Hook & Ladder 69: Eighteen Authors...One Sexy Firehouse. Read online

  “This is Richard and little Jeremy.”

  So this was her family now. Richard looked way too old for her, but I had to admit the kid was adorable. It was finally time to accept that I’d screwed up my life when I’d let her walk and now this was the price. She was with another man and they were a family. After all these years, it was time to let her go.

  The swish of the door opening made me turn around, and a tall blond woman came bustling in. “I could only find apple juice for bubba,” she announced to anyone who was listening.

  Immediately, Jeremy’s head whipped up at the sound of her voice, and his arms stretched out towards the woman.

  “This is my wife, Roslyn,” Richard explained as Jeremy practically leapt into her arms. “She’s been on an expedition to find something for Jeremy; he gets crabby when he’s hungry, tired, or just about any other time.”

  My eyes narrowed as I tried to figure out where Maggie fit in to this family. “I nanny for the McGregors, looking after Jeremy,” Maggie explained, reading my puzzled expression.

  “Oh!” So that explained the car seat; it wasn’t for her baby, it was for Jeremy. “So you’re not married . . . or anything?”

  She smiled, lighting up the room. “No, I’m not married or anything else.”

  Again she held my gaze and again, I could have stood there, lost in those emerald pools for days.

  The silence was broken by the shuffling feet of Richard. “Well, ah, we’ll let you rest, Maggie.” He turned to me. “Thank you for saving her.”

  How did he know who I was? I was out of uniform and hadn’t told him I was at the scene of the accident.

  I pointed towards the McGregors as they left the room. “How did he know I saved you?”

  Maggie patted the side of the bed and I gladly sat down, taking her hand in mine. “It’s a funny thing when you’re unconscious,” she explained. “I was aware of everything going on around me.”

  “Oh yeah?” My face flushed as I tried to recall all the soppy things I’d told her, thinking she’d never remember.

  “Yeah, and I still love you too.”

  Chapter 9

  Rescue Me by Lia Fairchild

  I glanced at my hands once more before walking into the station house, still covered in sweat and ashy soot. The trembling in my fingers had finally stopped. It wasn’t like me to react this way, but today wasn’t like any other day.

  The crew had only ever seen the brave, “Legacy” Kate Lewis, so I hung back to pull myself together. The nickname they’d given me during training—because two of my three brothers were firefighters—went from a scarlet letter to a badge of honor I proudly wore. That didn’t mean I never felt the pressure. Frank and Joey were stationed over at house 29. Living up to their legacy and proving myself in a male dominated field was damn difficult at times, but I’d never admit that to my crew, and I never backed down from a challenge.

  A few of the guys were ignoring the chairs and sitting their dirty asses on the edge of the table tearing into whatever food they could find. After a run…after you came down from the high, an uncontrollable hunger took over and all propriety flew out the window. I attempted to glide past them unnoticed.

  “Great job out there today, Legacy,” Oz said around a mouth full.

  “Screw you, Oz.” That rookie never leaked anything out of his pie hole without an ulterior motive.

  “What the hell? I gave McKitty a compliment, too.”

  “Good for you and McKitty. Maybe you two can go have some McKittens in a box under the station.” I regretted the comment as soon as it left my mouth. McKinney had actually had my back around here when it came to dealing with cracks from the guys.

  I kept my pace and headed toward the bunkroom, avoiding the befuddled expressions I pictured on their faces. I couldn’t risk them seeing what I knew hid in my eyes. I planned on calling Candi, who was off, to talk to her about what happened today. Before I made it there, the chief stepped into the hall.

  “Lewis, hold up.”

  “Yeah, Chief?”

  He glanced around before waving me into his office. He leaned against his desk and folded his arms, giving me that look I’d seen before, like a father who shakes his head and says, “What am I going to do with you?” The exchange Oz and I had a moment ago was nothing compared to the heated stand-offs we’d had in the past, so it couldn’t have been that.

  “Just got a call from Carl Jackson.” He ran his thumb and index finger down his thick, white mustache as he gauged my response.

  Jackson was the chief at Fire House Station 29. I didn’t know him just because of my brothers. A couple of guys I did my training with were there, too. Both of our stations had been sent to a large fire at a museum. Intense would be putting it mildly. The concern on the chief’s face confused me more than caused me worry. Frank, the oldest of my brothers, had the week off, so I knew he was safe. Joey was there, but we texted “all clear” to each other as soon as we’d each had the chance. “What’s up?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” He eyed me before continuing. “Eddie Baker was taken to Barnes Hospital.”

  “Oh.” A boulder landed in the pit of my stomach. Eddie. The chief knew that Eddie and Joey had been best friends since middle school. “Is he gonna be okay?”

  “Sounds like it. He got tanked by some debris today. Your brother found him unconscious and pulled him out.”

  “Joey pulled him out?”

  “Yeah…but for some reason Eddie’s asking for you.”

  “What? Are you sure?” I glanced away, attempting to hide my unease. “Maybe they heard wrong. Got the wrong Lewis.”

  “Nope. According to Jackson, the second he opened his eyes, he said Kate about three times. When Jackson asked if he meant you, he nodded.”

  I turned to the door, ignoring his need for answers. “I should go check it out.”

  “Is there anything you need to talk about, Lewis?”

  I gave him only a glance. “Thanks, Chief…but I really have to go.”

  After a quick cleanup, I slipped out and dialed my brother Joey as I walked to my car. Straight to voicemail. Wouldn’t he have told me if something was seriously wrong with Eddie? I took a few deep breaths to calm my erratic heartbeat. This is not your fault, I told myself. Yet, my stomach continued to churn along with smoky flashes of the scene inside that museum. Eddie’s piercing, insistent eyes when he spotted me.

  Dusk settled over the freeway, turning the line of cars into a blur of lights and taking my mind back to my training. The night I almost gave into the pressure and gave up my shot.

  I’d met Frank at O’Connell’s for dinner. I knew he planned to take one last crack at getting me to quit the academy. Frank was traditional. A family man and a total male chauvinist. But behind it all, he worried about his baby sister. He didn’t want me putting my ass in danger every day. Halfway through the meal, his wife asked him to come home. My niece had an ear infection.

  Sitting alone, finishing what was left of my chicken salad, I noticed a group of fellow trainees enter the pub. They took the booth behind me but didn’t seem to notice me…or so I thought. Who the hell knew? They talked about the hot brunette with the sweet rack who was supposedly a legacy. They laughed about the time I struggled when I first felt the fifty pounds of gear weighing me down. I ran my hand through my hair as the blood in my veins boiled. Trapped in my chair listening to their egos popping off, I struggled with what to do. No longer able to contain my anger, I pushed from the booth and slammed into a wall of a man. He grabbed my arm, turning me to block the offenders’ view and my access to them.

  “You don’t want to do that,” he whispered in my ear. As he ushered me toward the door, I turned to see his face.

  “Eddie…what the hell?” I pulled my arm from his—a reflex from the days of sparring with him when he and Joey palled around. I stopped at the door. “It’s raining.”

  “It’s only a mist. Besides you need to cool off.”

&
nbsp; I let him pull me out the door in his tough guy manner, and I doubled my sweater across my chest, brooding. We walked for a few minutes without talking, only exchanging a few familiar glances.

  “I’m surprised at you, Kate.”

  I shot him a snide look.

  “Letting those assbags get in your head. You never took any shit from me.” His grin hinted at pride.

  “I know.” That was before he was six-two and two hundred pounds of solid firefighting man. That was when I could look into his eyes and not feel so weak in the knees I had to grab on to something.

  “So what’s going on?”

  “It’s this damn legacy shit. I was doing fine until that started. So now I have to contend with being a female and living up to the standards set by my brothers.”

  He stopped us and took me by the shoulders. I can’t remember the last time he’d been that close to me or exactly when his touch changed from pesky to igniting a fire in me.

  “Kate, I know you got this.” His dark eyes peering into me like that could make me believe anything. “Don’t let the doubts get to you. You’re stronger than that.”

  I sighed, wishing it were that easy. “Even Frank thinks I should quit.”

  “Frank’s always going to be protective, even if you chose to be a librarian. You need to do what makes you happy...what makes that spark in you come alive.”

  Speaking of sparks…one flickered low in my belly. I knew he was right, but I couldn’t think straight with his hands still touching me and his sweet words giving me strength.

  “And if you want it bad enough, you’ll do it, and you’ll earn the respect of every last one of those idiots.”

  I nodded and turned my eyes away, looking beyond him into the shadowy street. “I know you’re right…I just overreacted.”

  I felt his hands release me, and then his fingers touched my chin. I was sure my face flushed when I looked back at him.

  “You want me to go back and kick the shit out of a few of them?” A sexy half smile formed on his lips in such an expectant way I almost leaned in to him. Instead, I shook my head and smiled back, gaining back some control. Then I made my feet move again before I did something stupid. This big brother act of his had to be out of his friendship for Joey.

  “They were just blowing off steam…and they’re not all that bad,” I said shrugging. “Some of them are actually pretty cool.”

  Our shoulders brushed against each other as we walked to who knew where. The slow pace and the cool spring air calmed me and set my senses right again so I could think straight. Then, the moist air thickened and fell harder.

  “Dammit, Eddie.” I jabbed him in the ribs and skipped to the side under an awning.

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me around the corner and against a wall as the rain splattered inches away from us. His body pressed against mine as if shielding me from an explosion, a mass of rigid muscles I could easily get used to. I giggled and turned my face from his.

  “So which one of these guys is ‘pretty cool’?” he said softly in my ear.

  My breath caught with his unexpected question and the heat of his body pressing into me. “What?”

  “Should I be jealous?”

  The shock of his words quickly turned into a flash of heat that shot through my entire system. Over the years, Eddie and I fought, teased, and maybe even flirted a little, but this? Never this. “I…why would you even…” I couldn’t get the words out.

  “Come on, Kate.” He brushed the back of his hand down my cheek. He kept going until it landed on my collar bone, his thumb rubbing a soft line back and forth. “You know I never could stand to see you with other guys.”

  A spicy scent floated from his neck and mixed with the smell of fresh rain, intoxicating me and causing my throat to dry up. “I…” My eyes fell to his lips. I swallowed, slow and helplessly under his gaze. “I…didn’t know that…I—”

  His insistent lips nipped at mine, stopping my words. “I’m sorry I never made that clear,” he said right into my mouth, setting my already heated flesh trembling. His darkened eyes met mine for a moment before he pressed his lips to me again. His tongue swept eagerly through my parted mouth. I sighed and wrapped my arms around his neck as his flew around my waist. Relief and pure ache commingled in a kiss I didn’t know I’d been waiting years for. The rain murmured to a low hum, and nothing but the two of us existed in that moment.

  Then, our perfect symbiosis ended on a sigh and a mutual retraction.

  “Kate…”

  “Eddie…”

  His hands went from my waist to his hips as my arms slipped from around his neck.

  “Shit, you must think I’m no better than those douches back at the pub.” His head fell and shook.

  “No…of course not.”

  “This is the last thing you need now. Right in the middle of your training. God, I’m sorry.”

  “Look, you don’t have to apologize.” It was the last thing I needed, and yet it was the very thing I wanted.

  Before I could weigh my options or utter a word of objection he was throwing his coat over my shoulders and telling me goodbye. I walked back to the pub for my car, convincing myself the timing was completely off. When I graduated from the academy, I didn’t apply at Station 29.

  I pulled into the hospital parking lot on autopilot and ran to the entrance, my heart pounding for more reasons than I could comprehend. I texted Joey as I made my way through the hospital to Eddie’s room. I needed to talk to my brother before things got out of hand and people started asking questions.

  I told the nurse I was Eddie’s sister in case it was family only. At the door, I froze. What if he was asleep or unconscious? If he was awake, would he remember anything about what happened today? I never wanted to be a distraction to him. Dammit, how could this happen? It was one of the reasons I didn’t want to be at his station. Not just for me, but for him.

  Slowly, I opened the door and stepped in. I swallowed the shock of seeing him lying there, a contrasting portrayal of his strength and vigor; I willed myself to focus on the fact that he was going to be all right and not how he ended up here. His eyes were closed, and his chest rose and fell fluidly as if he were in a deep sleep.

  I went to him, yearning to see his dark eyes look into mine. I reached up and touched his head, brushing a wave of dark hair away from the bandage on his forehead. I sighed and my heart sank thinking of the look on his face when he’d seen me arrive on the scene today. I hadn’t expected to see him either. Or maybe I was just hoping I wouldn’t. That fear in his eyes was dangerous. We both knew it. But there’d been no time for either of us to ponder how it might affect our job.

  Eddie stirred at my touch but his eyes remained closed. I don’t know how long I stood there, but at some point a nurse came into the room. She said he’d probably wake in a few hours and suggested I come back. Instead, I took a seat in the chair and rested my eyes, finally feeling the exhaustion from the day set in.

  My phone buzzed me awake at some point, but before I could look at it I saw Eddie sitting up on the edge of his bed facing me. He looked like he’d just woken up on any given day. He had pants on and was just slipping his arms through a button-down shirt.

  “Are you insane?” I said, half wondering if I was dreaming.

  “Well, hello gorgeous. How’d you sleep?”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I straightened myself in the chair.

  “I’m still on duty.” He began buttoning his shirt when I popped up and stopped his hand.

  “Bullshit. You were totally out like five minutes ago.”

  “I’ve been asleep for hours.” Holding the bottom of his shirt, he gaped at me, as if he’d just realized it was me and why I was there. That dreamy look in his eyes melted my insides for about two seconds before I laid into him again.

  “Get your ass back in that bed.”

  “It was a bump on the head, Kate. I’m fine,” he said, standing up. Then he teetered and grabbed my a
rm.

  “You see. Now will you please lie down so we can talk?”

  “Oh we’re going to talk all right. Why do you think I asked for you?” He sat on the edge of the bed again. “But I’m not going to talk to you lying down like I’m helpless.”

  I gave him an Oh, my God look and sighed, but he stood his ground.

  “I’ll sit, but only if you sit next to me,” he said.

  “Fine…stubborn.” We sat so close our bodies touched, and I wished that we could do without the talking.

  “I’m stubborn? Look who’s talking. You should have cleared the hell out of there today like I told you to.” His tone held less anger and more regret. Still, my defenses took hold before I could stop my mouth.

  “Oh, so now I’m supposed to take orders from you?”

  He turned his body on the bed, took my face in his hands, completely disarming me. “Don’t you get it, Kate? We’ve been doing this dance for too long. We both know there’s something big here, and if we keep going like this one of us could get killed.”

  Hearing the desperation in his voice, knowing what happened today—my stomach ached at the implications. I didn’t know what to say or how to fix things. Every encounter we’d had since the night we kissed had been intense stares, yearning glances, and unspoken words—both too afraid to say what we felt. Afraid of what could happen if we got too close. When I didn’t answer, he spoke again.

  “I know what you’re thinking, and you’re dead wrong. What happened today…that had nothing to do with you. Shit happens when the heat turns up. We both know that.”

  I wasn’t as confident as Eddie was. “Does anyone know what happened? Did you tell anyone?”

  “Of course not. I know you well enough to keep my mouth shut. And that’s why I know you’ve been second guessing everything since the moment we saw each other today.”

  “Maybe you have too,” I said, solemnly.