Rescued By Love: Park City Firefighter Romance

by Checketts, Cami

  Chapter Four

  Sage pounded slowly up the trails above her cabin, south of The Canyons Ski Resort, after school on Wednesday. She loved all the trails around Park City. Her mom would’ve worried if she knew that Sage ran alone, but she carried a Taser with her and figured she could outrun any man or animal after she’d taken them out with that.

  As much as she loved running, the hill was starting to get to her, so she distracted herself with images of Captain Compton’s smile. Man, she liked him. A tough, take-charge captain who also coached a youth lacrosse team. How cool was he? She rounded a corner and tripped over something in the trail. Going down hard, she brought her hands up to break her fall. Twigs and rocks slammed against her palms, and she jarred her wrist. Rolling over with a groan, she looked back at what she’d tripped over. Her eyes widened at the black furry lump with the distinctive white stripe down the back.

  “No, no, no.”

  The skunk seemed to glare at her with glittering, black eyes as she scooted away on her hands and heels. He whipped around, lifted his tail, and sprayed.

  Sage’s instinct was to scream, but luckily she turned her head instead so she didn’t get a mouthful and protected her eyes. The smell was unreal. It seeped into every part of her, and she gagged several times before retching. Sadly, emptying the contents of her stomach didn’t help much. The skunk gave her one more withering look then waddled away. Sage was left sitting in the rank smell.

  Forcing her way to her feet, she blinked to clear her eyes and could at least thank the Lord that she didn’t get any in her eyes. The smell was so bad she didn’t know how she was going to get down the mountain without vomiting again.

  * * *

  Cam spent every spare minute of his next forty-eight hour shift watching the cameras to see if anyone was at the door and coming to visit them, especially a certain tall, blonde someone. Sadly, they didn’t get any visits, and the only call the entire two days was an elderly lady who had a cold and wanted to ride in the ambulance instead of drive herself to Insta Care.

  They spent the majority of their awake time training their new boot, Powers—pulling hose lines, throwing ladders, tying knots, and hoisting tools. Cam didn’t know that a shift had ever dragged so long. On Friday night, the ding indicated a visitor, and he jumped to his feet and raced to the cameras.

  “Expecting someone, Cap?” Emily asked.

  “No. Just a boring shift.”

  “Agreed.”

  He hurried around her and looked at the cameras. Oh, no. It was the girl from the wreck last weekend. Cam turned away from the cameras and debated if he could hide out somewhere until she left.

  “Cap?” JFK called out to him. “Someone here to see you.” He walked into the gathering area with the girl at his side, holding a plate of cookies.

  She beamed up at Cam, blushing furiously. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” Cam nodded to her, ignoring the conspiratorial glances his crew were giving each other. “How are you feeling?”

  “Great, thanks to you.” She winked. “Just lots of scrapes and bruises.”

  Cam took the plate she held out and set it on the counter. “Thanks for the cookies. I’ll walk you out.”

  “Smooth, Cap.” JFK muttered behind them as Cam hurried toward the outer door. He wasn’t trying to be smooth. He was trying not to encourage her.

  He held the door open for her, and she smiled up at him. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you with your crew when I called you hot. I just …” She glanced down. “I’d really like to go out with you sometime.”

  Cam didn’t know if it was possible to feel more awkward. Why had Miss Turner’s subtle flirtations drawn him in while this girl’s blatant come-ons just repelled him?

  “I’m sorry. I don’t … You, um, me …” Cam didn’t talk a lot, but he usually had a decent command of the English language. He jammed a hand through his short hair.

  “I get it. I’m not pretty enough for someone as hot as you.” She glared at him and spun away.

  “Wait.” Cam felt like a piece of dog meat. Caylee would have his hide if he made a woman feel like she wasn’t good enough. “That’s not it, not at all. It’s just that I’m interested in someone else.”

  She turned back and arched an eyebrow at him. “Okay.” Her smile returned pretty quickly. “If it doesn’t work out, give me a call sometime.” She pulled a business card out of her purse and thrust it into his hands.

  Cam forced a smile and held up the card. “Thanks.”

  She pranced toward her car. Cam walked back into the fire station and went to his room rather than face the jeering. It was almost nine o’clock at night, and Miss Turner still hadn’t come. He’d informed JFK that he needed to have cash on hand to pay whatever the detail bill was, and for once, JFK hadn’t argued with him. Of course, it might have something to do with the quiet comment he’d heard. “I hope the Hot Amazon shows.” Since Cam agreed, he decided not to reprimand JFK. Unfortunately, the beautiful schoolteacher hadn’t come.

  Seven a.m. the next morning, he gave up looking for Miss Turner, turned everything over to A Platoon, and went home to prep for Saturday afternoon’s game. Why hadn’t she come? Maybe she was embarrassed to face the firefighters after parking her car illegally. But she couldn’t possibly stand Braden up, could she? He’d see her today for sure. Then he’d find out her name and ask her to lunch.

  He warmed his team up and prepped for the game against Sky View. He’d never been so unfocused on his team. His eyes kept wandering over to the spectator sidelines. Would she come? She’d been really cute and almost flirtatious with him. Was it too much to hope that she wanted to see him again too?

  “Coach?”

  His head snapped around to Braden. “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Sure. Get out there and rip some goals.”

  “You got it, Coach.”

  Braden ran out onto the field to take his place in the midfield. Cam’s eyes wandered to the sidelines again, and he noticed that not only was Miss Turner not there, Braden’s mom had missed another game too. He wondered if she had to work today. She did some kind of public relations for Deer Valley and seemed to work a lot of weekends. Poor kid was alone too much.

  He forced himself to focus on his team and winning this game. This was just another reason why he didn’t form serious relationships. At some point, they would ditch you, and he didn’t need that kind of nonsense in his life right now. He didn’t need that kind of nonsense in his life ever. It was better he found out that she was a flake and not interested now rather than later when he was even more captivated by her. He jerked his ball cap down lower to shade his eyes from the sun, knowing he was lying to himself. He was already fascinated by her.

  Chapter Five

  Almost a week had passed since the dreaded skunk attack. Sage had done the tomato bath several times, and still she could smell skunk. It was imprinted in her nasal cavities to be sure. Her class had laughed at her story, but kept commenting on how gross she smelled.

  She’d missed going by Captain Compton’s fire station on what she figured was his last shift, and she’d missed Braden’s game. She felt horrible about that, but she couldn’t go smelling like skunk.

  Wednesday after school, she made the delectable brownies, sprayed herself with as much body spray as she dared, and drove to the fire station. She was almost shaking with apprehension as she pushed the doorbell. Did she still stink? Would he even want to see her? Was it going to be awkward that so much time had passed?

  The door swung open, and Porky was standing there, leering at her. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Gigantor Barbie. You decided to start with brownies and see if I’d agree to go out to dinner with you? Let’s see if they taste as good as you look.” His nose wrinkled. “What’s that smell?”

  Sage’s heart sank. She couldn’t care less if Porky thought she was attractive, but if he could smell her, Captain Compton obviously would as well.

  “The brownies aren
’t for you, though I would appreciate you paying for my Jeep detail.”

  Porky smirked at her. “Maybe after you give me a little kiss of gratitude for saving your life.”

  “Saving my life?”

  “Cap would’ve killed you for parking in our way, but I always help him see the humor in the situation. So how about it, beautiful? Dinner or kiss first?”

  Sage balanced the plate of brownies in one hand and yanked the bill for her Jeep detail out of her pocket with the other. She shoved it into Porky’s hand. “Neither.”

  Porky grabbed her arm and tugged her against his chest, smashing the brownies between them.

  Suddenly, he was whirled away from her. Sage took a step back, relieved to not be held by the gross, overbearing firefighter.

  “Get upstairs.” Captain Compton growled. “I’m going to write you up.”

  Porky glared at him, but he obeyed.

  Sage straightened herself and looked into those impossibly blue eyes. She wished for the millionth time that she hadn’t been sprayed by the skunk and could’ve come to see him sooner.

  “Are you okay?” His deep voice washed over her with concern.

  “Yes, but I don’t know if the Knock You Naked Brownies survived.”

  His eyes widened. “Knock You Naked, huh? I’d better save them for after my shift.”

  “Depends how much you like your crew.”

  He chuckled and took a step closer. He looked too good in a firefighter t-shirt that stretched across his chest and the dark chino pants that encased his long legs. “Would you like to come in?”

  “I can’t, and you need to stay back.” She retreated a few steps outside, away from the door. “I stink.”

  His nose wrinkled. “You look like you smell good.”

  “You can’t smell me?”

  “My sense of smell was partially damaged when I was eight.” His gaze got much too serious, and Sage wanted to ask him what happened. “Standing that far away, you could be wearing a live skunk, and I wouldn’t know or care.”

  “I do smell like skunk! I tripped over a skunk on a trail run, and he sprayed me full on.”

  “That stinks.”

  She laughed. “Yes, it does. It really does.”

  “Is that why you didn’t come to see me last week or come to Braden’s game?”

  “Yes.” She admitted, glancing down. She handed over the brownies. “I hope you enjoy them.”

  “I’m sure I will.” His hands brushed hers as he took the plate. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for not turning me in for parking in front of a fire hydrant.”

  He grinned. “No worries. I’d like to hear the full story sometime.”

  “Full story?” Her eyes flicked up to his.

  “Why our responsible school teacher parked in a red zone.”

  “It’s nothing exciting, my mom needed some tights, and I figured I could run in quickly.”

  “Hmm. That isn’t very exciting. Do you have any more exciting stories you could share with me if we went to dinner Saturday night?”

  Sage squeezed her hands together, barely withholding a squeal. “If I can’t think of any, I’ll make some up. My kiddos say I’m very entertaining.”

  “Your … kiddos?”

  “My students.”

  “Oh.” He exhaled so loudly she could hear it. “I thought for a minute that you had children. Not that having children is a problem, but then I started worrying that you might be married, and that would be really, really bad.”

  “Why would that be so terrible, Captain Compton?”

  “Cam.” His voice was so low and appealing. “Can you please call me Cam?”

  She trembled from the look he was giving her. “Why would that be so terrible, Cam?”

  He smiled. “Because if you were married, I couldn’t take you to dinner, now could I?”

  “I guess not.”

  “So you’ve given me Knock You Naked Brownies, and you’ve agreed to go to dinner with me, but you still haven’t told me your first name. I can’t keep thinking of you as Miss Turner.”

  “Do you think of me then?” she asked bravely.

  He licked his lips and murmured. “Only every other thought.”

  Sage blushed and ducked her head. Yep, he’d just said that. She wanted to cheer. “I thought guys typically have some obsession about dating the teacher. Maybe you should just keep thinking of me as Miss Turner.”

  “I like the idea of dating the teacher, but I’d also really like to know your name.”

  She just smiled at him.

  “What’s it going to take?”

  “Let’s see how good the date is Saturday night.”

  Cam chuckled. “All right. Where should I pick you up?”

  She pulled out her phone. “What’s your number?”

  “435-680-4227.”

  Sage dialed in the number and sent him a text with her address.

  “Now, I’m going to have to program you in as Miss Turner. It just feels wrong.”

  Sage gave him what she hoped was a flirtatious grin and backed away from him. “I’m excited for our date, and think of all the money I’m going to save on perfume.”

  He glanced at her kind of funny.

  “Since you can’t smell and all.”

  Cam walked her to her Jeep. He opened her door, and she slid inside. Cam bent down, his nose almost buried in her neck. Sage started, but didn’t jump and thrust him away from her.

  “I can smell if I get really close.” He inhaled slowly, his breath brushing against her neck on the exhale. “You do stink like skunk.”

  Sage laughed shakily and placed her hands on his forearm, pushing him away from her and loving the feel of the smooth musculature under her fingertips. “I hope the skunk smell doesn’t ruin the brownies.”

  Cam gave her an irresistible grin. “I don’t think anything could ruin these brownies.”

  Sage knew she needed to leave now or she’d tell him her name and anything else he wanted to know. Her mom always told her men liked a little mystery. “Thanks, I’d better get going.”

  Cam swung her door shut, lifting the plate up as if in salute. “Thank you.”

  “S-sure.” She stuttered out. Shifting into reverse, she spun out of there, wondering if agreeing to dinner with that man was a good idea or not.

  Chapter Six

  Sage picked her way across the turf field by the Park City Ice Arena, the black bb-like things working their way between her bare toes. She was nervous. Why was she nervous? Glancing across the field, she saw the broad shoulders of the firefighter who she had to blame for her nerves. He gestured to one of his players and demonstrated how to pass with his stick. The boy played catch with Cam a couple of times, and Cam nodded his approval. His voice carried across the field, “Yes, Ike. That’s exactly the kind of pass we’re looking for.”

  His red neoprene shirt with Coach on the back stretched in all the right places—biceps, shoulders, and chest. He turned and spotted her. His face broke into a grin she found irresistible. Sage raised her hand in greeting. He tilted his chin up to her, all manly like, but his smile made the movement both welcoming and sexy.

  Sage backed away and found herself a spot on the bleachers. The game started a few minutes later, and she really had no clue what was going on, but it was exciting to watch the boys pass, catch, run, and shoot. It looked like the defenders could hit the offense with their sticks, and several times, Sage cried out when one of the boys was knocked down.

  Most of the game, she kept her eyes on the coach. Coach Captain Cameron Christian Compton was fabulous to look at and patient with the boys—encouraging, teaching, demonstrating. She also loved that he was so into the game. He got in a very heated “discussion” with the ref after one of his boys got what sounded like a really bad penalty for pushing his mouth guard out of his mouth and playing with it with his tongue. Cam agreed that mouth guards were important, but was upset because the whistle hadn’t even blown to start the pla
y and a warning should’ve sufficed.

  The entire exchange made Sage laugh. Cam seemed so in control, this cool firefighter leader who never got riled, but she saw he could be passionate too. He was willing to go to battle for his boys, and she thought that might be as noble as being a studly firefighter.

  She figured out who Braden was, even with his helmet and gear on. He wasn’t just talented. It was evident that he lived and breathed the game and loved his coach and teammates. She already knew about his lacrosse obsession from the numerous papers he’d written about the subject, but it was fun to see him in action.

  At halftime, Braden’s mom, Isabella, came over and sat by Sage. Isabella was an exotic-looking beauty with smooth, dark hair, and a tiny body. She was always dressed professionally and seemed like a really nice lady. Sage was grateful Braden had a loving mom. She hated that Isabella’s husband had deserted both of them.

  “Thanks for coming,” Isabella said. “It means the world to Braden.”

  “He’s a great kid.”

  “Thanks. He’s got insane amounts of energy, and I’m sure he’s a handful in class, but he loves you. He’s always bragging about how he’s got the best teacher in the world.”

  Sage smiled, grateful for the heartfelt praise. Braden was more work than some of the other students, but he was a great boy and obviously just needed a little more attention than his mom could give.

  The game started again, and Sage really got into the action. Braden was fabulous. His teammate won the small, white ball off of, what Isabella told her, was the face off and threw it to Braden. The boy dodged around several other players, sprinted closer to the goal, and shot so fast Sage was lucky she saw the ball smack the back of the net. Cam pumped his fist in the air and yelled out. “Yes!” Next to her, Isabella was cheering like any proud momma should be, and Sage found herself caught up in the excitement, clapping happily right along with the crowd.