That small encouragement was all it took for Reyna to pour speed into pulling the wrench the other direction. She could do this. It was hard, but it was never supposed to be easy. When the hydrant was closed, Alvarez said, “Watch closely, Montero.” She stepped up on some kind of machine with a mallet in her hands. She braced her feet on either side of the heavy metal beam in the middle. “Swing carefully, methodically, to move this beam all the way down. When it crosses the line, you’re done.” Alvarez swung the mallet as if she were splitting logs of wood to hit the metal beam between her feet. When it moved, she scooted her feet back on the sides and repeated the swing. Two men hurried to reset the beam and Alvarez motioned Reyna forward with the mallet. “Do not try dragging that beam down by hooking the mallet on one end. Do not lose control of the mallet. Both are automatic disqualifications because of the danger. Proper form, Montero.”
Reyna nodded and stepped up on the machine. The first swing of the mallet shocked her. The impact reverberated up her arms and she nearly lost her grip on the mallet, but she held on. The next two swings were disappointing, but then she understood the rhythm required and the beam started to move. Reyna would swing the mallet. The beam would move a couple of inches. She’d scoot back and repeat. It took forever, but eventually Alvarez said, “Good. Let’s drag the dummy.”
Reyna followed her across the lot. If she’d had any breath left, she’d have asked whether she was the dummy getting dragged, but no one had time or energy for that much fun. Her legs had started melting, the muscles sluggish as she walked. Whatever she had left was fading.
Her Air Force conditioning was good, but the Miami heat was something else.
Reyna shook her arms and followed. Alvarez pointed at the dummy stretched out in the sunshine. “This is Marv. He weighs one hundred and eighty pounds.” She pointed at the line painted about forty feet away. “He needs to be over there. Drag him by his shoulders. Carry him if you prefer. Do not let his head touch the ground.”
Reyna squatted to wrap her hands under Marv’s shoulders and grunted when her first jerk resulted in nothing, no movement. She shook her head and repeated it. Marv shifted and Reyna kept moving. The momentum helped. And when she reached the finish line, it was like she’d climbed Everest. As soon as Marv’s feet cleared the finish line, Reyna gulped for air, and in an instant, Marv was slipping out of her hands. The gloves didn’t help here, either.
Watching the dummy’s head bounce on concrete was horrifying, but Reyna couldn’t stop and worry.
Alvarez waved it off. “Technically, that task was complete...” She pointed at the last event. “Drag this charged hose back to where we started and then walk to the finish line.”
Head down, Reyna moved to the hose. Bundled up, the hose was heavy. Filled with water and at the end of the test...it seemed impossible to shift.
Reyna had to stiffen her knees and fight the fatigue.
As soon as she crossed the line, she carefully set down the nozzle and strode to the finish line.
When she crossed it, she sat slowly down on the concrete. Full sun. Full gear. She didn’t care. If she didn’t sit down, she’d fall down.
A shadow fell across her eyes.
“It’s easier to breathe if you take off the face mask,” Alvarez said as she knelt and helped Reyna struggle out of her mask, helmet, and canister.
Reyna immediately suspected she would live.
“Good news is you passed the test,” Alvarez said with a sigh. “Bad news is Marv’s gonna sue for the concussion you gave him.”
Reyna grinned. “Gloves. I gotta get better with gloves.”
“Yeah. You’ll get lots of chances.” Alvarez stood and offered her hand to Reyna to help her stand. “Return the gear to the start. You’re all done.”
She wasn’t ready to stand, but pride made it possible. Reyna picked up her equipment and headed for the tower. “What was my time?”
What did it matter? She was only competing against the standard and she’d beaten that.
Alvarez tipped her head back. “You gonna rerun this one, too?” She shook her head. “Sid Fields made sure we all got the story about how you took his little test a second time so you could improve your speed with the gear.”
That felt good. Sid had been impressed enough to tell other people about her determination.
“That kind of sucking up to leadership will lose friends and alienate people if you aren’t careful,” Alvarez drawled. “Especially because you’re in the boys’ club most of the time, Montero.”
Reyna hung up the coat and tried to brush off the disappointment. “That’s okay, I’ve spent a lifetime in the boys’ club. Sometimes I listen to advice like that...”
“Most of the time you ignore it, though.” Alvarez sniffed. “I know another woman like that.” Then she grinned. “Glad to have another on the team, Montero. I’ll be sure to let both Fields brothers know you passed your exam.”
Balling up her fist to shove it up in the air in victory was Reyna’s first response. Playing it cool would be smarter. “And my time?”
“Eleven minutes and twenty-nine seconds. Respectable.” Alvarez pointed at the building. “Go around to get back to the front door. Your results will arrive via email in forty-eight hours.” Then she spun on one heel and headed for the next wannabe firefighter.
Since she had no audience, Reyna braced her hands on her hips and sucked in as much air as she wanted. It was sweet.
Then she straightened her shoulders and prepared to pretend the test had no effect on her. She made it back to the office and was almost to her SUV when she saw Pulaski sitting on her bumper.
“Let me guess. Eleven minutes and a little bit?” He held up his finger and thumb to show a small gap.
Reyna crossed her arms over her chest. “Let me guess. Something barely under eleven minutes?” Then she mimicked his hand gesture.
He grunted and stood. “Little bit more than that under eleven but yeah.”
“You’re still faster. I’m still smarter.” Reyna shrugged. What more was there to say?
“Did mine clean. No warnings. Can you say the same?” Pulaski asked.
The vision of Marv the dummy’s head bouncing kept her quiet.
“Stuff like that goes in the proctor’s summary of your test, you know.” Pulaski smiled. “Good luck with whatever house you end up at—it won’t be Sawgrass.” He held up a hand and moved to slide into his truck.
Reyna realized she was wasting precious minutes of air-conditioning by staring him down as he backed out of the parking spot. As soon as she slid inside her SUV, she started it and turned all the vents her direction and the fan on high.
By the time she made it back to Concord Court, she was half-frozen and half-melted and completely irritated at Ryan Pulaski and the world in general.
But mainly at gloves. How could she have dropped Marv? And missing the step!
She was most angry with herself, though. In the real world, someone could have gotten hurt because of her errors.
Sean pulled in to park right beside her, unaware that she was prepared for a fight.
“What happened to the birthday party? The one that meant you couldn’t help me today?” she demanded as she stepped up on the sidewalk.
Sean wiped sweaty hair off his head as he slowly followed. If she’d been melted, he wasn’t far off that. Whatever he’d been doing, it had been hard work, too.
“It’s setup. I’ve been ‘setting up’ since dawn.” He enunciated every word carefully. “Now I have to go take a shower so that I can be back in Coconut Grove in time to man the grill.” He shrugged. “That okay?”
Reyna tipped her head back and forced herself to calm down. “Sorry. I’m mad at someone else and taking it out on you.” She went to walk up the stairs but turned back. “I don’t understand why men have to turn everything into a competition. We coul
d be helping each other, but no, he wants to shove the fact that I’m slower than he is in my face.” She kicked the bottom step hard and then had to shake off the pain.
“Breaking your toe will show him.” Sean had followed her up her steps. “Today was the test. You passed, but there was a jerk around. Do I have this correct?”
Reyna closed her eyes but let his hands on her shoulders turn her slowly.
“Yeah. Sorry. I know it’s not all men. You aren’t like that.” She hung her head. “While I am too much like that for my own good.”
He snorted. “Some of us learn how to come in second early in life. You’re catching up.” He squeezed her shoulders. “You passed. That’s all that matters.”
Reyna wrapped her hands around his forearms and tried to let it sink in. He was right. “I wanted a spot close to home, over at Sawgrass. I won’t get that, so I may have to move. I just...” She shook her head. “I should have worked harder on conditioning. And letting the dummy’s head hit the concrete was...” She groaned out loud. “That’ll be waking me up in the middle of the night.”
His laughter wasn’t what she wanted, but even she had to agree it was a silly thing to say. Marv was a dummy. His concussion was never coming.
“You’ve got to go.” Reyna sighed. “Do you think you’ll be back at the pool tonight? I might want company, if I wake up screaming about Marv’s plastic brain damage.” Would the group let her join them? She’d kicked them out of the pool area so many nights, they might want payback.
He dipped his head. “You? At the pool? But that’s breaking a rule.”
“Sometimes you need something more than the rules. I’d like to be around people who are not me.” She was going to replay her test. She was going to estimate how many seconds she might have shaved off each event.
And she was going to get madder at Ryan Pulaski if she let herself.
Standing here, looking up into Sean Wakefield’s face was improving her mood. He almost made it possible to laugh at herself.
Sitting out at the pool, drinking cold beer and listening to other people talk could be the same escape a country-western bar in South Korea had provided when she needed it. A time and a place where she didn’t have to think.
Sean wrinkled his nose. “I have another idea.” He stepped back from her and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure what time this birthday will be over. Mimi is a night owl.” He opened his mouth but hesitated. Then he committed. “Do you want to come with me?”
“To your grandmother’s party?” Reyna asked. Every family party she’d ever been to had involved place cards and salad forks. They weren’t places where guests could invite whoever they wanted at the last minute. “She won’t know me.”
He nodded. “I know you think that’s a problem, but it would earn me points.” He waved a hand. “Mimi counts success by the number of bodies at her party. It takes up the whole block of her street. You have to see it to believe it. Do you want to?”
Reyna tried to imagine how that might look, but she couldn’t. Instead, she smiled. “That’s perfect for tonight.”
“One hour.” He held up one finger. “Dress to dance.” Then he was trotting up his steps and going inside his town house. Reyna held up a hand as if she was going to change her mind, then realized there was no one there to listen.
She didn’t dance.
And she had no plans to start tonight.
CHAPTER NINE
AS SOON AS he and Reyna were buckled into his Concord Court–provided truck, Sean wondered if he’d made a mistake. The vibe was entirely “first date” or “blind first date” or even “coworkers who don’t know each other but are stuck together for a long ride.” It could be a difficult, uncomfortable evening for them both.
Sean cleared his throat, but no easy conversation starter came to mind.
Reyna twiddled her thumbs.
“It’s not too late to turn back,” Reyna said and motioned over her shoulder with one thumb. “I can’t tell. Do I smell regret in the air?” She sniffed loudly.
Trust no-nonsense Reyna to slice right to the heart of the problem.
“I was having flashbacks to an awkward first date. Met her through one of those apps.” He turned to smile at Reyna. “It was enough to make me dump the app from my phone.”
Reyna grimaced. “No dating apps for me. I do not need more awkwardness right now. My father has threatened to set me up. Can you even imagine the awkwardness there?”
Sean would have liked to say something encouraging, but the threat of being fixed up by family was intense. Change of subject, please.
“I was considering ways to warn you about Mimi’s birthday parties.” Sean checked traffic and made a left turn, happy that one icebreaker was all it had taken to ease the weirdness. It would work out. It was like a date in that way, but not in any other way.
“I’ve warned other people, but no one can grasp exactly how big Mimi goes with the event.” Any description of his grandmother would fail because she was larger than life.
Reyna pointed at a sign. “Where are we going in Coconut Grove? A couple of my favorite restaurants are there, but I haven’t been in years.” She was watching scenery pass by the window.
Sean tightened his hands on the steering wheel. He would bet good money that the Monteros had never partied the way his Mimi did. To Reyna, a birthday party took place at a stuffy restaurant or at her father’s club, with cloth linens and polished silver.
Mimi would never.
“I guess you’d call it a street party. Mimi still lives in the three-bedroom bungalow where she raised seven daughters.”
Reyna whistled. Sean was impressed with the volume.
“Seven daughters. Three bedrooms,” she said slowly.
“And only one full bath,” Sean added in his spookiest voice. “Hard to imagine. I think she and Bud were the first in the neighborhood back when it was built in the fifties. His real name was Howard, but everyone I know called him Bud. Mimi and Bud.”
“Wow.” Reyna shook her head. “The fights would have been epic if Brisa and I were forced to share a bathroom growing up. Multiply that by...”
Sean waited for her to do the math. Two sisters to seven. It was a difficult equation. Fractions were hard. “Yeah, multiply it by a lot.”
They both relaxed and he was struck by the swing in the atmosphere. In that minute, it was like they’d been doing this forever, riding side by side and trading stories.
It was too far the other direction for comfort.
“Since Mimi has adopted every family and child born and raised on the street for sixty years, her parties are truly epic. Every house contributes decorations and food. There’s a competition for who’ll make the birthday cake.” Sean shook his head. “You have to see the whole thing.” Then he turned to face her. “It’s still not too late to turn around if you’d like. This won’t be your kind of party. No white tablecloths. No valet on duty.” He studied her a second before returning his gaze to the road. If she wanted to go home, he’d take her. He might even be relieved.
But he was afraid they’d both miss out on something important.
His impression of Reyna was changing.
He wanted to show her his family.
“Interesting. You’re trying to get rid of me now?” Reyna crossed her arms over her chest. “Can’t wait to meet Mimi. Anyone who can inspire people to celebrate her like that has to be special.” She wrinkled her nose. “What’s she going to think about you bringing a strange woman around?”
“I’d guess it largely depends on the strange woman herself and what constitutes strange, but she’s going to like you.” Mimi would.
And Reyna would be in love with his grandmother before her night was over.
“Good.” Reyna tapped his arm but withdrew her hand quickly as if she was crossing a boundary. He would have enc
ouraged her to cross that boundary whenever she liked, but he’d reached the street leading into his grandmother’s neighborhood.
The cars lining both sides of the street were exactly what he expected.
“I’m getting the picture,” Reyna said. “Mimi’s a celebrity and this is her theater, right?” She brushed her hands over her skirt. “Am I dressed correctly?” She gestured at his jeans.
He didn’t have to check out what she was wearing. The red dress she’d put on for the occasion was burned into his brain. Reyna Montero had two speeds: business casual and stop-a-man-in-his-tracks. This dress? It was casual, comfortable, but on her, it was also memorable.
Not that he could say any of that to his boss.
Another way this was nothing like a date: compliments on her dress were inappropriate.
“You are going to see every fashion under the sun.” Sean watched her fidget. Was she nervous here, too? He’d gotten so comfortable with her taking command of whatever came up at Concord Court. This was another side to Reyna Montero. “Mimi will change her outfit at least once this evening.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“It’s true. Mimi has a real flair for celebration.” He smiled. “You won’t be able to say that I didn’t warn you.”
She tilted her head to the side. “You roll with it, don’t you? Whatever Mimi asks you to do, the emergencies at Concord Court... You take each day as it arrives.”
Sean couldn’t tell if she thought going with the flow was a good or a bad thing. “I know I can handle whatever comes.”
Reyna blinked and then relaxed against her seat. “Yeah. You can.”
Sean turned quickly because he wanted to see her face. Her tone... It was...admiring?
The true hero between them thought he could handle whatever came.
Before he could stop her, Reyna had opened her door and slid out of the truck.
Sean hurried to catch her. “Be careful out here. Sidewalk’s uneven.” He held his hand out to make sure she was steady. Reyna shocked him by wrapping her arm through his.
“You don’t have to worry about me. I’m pretty good at handling whatever comes my way, too. When we have a minute, remind me to tell you about performing my go-to karaoke song at a bar in Pyeongtaek.” She stumbled when he slammed to a stop. “If I’d known your walking was uneven, I would have taken my chances on the dark sidewalk.” This far from the party, it was dark, but he could see her eyes as she stared up at him.
The Dalmatian Dilemma Page 9