“I’m not hurting anything,” Kevin objected.
The kid was going to need some serious talking to, but at the moment Logan didn’t have the time. He had to deal with Janice first. “I’ve begun looking for a different, safer job so you wouldn’t have to sit home after we’re married worrying about the fire chief showing up at the door a second time to announce your husband has died in the line of duty.”
“But you’re about to be promoted. After all this time, and what it means to you and your father, surely you don’t want to give up the career you’ve worked so hard for?”
Kevin said, “Makes sense to me.”
Logan ignored the boy. “I’d give up anything for you, including my job. I’ve already talked to a restaurant in Pismo Beach that’s looking for a chef. It’s an upscale—”
“No, absolutely not.”
He braked hard. “What do you mean, no?”
“Geez!” Kevin nearly fell into his mother’s lap. “Take it easy, Logan!”
Janice helped her son back up. “I mean, don’t you dare give up the job you love—”
“I love cooking, too.”
“—because you’re afraid I might worry about you on the job. Being a firefighter is what you do, who you are.”
“I play bagpipes, too, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Logan Strong, I have no intention of forcing you to sacrifice your family traditions, any of them, just to marry me. Your father might be able to forgive me if I allowed that to happen, but I’d never be able to forgive myself.”
Someone yelled at Logan to get the truck going again. The gears protested as he shifted into first and accelerated, lurching the fire engine forward.
“Does that mean you want to marry me?”
“Of course I do. I thought that must have been pretty obvious in Las Vegas.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon? I mean, it’s only been a few months—”
“I don’t think there’s a time limit on how long it takes to fall in love.”
“How ’bout getting married at Thanksgiving?” Kevin asked, his head right between them again. “Then me and Maddie could go on the honeymoon with you.”
Both Logan and Janice whirled around to glare at her son.
“Don’t even think about it,” Janice said sternly.
“Not a chance,” Logan agreed.
A scream went up from the reviewing stand.
Logan turned to see city officials scrambling to get out of the way of Big Red. He slammed on the brakes. The truck shuddered, the engine died and came to a stop inches from the temporary bleachers set up for the dignitaries.
Hands trembling for more than one reason, Logan exhaled slowly.
“What in the name of heaven do you think you’re doing?” Chief Gray bellowed. He was standing on the third riser of the reviewing stand, his arms thrown protectively around Councilwoman Anderson, his stance and uniform suggestive of a knight determined to slay a dragon for his queen, or die trying.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Logan muttered. “I, ah, just proposed to Janice—I think—and she accepted—I think. I sort of lost track—”
“Oh, Harlan, isn’t that romantic?” The councilwoman resettled her glasses, which apparently had been dislodged during all the excitement. Quite large and tinted blue, amazingly they went well with her gray hair and added a dramatic flair to her appearance.
“Romantic or not, Evie dear, one of my men almost ran over the members of the entire city council. That could cost me my job.”
“Not as long as I have a vote, sweet’ums,” she crooned.
Nearly choking herself, Janice swallowed a laugh. “Maybe you ought to see if you can get this thing started again so we can finish the parade.”
That seemed the wisest course. So Logan cranked the engine over, shifted into reverse, which sent a Western riding club on horseback behind him into disarray, then aimed Big Red down the boulevard again.
He’d proposed. Janice had accepted. And it was okay with Kevin. He thought. But there were a few details that had yet to be worked out.
ONCE BACK at Station Six, Logan took Janice by the hand and forcefully dragged her upstairs to his quarters. Granted, he wasn’t on duty, but it was the only place he could think of where they could be alone.
“The children?” she protested.
“The guys will take care of them.” He shoved the door closed behind him, whirled around, grabbed Janice none too gently and kissed her. Long and hard and more deeply than he should until things were settled. With an effort he broke the kiss. “Do you want to marry me?”
“If you love me—”
“Oh, yes, more than I can possibly tell you.”
“—and assuming you know I’m not going to sit anywhere waiting for anything. I have a job and I have no intention of giving that up.”
“How ’bout taking time out for more babies?”
Going very still inside, Janice was stunned and thrilled by his question. She’d always dreamed of a big family, more babies to hold and cuddle. “Do you mean it?”
“Only if you want more. Kevin and Maddie are terrific. I wouldn’t have any trouble—”
“I want to have your babies. Lots of them.”
He grinned. “A couple will do.”
“And you won’t give up your job with the department?” She couldn’t bear the thought of him making that big a sacrifice for her.
“Not unless you want me to. Then I’d do it in a nanosecond.”
Her heart nearly filling her throat, she caressed his cheek with her hand. “I love you, Logan Strong.”
“I love you, too.” He bent to kiss her—
Someone pounded on the door.
Abruptly, Logan yanked it open. “What?”
Kevin lifted his shoulders in a careless shrug. “I figured, if you’re gonna be my new dad and stuff…would it be okay if I slid down the pole now?”
He shot a glance at Janice, who was fighting to keep a smile in check. “It’s still your decision,” he said, “but I think he’s old enough.”
Janice nodded her approval. It was time she let her son grow up and find his own independence, as she had discovered hers.
Pumping his fist in the air, Kevin shouted, “Yes!” and dashed away, only to be replaced in the doorway by Maddie, her eyes big and hopeful. “Me, too?”
Logan scooped her up in his arms. “Not quite yet, sprite, at least not on your own.”
“Can I go down with you?” she asked solemnly.
He checked with Janice again. “Tell you what. Why don’t the three of us go down together.”
“I couldn’t,” Janice gasped.
“Sure you can.” He held out his arm and, with only a slight hesitation, she joined him. The spirit of adventure bubbled inside her.
Holding Maddie tight in one arm, he instructed Janice on how to grasp the pole. When she grabbed hold, he did too, and together the three of them stepped off into a new life, a new world of love.
Janice reached ground level breathless and flushed, exhilarated by a sense of accomplishment.
Applause erupted from the dozens of firefighters hanging around, those on duty and those who’d been in the parade.
Emma Jean clapped the loudest. “I knew you two would get together eventually. I saw it in my crystal ball. I even predicted it at Mike Gables’s wedding,” she said smugly.
“Okay, if you’re so psychic,” Logan said, looping his arm around Janice’s waist while he still held tight to Maddie, “who’s the next bachelor destined to bite the dust?”
The dispatcher scanned the room, her full red lips lifting in a smile as she tilted her head, making her jewelry jingle. “It might take a while.”
“Yeah, right,” Danny Sullivan taunted. “You’re hedging, Emma Jean. You can’t see the future at all.”
“I can’t?” she questioned, and there was something sly in her dark gypsy eyes. “An Irishman like you ought to know the power of romance.”
Given th
at she’d seen what Logan had been blind to, he wasn’t going to question Emma Jean’s psychic abilities. He was simply going to get on with his life with Janice at his side, along with the family he’d always dreamed about having.
He pulled Janice close again. “I love you,” he whispered.
She mouthed “I love you too,” and that was all he needed to know.
ISBN: 978-1-474-02071-8
BETWEEN HONOR AND DUTY
© 2001 Charlotte Maclay
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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* Caught with a Cowboy
** Men of Station Six
Between Honor and Duty Page 19