by Amie Denman
“I know CPR and have first aid training because I was a coach, and I helped save someone just this morning from drowning,” she said. “That’s a start, isn’t it?”
“CPR and first aid training are very relevant,” Tony agreed. It was true that teachers and coaches had to be cool under pressure and often put the needs of others first. He respected that, but he hadn’t known before today that Laura had any experience or desire that would qualify her to do what he did. His image of her was as Nicole’s sister who didn’t always make the best choices.
Tony sat back in his chair and tried to reimagine Laura as a person capable of wearing thirty pounds of gear, fighting her way through smoke and dousing a fire.
“I’m physically fit,” she said as if she could read his thoughts. He was instantly ashamed. The size of a person had little to do with the ability to fight fires. Brains, attitude and training were far greater determiners. “I run.”
“That’s great,” Tony said. “I can see you’re very...” He needed to change the subject before he said something stupid. “Have you talked to your sister about this?”
Laura’s determined and even slightly defiant expression fell, and Tony knew he’d hit a sore spot. He didn’t want to discourage her, but...
He wanted to protect her. That was it. And that was the problem.
“I haven’t,” she said. “Do you ask every volunteer who comes in here if he’s talked to his sister?”
“You’re not every volunteer,” Tony said, his tone soft.
Laura stood. “Can I have an application, please?”
Tony got up quickly. “It’s online. You just fill it out and submit it.”
“And when does training start?”
Laura was dead serious. “Next week. We’re running a six-week intensive summer training.”
“Here at the station?” she asked.
Tony nodded. “And I’m the instructor.”
CHAPTER THREE
THE SUNNY MONDAY afternoon was peaceful as Laura and her sister, Nicole, cruised an ocean inlet on their paddleboards. Laura loved the challenge of keeping her balance and getting a good workout, and also spending time with her sister. The steady rhythm of their paddles moving in unison lulled her into believing that finding an even keel was a possibility for her that summer. She’d also decided that balancing over thirty feet of water was a great time to share her firefighting plan with Nicole.
The look her sister gave her did not bode well. Nicole dipped her paddle deep and splashed Laura with ocean water. “That’s not funny,” Nicole said, resting the edge of her paddle between her feet and balancing on the calm water.
“I didn’t mean it as a joke,” Laura protested, mirroring her sister’s movements. “I’m not kidding.”
Nicole held up a finger. “You were supposed to spend the summer with me, have fun, help me with my wedding and take care of Kevin’s dog while we go on our honeymoon. That kind of stuff. You weren’t supposed to show up in town and give me a heart attack.”
“Sorry,” Laura said. “I thought you might understand.”
“Understand?” Nicole asked, raising her voice. “You thought I would understand that my only sister, my only remaining sibling...” her voice softened and trailed off, and Laura instantly felt like a jerk for not realizing just how much of an impact her decision would have on Nicole.
“This is different,” Laura said. “I’m not planning on trying to outrun a forest fire. It’s a nice small fire department. I’ll get plenty of training—probably more than Adam had before he—”
“No,” Nicole said. “I’m learning to live with the fact that Kevin is a firefighter, but I can’t deal with potentially losing you, too.”
Laura began paddling silently alongside her sister, watching for marine life under the calm blue water. She’d paddled back home in rivers, but this was one hundred times more beautiful and interesting.
“How did you learn to accept Kevin’s job?” Laura asked.
“I had to because I love him. I couldn’t make him give up something he loves as the price for being with me.”
It was Laura’s turn to use her paddle to douse her sister with ocean water.
“Hey,” Nicole protested.
“You love me and this is important to me, so what’s the difference?”
“You’re my sister,” Nicole said.
“And?”
Nicole blew out a breath and sat down on her paddleboard. She crossed her legs and laid her paddle across her lap. Laura sat, too, and they let the easy current push them gently around while still staying close to each other.
“Why do you want to do this?” Nicole asked.
Laura trailed a hand in the water. “Because I want to live. And live with myself. I used to believe I could do anything and that anything was possible, but when Adam died, it wrecked my world. You know I was...self-destructive for a while.”
“Are you kidding?” Nicole asked with a sympathetic smile. “I thought the third guy in a row you dated who had a seedy past and a sketchy future was an indication of your excellent judgment.”
“There were only two. And they weren’t all that bad. At least I didn’t think so at the time.”
Nicole nodded. “Of course, I’m getting some of this bias from Mom and Dad who thought you’d quit your teaching job and take off on a motorcycle at any moment. They were worried about you.”
Laura forced a laugh, but her sister’s words hit home. Her parents, hardworking Midwesterners, considered quitting a nice steady job one of the worst things a person could do. She remembered how scandalized they’d been when Nicole quit her job at the furniture factory a year ago and moved to Cape Pursuit to work in a fledgling art gallery. They’d accepted her decision when the move turned out to be a good one, but Laura wasn’t sure they’d see it the same way with her. She was their youngest child now, and she knew they considered her fragile. She would need to prove her strength to them.
“I don’t care for motorcycles,” Laura said. “There’s no good place to put your purse.”
“Seriously,” Nicole said. “Why firefighting? Do you think it’s what Adam would want you to do? Is that why?”
Laura shook her head. “It’s what I want to do. Over the past year, the only times I felt better about myself were the times I was helping someone else. I didn’t feel the anguish or helplessness I felt after Adam’s death while I was being useful volunteering and organizing fundraisers.”
“So you could volunteer at all kinds of things,” Nicole said, excitement in her voice as she latched onto an idea. “We have a library and a summer reading program in Cape Pursuit. You could work at the soup kitchen. You could organize a sock drive for the homeless. Be a blood donor. You could do fifteen dozen things other than be a firefighter.”
“I want to challenge myself,” Laura said. “I helped save some people during a beach rescue last week. It was exhilarating and it made me feel like I could get out of my own way for the first time in a long time. I want to help people when they need it the most.”
She thought of Tony coming through for her at a dark moment a year before. She had almost gotten behind the wheel of her sister’s car after too many drinks to count—her crappiest day in a year full of crappy days. He had rescued her, but she pushed that thought aside whenever it surfaced. Tony wasn’t the person who could save her.
The only person who could save her was herself.
She saw Nicole swipe a tear away. She didn’t want to argue and open a wound that would never be fully healed. They were sisters. They needed and loved each other.
“Anyway,” Laura said as she heaved a big sigh and stood on her board, taking a moment to regain her balance. “I don’t even know if they’ll accept me into the training program. I’m only here for the summer, and they probably have plenty of people with better qualifications than I have.�
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Nicole stood on her board and spread her feet carefully, tilting the board side to side and using her paddle as a balance bar until she gained control.
“I don’t think anyone coming into the fire service has better qualifications than you do,” Nicole said. “You’re a superstar teacher, your patience is battle-tested from putting up with teenagers and I think you’re braver than you know.”
“Really?” Laura said hopefully. Did her sister really believe in her?
“Of course,” Nicole said. “You’re here helping me with my wedding, and you’re crazy enough to live in the same house with me as I panic about all the details. Maids of honor should probably get special presidential medals of valor.”
“I thought you were being serious about me being a good candidate,” Laura protested, laughing.
“I believe you can do anything you want to,” Nicole said. “But I don’t want you doing this.”
The sisters paddled toward the dock where Kevin sat on the tailgate of his pickup truck, his legs dangling. As soon as they reached the dock, he jumped down from the truck and offered them both a hand.
Nicole stepped onto the dock first, her paddle in one hand, and then Kevin steadied Laura as she did the same.
“Did you see anything interesting?” he asked. “Stingrays or jellyfish?”
“A shark followed us, but I fought him off with my paddle,” Nicole said.
Kevin clutched both her arms. “Really?” he said, his voice full of alarm.
Nicole laughed. “No.”
Kevin blew out a sigh of relief.
“Laura fought him off,” Nicole said.
Her fiancé shook his head. “Not funny—not that I doubt you, Laura.”
He helped haul the paddleboards up to his truck, then lifted them in and secured them with a bungee cord.
“Did you know Laura wants to be a volunteer firefighter?” Nicole demanded as the three of them squeezed into the cab of the truck, Nicole taking the middle seat.
Laura leaned forward so she could see Kevin’s face when he answered. His expression was neutral and cautious.
“Tony mentioned that.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I thought Laura would tell you,” Kevin said.
Nicole scoffed. “Coward.”
Laura leaned back, happy her sister had someone else to vent her frustration on, even though she knew she hadn’t heard the last of it.
Why firefighting? Her sister’s question stuck with her. Why the fire service and not one of the dozens of other volunteer possibilities? Nicole’s assertion that it was an homage to their brother made Laura pause. Was that her reason?
She had to admit that was part of it. The ultimate way to handle her grief and guilt over Adam was to face it directly, not to run from it as she had been. If she hadn’t shown him the campus flyer asking for volunteers, he might never have known about the summer job. He might be alive right now.
She swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to remember to focus on the present and the future—the only things she could do anything about. Being in Cape Pursuit took her away from her parents, but she could be with Nicole. And the blue water, sunshine and vacation vibe of the town had warmed and welcomed her. She could see why Nicole had fallen in love in more ways than one.
Laura watched the downtown shops blur past as Kevin drove them to her sister’s house. Cape Pursuit was where she wanted to be, and squeezing every ounce of bravery she possessed out of her was the way to start over and be whole again.
She’d been planning to tell Nicole she wanted to quit her teaching job, but given her sister’s reaction to her plans to join the fire department, Laura decided to save that additional bombshell for another day. Her family wouldn’t understand, and she doubted she could explain it in a coherent way because she hardly understood it herself.
“You’re not going to try to talk her out of it?” Nicole asked, tapping her fingers on Kevin’s knee as he drove. “I thought you had to be on my side since we’re getting married.”
“Maybe I could think of some arguments if you give me some time,” he said. “But I have to go to a class in Virginia Beach as soon as I drop you off. Tony’s meeting me at your house so we can get on the road and not be late.”
Nicole dropped the subject as they turned onto her street, and Laura saw Tony’s truck parked in front of Nicole’s house. It brought back the memory of the previous summer when Tony had driven her in that truck back to the house and stayed with her for hours, even when she hadn’t deserved his kindness.
She wasn’t that person anymore, and she needed to prove that to everyone...starting with herself.
* * *
TONY WAITED NEXT to his truck while Kevin carried the paddleboards into the garage and Nicole followed him to help secure them on brackets along the wall. The garage was just large enough for Nicole’s small red car, and Tony noticed that Laura was keeping her vehicle tucked alongside the driveway.
“Did you have fun?” Tony asked, hoping to fill up their few minutes together in the driveway with neutral conversation. He was afraid of the negative impression he’d given Laura when she approached him about joining the fire department. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t believe she could do it, and she’d have other obstacles to face.
“We did,” she said. “I love being on the water.”
“It’s different here than it is back in Indiana, though, isn’t it?” he asked. He tried to picture rivers and freshwater streams, but he’d hardly traveled outside of Virginia and the Atlantic coast region.
“Very. At home, all the beautiful scenery is above the water, but here it’s above and below the surface.”
Below the surface. Tony wondered what was beneath the surface of Laura Wheeler.
“I hope you’ll get to enjoy it a lot this summer,” he said.
“I downloaded the application,” she said. “For the volunteer department.”
“About that,” he began. It had occurred to him that her residency in Virginia was temporary and that she probably didn’t even have a Virginia driver’s license. Not being a resident would prevent her from getting certified as a volunteer firefighter in the state.
“I didn’t look at it yet,” Laura said. I planned to do it later today since it’s my day off—I asked for Mondays because that’s the day the gallery is closed.”
“That’s great,” Tony said.
“Were you about to tell me something?” Laura asked. “You don’t have to reveal any secrets if you don’t want to,” she added quickly.
“Nothing special. It asks for your contact information, relevant background and experience, special skills you have and why you want to be a firefighter.”
“Okay.” Laura nodded.
Tony swallowed and looked toward the garage. He wished Kevin would hurry up and finish stowing the paddleboards so they could get on the road to the evening class they were both taking to advance their careers.
“There’s no test to get started, right?” she asked.
“No. Just a criminal background check, standard procedure for anyone wanting to join. And you need a valid Virginia driver’s license.”
Laura bit her lip and looked nervous, and Tony was afraid he’d destroyed her dream. He didn’t want to see Laura put her life in danger in the line of duty, but he also didn’t want to wreck her hopes with a technicality. Even though that technicality might be the easy way out for him.
“I’m going to the license bureau after work tomorrow to transfer my Indiana license to a Virginia one. I hope that won’t slow down the process for my application.”
“Transfer? Does that mean you’re planning to...stay in Cape Pursuit?”
“I drive vehicles for my job supervising the beach guards and surf shack, and for insurance purposes it makes it a lot easier for them if I
have a Virginia license,” she said.
Tony noticed that she hadn’t answered his question, and there was no polite way for him to pry further.
He’d noticed that Laura was not afraid to ask tough questions, which didn’t quite fit with the picture he’d formed last summer. He wished he knew her better, but there was no way he could say that, either. Not if she planned to join the department and be under his supervision as a trainee and member. A personal interest or relationship was definitely out of the question, especially since he was the youngest fire chief in the area. He always felt he had to be careful to act twice as professionally as the other chiefs.
He would have to be content with the information she offered. If she offered it.
“You’ll need a few character references,” he said. “But I’m sure that won’t be a problem for you. You can put down people you worked with in Indiana. Or maybe Kevin.”
She pulled off her ball cap and ran a hand through her long dark hair. “So I hear you’re in the wedding party, too,” she said, nodding toward the garage where Kevin was giving Nicole a long goodbye kiss.
“Groomsman,” Tony said after a split second in which he wrapped his head around the change of subject. “And you’re the maid of honor.”
It wasn’t a question. He already knew all the members of the small wedding party. He’d been involved in the planning because the reception following the beach wedding was in the fire station. They didn’t rent out the station as a party venue, but Tony remembered a few firefighters’ wedding receptions and parties in the past. And the station hosted an elaborate Christmas party every year for members and their families. With the trucks outside and enough decorations, the building could be pretty festive.
Laura nodded. “I still need a dress. Nicole and I decided to wait until I got here so we could go shopping together.”
“I haven’t been given my instructions since the wedding is still six weeks away, so I don’t know what I’m wearing.”