far beyond appreciating her pretty face and lovely eyes. Every hour he’d spent with her over the summer had deepened his wish that she would stay, even though she seemed to him like a beautiful butterfly with delicate but determined wings.

  “Happy birthday,” she said as she stopped in front of him. She didn’t greet him with a kiss, but she put her arms around his neck for a quick hug. “It’s the big twenty-five, isn’t it?”

  “How did you know?” he said, wishing the hug lasted longer after he felt her pulling away. “Did my brother or Corrinne tell you?”

  She shook her head. “I noticed it on your employee ID when I scanned it earlier this summer.”

  “You have a good memory.” He recalled that day when they’d met in the break room. Their relationship had seemed full of mystery and possibility at the time, and how much had it changed?

  “Too good,” Kate said. “If you remember everything you’ve done and all the things that make up your past, it’s more of a temptation to dwell on them. That’s why I prefer to think about the future where I haven’t made any mistakes yet.”

  Brady waited, unsure what to
say or what to make of her surprise visit. He hadn’t talked to her since two nights earlier when he’d heard George announce that Kate had turned down a great opportunity to stay in Cape Pursuit. Brady was ashamed of his own cowardly behavior in choosing to leave after that announcement instead of sticking around and spending time with Kate. She’d been presented with a clear and easy way of staying, a job that she would probably enjoy, and she’d turned it down. She hadn’t even told him about it herself...and why not? Was she afraid he would have tried to persuade her to take the job? She needn’t have worried. He’d stuck to the rules all summer, no matter how much it hurt.

  “Anyway,” Kate said. “I had an hour’s break between my regular shift and an evening one I picked up, and I just wanted to say hello and I hope you’re having a good day even though you have to work.”

  “I love my work, so I don’t mind being on duty on my birthday. And I didn’t have any plans, anyway.”

  Kate’s expression sobered, and he thought he saw her eyes shining as if there were tears in them. He had never seen her cry, and he sure didn’t want to be the cause of it.

  “I haven’t done a very good job of this,” Kate said. “Being a summer romance.”

  It was almost the last thing he thought she was going to say.

  “It’s not a job,” he said. “Not an obligation or something you have to do or even succeed at. You don’t owe me anything, Kate. There was never a contract even though we both knew there was an expiration date.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Why?” Seeing her pained expression, Brady suddenly felt something shift. He reached out and touched a hand to her cheek. “You know what? This has been the best summer of my life. I got to see my brother get married and be happy. They’re getting a house of their own now, and I hope they’ll live close by. I’m really close to buying my own place. And I’m in line for officer training and a promotion here.”