“You need to live. I see that. You need to reach for the stars and follow your passion and fall in love and whatever the hell else you think of. You’re going to do great things, Rachel, all on your own. Without your paranoid parent. I suppose you’re keeping the fireman around. So be it. Where is he, by the way? I want to thank him personally.”
“He’s . . .” She gestured at South Harlow Street, which was still eerily empty compared to the usual bustle of midday. “Out rescuing someone or putting out a fire. Being a hero. That’s what he is, even though it’s hard for him to admit it.”
“Hmm.”
“I love you, Dad.”
“Me too, honey. Me too.”
Before they set a wedding date, Fred insisted on one more thing. One night about two weeks after the earthquake, he dragged her to Lucio’s Ristorante Autentico Italiano, the restaurant owned by former fire chief Rick Roman. At an intimate cushioned booth, by the light of a wall sconce adorned with plastic grapevines, sat four women. Baskets of garlic bread and glasses of red wine cluttered the table. The only woman she recognized was Melissa, who stood up and ushered her into the booth.
“We’ll take it from here, Fred,” Melissa told him. “You can go.”
“What’s going on?” Rachel asked, slightly panicked to see Fred back away from the booth, leaving her with a bunch of unfamiliar women who seemed to mean business. He gave a quick wave and disappeared. The dark-haired girl next to her smiled and pushed a glass of red wine toward her. Rachel took a long sip, peering around at the group.
“Fred wants us to make sure you know the down-and-dirty truth about being married to a fireman before you take the ultimate step,” explained Melissa, sliding next to her. “That’s Katie Blake next to you, she’s married to Ryan, who used to be at the 1’s before he started the new academy.”
Petite and dark-eyed, with inky black eyebrows, Katie looked like a live wire, someone who would be really fun to have around. She gave Rachel a jaunty little two-fingered salute of greeting.
Melissa turned to the lovely, lush-figured woman right across from her. She had pink-streaked blond hair piled on her head. “This is Cherie, she’s married to Vader, the captain on the engine company.”
Cherie offered up a friendly smile and said, with a slight down-South accent, “Pleasure to meet the girl who won our Freddie’s heart.”
“Sabina wanted to be here, since she can offer a unique perspective, being a firefighter and married to a firefighter, or at least a former one. But the crew’s kind of busy, so she couldn’t make it. Next to Cherie, we have Dr. Lara Nelson, Psycho’s wife, who took a break from helping out at the rescue shelters. She drove all the way from Nevada to volunteer her medical skills.”
A gorgeous amber-eyed, blond woman, Lara leaned forward and patted her on the hand. “Sorry to ambush you like this. But none of us can turn down Fred. You know how it is.”
“Fred dragged you into this?”
“Yes,” answered Melissa. “My friend Nita Moreno, who’s married to Jeb Stone, wanted to come too, but she’s busy at the mayor’s office dealing with the press. Thor’s wife Maribel isn’t getting in until tonight. She’s flying in from Alaska just to lend a hand.”
Rachel counted up all the women who’d been mentioned. Melissa, Katie, Cherie, Lara, Sabina, Maribel, and Nita. “So all of you are married to firemen and you’re supposed to tell me why it’s a bad idea? Talk me out of it or something?”
The women exchanged a cautious look. “There are probably certain things you should be aware of,” said Lara. “For instance, during wildfire season, I worry all the time.”
“It’s almost like sending your husband off to war every other day,” agreed Cherie. “And the annoying thing is, they love it. If you’re thinking you’ll get him to quit, forget about it.”
“I’m not—”
“They think it’s their job to save the whole world,” interrupted Melissa. “It makes them overprotective and maybe . . . dare I say, bossy?”
The other women murmured their agreement. Katie raised her hand. “Getting married to a firefighter is like marrying into a whole new set of brothers. And I already have enough brothers, let me tell you. The firehouse is like a frat house sometimes.”
“Other girls will flirt with him,” threw in Cherie. “Hose chasers, some people call them. If you’re the jealous type, you might have a problem.”
If she could handle Fred’s fan club, she could handle anything. “I’m really not—”
“You have to be okay with being alone,” added Melissa. “They work overnight shifts at least two nights a week. With the baby and Danielle, sometimes that’s tough.”
“I’m very used to being—” But they were on a roll now and Rachel couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
“But then their shift is over and they’re home for four days, practically bouncing off the walls. So you have to like that too,” said Cherie.
“That doesn’t sound so—”
“If they catch a bad call, it stays with them for a long time. And each firefighter handles it differently,” said Melissa. “Sometimes I wish I could be out there in the middle of it all, instead of home worrying.”
“They’re adrenaline junkies. Type A personalities. Alpha males,” said Lara thoughtfully. “And they’re never really off the job.”
Katie nodded in agreement. “If you’re at a restaurant and someone starts choking, boom, there goes your guy.”
“Right. It’s not just fires. If someone’s robbing the 7–Eleven, they’ll charge right in like it’s their personal business,” said Cherie. “And if it’s something medical, they think they know it all.”
And then they started in for real, talking over each other, while Rachel took refuge in her wine.
“ . . . knot in your stomach whenever you hear the siren going by . . .”
“ . . . has anyone mentioned the smell? Sweat and retardant and . . .”
“ . . . better get along with the other fire wives . . .”
“ . . . right, because there goes the rest of your social life . . .”
“ . . . I check the news a lot more often . . .”
“ . . . they miss birthdays and anniversaries . . .”
“ . . . constant laundry.”
The women took a collective pause for breath.
“Then again,” said Katie thoughtfully. “When Ryan comes home, I’m so happy he’s okay, I can’t get enough of him. So I guess there’s a silver lining.”
“Oh yes, it’s like makeup sex every time Vader comes home from a shift,” agreed Cherie.
“Really? Then it’s not just me and Brody?” asked Melissa.
“Oh no. Hot sex. Very hot sex,” Lara said, with a sound almost like a purr. “You know what they say about danger enhancing the libido. I think it’s scientifically proven.”
Rachel was pretty sure her face had turned as red as the vinyl booth.
“And their hearts are in the right place,” said Katie. “They’re good men, they really are.”
“The absolute best,” said Melissa.
“No argument there,” murmured Cherie. “You can count on them to your last breath. I wouldn’t want anyone else as the father of my future child.”
“What? You’re pregnant?” Katie gave an exuberant squeal, and all the women turned to Cherie with delight.
“Figured I’d better explain why I passed on that wine. Y’all know I’ve never done that before.”
“I didn’t want to say anything, but of course I noticed,” said Melissa.
“You and your evil reporter ways,” Cherie teased.
“So.” Lara turned laughing eyes on Rachel. “Did we talk you out of it?”
Rachel opened her mouth, closed it again, fighting the smile that threatened to split her face wide open. “I think I get the picture.”
“More wine?” Katie refilled her glass. “Because now we have some questions for you.”
By the time Rachel stumbled out of Lucio’s int
o the fresh, starlit night, she had a pretty good buzz on. Fred was leaning against his truck, waiting for her. He looked a little worried, so she skipped across the sidewalk and threw herself into his embrace. Even though he had no warning, he caught her.
“What did they tell you?” He wrapped his strong arms around her.
“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” she intoned drunkenly.
“Oh no, they gave you wine. I should have warned them about that.”
“They’re beautiful. You’re beautiful. I love you. With my heart, my whole heart, and nothing but my heart.” Rising on tiptoe, she scattered kisses along his jaw. “Okay, my body too.”
“So we’re still getting married?”
“If you were trying to talk me out of it, you’ll have to try harder than that.”
“It’s not that I was trying—”
“No, no, I get it. You wanted to do the honorable thing, because you’re Fred and that’s how you are. Strong and true and kind and honorable. I never even dreamed of a man like you. But here you are.” She blinked. “You’re still here.” Blinked again. “Still here.”
“Just how buzzed are you?”
“Buzzed enough to know we belong together. Same as when I’m not buzzed.” She snuggled even closer and threw her whole heart and soul into the smile she aimed up at him. “You know what I wish we could do? I wish you’d take me home so we can have hot makeup sex even though we haven’t exactly had a fight, but maybe we could have that other fight again, the one about Kale and the kidnapping, and then we could have hot makeup sex and—oof.”
He swooped her into his arms and swung open the door of his truck.
“What are you doing?”
“Speeding things up.” He plopped her onto the seat and jogged to the driver’s side. When he slid inside and closed the door, his presence seemed to fill the cab of his workaday truck with enchanted starlight.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Where you belong. With me.”
She sighed deeply and scooted closer to him. “Good answer.”
About the Author
JENNIFER BERNARD is a graduate of Harvard and a former news promo producer. The child of academics, she confounded her family by preferring romance novels to . . . well, any other books. She left big city life for true love in Alaska, where she now lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She’s no stranger to book success, as she also writes erotic novels under a naughty secret name not to be mentioned at family gatherings.
Visit www.JenniferBernard.net.
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Romances by Jennifer Bernard
THE NIGHT BELONGS TO FIREMAN
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FIREMAN
HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN
SEX AND THE SINGLE FIREMAN
HOT FOR FIREMAN
THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME
An E-Book Original from Avon Impulse
ONE FINE FIREMAN: A NOVELLA
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE NIGHT BELONGS TO FIREMAN. Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Bernard. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition OCTOBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062273703
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062273697
FIRST EDITION
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