TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1)

by Kallypso Masters

  “Good thing you guys are used to training without reimbursement.”

  He snorted. “Yeah. But making that financial commitment will show me who wants this badly enough to give up their time and money to be a part of it.”

  Tony’s passion and dedication were obvious, but without equipment and a boat of some type, the dive team wouldn’t get off the ground.

  Maybe she could help in that regard.

  “I guess most of your diving time will be connected to the team.” She’d hoped they’d be able to dive together at least once before the weather turned.

  “Yeah, I’ve already booked the dive instructor through October. Then we’ll play it by ear.”

  She’d known finding time together would be difficult given their jobs and geographic distance. He hadn’t invited her to his apartment yet, but maybe she could go to Aspen Corners over the coming months, whenever she could get away. He shouldn’t always be the one to travel to her place.

  Finding time to dive with Tony might be impossible unless they ran off to the islands again, but it didn’t sound like Tony would have the time for that. Besides, with the upcoming ski season, that wouldn’t happen for her before spring. While happy he’d found something to be passionate about, she couldn’t hide her disappointment.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Observant man. “Sounds like we aren’t going to see much of each other for a while.”

  Tony leaned in and gave her a kiss. “We’ll figure something out. It’s been torture being apart the last ten days.”

  His words gave her hope—and an idea. “If you need another experienced diver to help train the newer ones in their basic skills, just let me know.”

  Tony’s eyes opened wide. “You’d do that?”

  That he hadn’t shot down the idea surprised her a little. She wasn’t exactly one of the professionals, although she certainly had more than the basic skill set down pat. “Things won’t get busy until Thanksgiving weekend, but I’d be happy to help you in September and October.”

  “Carm, that’s a fantastic idea.” Tony kissed her again, this time on the cheek. “Having someone else to help demonstrate the basic dive skills would help us move forward faster, that’s for sure. The dive shop is already giving us a small discount and some of their employees are volunteering too, but this is a monumental undertaking.”

  Carm beamed. “Awesome. I’ll do whatever I can to help. I’m so happy things are moving forward so smoothly, Tony.”

  Cold water engulfed him. Tony swam as hard as he could, but the woman and toddler were swept farther and farther away.

  Harder! Swim harder!

  His muscles started to seize, despite the dry suit he wore for protection against the cold waters. Helplessly, he decided to abandon the pursuit and grabbed onto the safety line.

  Tony’s eyes opened. His heart raced at a thundering speed. The images of the nightmare still fresh in his mind, it took him a few moments to remember where he was.

  Carm’s condo.

  He turned to find her still curled on her side and fast asleep beside him. Thank God he hadn’t woken her. His watch showed 4:39. She had a meeting with her brother first thing in the morning. Tony would hate to be the cause of her losing sleep.

  What had triggered a nightmare? He hated the randomness of it. The thought of him having these unpredictable nightmares on a regular basis made him question whether he wanted to put Carmella through that. He’d been lucky this time that he hadn’t disturbed her sleep, but what about the next one?

  Not wanting to risk falling asleep again, Tony eased himself out of bed and headed to the bathroom where he relieved himself. He wiped the sweat from his face and neck and stared into the mirror.

  You look like hell.

  When he returned to the bedroom, he found Carm still fast asleep. He only had two more hours before he’d have to leave anyway, because he had diver training lined up late morning. Tony decided to hit the road now, rather than wait for her to wake up. They wouldn’t really have time to have breakfast together anyway, from what he surmised about her meeting with Sandro.

  He quietly gathered up his clothes to dress in the other room. He didn’t see a pad of paper or pen to leave a note anywhere, so he’d just text her shortly after seven-thirty. He watched her sleeping peacefully for a few minutes.

  Pleasant dreams, dolcezza.

  He left the room, dressed quickly, and slipped out of the condo. If he planned to do this much more often, he’d need to see about getting a key so he could lock her deadbolt behind him, but she’d be up in a few hours anyway.

  At 8:30 a.m., Carm sat in Sandro’s office for their breakfast meeting. She’d hoped to have breakfast with Tony, but when she woke up, he’d already left. No note or text saying why he’d left without saying goodbye, either.

  Carm tried not to allow herself to feel hurt, but it was hard not to. Tony hadn’t come to see her only to have a booty call. Heck, she’d been the one to initiate sex upon his arrival. Then why had he come?

  And why did he leave so early? He didn’t have to go back to work for two more days. Had there been a SAR call she hadn’t heard come in? He had mentioned that he’d need to be on the road before she left for work in order to get ready for the day’s diving sessions. But when she woke up, with plenty of time to spare, Tony was nowhere to be found, nor was there any note saying goodbye. They hadn’t really made any plans to get together again, either, although she hoped to get to join him in some dives in the coming months.

  Carm refused to text him and sound pitifully needy, though. The two of them weren’t in any committed relationship. He didn’t owe her any excuses or explanations.

  Still, when she met with Sandro, she intended to go through with the idea she’d come up with on the hike yesterday. Even if she wasn’t completely honest with her brother about why she was doing it.

  “We need to do this for Marc’s station, Sandro.” Carm leaned over his desk, punctuating her words with the remaining half of her bagel. “I can’t believe how much money firefighters shell out of their own pocket to pay for training. And having their own dive team in Aspen Corners would benefit the entire county. If we can prevent his station from losing one more person in a drowning accident, it would be so worth it.”

  “You don’t have to sell me on the idea, Sis, but ski season will be ramping up in a little more than two months. You’re going to have to work fast to get this done before then.” Sandro took a sip of his coffee. “I have a number of trade shows coming up but will do what I can to assist your efforts.”

  Carm beamed. “I knew you’d agree to help. I’d like to try and keep this as a surprise for…Marc”—she’d almost said Tony. “I’ll call in a few favors from local businesses here rather than tip anyone in Aspen Corners off.”

  “You’ll need the department’s permission to hold a fundraiser for them.”

  True. Tony had mentioned a deputy chief would be involved. She’d see if she could obtain his permission for the fundraiser without giving anything away to Tony and his brothers. She wasn’t sure why she wanted this to be a surprise, but she did.

  “I’ll check with the fire chief.”

  Sandro shook his head with a smile. “I don’t know why you thought you needed my permission to do a charity event at the resort. You do them several times a year.”

  “Well, as you said, there isn’t much time. We’ll need all hands on deck if we’re going to raise enough money to fund the dive team’s training and initial equipment purchases within a single event. I also plan to invite Nick to make a second trip out here this year. Even if he doesn’t attend, I’m sure he’ll make a healthy donation.”

  “If I know you, Sis, you’re going to have enough to fund more than a dive team when all is said and done.”

  “I hope so! Tony mentioned training for swift-water rescue and something called a water-rescue squad, which seems to be a team that oversees all types of water rescue.”

  Crap. She’s said Tony,
not Marc. She didn’t want Sandro to know she was seeing Tony yet.

  His eyes narrowed. “Have you been seeing Tony Giardano?”

  “Seeing? Not sure what you consider seeing. We did spend a lot of time together over the summer planning Angelina’s party.” Of course, they hadn’t talked about a dive team until they’d spent time in the Caribbean together. Still, she hadn’t lied to her brother.

  Before he could ask any more questions, she stood, wadded up her buttery wrapper, and crammed it into her paper cup. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do!”

  “Do you have a date set?”

  “I’m thinking the second Saturday of November would work with our schedules. It’s a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, so we can play up the ‘give thanks by giving back’ theme.”

  “Cutting it a little close to the ski season, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged. “It’ll be a great way to pump everyone up at the resort and bring seasonal hires up to speed. But I don’t think I could pull it off any sooner. That’s barely over two months away.”

  He grinned at her, shaking his head. “You’ll get it done.”

  She beamed back. “You know I will. I’ll get Mama and Papa involved too. I know they’ll want to donate something, given that it will benefit Marc’s station. We’re one famiglia now that he married a Giardano.” Perhaps that would further steer Sandro’s mind away from any notion that she and Tony were an item.

  “I’m sure they’d love doing something to help, because they don’t have any trips planned for a few months. Let me know what you need me to do.”

  She had no doubt he’d want to help. “Since you asked, how’d you like to play emcee for the evening? I don’t know what type of event I’m going to do yet, but am certain we’ll need someone to keep the fundraiser moving forward.”

  “I’m your man.” Sandro stood and picked up his trash then closed the gap between them and gave her a hug. “Be careful, Carm.”

  She furrowed her brows as she broke the hug and met his gaze. “Careful?”

  “If you’re interested in Tony, just be sure you know what you’re getting into. He doesn’t exactly have commitment written on his forehead.”

  Carm should have known he wouldn’t have missed her slip a few moments ago. Rather than continue to deny it, she took another tack. She wouldn’t lie to her brother.

  “I’m a big girl, Sandro. We just enjoy hiking together.” Among other things. “But even if I did get interested in him, I’d know what I’m doing. Besides, just look at Marc. We didn’t think he’d ever settle down, and look at him now.”

  The way Tony had left without a word this morning gave her no reason to think they were even remotely close to deepening their relationship to anything more than friends with benefits. She just needed to convince herself that was all Tony meant to her.

  But before Sandro could say anything else she didn’t want to hear, she crossed the room to the door. “Have a great day, Sandro!” She was on a mission and had a very short time to pull off the gala of all galas.

  However, she wasn’t able to totally push aside Sandro’s warning. Could that be why they didn’t want family to know they were dating? Were they both expecting the relationship to end any day?

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Tony couldn’t believe the response he’d gotten from his call for volunteers in the first month. Enthusiasm ran high not only in the department but in the SAR community. Everyone seemed committed to making this dream a reality, whether because of the bad call in June or they simply wanted to expand the capabilities of the department.

  Three members of the two ACFD stations had already begun certification for open water diving, mirroring the speed with which Tony had taken to the activity. They didn’t discuss whether they experienced the same psychological benefits Tony had, but he couldn’t imagine they hadn’t.

  Today, three SAR workers planned to join him and the dive instructor here at the reservoir to have their first dive in a lake. The expert from the dive shop had brought a truckload of equipment, and they’d laid it out on picnic tables near the beach, waiting for everyone to arrive.

  Thankfully, Carm would be joining him today to help out too. Having two additional certified divers on hand would also help the divemaster cover more with the three novices.

  Tony now made dives with his recruits or dive instructors almost every day he wasn’t on duty at the station. He was either teaching someone else skills, or learning and practicing new ones himself so that he could get his dive instructor certification as soon as possible. While his team would have to train year-round for Colorado’s extreme winter conditions, he wanted to get them up to speed with as many of the initial skills as possible before the onslaught of severe weather.

  Tony would eventually be able to offer lessons free of charge to his team members to help reduce out-of-pocket expenses for them. He still had a ways to go, but if he didn’t start sometime, he’d never get there.

  The downside of all this was that he hadn’t seen or even talked to Carm since they’d gone hiking almost a month ago. You bailed on her. By the time he’d realized he hadn’t texted Carm to explain his unexpected, early departure, it was the middle of the afternoon. He’d gone ahead and sent a text, of course, but he hadn’t told her about the nightmare. Tony knew he should have given her a reason. Sure, she knew he was having nightmares, but he might not be as ready as he’d thought to show any weakness around her.

  Since then, Tony had managed to text her on slow days at the station, but by the time he hit the sack most nights, he’d been too exhausted for a phone call except on a few occasions. Usually, he dropped into bed and fell asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. From now to at least the end of October, work and dive-team training would consume him. But he was okay with that exhausting schedule—for now. It felt good to be doing something proactive to make life better for residents and visitors to his county.

  He couldn’t wait to see her today. They couldn’t build on a relationship when they spent very little time with each other.

  When he heard the crunch of tires on the gravel road, he looked up and watched as Carm parked her car near the lake. His heart skipped a beat.

  Tony set down the regulator he’d been examining and made his way toward her, opening her door as she cut the ignition.

  “I’ve missed you, principessa.” Tony helped her out of the vehicle, kissed her on the lips, and gave her a long hug. It was just the two of them right now. No one to hide their affection from.

  “It’s so great to see you.” When he released her, she turned her attention to where he’d laid out cylinders, regulators, and BCDs. “I’m excited about my first cold-water dive. Tell me what you need.”

  “I need you in my bed for a few hours to give you a proper welcome to Aspen Corners.”

  She laughed. “I mean, what do you need me to help with today?” She stroked his cheek and gave him a sultry smile. “But I’m free the rest of the day and have nothing scheduled until late tomorrow morning.”

  Apparently, Carmella had missed him too. He couldn’t help being a little relieved. However, he’d never had a woman in his apartment for an overnight stay before. Was he really ready for this step?

  If not, why the hell not? The two of them were well beyond anything he’d experienced with any other woman. He loved how they could pick up where they’d left off whenever they got together. He wouldn’t be leaving this woman anytime soon.

  Maybe never.

  Wait. He wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. Was he?

  “I’ve done some swimming pool work with them before this, but this will be their first time diving in the lake.” They started over to where he had everything ready for the divers.

  “How was work? Quiet night?”

  “Very. But no complaints.”

  After he explained his plan for today’s session, and while they waited for the Dentons and Wilsons to arrive to get started, they donned thei
r thick wet suits, covering their bodies from head to toe. The water here was always frigid. While Tony was certified for a dry suit, he wanted to be able to experience what the others felt and none of them were certified yet.

  “How are things going with the dive team?”

  “It’s keeping me busy. Sorry I haven’t been able to call more often.” She waved away his apology. Relieved that was behind them, Tony gave her an update.

  “That’s wonderful! I’m so proud of you for taking this on, Tony.”

  Her words meant a lot to him. “It’s been a lifesaver for me already, that’s for sure.”

  “Before they get here, I wanted to ask a favor.”

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “I’m putting together a bachelor auction for a local charity in November and would love it if you’d be one of my bachelors.” She was auctioning off single men? When he didn’t answer right away, she added, “I promise to bid high and often for you.”

  That made the proposition sound a little more promising. “Exactly what are the winning bidders being promised from the bachelors?”

  “Well, for most of them, the privilege of having dinner with the bachelor at the gala.”

  “Most of them?”

  “Well, I’m thinking that, when I win you, I plan to eventually take you back to my condo to have my way with you.” She waggled her eyebrows and laughed. The thought of Carm taking control of their lovemaking like she had with her fireman fantasy made him hard. “All totally consensual, of course. Are you interested in participating?”

  “In which part of the evening?”

  “Both!”

  “Well, if you promise you won’t let some wealthy cougar win me, I’d be happy to help—provided I’m not working that night.”

  “Oh, I already checked. You’re off duty, but I wanted to give you enough notice not to cover anyone else’s shift that night or take on anything else.” That she kept up with Tony’s work schedule made him smile until he remembered it was the same as her brother’s.