by A. L. Cook
To clapping and more catcalling, Erin walked to the stage, her eyes fixed on Cam who had a beaming smile across his face. She was about to step up to meet him when she heard a voice by her side.
“Hope that was money well spent,” Ebony hissed at her.
Not even bothering to stop, Erin flashed her a grin. “I can tell you from experience that he’s worth every penny,” she shot back, taking Cam’s hand as he pulled her up to stand next to him and leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek.
“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear as he pulled back.
“Boy, do you owe me,” she smiled back, before they stepped off the stage and made their way back to where Erin had left Shelley.
The younger woman squealed and threw her arms around them in a three-way hug. “That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen!” she exclaimed. “I held my breath so long I thought I was going to pass out!”
“You and me both,” Cam told her conspiratorially.
“Oh hush,” Erin laughed. “It’s Mike’s turn now.” She allowed Cam to wrap an arm around her and pull her in close to his side, the familiar scent of him enveloping her and making her heart stutter in her chest.
“Last on today’s docket,” David called, “is Lieutenant Michael Davis. Mike has been with the station for five years, and has just one year left to go on his double degrees in Paramedical Care and Fire Protection Engineering. He likes hiking, swimming, and is interested in one day qualifying as a smokejumper. May I have a bid to start?”
“Fifty dollars!” came the call.
“Seventy five!”
“One hundred!”
Shelley had gone pale. “I’m never going to be able to win this, I only have a couple of hundred saved,” she murmured to Erin.
The bidding went to three hundred dollars before starting to slow, so Shelley went all in.
“Three hundred fifty,” she called.
“Three sixty,” came the return.
“I’m out,” Shelley said dejectedly. “I’m pretty sure those girls are pooling their money. I can’t compete with that.”
“If they can do it, so can we,” Erin replied. “Make the bid.”
“What?” Shelley asked.
“Three seventy-five,” Erin called, watching the group of younger bidders huddle. “I’ll give it to you,” she told Shelley with a grin. “Keep bidding until you win!”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” Shelley told her, even as the other girls bid three eighty. “Three ninety!” she shouted, before looking at Erin with slightly wild eyes.
Erin laughed. “That’s it, keep going!”
“Four hundred,” the group bid.
“Four ten.”
“Four twenty.”
“Thirty.”
“Thirty five.”
“They’re getting desperate; give them four fifty,” Erin whispered.
“Four fifty!” Shelley called hopefully. There was no rejoinder from the other group, and David looked at Shelley.
“We have a bid of four hundred and fifty dollars, do I have any other offers?” There was a dejected head shake from the other competitors, so David lifted his rolled events program and slapped it into his other hand before pointing it at Shelley. “Sold,” he announced, “for four hundred and fifty dollars!”
Shelley didn’t need to be told; she bounded up to the stage and planted an exuberant kiss right onto Mikey’s mouth, leaving him looking slightly stunned but very pleased, before she grabbed his hand and dragged him back to where Erin and Cam stood. The two women laughed and shared an enthusiastic hug while Cam shook Mikey’s hand and Rufus, back onstage, concluded the auction and thanked everyone for coming out.
“Good work, Mike!” he chuckled.
“Thanks,” Mikey smiled, shooting a nervous glance at Shelley, who looked as pleased as punch.
“Shall we go find David and pay?” Erin asked, gesturing to the stage where the crowd was starting to disperse.
“Sure,” Shelley agreed, her smile widening even more when Mikey took her hand as they walked along.
Cam nudged Erin when he saw it, grinning. “So,” he asked as they waited in line behind the other winners, “where do you want to go on our date?”
“Actually,” Erin told him, “I do have an idea. I want to go fishing.”
“Really?” Cam asked, his eyes lighting up.
“I used to go all the time when I was younger, and I’ve been in Alaska for over six months now and have never done it here. So I want to go somewhere we can do that.”
“Done,” he told her eagerly. “This is going to be great!”
They stepped up to the table by the stage where Rufus and David were accepting the winning bids. Erin pulled a wad of cash from her pocket and counted out $1450, explaining that it was for her win, and Shelley’s as well. When Shelley went to pull her own purse out to pay Erin, she smiled and shook her head.
“I had $1500 ready to spend on Cameron, so I’m happy to share it,” she told the younger woman. “Keep your money and spend it on doing something nice for your date.”
Shelley hugged Erin again and Mikey gave her a shy smile.
Cam cast her a look of mock-outrage. “Only $1500?” he asked, joking. “What if Ebony had had more than that?”
Erin smiled sweetly at him. “Then my guess is that your date wouldn’t have involved fishing.”
“Lucky for me then, I suppose,” Cam snorted. “But seriously,” he told her, “thank you. I’m really looking forward to our date and spending that time with you.”
And in that moment, Erin felt the last of her resolve crumble away. She wanted what Cam was offering her, wholly and completely. And it had come time to let herself have it. To let go of everything that had been holding her back, and hope for the best.
Because hope was what had disappeared from her life when Daniel had died. Now she just had to summon the nerve to let Cameron know that she was ready to let it back in.
*
The flames were a shockingly bright counterpoint to the black heaviness of the night. All the light rain did was hurl ash back to the ground, making a slushy black mess where it mixed on the ground. The flashing lights of the emergency response vehicles bounced off every light-coloured surface, adding another level of unreality to the situation.
Cam was exhausted, his entire body aching. They’d been trying to get a house fire under control for hours, while at the same time trying to make sure it didn’t spread to the forest that began at the back of the yard. Spending such a prolonged period of time working with adrenaline singing in his veins and a hyper acute focus meant the crash was coming, but he knew he could put it off for a while longer, so long as he kept moving.
He circled around the back of the house, checking that there were no more flare ups and that there had been no secondary fires started in the yard, the forest, the houses next door or anywhere near power lines. As he surveyed the extent of the damage, he shook his head. The family that lived here had been lucky that they weren’t at home. From what his crew could tell already, the fire had started from the basement and had grown so fast that by the time the call had come in, the supports on the first floor had burned and the majority of the house had collapsed into the basement. It had essentially been a giant fire pit, and the profusion of sparks it sent into the sky was potentially very dangerous.
Then the rain had started again in earnest, making a stained, ashy mess of everything, but helping somewhat to suppress the airborne sparks. Now, several hours since they had arrived on scene, the fire was pretty much under control. Cameron walked back to the street where his crew were set up, pulling his helmet and mask off but leaving his hood on as he grabbed a water bottle from the cooler that had been set up especially for that purpose.
“All clear out the back, Chief,” he told Rufus when he had finished taking a long drink, the older man standing by the engine with a fold out drawer filled with power, gas and water schematics, several walkie-talkies, and mobile ph
ones. “No secondary fires in the trees, and the neighbouring houses are fine. You should be able to make the call to the power company to get someone out here to check the lines whenever they’re ready.”
Rufus nodded, his face lined and sooty beneath his own helmet. “I am not looking forward to making this call,” he sighed tiredly. “Right before Christmas? That’s some damnably bad luck.”
Cam nodded his agreement. “I’m just glad they’re away for the holidays,” he said. One of the neighbours had assured the crew that there was no one inside the house when they had arrived on-scene, which had made their job a whole lot easier. “I’m going to give it another half hour to have the whole thing locked down, and then I’m going to call everyone in and switch teams,” Cam told Rufus.
“Agreed,” Rufus said. “By the time you lot get back to the station, get cleaned up and fill out your reports, you’ll probably get to bed on time anyway.”
“That’s the plan.” Cam watched as some of the framework of the house collapsed, tiny sparks swirling out like fireflies. Despite his fatigue, he was looking forward to seeing Erin. She was so good for him, they were so good for each other, and he hoped his plan to convince her by showing her how good they could be together was working.
There was a little under a week until Christmas, and he was still waiting to see if she was coming home with him for the holiday. So were his mother and sisters, judging by the texts he’d been getting since he’d told his mother he wanted to invite someone.
He smiled. They would love Erin. Her wit, her intelligence, and her quiet thoughtfulness were all qualities he loved about her, and he thought his family would too. And if he were being completely honest with himself, he wanted her to fall a little in love with his family, too, to allow them to envelop her and give her whatever it was she was missing in her life. It would be one more link in the chain of their connection, and hopefully it would be an extra inducement for her to stay, to allow him to love her the way he wanted to show her he already did.
Shifting his attention back to the smouldering ruin in front of him, Cam surveyed his men. They were a good team, and they had worked well tonight. He checked the time on one of Rufus’ phones, before using it to call the station and request relief. They promised to be there in under a half an hour, and Cam relayed that information via the helmet mics, using it as an opportunity to have everyone check in.
The personal safety devices attached to everyone’s air supply gear were a fantastic failsafe, but there was no substitute for physically accounting for his team. They all called back in, weary but safe, and Cam began making preparations for their pack up and return to the station for the end of their shift.
Before too long the A-shift arrived, getting quickly briefed and assuming the duties Cam and his team had held all night. The firefighters being relieved all stowed their gear and climbed wearily into the engine, Cam at the wheel. He headed back to the station, reversing carefully into the engine bay when they arrived and making sure all the instrumentation was turned off before leaving the cab.
“All right,” he told his crew, all of them removing their helmet and boots, “It’s four a.m. Get cleaned up, get your SCBA refilled, check your gear, write up your reports and by the time you’re done, it’ll be time to get some sleep. We’ll wash the engine when we’re all well-rested.”
As the team dispersed to their various duties, Cam headed to the showers. He stripped off his turnout gear, the protective outer layer of his uniform, and dumped it in the big trolley, making a mental note to throw it all into the Quantum, a massive 165 pound-capacity washing machine, designed specifically for cleaning turnout gear. He then took off his lighter underclothing and left it in a tidy pile outside his shower.
Turning the water on, making sure it was good and hot, Cam stepped under the stream and let the water sluice over his head, soothing the weary ache in his muscles. He was definitely feeling the long shifts more and more these days, he thought to himself, soaping up a shower puff and scrubbing off the sweat that had been trapped inside his turnout gear.
He rinsed off and shampooed his hair, scrubbing until he felt clean again. Once done, he reluctantly turned off the water and towelled himself dry, before wrapping the towel around his waist, getting changed into a clean set of clothing from his locker before carrying his clothes into the laundry and tossing them into the communal washing basket. As he moved through the living area of the station, the unmistakeable smell of frying bacon hit his nose, and he was glad someone had the foresight to get breakfast ready.
He re-entered the engine bay to do his daily equipment check which involved cleaning his helmet and boots, checking the straps, clips and connections on all his gear, and refilling his SCBA tanks. Once done, he made his way back inside to grab something to eat and pulled up in surprise to see Erin standing at one of the industrial stoves, scrambling eggs as she talked and laughed with the base crew from A-shift who had been left behind to keep the station manned.
“Good morning,” he said as he entered the kitchen. “This all smells amazing.”
“Hey, Cam,” she smiled as she turned to him. “I heard about the fire on the news and figured you guys might need a feed before you get some sleep.”
“That’s really great of you,” he told her. “Totally unnecessary, but I’m not about to say no to bacon.”
“It’s no big deal,” she told him with another smile. “Why don’t you grab some juice and the coffee pot and take them into the dining room? Andy, Jake and I will bring the food in a moment.”
Cam complied, joining the rest of his crew at the long dining table. The room was filled with laughter and boisterous conversation, and he knew it was the last wind before they all crashed out. He took a seat towards the end of the table, where there was a free seat next to him for Erin, and cheered with the rest of his team as she, Andrew and Jake emerged from the kitchen carrying huge trays of food.
There was crispy bacon, soft scrambled eggs, piles of buttered toast, garlic-sautéed mushrooms, chargrilled tomatoes, hash browns, sausages, fried ham and a big pot of honeyed porridge. The firefighters dug in with gusto, loading up their plates and bowls, and passing dishes back and forth. For a while the only sounds in the room were those of eating, drinking, and murmurs of appreciation for the hearty meal.
Erin had filled a plate of her own and a small bowl of oatmeal, and Cam smiled at her as her knee nudged against his beneath the table. Her eyes smiled at him over the rim of her mug, and his chest tightened. He could so easily picture spending every morning with her like this, eating breakfast together, starting their day with affection and intimacy.
His heart was in his throat and the words were right there, right on the tip of his tongue to tell her how much she meant to him, how much he had come to love her, but he held back. It was neither the time nor the place, and he knew that no matter how much she seemed to be coming around to the idea of a real relationship with him, she was still uncertain enough that declaring his feelings for her now was not going to end well. So he bit his tongue, his stomach flipping with his desire for her, and ate some more of his breakfast instead.
When conversation resumed, it was light and meandering. No one wanted to discuss the fire after having attended it all night, and Cam turned to Erin, who had been quietly observing the team seated around the table.
“The food is wonderful, Erin,” he told her. “Thank you for coming down here to cook for us.”
Erin smiled. “You’re welcome,” she told him. “There’s also a plate wrapped up in the fridge for Rufus, when he gets back.”
“He’ll be thrilled,” Cam smiled. He ate the last of his bacon, finished his coffee and pushed his plate away. “I’ve missed you the last few days,” he told her. “All the overtime has been a bit of a bitch.”
“I’m used to it,” Erin replied carelessly, holding out her cup for Andrew to pour her some more coffee and Cam frowned. There was another of those throwaway comments that he suspected had a whole lo
t of history behind it, and it was killing him not to ask. “But I’ve missed you too,” she told him, bumping his knee with hers again. She finished her own coffee and stood, beginning to collect empty dishes to take back to the kitchen.
“Leave all that,” Ben Donald, the station’s fire mechanic, told her. “You cooked, so we’ll clean.”
“Nonsense,” she waved him away. “You all spent the night working. It’ll take me two minutes to load the dishwasher and get everything squared away. Don’t rush,” she added, resting a hand on his shoulder as she passed him on her way to the kitchen.
Cam got to his feet and collected some more of the dishes, following her. He rinsed everything in the sink before passing it to Erin to stack in the dishwasher, and wiped down the counters as she put all the prep items away. When she was done, she turned to him and allowed him to crowd her against the fridge, lifting her face to his to share a slow, sensual kiss.