A Home for the Firefighter

by Amie Denman

  Not that she planned to come back, of course. But there was something about the town that it had begun to feel like her home base in all her wandering. Like a place she might come back to for an anchor when she needed one.

  “They’ve been talking about selling,” George said. “They’re getting older, and their kids aren’t interested. And let’s face it, there’s a lot of competition in this town so getting more of the tourist trade under one umbrella is a smart move for me.”

  Kate nodded and waited for him to go on. She wondered if Brady knew any of this already. She wouldn’t be surprised if he knew the owners of Cape Suntimes.

  “So,” he said. “I really need a person to be my chief operating officer. Someone who knows my business and has good relationships with other people in town. Someone I already trust and value. What do you say, Kate?”

  Of course she would say no. She had her acceptance letter and scholarship offer, her portal to a new career that would be everything she wanted in a job. There was no question of tying herself down to Cape Pursuit and sifting through the mountain of paperwork included in the job. But she was stuck on something else George had said. She had good relationships with people in Cape Pursuit? Was that his perception of her? If so, he wasn’t paying attention and apparently didn’t know that she, of all people, kept her emotional baggage packed and neatly waiting by the door. She didn’t move in and didn’t get comfortable anywhere. Certainly not long enough to become territorial and begin thinking about buying luxury sheets and tickets to the local symphony.

  “Sorry,” she said slowly, turning the small word into a drawn-out one. “I’m happy and excited for you, but I thought you knew I didn’t plan to stay in Cape Pursuit.”

  “You didn’t plan to come back this year, but you did,” he said.

  “It—it’s a good job,” Kate stammered, knowing it was only part of the reason.

  “And I thought you might have changed your mind now that you’re dating someone here, and...”

  She hardly heard the end of his sentence. Assumptions. That was what drove her away from home. When are you getting married? Maybe you should get a nicer car, and did you hear that our neighbors are installing a putting green in their backyard?

  “Nothing has changed,” she said, her words falling like ice cubes into an empty glass. Did he really think she would alter her plans just because of a summer...flirtation, friendship, romance?

  She could and would walk away from Brady anytime.

  “Maybe a trial run?” George asked. “You could help me with the transition and find someone to hire full-time. Could you give me a month while I get my feet under me?”

  Kate rose to her feet. “I’m sorry, George. I have to leave September first, and I can’t change my plans. You would be better off finding someone permanent right now and save yourself the trouble of training someone twice.”

  “But you already—”

  “I have to go,” she said. “Thank you for the offer, but I can’t take it.”

  Kate needed air. Two ideas warred in her head, and she knew she had to get away from the stuffy cluttered office before her oxygen ran out. She’d like to help George, who was a good guy and had treated her and the other summer workers well. But that wasn’t the main reason she was tempted by his offer. There had been the briefest of moments when she’d considered the benefit of staying in Cape Pursuit and the thought of Brady’s happy reaction flitted over the floor of her mind.

  That was a dangerous thought. Even if she admitted to him that her heart was getting entangled with his, she didn’t know what was in his thoughts. She wasn’t going to toss away her plans on a maybe-romance that had no future. Staying one more month could lead to another, and she would be leading herself down a path going the wrong direction. She deserved to follow her own dream.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  BRADY PICKED UP Kate the following Sunday afternoon. His suit jacket confined his shoulders, and his collar chafed, but all thoughts of discomfort went out the window when he saw Kate. She wore a blue dress that enhanced the ocean blue of her eyes, high-heeled shoes, a glittering necklace that showed off her beautiful neck and her hair was long and loose.

  He was happy for his brother, but he wished he was taking Kate somewhere special where they could be alone instead of attending a hastily planned wedding on the boardwalk and a reception in the party room of a beachfront restaurant. Kate deserved a party and evening all for herself.

  “You’ll outshine the bride,” he said as he hopped out and opened the side door of his truck for her. He’d carefully hand-washed the truck in his driveway and tried to ignore the small spots of rust breaking through the dark gray paint. The vehicle would have to last at least another five years because he hoped to pour his present and future earnings into a home instead.

  “Impossible,” Kate said. “And not recommended. I’ve been to plenty of weddings, and it’s practically a felony to try to garner more attention than the bride. It’s her day.”

  Brady paused a moment before closing Kate’s door, long enough to lean in for a quick kiss.

  Kate smiled as she pulled back from the kiss. “You seem nervous.”

  “I just want to do my part correctly. This should be the happiest day of Noah’s life, and I want to help make sure that’s what it is.”

  Brady went around the truck and got in the driver’s seat, his heart heavy from the phone call he’d received from his aunt in Florida the day before. His expectations were low, but it was still disappointing.

  “I’ll be his only family there,” Brady said as he pulled out into the weekend traffic. “My mother was invited, but she’s not able to come.”

  “Short notice,” Kate said, her words a suggestion.

  Brady swallowed and nodded. “That’s part of it. And her health...it isn’t the greatest.”

  That was also part of it, but not the entire truth. His mother didn’t own a car and lived with her sister in a Tampa trailer park. The two sisters got along well, and he believed his mother’s needs were met, but his aunt’s charity apparently didn’t extend to driving the mother of the groom to an out of state wedding with only a week’s notice.

  “Sorry to hear that,” Kate said.

  “It could be for the best,” Brady said. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen her.”

  He had offered her a home with him when he got his full-time firefighting job and a rental house, but she had declined saying she was staying put for the first time in her life. Done moving around, was how she’d put it. Because he could sympathize with that sentiment probably better than anyone else on earth, he hadn’t pushed it and, he had to admit to himself, it was a relief. He loved and cared about his mother, but their relationship had been far from the norm.

  “I’m sure you have a wonderful speech prepared, and I can’t wait to see Corrinne’s and Bella’s dresses.”

  Brady gave her a quick grin. “You care about dresses?”

  “Of course I do. Just because I don’t want to join my parents’ country club and have the challenge of choosing the right cocktail dress for each night of the week doesn’t mean I don’t like dressing up once in a while. This blue one I’m wearing has traveled with me thousands of miles even though it seldom makes it out of my suitcase.”

  “It should,” Brady said.

  “Thank you,” Kate said, laughing. “I’m glad it has tonight. I’m excited about a casual beach wedding, and I’m fully prepared to take my shoes off if necessary.”

  Brady turned into the beach parking lot, which was only half-full. Some tourists were still on the beach, and the rest of the cars were Corrinne’s family, who had driven down. Seeing at least six cars with West Virginia license plates reminded him how little he and Noah had to offer in terms of family, but how important they were to each other.

  Was he losing his brother to Corrinne’s family? Brady ha
d asked Noah directly where he planned to live after the wedding, and Noah had said he planned to stay in Cape Pursuit at least for a while until they got on their feet financially. After that, Noah couldn’t make any promises.

  “Are you okay?” Kate said. “I’ve only seen a few flashes of your trademark smile, and this is a happy occasion.”

  Brady turned off the engine and reached for Kate’s hand. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve always tried to pave the way for my brother, but he’s going down a road now I haven’t traveled.”

  Kate laughed. “He’s not plunging off a cliff, and he’s an adult.”

  “You’re right. I need to relax and enjoy the evening.”

  He knew he wasn’t telling her the whole story, but what did it matter? She would be gone in a matter of weeks, and he would be left to sort out his life and his feelings.

  “That’s the spirit,” Kate said. “And if there’s dancing at the reception, I promise I’ll save all of mine for you.”

  Brady smiled. “That thought just might help me survive the ceremony, twelve hundred pictures and my official best man toast.”

  “I won’t let you down.”

  Brady leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips instead of searching for any words.

  * * *

  IF BRADY WERE anyone else, she would have entertained him over dinner or while they waited for the cake cutting with the story of George asking her to be his full-time business manager. However, sharing that information with Brady would be as cruel as showing someone their heart’s desire and then explaining why they can’t have it.

  “Bella is behaving like a champion flower girl,” Kate said. The little girl, in a white dress that shared a matching red ribbon with her mother’s white dress, sat on her grandmother’s lap at the head table. The party room at the restaurant was just large enough for several long tables with guest seating, a buffet table and a small dance floor. The decor was simple and elegant, and there were candles on the tables. A two-tiered wedding cake had its own round table, and Kate was relieved when the bride and groom used silver forks to carefully feed each other the ceremonial first slice instead of doing the cake-smearing some people chose to do.

  I sound like my mother, she thought as she watched the bride neatly dab at her lips.

  “She’s a little angel,” Brady said. “Except on her bike, then she’s more of a daredevil.”

  “I’m sure you’re glad she’ll be staying in Cape Pursuit for a while.”

  Brady nodded. “I don’t have much family, so I really appreciate the ones I have.”

  Kate felt his words as if they were a slap. Did he think she didn’t appreciate her family? Sure, she didn’t care to visit them often, and she didn’t want a lifestyle anything like theirs. She disapproved of their materialism and their focus on the way everything had to look...but she appreciated them...didn’t she?

  “Ready for that dance?” Brady asked.

  Kate’s cheeks felt hot. “In a minute. I’m just going to the ladies’ room first.”

  Without waiting for a response, she turned and left the party room, heading for a long hallway with a red exit sign at the end. Maybe it led to the restrooms, and maybe it just led outside. Either one would work.

  What was she doing, getting mixed up with Brady and his family—and letting her own feelings get mixed up? She had depended entirely upon her own instincts for six years. It was no time to start looking for approval from someone now.

  She saw the ladies’ sign and shoved through the door, hoping for a moment of solitude to pull herself together. She dispensed a wad of paper towel and ran it under the cold water, and then she pressed it to her face and neck. “This is why I stay unattached,” she reminded her reflection.

  It was true. When you loved someone, they felt they had the right to impose their beliefs on you. Could make you feel bad about your choices or try to influence them. She felt the weight lift from her shoulders when she closed her eyes and pictured herself taking off in an airplane, headed for someplace new every day.

  “Kate.”

  She heard Brady’s voice outside the restroom door. He knocked and then knocked again. Had he really pursued her to the bathroom? She should have taken the exit instead. This was getting out of hand.

  “I have to go,” he said. “And I need your help.”

  There was something in his voice that made her toss her paper towel in the trash and fling open the door.

  Brady held his phone up. “Missing person. All hands.”

  “But it’s your brother’s wedding,” Kate said.

  He nodded. “It’s all over but the dancing, and the only person I’m disappointing by leaving is you.”

  She almost told him she wasn’t disappointed to miss out on a dance with him, but her heart told her those words wouldn’t ring true. Hadn’t she just thought about her impossible love for him as she stared in the mirror? If she didn’t care about him, she wouldn’t be sponging her face with cold water in the bathroom.

  “Do you need help?” she asked.

  “With the search? We need all the help we can get. The police department is organizing its citizen auxiliary search team, but it’s going to be a long night. The missing man is elderly, diabetic, possibly with dementia. Every minute matters.”

  “I know every street in town after my two driving jobs this summer,” Kate said. “Let’s go.”

  She gave a thought to her dress and high heels, but then she decided that action was more important than comfort. Part of her felt guilty for being glad for a distraction, a reason to leave the wedding where so many feelings crowded in on her.

  Brady drove them to the police station where an officer was dividing up volunteers. Brady leaned in. “Much as I hate it, would you mind splitting up? We need a strong person leading each group, and you’ve got more sense and knowledge than most people I know.”

  She told herself that the only opinion about herself that mattered was her own, but Brady’s words warmed her thoroughly despite the cool evening air on her bare arms and legs. Kate got her instructions from the police officer. They included a picture of the missing man, his name and a contact phone number if they found anything. He was a tourist, there with his family in a rental house, and he wouldn’t know the way home.

  “Here’s a radio so you can follow the traffic but be careful what you say over the air. Stay on channel five,” the officer said as he pressed a small black radio into Kate’s hand. In her years of driving, she had become comfortable using a radio, chatting with other drivers sometimes, once or twice using it to contact police and alert them about an accident or a road hazard.

  This felt more personal. She and her group were tasked with searching a neighborhood that was bordered by the beach on one side and part of a downtown street on the other. The missing man’s vacation home was several blocks over, but the groups were using a grid pattern to cover as much of the city as possible.

  Kate glanced over at Brady who waved at her with his radio and sent her an encouraging smile.

  “What do we do if we find him?” an older woman in Kate’s small group asked.

  “We do our best to make sure he’s okay and we call it in,” Kate said.

  She led her group to their appointed location. In addition to the older woman, there was a man who identified himself as a volunteer firefighter from Indiana who was there on vacation and joined the search. He had two teenagers with him who looked eager to help and carried flashlights.

  “Here is the cross street marking the edge of our grid section,” Kate said. “Let’s try to stay within sight of each other and regroup at every intersection as we move that way.” She pointed and started walking, picking her way in her impractical heels. Should she have asked Brady to take her home so she could change? She didn’t want to waste any time. If the man didn’t have his medication and was lost for hours, she feared what
could happen to him.

  Kate thought of her own grandparents. They lived twenty minutes away from her parents and belonged to the same social world. Her grandmother had a standing appointment once a week to have her hair done, and her grandfather had a weekly tee time at the club. They lived according to a schedule and carefully constructed rules, and the last time Kate had seen them was at her cousin Lillie’s wedding a year ago. Her grandparents had tried to “talk some sense into her,” as they put it. They wanted her to put her energy into their charity, and they tried to give her their four-year-old Mercedes as a gift.

  Kate didn’t want to be bound to their world, but she also felt a cold slice of fear when she imagined them missing, in need of medication or a meal. She would hike over a mountain in her high heels if it was someone she loved, no matter how far apart they seemed sometimes.

  Almost an hour of searching doorways, benches, darkened side streets and stretches of beach went by, and Kate felt a blister burning the heel of one foot and her little toe on the other.

  “We found him,” a voice said over the radio. Kate recognized Brady’s voice as if he was standing right behind her. “Corner of Ocean and Williams.”

  “Roger,” another voice said over the radio. “Advise if a squad is needed.”

  “As a precaution, yes,” Brady said.

  The fear and panic Kate had felt for the missing man and his anxious family dissolved at the sound of Brady’s words. Brady would take care of the man and make sure he was all right. The feeling of security that washed over her made her tired knees weak, and Kate wished Brady’s protective arms were around her.