The Firefighter's Christmas Reunion

by Christy Jeffries

  It was just that Cessy sometimes forgot that most of the Sugar Falls locals weren’t raking in the alimony checks like she was. Most of them weren’t the type of people who could afford to vacation at Snow Creek Lodge, the luxurious ski resort up the road. Hannah’s neighbors certainly couldn’t spend a thousand dollars for a ticket to a themed Dinner with a Star event, despite the fact that Cessy Walker claimed she could get Barry Manilow as the guest of honor when she’d suggested the idea a few minutes ago.

  Marcia Duncan’s words last week about Isaac’s wealth and his reasons for staying in Sugar Falls skipped through Hannah’s mind and she squeezed her eyes closed to squelch them down. She wasn’t at this meeting to think about her ex. Or the way he’d picked her up into a tight, sweaty hug after the Halloween run. She was here to represent her community.

  Hannah’s brother Luke, who was watching Sammy so that she could attend this evening, had warned Hannah not to come on too strong at her first city council meeting since her return. He possibly had a point, since she’d only been back in town for a couple weeks, but the jog-a-thon had been a financial success, and now Hannah was itching to put her fund-raising skills to more use. While she might not be any good with dating or relationships, given her reaction to Isaac running that last lap with her and Sammy last week, she could more than hold her own when it came to charity events.

  Luke, unfortunately, was too carefree to understand Hannah’s restlessness, and he was too happy in his new life to understand her need to prove herself. Ease back into things, sis, he’d told her. And whatever you do, don’t start lecturing everyone about their civic and moral responsibilities.

  Whatever that was supposed to mean. Hannah shifted in her metal folding chair before crossing her legs, then uncrossing them for the hundredth time that night. It was all she could do to sit there quietly and listen. Glancing back at Carmen, who stood against the auditorium wall in her blue police uniform, Hannah decided that she’d waited long enough. But before she could politely raise her hand and offer up a more realistic suggestion, Freckles stood up in the front row.

  The café owner was wearing faux leather pants—at least, Hannah hoped the material was fake because she couldn’t imagine an animal’s skin being that exact shade of red—and a purple sweatshirt with a clock and the words Half Past Wine O’Clock printed on the back. Freckles could command the attention of the entire room just by her clothing selection, yet she spoke in a laid-back, comfortable twang as though she was explaining the day’s lunch specials. “I say we have one of those bachelor auctions.”

  Several murmurs immediately sounded from the audience and Hannah was sure none of them had heard the older lady correctly. Mayor Johnston’s mustache scratched against the microphone. “Anyone want to second that?”

  Hannah lowered her forehead into her palms and massaged her temples as the auditorium broke into chaos, a third of the people present speaking at once.

  “I think a bachelor auction would be a fantastic idea.” Cessy Walker leaned in front of the mayor and spoke into his microphone. “And it’s something we’ve never done before here in Sugar Falls.”

  A twitch developed in the corner of Hannah’s eyelid, causing a series of rapid-fire blinks. She wanted to scream that they’ve never done it because it was a horrible idea. It was demeaning for the bachelors and she could hardly imagine any of the women in town actually being desperate enough to bid on them. It was tacky and ostentatious. Besides, it would be a tremendous failure. If she didn’t slam the brakes on this plan right now, they would be here all night.

  “You guys,” Hannah said as she stood up. Then she had to clear her throat and raise her voice to be heard above the excited voices.

  “You guys!” she repeated, using her loudest teacher tone, which successfully quieted most of the talkers. She waited until she had everyone’s attention before she began to speak. “We cannot put on a bachelor auction.”

  “Sounds like a great idea to me,” Mayor Johnston replied then looked in Freckles’ direction. “In fact, I’ll be your first volunteer.”

  “The hell you will,” the mayor’s wife, who was sitting behind Hannah, said without bothering to look up from her smartphone. The woman had a well-known addiction to Candy Crush and an even better-known rein on her husband.

  “See?” Hannah tried to smile at the mayor. “We don’t even have eligible bachelors to bid on.”

  “Of course we do.” Cessy Walker yanked the microphone in front of herself. “In fact, I see at least three of them in this room alone, not counting Scooter and Jonesy.”

  “Hey, now,” Scooter Deets yelled a bit too loudly as he adjusted his hearing aid. “Why don’t me and Jonesy count? We’re both as single as they come.”

  “Because nobody would bid on a date that involves riding on the back of a horse through downtown,” Cessy replied, then pointed a long, manicured finger. “But they’d certainly bid on Ethan Renault over there. And both of them.”

  Hannah pivoted to see Isaac and Clausson standing against the back wall near Carmen. Collapsing into her chair, Hannah was grateful for the slippery, cold metal that allowed her to slide low enough to hide behind Mae Johnston’s steel-gray curls. She’d successfully been avoiding him since that breath-stealing hug at the jog-a-thon last week, but her luck had only lasted so long. When had he slipped into the room? And how could Hannah slip out?

  “Chief Jones,” Mayor Johnston boomed into the mic. “You and some of your men would be willing to volunteer as our bachelors, right? Maybe any extra money we raise can go toward that new brush truck that didn’t make this year’s budget?”

  A woman Hannah recognized from the human resources office at City Hall ran to the mayor’s side and whispered something in the man’s ear. Probably a warning about what kind of lawsuits could arise from pimping out some of his government employees, even if it was for a charitable cause.

  Yet the question still hung in the air. Along with the rest of the audience, Hannah slowly turned her head to catch a peek at Isaac’s response. A giggle bubbled up in her throat. If there was one bright spot to this unorganized and fruitless city council meeting, it was seeing Isaac’s jaw lock and his eyes widen in alarm.

  “I’m on duty that day,” he replied, yet Hannah recognized the discomfort in his voice. It always went an octave lower when he was nervous. Or when they were in the dark and he was telling Hannah to...

  “Don’t be ridiculous, darlin’,” Freckles called back to him. “We haven’t even set a date yet. We can work around your schedule.”

  “So we’ve got Chief Jones and the new guy and Ethan.” Cessy wrote on a note pad without looking up at the choking sound coming from Luke’s former Navy SEAL buddy. “Carmen, see if any of your police officers want to challenge the firefighters to see who can get the highest bids.”

  “I’ll make some phone calls around town and get us some more men,” Freckles added, making Hannah wonder how long the two old friends had been plotting this idea together.

  “Don’t forget about us.” Jonesy gestured at himself and Scooter. “Put our names down on your list.”

  “But hold off on putting down any names from my department until I talk with my guys first,” Isaac said, causing several disappointed sighs from women in the audience.

  “Afraid my department will get more bids than yours?” Carmen finally spoke up and Hannah squeezed her eyes shut.

  Great. The challenge had officially been issued and there was no way that Isaac would back down now. He always had to come out ahead.

  The cheers and whistles returned, along with those old stirrings of jealousy that Hannah thought were long gone. It was like Elaine’s comment the other day had reawakened all those teenage insecurities. While Hannah shouldn’t care about the obvious fact that there were women out there who might want a date with Isaac, she also wasn’t about to be subjected to watching the bidding. She jumped to her
feet with a new suggestion.

  “Instead of a bachelor auction, why don’t we do a dinner dance at the VFW?” she offered. “We can have a band and keep a percentage of the drink sales. We’ll probably make much more money and then everyone in town, including all the married couples and happily single people, can participate and feel like they’re contributing.”

  Okay, so maybe she didn’t need to emphasize the fact that she was more than content with her own relationship status. Yet it was important for them all to understand that there were more inclusive ways to raise money. Ways that didn’t involve gossip and speculation about who was willing to spend money in order to go out with the sexy single men of Sugar Falls. Including her ex.

  “That’s a perfect idea.” Cessy beamed at her, and Hannah finally felt some of the tension ease in the back of her neck. Until the socialite added, “We’ll do the bachelor auction on a Friday night and have a dance at the VFW on Saturday night. You guys can bring your dates to the dance.”

  It took every ounce of strength Hannah possessed not to lean forward and put her head between her knees to brace for impact.

  * * *

  “How do you not own a single tie?” Cessy Walker, the bachelor auction co-organizer and wealthy know-it-all, asked Isaac two weeks later as they stood backstage at the Remington.

  The rumor mill about tonight’s event had gotten a bit out of hand and, due to a larger than expected turnout, the organizers had to relocate everything to a larger venue. Now, the old theater in town was packed.

  Isaac hadn’t thought there were that many single women in Sugar Falls. But as he peeked out from behind the heavy maroon curtain and scanned the faces in the audience, he realized that most of the crowd was probably only there for the spectacle of the thing.

  Maybe this bachelor auction wasn’t such a good idea after all. He hated formal dances and he hated people throwing their money away when he wasn’t exactly doing anything to earn it except stand there and look single.

  Was it too late to back out?

  The older woman yanking on his collar got his attention. “What did you say, Ms. Walker?”

  “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she continued, as if he should already know what she’d been talking about. “I’m glad you didn’t borrow one of your uncle’s old bolo ties, but you could’ve at least thrown on a sport coat or done something to spiff yourself up.”

  “I wasn’t aware that I needed spiffing. You do know I’m not really selling anything, right?”

  Cessy unrolled the cuffs of his oxford shirt before seeing how wrinkled they were and rolling the sleeves back up. “Do you want to beat those fresh-faced pups from the police station or not?”

  Isaac grunted as his fingers fought Cessy Walker’s pointy red nails for custody of the third button on his shirt. “I’m pretty sure the HR supervisor would frown upon government employees showing off all their chest hair to beg for donations.”

  “The HR supervisor just bought a date with your head paramedic for two hundred and forty dollars. Besides, the city attorney said you signed the voluntary consent form.”

  “Voluntary? Is that what you and your buddy Freckles call it?” Isaac gave a sideways look toward the redheaded waitress on stage, a microphone pressed to the old gal’s lips. She barked out bachelor stats and prices a mile a minute, as though this wasn’t the first time she’d performed auctioneer duties. “You two roped Carmen into your scheme to appeal to my competitive spirit. Everyone knows there’s only two people in this town who can’t say no to a challenge—especially one for charity.”

  “Well, at least one of you showed up.” Cessy squinted at a spot behind Isaac’s shoulder.

  His antennae perked up. “What do you mean one of us?”

  But before Isaac could figure out if the socialite’s comment also referred to Hannah, Freckles announced his name and Cessy all but shoved him out onto the stage.

  He recovered from the initial stumble, trying to make his way toward center stage to stand on the masking-tape X, just as the surprisingly strong Cessy had instructed earlier. The stage lights were blinding, which was actually somewhat of a relief because that meant he couldn’t see the crowd in front of him.

  But he could hear them over the strains of George Strait singing about being called a fireman who put out old flames. As far as firefighter songs went, it could’ve been much worse. Still. If he ever got his hands on the DJ, there would be hell to pay.

  Stage fright momentarily flooded Isaac’s body, freezing his muscles—despite the fact that there were several squealing cheers, along with an appreciative wolf whistle coming from the audience.

  Freckles appeared from the opposite side of the stage, standing close enough to rest her bony elbow on his shoulder, making him unable to keep his hands on his hips without looking even more off-balance than he already did.

  She gave his biceps a not-so-reassuring squeeze before speaking into the mic. “Our next bachelor’s bio can be found on page five of your catalog.”

  “There’s a catalog?” Isaac’s head whipped around. “And how did you get my bio?”

  Freckles ignored him as she continued to sell her latest product like a smooth-talking snake-oil salesman. “Sugar Falls’ very own fire chief is six feet one and a hundred and eighty-five pounds of heroic muscle. His hobbies include running up flights of stairs with hoses, cooking gourmet meals at the fire station, reading true crime stories and driving his speedboat on Rush Lake.”

  Most people didn’t know about his reading habits, so Isaac scanned the first few rows for his Uncle Jonesy, the traitor, but had to squint his eyes against the glare. It was too dim to see into the back of the theater, but if Jonesy or Scooter were here, they would’ve been front and center, slapping their knees and guffawing with laughter.

  Freckles continued with her colorful description that made Isaac sound like a royal prince—or a royal fake, depending on who was asked. And from the sounds of things, there were plenty of people present to ask. He wondered if Hannah was one of them. Or had she been too chicken to show?

  He would’ve been relieved that she wasn’t on hand to witness this whole farce if he wasn’t so disappointed. He knew Hannah well enough to know that she didn’t miss out on an opportunity to raise money or awareness for a good cause. Unless she was making some sort of statement. In this case, she was clearly using her absence to convey the message that she was completely over him and couldn’t be bothered. Her indifference stung more than it should.

  “Isaac.” Freckles shoved the microphone into his face, making his head jerk back in surprise. “Tell the lucky ladies out there about the special date you have planned.”

  Oh, hell. This was really happening.

  Not that he had any control over the event, but a small, unreasonable part of him hoped that he would get the highest bid of the night, just to show Hannah what she was missing.

  Chapter Six

  Taking in a deep breath, Isaac tried to remind himself that he was here for a good cause. Namely, a new brush truck for his department.

  Unfortunately, Isaac had never been one for romantic gestures, and the idea of misleading a woman into thinking that they were on an actual date didn’t sit well with him. Plus, public speaking wasn’t exactly his top skill and he hated not doing something in his wheelhouse. He inhaled through his nostrils, then spoke into the microphone. “I’ll, uh, pick my date up at, uh, a place of her choosing and escort her to the dinner dance at the VFW hall tomorrow evening.”

  “Simmer down there, Romeo.” Freckles’ lowered voice was heavy with sarcasm. “We’re trying to upsell the date, not set a record for the worst bargain. Could you at least offer something more than the bare minimum?”

  There were no cheers or shrieks of delight from the audience like there had been when Clausson promised to take his date for predinner drinks and a sunset cruise aboard his sailboat on L
ake Rush.

  “We’re gonna start the bidding at two hundred dollars,” Freckles spoke into the microphone, and Isaac worried that his neck was at severe risk for long-term damage from all the whipping around his head was doing. Who in the world would pay that kind of money to go to a community dance at the VFW with him? He didn’t even dance.

  “Two hundred,” a woman’s voice called out from the back of the audience. Isaac couldn’t see who it was, but he knew who it wasn’t. Nope. He wasn’t going to think about Hannah tonight. He rolled his shoulders back and forced a smile toward whoever had called out the first bid.

  Hopefully the lady would get her money’s worth and he wouldn’t still be thinking of Hannah on this upcoming date.

  Just when he thought the agony was finally over, another person yelled, “Two-fifty.”

  “I have two-fifty,” Freckles announced. “Do I hear two seventy-five?”

  The original bidder countered with three hundred dollars and that’s when things took a turn for the worse. A third female joined in and more prices were called out as the bidding escalated between the women he couldn’t even see. If it wasn’t Hannah bidding, then it didn’t matter who bought the date.

  “We’re up to five hundred dollars.” Freckles’ voice was a bit more high-pitched than it had been when she’d originally started, and her heavily lined eyes eagerly darted out into the audience as she scanned the crowd, as though she could see something he couldn’t. “That’s the highest bid of the night so far, folks.”

  “Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to say going once, going twice?” Isaac said between clenched teeth. He no longer cared about how much money he was raising for the town, he just wanted to get this whole spectacle over and done with.