Fahrenheit

by Capri Montgomery

  She tossed around once more before punching the pillow and objurgating herself for not being able to sleep. She buried her face in the pillow and screamed. “Sleep, Eve.” She rolled over again. All the tossing and turning was not helping her go to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she thought about Adam—every time she opened her eyes she thought about him too. No; tossing and turning was not putting her to sleep—it was, however, giving her a serious case of bed head.

  She sighed. Who cared about the hair? She was going to be shooting fireside she didn’t need to look spectacular while doing it. She would just brush it back in a messy ponytail and be done with it.

  Her phone rang again. She looked at the blinking red light and sighed. She contemplated not answering the phone, but since she wasn’t getting the sleep she thought she needed anyway, she picked up the receiver.

  “Eve, I need to make sure you get the best photos for my story. I think we should do a conference tonight just to go over it again.”

  “No,” she said affirmatively. “You are not coming here. I am not coming to you. You are going to have to trust that I know what I’m doing. I always bring you great pictures, Mitch.”

  “I know you do. You’re like an artist with that camera, but with the fire almost being contained now I need something really spectacular for this one.”

  She exhaled slowly. This wasn’t a game, or some rush to prize winning journalism; this was real danger, real damage, and real threat to life and limb. “I always bring you spectacular photos,” according to the editors anyway, “and I won’t let you down this time. But if you don’t let me get some sleep, Mitch, all bets are off.”

  “Right,” he said quickly. “You sleep. Get a lot of sleep, so you’ll be refreshed and ready to shoot great art come morning.”

  She shook her head as she disconnected the call. If she didn’t know any better she would swear Mitch was almost sad the fire was near containment. “Whatever,” she mumbled as she got comfortable in bed. He was right on one count—she needed sleep.

  Chapter Five

  Eve secured her camera strap around her neck. She had long ago learned that when the situation shifted levels of danger it was best to have a firm hold on the camera in case she had to run for it. She wasn’t expecting anything dangerous today—other than the smell of the wood burning, which really was hazardous to her health and everybody else. The fire was pretty much contained. What she was doing now was just documenting the hard work the men were putting in to put out the fire, while getting pictures of some of the devastation the fire had caused. She didn’t envision needing to run for her life today, but she had been in the business long enough to know being prepared for the worse, expecting the worse, is what kept a person alive. She knelt on one knee to make sure her boots were securely tied.

  “Eve; what are you doing here?”

  Eve looked up to see Adam hovering over her. “Working,” she said with measured surprise. “What are you doing here?” As far as she knew, Adam worked residential, commercial, city fires, not wildfires. But there he was with his gear, and in his uniform, ready to work.

  “About six of us from our station are here to help again today. We come out to these sometimes.”

  “Oh,” she nodded.

  “It’s good for the firehouse, and gives us more experience, so it’s good for us too. It’s good for me,” he mumbled.

  “Great. I say whatever works for you; go for it—as long as it’s not illegal.”

  “It doesn’t bother you?”

  “That you’re fighting wildfires? No. Why should it?”

  “A lot of women don’t like the aspect of the dangerous situation.”

  She shrugged. “Fighting any fire is dangerous, Adam. But I grew up with two military brothers, and I’ve traveled the world and found myself in far more life threatening situations than most people. I don’t have an issue with anybody doing the job that matters to them.” He looked relieved. Had he really been worried that his job would be a deal breaker? If it were, she would have never agreed to go out with him. She wasn’t one of those women who pretended things were okay to land a man and then changed her mind after landing him. She wouldn’t try to change him. It wouldn’t be right, and it wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

  “Good.” She could tell he was going to reach out and place his hand on her arm, but just as quickly as his hand started the motion, he stopped. Obviously he remembered where they were, and what they were supposed to be doing. “It’s good because my dream is to become a smokejumper like my brother.”

  “You’ll have to tell me about it someday. I’d really love to hear about your plans to make that dream a reality.” She looked past his shoulder to the men who were now closely watching them both. “You should get to work.” She nodded in the direction of the rest of the fire crew. “I’m just here to take the pictures.”

  “I guess I should.” He looked her over from head to toe and back again. “You’re sexy, even when you’re dressed down.” He winked at her before leaving to join the other firefighters.

  Eve checked out the man she had come to like—a lot—in just a short time. She didn’t know much about him, but what she did know told her he was kind. He cared enough about people to risk his life to save their life. He cared enough about her to make sure she had a pair of shoes, that she had some things she needed from her apartment, and that she was okay. He was clearly patient. Even with several dates interrupted by her brothers being there, and even last night, he was still interested enough to stay the course. He was smart. There was no way he would get through his firefighter training if he wasn’t. And he was cute—very cute. She liked him, maybe more than she should because she knew what she needed to do was get to know him, let him get to know her, and then decide whether or not they both wanted to invest the time and patience into the relationship that she was sure it was going to take.

  She shot pictures of the men working, of the fire that was now almost extinguished, the fire line that had served its purpose and kept the fire from being much worse than it could, and of Adam. He was working hard, like the rest, but there was something about him that made her keep snapping pictures. His eyes had to be at least some part of that something; she was sure of that. He had the most amazing eyes she had seen on a man in a long time, and they stood out because of his dark hair—not that one could see much of either due to the hat. But there was a brief moment where he had looked up at her, right into the lens and she snapped the photo. That was a photo she wanted to hang on her wall—when she had one to hang it on. Before she knew it, every photograph seemed to have him in it. She laughed to herself. “Make sure to get these off before you hand it over to Mitch,” she reminded herself. She could leave a few, but she shouldn’t give all of them to him. Mitch was a bloodhound when it came to finding the facts, and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to know about her budding relationship with Adam until it had actually budded.

  When she finally wrapped her portion of the day she verified the meet location for dinner with Adam. She wanted to get back to the hotel and shower first, so she did. Mitch might not have liked it, but fifteen minutes in the shower would be far better than showing up smelling like smoke and sweat. She felt dirty and there was no way she was going anywhere, not even the office, in that condition.

  “I told you to come straight here,” he complained.

  “Would you really want me so close to you if I smelled badly?”

  He laughed. “We’ve been in worse, Eve. But you’re right; smelly women aren’t my thing.”

  She laughed and shook her head. They might not have been his thing while he was sober, but she was fairly sure he would bed just about anything when he was drunk. Fortunately, Mitch wasn’t a heavy drinker—most of the time anyway. When a story blew up in his face all bets were off. She learned that the hard way. She told herself, good guys have faults too, but it was one fault she wasn’t willing to surround herself with. She just couldn’t chance him getting in a funk abou
t something work related, drinking heavily and coming after her the way he had done before.

  “What do we have here?” He asked as he went through the photos he downloaded to the computer.

  “Men working,” she retorted. After putting the photos on her own computer she had deleted several pictures of Adam from the memory card she gave Mitch. She had a full set of the originals, but what she gave him had been shortened to about sixty photos.

  “You like this one,” he tapped his finger on the computer screen. “Look at that love.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s just a photo.”

  “Yeah, a photo of your future husband,” he laughed again. “Eve, none of your other photos, of the other men, look anything like this one. They’re all good, but this one is…well, let’s just say you focused in on the man and not the job. I like it.”

  “Don’t use that one,” she tried to reach past him to hit the delete key and he blocked her.

  “Too late,” he snickered as he hit the send button. “I’ve already sent the photo down to print.”

  Frustrated, she let out a heavy sigh. “I thought you wanted a picture of the fire to go with your story.”

  “I did. And the three I just sent to print all fit. There’s one of the men working, one of the almost extinguished fire, and now this one. It’s the lead. I’ve already tagged it.”

  She rolled her eyes again. It’s a good thing her mother had been wrong when she told her that if she kept rolling her eyes they were going to get stuck up in her head, because she was doing more eye rolling now than she had done all year. The second photo, the one of the fire almost extinguished, could have complemented the story on its own. The trees still burning in the distant background juxtaposed with the now dead, but fully extinguished foreground would fit well with Mitch’s work. He could even use a photo of the group. But leading with the photo of Adam was…brilliant actually. She might not have liked it, but the photo Mitch chose put a face to the men working. The look on Adam’s face was one of determination, focus, and courage. That picture told a different story, a story of its own.

  “Eve, this is perfect.”

  She couldn’t argue there. “But I think the lead should be of all the men. You know, let’s not cause trouble.”

  Mitch shook his head. “Trouble is my middle name, Eve. It stays.”

  He turned his back to her signaling that the conversation was finished. “Well,” she sighed. “I guess the photo helps show the men of courage and honor.”

  “Man of courage,” he said.

  “Oh no. Mitch, don’t do it.”

  He grinned.

  “If you do it I swear I’m going to make your head look like a beach ball in your next photo. I can do it you know.”

  He laughed. “I would ignore you except I know about that mean streak of yours. You never make idle threats.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Fine, the story already has a title anyway. I submitted it earlier today. All we were missing were the photos. Photos you took forever to get to me.”

  “Whatever,” she grabbed her keys. “I’m out of here.”

  “Have dinner with me?”

  “I have a date already.”

  “With fire boy?”

  “He’s a man.”

  “Is he a man you’re planning to get to know in the biblical sense of the term?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Goodbye, Mitch.” She snapped.

  He rushed around his desk and blocked her exit. “Have you told him yet?”

  “None of your business.”

  “You haven’t.” He shook his head. “Eve, no man will agree to those terms. Save yourself the heartache. Ditch him now. You don’t need him. You have me.” He grinned.

  “Nobody has you Mitch, nobody but you.”

  “True. I am my own man.”

  She pushed past him.

  “Hey, wait a minute;” he said with a stunned expression, as if he finally understood what she was saying. She didn’t wait. She left. She didn’t need Mitch reminding her of what might not be; reminding her of the conversation she needed to have with Adam. “Oh boy,” she sighed as she got into her rental car. “Be strong, Eve. Be strong.” She still had an hour before she needed to meet Adam in Flagler Beach. He was going to take her to some swanky fish place by the beach and they were going to eat outside under the stars with a perfect view of the sun setting. Unfortunately the beach sat in the east so the sun wouldn’t be sinking beneath the ocean, but it would still be beautiful. She had a few things she needed to take care of first. The most important thing was picking up the check her insurance company was cutting for the damage to her car and other personal belongings. While she had been able to recover some things, there was a great deal she wouldn’t be able to get out. She had to say, she loved her insurance company. There was no red tape. Other people were still waiting to just get the claim moving and her company had already issued payout for the full amount of her policy. Actually, that was good, because her car had gone to war with a flying hot water heater from building four hundred and her car had lost.

  She was counting her blessings. First, she could be dead. Second, she could have lost everything. She was able to get most of her clothes out of the apartment and only some carried a smell of something; what she wasn’t sure, but she knew she hadn’t been able to get it out with three washings through the hotel laundry room. She disposed of what she couldn’t use and kept what she could. She got some of her artwork, her portfolio, some mementos, but her furniture was gone, probably permanently. Last she heard, part of her bedroom ceiling was now on the floor and the building had been declared off limits to all unnecessary personnel. What she managed to get out was all she would be allowed to get out. She could ask Adam to help her get some more things, but things weren’t worth the risk to his life. The dishes were expensive, but not priceless. Her mother promised her the china set that was older than all of the McGregor children, but she didn’t have the set yet, so it wasn’t in the apartment at the time.

  “Mr. Domer, thank you so much for calling me about my claim. I didn’t think I would hear back from you this soon.” She wasn’t the type of person to procrastinate taking care of business. When she knew she would have to file a claim she didn’t need her brothers to remind her to do it. She had the claim in before they even showed up at the hotel.

  “Your brother is a very persuasive man,” Mr. Domer laughed. The creases around his eyes deepened, and the wrinkles around his mouth showed more pronounced. His silver hair was amazingly silver, not yellow gold, not really gray, not white, but silver—and full. He was handsome. Eve imagined he probably always had been.

  “My brother?” What did her brother have to do with this?

  “Thomas,” he nodded. “He showed up and provided great detail as to why I should get this check to you as soon as possible.”

  Eve was angry, and if she thought it was at all possible she would say there was steam coming out the top of her head. She was beyond her boiling point now. Thomas had no right. “I’m sorry,” she kept her tone measured. “He had no right to do that.”

  Mr. Domer laughed. “Are you kidding me? I have a daughter your age. I would have done the same thing. She’s off at the university in Gainesville now, but she’s almost finished with her undergraduate. She would be finished, but she took a semester off to do an archeology dig abroad and she still needed four classes at the time. The dig only counted as an elective and not the required classes.” He shook his head. “This is her last semester. Are you finished with your schooling?”

  Eve smiled. “Yes.”

  “You should think about going onward. A Masters would be good to have.”

  “I already have it,” she assured him. “I don’t have any plans to continue onward with school right now, but maybe in the future.” She was still too angry with Thomas to even think about school right now.

  When she wrapped her meeting up with Mr. Domer she stopped by the bank to deposit the c
heck, took out some extra cash to pay for her own meal at dinner, before heading to the restaurant. She stood outside her car trying to calm down. Why should she calm down? He never, in a million years, should have applied pressure to Mr. Domer. She should have waited her turn just like everybody else. Well, she was sick of the McGregor boys treating her like a kid. She was going to give him a piece of her mind.

  She angrily pulled out her cell, flipped it open and punched in Thomas’ phone number. She flipped the phone closed before it could even ring. “Never in anger,” she reminded herself. She tried not to vent her anger over the phone. She knew she would say something she couldn’t take back, something that might be the last words she would ever say to the person, and she didn’t want that. She had almost lost Thomas once and the realization that it could happen again wasn’t far from her mind. She would never forgive herself if her last words to him were words of anger.

  Chapter Six

  Adam caught sight of Eve from across the parking lot. Her creamy caramel brown skin glowed in the light of the slow setting sun. She looked irate. What could have happened to her between the fire and now? He approached with caution. The last thing he wanted to do was kick the date off with a tongue lashing that was meant for somebody else. “Eve?” He kept his voice gentle. Twenty-six years of life had taught him about being gentle with people. He had watched his brothers in enough relationships to know when things needed to be finessed, not that Trent was much good at that, and Chase, he was okay, but Adam knew he had cornered the market on finesse when it came to women. He had practiced within his own relationships, and while he still managed to say some things that could get his teeth kicked out, most times he handled situations perfectly.