A Home for the Firefighter

by Amie Denman

  Brady shook hands with both people and exchanged some polite words, although he knew he wouldn’t remember what they were in two minutes. He had a brief impression of smiling and well-dressed people, and he remembered a few of the things Kate had told him about her family. Expensive cars, weddings, houses.

  “Do you have a minute to walk outside with me?” he asked Kate. He knew he was being rude, tearing her away from visiting out-of-town family, but his chances of talking with her were narrowing by the day.

  “I... I...” she stammered, glancing at her guests.

  “Just for a minute,” he assured her, shooting a quick apologetic glance at her cousin. “I don’t want to intrude on your time too much.”

  “Okay,” Kate agreed. She followed him onto the boardwalk where there were dozens of tourists walking, biking and enjoying the ocean view. “Brady, I’m sorry I walked away from you the other night. I didn’t know what to say, and—”

  “It’s okay. Maybe it was better that way because I was speaking impulsively, and now I’ve had time to think.”

  Kate’s posture relaxed and her expression was relieved. Did she think he was going to take back his words, tell her that he hadn’t really meant it when he said he loved her?

  “I do love you,” he said. “I didn’t need to think about that. But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my priorities. I’ve focused for years on finding a perfect house and then the perfect person and having a perfect family.”

  Kate’s face colored again and she laced her fingers tightly together so the tips of them turned pale. Brady laid a hand over both of hers. “I don’t mean to upset you. I owe you a lot for helping me realize I already had what I thought I was looking for. I already have a perfect family and a wonderful life, even if I’m renting half a house and my brother’s family will soon get their own place. Even if I have an old pickup that smells like socks and tires.”

  Kate smiled. “And your fake pine-scented air freshener.”

  “Especially that.” He put his free hand on her shoulder and fought the urge to hug her. His words would come so much easier with her in his arms, but her relatives were probably watching. His were, too, but they already knew how he felt. “What I’m saying is that love doesn’t have to come with a street address and a two-car garage. Sometimes it’s right in front of us.”

  “Brady, I—” Her voice cracked and her eyes shone with tears. “I’m not the one for you. You deserve someone who wants what you want.”

  “Let me decide that,” he said softly. “What if I want you?”

  Kate looked into his eyes and blinked back tears, but then she slowly shook her head. “This will never work. I’m sorry.”

  “Why not? Kate, I’m willing to make sacrifices to be with you, but there’s one thing I’m not willing to do.”

  She waited, and he gathered his courage and went on.

  “I’m not willing to give you up without a fight,” he said. “I know it’s not what I agreed to, but things have changed for me.”

  She held both hands in front of her. “Not for me,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

  “Don’t you see any way we could be together?” he asked, a note of desperation in his voice.

  Kate squared her shoulders and walked back toward her table, taking the long route and weaving around the outside of the restaurant. Brady needed a long route, too, to compose his feelings. Twice he’d told her what she meant to him, and twice she’d walked away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  TWO DAYS LATER, Kate waved goodbye to her cousin as Lillie left town with her husband in their luxury car. Lillie and Cameron had ridden the trolley, which they called “quaint,” taken a sunset cruise on a boat half the size of the one they owned at home and had one dinner and one breakfast with Kate. Most of their conversation was about Kate’s family at home and who was getting married, divorced, having a baby, building a house or going on an expensive vacation. Lillie had asked pointed questions about Brady after Kate had returned to the table with flushed cheeks, but Kate had deflected her cousin’s questions by describing Brady as a summer fling that was coming to an end.

  That was what she said, anyway. The truth was that her heart was more involved than she wanted to admit, even to herself. She had never been in love because she had never allowed herself to be. The few interesting men she’d met over the past six years of traveling had been casual relationships. No commitment, no thought of them after she moved on. She had thought Brady might fall into the same category, but the fact that her heart had drawn her back to Cape Pursuit for a second season and then she’d agreed to a summer romance proved that there was more to it.

  A lot more.

  With each day working with him, spending time on the beach, having dinner, sharing stories, helping each other with friend and family issues, she’d gotten closer to Brady. She thought of him when she woke up in the morning and when she lay in bed at night thinking about her day. He was part of the sunrise over Cape Pursuit and the soft ocean breeze. He was part of her summer.

  Was it more?

  Kate walked toward the trolley office where she was training one of the other summer workers to take over the paperwork. Dinah had agreed to stay on after the summer ended and try to fill the role of office manager, but there were so many moving parts that Kate knew it was going to be a tough job for anyone to manage.

  There had been a few moments in the training so far when Kate thought she might be making a mistake by choosing to turn down the job and leave Cape Pursuit. What if she stayed and spent more time exploring her relationship with Brady, seeing the house he would buy, walking through autumn leaves with him?

  Her phone rang, and she dug it out of her purse. Brady. She swallowed, holding the phone in her hand, and stared at his name on the display. She was afraid to answer it because she felt vulnerable and very afraid of the powerful realization that she might be in love with him. In love with him. The phone stopped ringing and the display announced that she had a voice mail.

  Hi, it’s Brady. I know we’ve sort of...hit a wall in our relationship, but you only have a week left in Cape Pursuit, and I’d like to see you. I’m working at the station tonight, but maybe tomorrow if you can? Thanks. There was a long pause, but Kate waited because the message still had ten seconds left on it. I care about you, Kate, and I don’t want to say goodbye, but if you have to go, I want us to part on good terms.

  She wanted that, too. It was how she operated. Part of not having ties to people and places was knowing when and how to leave. Without loose ends or hard feelings, nothing left on the table. Her family was different. They would always be a tie and there was plenty left on the table. Each time she thought of them, it cut into her freedom and reminded her how easy it would be to settle in and be owned by them, their fancy houses, their inviting lifestyle.

  It would also be easy to let herself be loved by Brady. Too easy. But there was no way it could work. He was bound to Cape Pursuit, and she was ready for the adventurous career she wanted.

  She texted one word to Brady. Tomorrow.

  Kate worked in the trolley office all day, went home and took a short nap, and then signed herself into the driving app for the evening. Friday nights were big money with tourists enjoying the nightlife. With all the extra shifts she had picked up and with the scholarship offered by the flight attendant school, she had enough money now to pay tuition and living expenses. Everything she wanted was right in front of her for the taking.

  Her first Uber riders of the evening were low-key. Two sisters in town with a seniors’ bus tour wanted to meet an old friend for dinner on the other side of town from their hotel. Kate gave them her number for when they were ready to return later. She picked up a family next who had stayed late at the beach and were anxious to get the kids in the bathtub and order a pizza straight to their room. The parents were too exhausted to talk, and the kids smelle
d like sunscreen and wet hair. One of them fell asleep on the short drive to the hotel, and her soft sweet cheeks reminded Kate of Bella. She would miss seeing Bella. What would her first day of preschool be like?

  “Beachfront Motel,” a young man said as he got in the back seat.

  “Which one?” Kate asked.

  “I requested a driver, not a comedian.” The man was about her age, wearing a button-down shirt that was untucked and had a stain on the front. His face appeared flushed when the interior light of her car came on, and his words were sharp and slurred at the same time.

  Kate blew out a sigh. “How about an address?”

  “Don’t you know where you’re going?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid you don’t. Maybe you should get out and request a different Uber,” Kate suggested. “Someone you might be more confident with.”

  “Jeez,” the guy said. “You don’t have to get all crabby.” He showed her his phone, which had his hotel reservation information on the screen. “I don’t need another driver, now do I? Besides, you’re prettier than most of them. Probably.”

  Kate took a moment to consider her options, but she decided to risk it. He was in the back seat, obviously intoxicated, but it was a short fare. She would drive him across town and drop him off and maybe she would call it a night after that. Although she had always loved driving, she was starting to lose her enthusiasm for it. Would she have to deal with belligerent people on airplanes? She grimaced as she looked in the rearview mirror and pulled out into traffic. At least she wouldn’t be alone with strangers on airplanes.

  One time at a truck stop on a dark night in the middle of Oklahoma, a man had followed her from the restroom back to her truck. Luckily for her, a highway patrol officer had just pulled in and she walked straight to his car and talked with him until the other man got in his vehicle and left. She had gotten by on her wits for six years, but she had to admit she was a little tired of it.

  “You’re cuter than I thought when I first got in,” the man said. “Maybe you could come in and have a drink with me at my hotel.”

  “Can’t,” Kate said. “I’m working.”

  She drove a little faster, hoping to get rid of her passenger before he made an utter fool of himself.

  “Almost there,” she said.

  She turned off the road along the Atlantic and pulled up in front of a mostly deserted-looking place. It wasn’t one of the nicest hotels, off the main tourist route and closer to a residential section not far from the fire station.

  “I don’t think this is it,” the man said. “Why don’t you drive me around a little more so I can talk you into that drink?”

  Kate’s pulse quickened, but she wasn’t going to let him frighten her. Her mind raced, thinking of ways to get him out of her car, preferably someplace where other people were around.

  Brady. He was working at the fire station.

  “I’ll take you for one loop around the neighborhood,” Kate said. She pulled out and drove one block to the fire station. It was a warm evening, and all the outside lights were on. The doors were up revealing shining trucks, and three firefighters were playing basketball under the floodlights.

  Kate pulled up directly onto the concrete apron, interrupting the basketball game. She jumped out of the car, aware of the surprised looks from Brady and the two other firefighters. Brady took one step toward her but paused. Kate jerked open the back door of her car and said, “Out.”

  “What the heck? Hey, lady, this isn’t the hotel.”

  Brady moved closer, his shoulders squared, hands fisted, but he didn’t interrupt.

  “Your hotel is one block that way,” Kate said, pointing. “Get out of the car.”

  She could see that Brady was practically vibrating with anger, but he still didn’t move. Kate could have married him at that moment—a thought she didn’t even want to try to process. He was there for her, but he was letting her do things her own way, trusting her.

  The drunk passenger leaned out the door, saw the three huge firefighters and then stumbled as he climbed out of the car.

  “That way,” Kate reiterated, pointing again.

  “Jeez,” the guy said. “I’m not paying for this ride.”

  He started to walk away, clearly unsteady, but he still turned around and gave Kate a mean look.

  “Want us to go after him and rough him up a little?”

  Kate laughed at the stocky firefighter who made the offer. “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “Probably not, but it’s fun to think about.”

  Two of the firefighters went inside, but Brady stayed, his feet planted and arms across his chest.

  “Thanks,” Kate said.

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “I know. That’s what I’m saying thanks for.”

  Brady uncrossed his arms and ran a hand through his hair in an exasperated gesture. “You’re trying to kill me, right? If I had to watch that guy give you a hard time for five more seconds—”

  “But you didn’t,” Kate interrupted. “You trusted me to handle it.”

  “It felt wrong as hell, but I’m guessing it was...right?”

  Deep sorrow settled in where the adrenaline left a vacuum inside her. She’d wanted Brady’s help and protection, but that was the problem. It was time for her to leave before she gave away any more of herself, her independence to a man who wanted all of her.

  “It was right,” she said. “You’re a great guy, Brady, and I know you’re going to be really happy. You’ll get that house and a promotion, all the things you deserve.”

  He blew out a breath. “This sounds like a big goodbye coming no matter how much I want—”

  “I can’t stay,” Kate said.

  Brady ran a hand over his face, exasperation showing in every gesture. “You didn’t give me a chance to finish, Kate. You’re so sure you know yourself, and so sure you know what I want, but I don’t think you do. I wasn’t going to say I wanted you to stay.”

  She swallowed. “You weren’t?”

  “No. I was going to say I want you.”

  Kate took a long, slow breath of the night air. It was now or never, and her next words would change everything. But...her mind was already made up, her choice the one she had been heading toward for years.

  “I have the next two days off, and I’m going to drive down to Florida and finalize my housing arrangements.”

  “And then?” he asked. An alarm went off inside the station, and Brady cocked his head to listen. Lights flashed on. A truck engine caught and roared.

  “You have to go,” Kate said.

  Brady started walking backward toward the station. “Come back and say goodbye before you leave for good,” he said. “Please.”

  Kate didn’t answer. Instead, she got in her car and drove it quickly out of the way of the emerging fire trucks, tears running down her cheeks.

  * * *

  EARLY THE NEXT morning, Kate packed everything in her Escape. It only took her an hour to remove all traces of her occupancy from the summer apartment. Avoiding entanglements, possessions, relationships had left her free, and the sparse loads of clothes and possessions she hauled out to her car reminded her how much she liked moving on. She put on her road trip playlist and drove straight through to the airport in Florida where the housing director, Linda, was still at her desk late in the day.

  “You’re lucky,” Linda said. “The girl who was in your apartment left last week.”

  “Did she graduate early?” Kate asked.

  “No,” Linda said. “She discovered she didn’t like flying as much as she thought.”

  “Oh,” Kate said. “She didn’t know that in advance?”

  Linda shrugged. “I guess not. Some people, huh? Either way, the place is empty and you can start moving in anytime.”

  Kate thought about
her car full of possessions. She’d taken a chance that there would be a place to store them for a week, and she’d gotten lucky. Was it a sign that it was meant to be?

  Linda handed her the keys and gave her directions, and Kate drove to her home for the next several months. She carried in three boxes and two laundry baskets full of things and plunked them down inside the door. She had everything with her. It would be very easy to call George and ask him to mail her last paycheck and give her remaining three trolley shifts to someone else. The season was almost over, and the other drivers would probably be happy to pick up the work.

  Maybe Brady would pick up the shifts and put away the extra cash for his house. Kate sank into a chair in her new apartment’s kitchenette. The place was like a lot of the temporary spaces she’d occupied over the years, a few months here, a few there, always just a stopover on the way to where she was going. The freedom was almost suffocating.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  BRADY SPENT THE next four days kicking himself for not coming up with the right words to convince Kate they had a future together. He let the first two days go by, hoping he’d have another chance when she came back to town one more time.

  But then George had called him and asked him to fill in a shift. He hadn’t even asked whose shift it was. He knew. Kate was gone and she wasn’t coming back.

  “You busy after work?” he asked Charlie on the fifth day.

  “No,” Charlie said with a grin. “A guy like me with two jobs, a wife and a daughter is just looking for ways to stay out of trouble.”

  Brady smiled for the first time in days. “Sorry. Any chance we could take another look at that house? I think I’m ready to make a decision.”

  “The blue one on Vine Street?” Charlie asked.

  Ethan leaned against a truck and crossed his arms. “You’re still buying a place?”