Barefoot Beach

by Debbie Mason

  * * *

  Marco had spent the rest of yesterday and all of this morning trying to wipe Theia’s nickname for his mother out of his head, along with the idea of Tina and Daniel getting it on. Which, given Theia’s disgusted expression when she stalked past Sophie and Liam’s last night without Daniel, they had been.

  “Lieutenant, can you help me with this?” A teenage girl stood in front of Marco wearing her Air-Pak breathing apparatus the wrong way. He was the supervisor at Camp FFIT—Female Firefighter in Training—today. The camp ran for the first two weeks in July and was open to girls fifteen to nineteen who were interested in becoming firefighters.

  The chief had started the camp ten years earlier in honor of his seven-year-old daughter, Riley, who’d wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. Riley and the chief’s wife had died ten years ago this November. They’d been killed by a drunk driver in a motor vehicle accident.

  Marco had been volunteering on his days off since the camp’s inception. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to be off today, but after his near drowning yesterday, the chief had insisted. And you didn’t argue with the chief.

  “How about we do it together instead?” Marco suggested to the teen, who was in full turnout gear while Marco wore a pair of khaki shorts and a navy HHFD T-shirt.

  “Can’t you just do it? I promise I won’t tell.”

  Sam was a sweet kid, and Marco would love to help her, but he wouldn’t be doing her any favors if he did. This was her third year at camp, and there was nothing she wanted more than to be a firefighter. Only Marco was afraid she wanted it more for her father than she did for herself. Her dad used to be with HHFD until he was sidelined by an injury. Her brother was a probie—a recruit.

  Marco’s answer was to help her out of the pack. He laid it on the grass. “Okay, now don’t rush. Take it one step at a time.”

  She looked to where family and friends had begun to gather for today’s demonstration. The event was well attended by the HHFD, who were all supportive of the program. Two of their recent hires had graduated from Camp FFIT two years before.

  “You know what, I can’t do this today. I just got my”—she lowered her voice—“period, and my cramps are really bad.”

  He’d been wondering what her excuse would be this year. Last year she’d pretended to sprain her ankle. The year before that she supposedly had heatstroke. Looked like she was pulling out the big one this year. Because everyone knew the last thing a man wanted to talk about was periods. She had no idea that growing up with Rosa had ensured Marco could handle just about anything a woman threw at him without making him blush, stammer, or give in.

  “Lisa can help you out with that. She’s always got extra pads and Midol. You’ll be fine, kiddo. You’ve been practicing all week.”

  “Yeah, but not in front of my family,” she said glumly.

  He was surprised they still came. “Look, it’s nice that your family wants to support you, but”—she interrupted him with a snort—“this is really just an exercise for you to see how much you’ve learned and how much you’ve improved over last year. Forget about competing with anyone else but yourself. You…Oof.” Marco was tackled from behind. He glanced over his shoulder to see who’d taken him down. Penelope Gallagher’s twins.

  He lay there for a second in the grass, trying to catch his breath. He almost lost it again when a pair of long, lean golden-brown legs showed up in his peripheral vision and the owner of the sexy legs laughed. He pushed himself to his knees, the boys still attached to his back, and turned his head to look up at Theia. “As a former fighter pilot, I’d have thought you’d have better control of your charges.”

  “I might if they were mine. Terror one, terror two, get off the man,” she ordered.

  Marco laughed. “Their mother and great-grandmother can’t be around if you’re calling—”

  “Weston, William, you apologize to Mr. DiRossi right this minute.” Penelope Gallagher hurried over, wearing a long blue skirt and a white T-shirt. She was a beautiful woman, and Marco wasn’t at all surprised to see her arrival had caused a stir among the single members of HHFD, who were now looking their way.

  “Call me Marco, and don’t worry about it. I’m good. They were just happy to see me, weren’t you, guys?”

  “Yeah,” the twins yelled, and then threw themselves at his legs.

  “William, Weston, you let Mr.…Marco go. He’s busy.” She gave him an apologetic smile and nodded at the attractive older woman making her way across the training field. “I’m sorry. My grandmother insisted we come.”

  “You gotta watch those grandmas,” Theia murmured, giving him a pointed look.

  His smile faltered. She couldn’t be insinuating that Kitty Gallagher was trying to set him up with Penelope, could she? He angled his body toward Theia and pointed at himself, then widened his eyes. She smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. The overtly feminine action seemed so out of character that he almost laughed. He might have if he hadn’t begun to think about the consequences of dueling matchmaking grandmothers.

  Kitty apparently wanted him to date Penelope, and there was no doubt Rosa wanted him to date Daphne. All Marco wanted was to keep the peace. Rosa and Kitty had been best friends since grade school, and the last thing he wanted was to be responsible for their falling out.

  He hadn’t even factored in his best friend’s feelings. But what if he unintentionally hurt Liam’s cousins? His best friend was a protective guy. They were closer than brothers. Nothing had ever come between them. He prayed Theia had misread the situation.

  As proven by the first words out of Kitty’s mouth when she reached them, his prayer went unanswered. “Marco DiRossi, why you’re not married with babies of your own, I’ll never know. You’re all the boys talk about.” She nudged her granddaughter with a twinkle in her blue eyes. “It’s a good thing for you he isn’t spoken for, Penelope.”

  His jaw dropped. Kitty couldn’t be more blatant about her intentions. He was in big trouble. He shot a help me out look at Theia.

  She laughed. Then obviously taking pity on him, or maybe on Sam, who was standing forlornly nearby, she turned to the teenager and stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Theia. You’re taking part in the demonstration today?”

  “Sam,” she introduced herself, while casting a hopeful glance at Marco. “I’m not sure if I am. I’m kind of under the weather.”

  Theia looked from Marco to Sam. “It doesn’t matter. You have to do it. You have to push through. Trust me, you’ll regret it if you don’t. What you’re doing here is amazing. You girls are the bomb.”

  “Really? You think so?”

  “Ah, yeah, we need more young women like you. It’s the twenty-first century, and the percentage of women in law enforcement, the military, and fire services is still depressingly low. You guys are trailblazers.”

  “My dad and brother don’t think so. They don’t think women belong in any of those professions.” She glanced to the chairs slowly filling up with family and friends.

  Okay. This was news to Marco. All along he’d thought Sam was trying to make her family proud. Instead, she was trying to prove them wrong.

  Sam turned back to Theia. “The lieutenant said you’re a fighter pilot. Is that true?”

  “I was.” A shadow crossed Theia’s face, but she erased it with a smile. The smile was forced, and he wondered why. “My uncle and cousins felt the same as your dad and brother, and I proved them wrong. You will too.”

  “I’m not that good.”

  “Doesn’t matter. If you want it bad enough, you’ll work at it. You’ll become good, and then you’ll keep working and you’ll become better, until you become the best.”

  “Were you the best?”

  Theia looked like she’d taken a physical blow. Something had happened to her, and whatever it was, it had been bad. “I thought…” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her shorts, then looked at Sam and slowly nodded. “I was. For a time, I was the very best I could be.”r />
  “Hurry up, Sam! We’re starting in five minutes.” A group of teenagers in bunker gear waved her over. They were a good bunch of girls. Always cheering one another on no matter what.

  Marco put on Sam’s pack and tightened the straps. He gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “Good luck, kiddo.”

  “Just give it all you’ve got, Sam.”

  “I will. I’ll do it. I’ll show my dad and brother.”

  “Don’t worry about them. You do it for you. Make yourself proud.” Theia held up a fist. “Girl power.”

  “Thanks.” Sam smiled and gave Theia a quick hug before running off pumping her fist and yelling, “Girl power!”

  “I can’t believe it. She’s actually going to do it,” Marco said as he watched Sam join the other girls. He turned to explain to Theia what a big deal it was, but she was already striding across the field. While Theia had been giving Sam a pep talk, the twins had taken off, and both their great-grandmother and mother were chasing them down. A couple of firefighters had joined in, probably to get in Penelope’s good graces.

  Looking like a drill sergeant with her mirrored shades now covering her eyes, her wide-legged stance, and her poker-straight back, Theia put her fingers between her lips and whistled. It was loud enough that people on the other side of the field turned their way.

  She raised her hand. “T1, T2, get your baby butts over here now.”

  The firefighters who’d been chasing the twins stopped and turned to stare. He knew exactly how they felt. Penelope might be a yummy mommy and Daphne supermodel hot, but they had nothing on Theia and her voice.

  The twins circled their mother and great-grandmother and headed back the drill sergeant’s way. “Drop and give me ten,” she said when they reached her.

  Marco laughed when the two little boys dropped to the ground, counting their push-ups along with her. “Theia Lawson, you’re the bomb,” he murmured.

  But not low enough apparently because she looked over her shoulder and said, “You’re not so bad yourself, DiRossi. And I’m sorry I called you a sexist. You’re absolutely not.”

  And the way she said it made him think that was a pretty big deal in her book. He suspected it had something to do with her uncle and cousins. That was a story he wanted to hear. Just like he wanted to know what had put the haunted look in her eyes.

  “She was a fighter pilot, you know,” Kitty was saying to the two firefighters walking at her side. “Theia darling, come and meet these lovely men.”

  Theia looked over her shoulder and gave Marco a what the hell look. He sympathized and would very much have liked to help her out, but Kitty wasn’t finished with him.

  “Marco, be a dear and help Penelope get the boys settled in the chairs for the demonstration. Not in the front though.”

  “In the fire engine! In the fire engine!”

  “Theia, darling, you can sit with me. You’re welcome to join us, boys,” she told the two men.

  Marco sat in a chair three rows from the front, his gaze going to the back row every few minutes. He was too distracted to enjoy the demonstration as much as he usually did. Surprisingly, Penelope’s sons weren’t responsible for his distraction. The twins remained glued to their seats throughout the simulated car and kitchen fires and the aerial ladder climb competition, clearly fascinated by fire. Something their therapist mother might want to keep an eye on.

  Marco wasn’t distracted by Penelope either, which his sister would find amusing because the twins’ mother looked a lot like Callie.

  No, the person responsible for Marco’s distraction was none other than Theia Lawson. Theia and her voice. She kept calling to the girls, cheering them on throughout the entire event. He wasn’t the only one distracted by her. Several of the single guys at HHFD were eyeing her with interest, which he found distracting too.

  As the siren went off, declaring the competition over, Sam and the girls whooped and began peeling off their equipment before running toward him. He stood with a smile. Everyone knew he was their favorite instructor, and they were good for his ego. “Ladies, you were—” He frowned as they ran past him.

  “Theia! Come meet my friends,” Sam called out.

  Well, that put him in his place, he thought with a laugh. His laughter faded when Sam’s father and brother joined the group of girls crowding around Theia.

  “Are you okay here on your own with the boys, Penelope? I have to take care of something,” he said, keeping Theia in his line of sight. He couldn’t make out the conversation, but words were definitely being exchanged as Theia pushed her mirrored shades on top of her head to stare down Sam’s dad.

  “Is everything all right?” Penelope asked, craning her neck to see past the people standing behind her.

  “I’m sure it’ll be—” He was about to assure her that it would fine when one of the guys from HHFD signaled for him. By the time Marco made his way to where they were standing, the gauntlet had been thrown down. He had no doubt Theia would pick it up.

  “You think women can do anything a man can do, prove it,” Sam’s father said, clapping his six-foot-three son on his broad-shouldered back. “Eric will take you on.”

  “You bet I will.” The twenty-year-old laughed, gesturing to the five-story tower. “We’ll have our own version of Firefighters Combat Challenge.”

  “Tell me when, and I’ll be there,” Theia said, because she clearly didn’t have a clue what the challenge entailed.

  “Theia, the combat—”

  Eric cut Marco off with a cocky “Here and now works for me.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this,” she said.

  Marco took Theia by the arm, pulling her out of earshot. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. You’ll be wearing a hundred pounds of equipment while you drag a hose five stories, and then you have to carry a hundred-and-seventy-five-pound dummy all the way back down. It’s a grueling challenge.”

  She looked over at the tower and then glanced at the girls. She lifted a shoulder. “I can’t back down now.”

  “Of course you can.” He turned to tell Sam’s dad the challenge was off.

  Theia grabbed his arm. “No, I can’t. Sam, girls, come help me get ready. You can give me tips while you do.”

  The teenagers cheered, shrieking “Girl power” with delight while Sam’s dad rolled his eyes.

  Marco walked over to him as the girls led Theia away. “You wanna explain something to me?”

  “Don’t give me grief. She accepted the challenge. I didn’t twist her arm.”

  “She’s a vet. A former navy fighter pilot. So I have no doubt she can hold her own.” Though he was worried she’d kill herself trying. “But that’s not what I wanted you to explain to me. You love your daughter, don’t you?”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I do.”

  “Okay. Then maybe you want to tell me why you make her feel like she hasn’t got what it takes to do this.”

  “I’m her father. It’s my job to protect her. Before you judge me, wait until you have a daughter of your own, DiRossi. See how you feel having your heart walking outside your body. I have a hard time letting her leave for school every morning, let alone fighting a house fire. I promised her mama I’d look after her, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”

  Marco briefly closed his eyes. Sam’s mom had died of an aneurysm four years before. He reached over to give the big man’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Sam’s a great kid. You should be proud of her.”

  “I am.”

  “Let her know that, okay?” He went to walk away but then turned back. “And when Theia beats Eric in the challenge, make sure you tell him you’re proud of him too.”

  Sam’s dad guffawed. “Put your money where your mouth is, DiRossi. A hundred bucks.”

  “You’re on.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the horn went off, and the two competitors took off up the stairs pulling their hoses. Eric left Theia in the dust. There hadn’t been enough
time for her to practice moving in the equipment or dragging the hose. She was having to figure it out as she went.

  By the time Eric hit the third story, Theia had barely cleared the first. She caught a lucky break when the kid’s foot got tangled in the hose. When he reached the fifth story, Theia was only ten steps behind him.

  The crowd, who’d mostly been holding their breath until then, began to cheer. Once Eric got to the top, it appeared he was having trouble with the dummy. It kept sliding off his shoulder. Theia, on the other hand, got the victim over her shoulder in one smooth move. Then her knees buckled under the weight. She glanced at Eric, who was less than a story ahead of her now.

  With the win in her sights, she quickened her pace, pushing hard. As though feeling her coming on, Eric pushed harder. The crowd went wild as Theia closed the distance between them and then moved ahead of Eric with only one flight of stairs to go. But Marco could see that she didn’t have anything left. With a sudden burst of speed, Eric shot past her on the last four steps to win.

  Marco ran across the blacktop, catching Theia before she collapsed. He lowered her to the ground and then quickly got off her breathing apparatus and helmet. She was red-faced and sweating, her hair plastered to her head. “I think I’m going to die.”

  “Back up and give her some space,” he told the crowd as he continued stripping off her gear.

  Sam’s dad leaned over and tucked a hundred-dollar bill in the pocket of Marco’s T-shirt. “Put it toward Camp FFIT.”

  “You bet against me?” Theia wheezed.

  “Never.” Marco smiled and then went to help her to her feet. “Let’s get you rehydrated.”

  She ignored his hand to stretch out on the blacktop. “Just pour it in.” She opened her mouth.

  Once she’d recovered enough to greet her fans, Theia was swarmed. Not just by the campers but by their families too, including Sam’s father and brother. Several members of HHFD also joined the crowd.

  Kitty stood nearby with a smile on her face, clearly pleased with the attention Theia was receiving from the single members of HHFD. No doubt calculating how many dates would come Theia’s way today. Marco didn’t have time to wonder why that ticked him off because Kitty then turned her matchmaking sights on him.