Page 32 of Falling for the Hotshot

As I drove eastbound, my phone rang. It was Don.

“How was the fundraiser?” I could hear chainsaws in the background of the call. Oh, how I missed being boots on the ground.

“It was awesome. We raised a ton of money and sold an enormous amount of raffle tickets. What the heck were we raffling, by the way?” Don chuckled.

“A date with a firefighter.” My heart dropped.

“With what firefighter?”

“My boy, Blaze. The spitting image of his handsome father and the twin brother to his father, of course.”

“Don… You did not!” My mind raced around the possibility of going on a date with a stranger and then I slowed myself down. I’d literally been dreaming of going on a date with a woman whom I’d never met. Did God really have this big of a sense of humor?

“Cool your jets, son. We can always swap you out for someone else. The ladies might be disappointed, though.”

“I have an idea. How about my dear uncle be the firefighter prize?” He howled with laughter, as I saw another Maple Haven Fire District truck headed toward me going westbound.

“You know, Son, that’s an incredible idea, and a sure way that none of the ladies will be disappointed. If anything, they may be even more jealous of the winner.” As we chatted, one of the bags started to slump over. Not wanting to spill its contents into the messy floor of the truck, I leaned over and pushed the bag back up, taking my eyes off the road for just a second. When I was affixed back on the road, the truck had passed me, and in the rear-view mirror, I saw the passenger had flaming locks of fire colored hair.

“Don, where was Aut—” He cut me off.

“Blaze, I gotta go. The crew needs me. I’ll call you tonight.” He hung up the call. My mind was stuck on Autumn and if that was her or if we had another woman working with fire-colored hair.

After dropping off the food at the base, I hightailed it back to dispatch. Something was afoot. Was Autumn leaving for the season? They were headed west, from east. East was towards the base, where I sat as a dispatcher. West was the tower. Nothing was making sense.

When I made it back to the office, I jumped out of the truck, and for a moment, I forgot my leg was hurt. A pain shot down the left side of my leg, starting at my thigh, so I immediately remembered I was hurt, but then, it passed again. For good measure, I tried it once more. Any doctor in the world would have told me not to do this, but I was one of those people who, if I got a sore throat, I’d keep swallowing until it was gone. Or, if my neck was kinked, I’d force it back into alignment. I called it “rodeo medical” and so far, it had fared me somewhat, almost, sort of, decent. I couldn’t complain. However, abruptly putting pressure onto my leg again didn’t hurt as much as the first time. There was just a dull ache left.

Back at my desk, Melody had three candles set up. Two in front of her and one just for me. How sweet. It was a caramel apple fragrance, and heck, actually smelled pretty good. But after being in a sweets-focused cafe all day, it was the last thing I needed to be smelling. I blew it out and sat at my desk.

“Hey,” Melody said, standing at her keyboard, giving me a dirty look.

“Sorry, Melody. But if you spent the entire day at The Pumpkin Perk Cafe, which smells like thirty of these candles all burning together, you’d be over it too.”

“Too bad that the dessert here will go to waste then.” Melody pointed to the fridge in the break room. My curiosity spiked, as I had a feeling something was going on, and I went to the fridge to investigate.

Chapter 26

False Alarm

Autumn

I made it back into the tower in record time. Something about being left in the forest with food that could attract bears and well—I left no time for dilly-dallying. The hike was easier today than it had been the other times I’d done it, but I had a feeling I would be sore tomorrow with how much I ran to the top, plus pulling the wagon, which I had never done before. Kerry and Don had made it look so easy.

Once I was inside, I monitored the radio like it was a nuclear facility. Slowly putting away my groceries, staring at it with every turn that my body made, just to be sure that I wouldn’t miss anything. Was the volume up? Was it transmitting? Yes, it appeared that everything was in working order. Then, I remembered. I had to call Kerry.

Turning the radio to her frequency, I took a deep breath. I was feeling a lot of adrenaline ever since I went to dispatch. Ever since I almost met Blaze.

“Tower Three to Kerry,” I said. A loud crackle came back in response.

“Sorry, Autumn—I’m in my truck. You make it okay?”

“Yes, I’m back up here with my supplies of baked goods and crackers.”

“Thank heavens for that. Say, Autumn—” A short pause followed. “The fire is encroaching your territory. You will be seeing some smoke from it.” I looked up, out the windows of the tower for the first time since getting in. My mind had been too distracted over a guy before to remember—and my heart dropped. It looked apocalyptic on the horizon.

“Oh, my word. I see it.”

“I’ll be in contact if we need to evacuate you for any reason. Otherwise, just continue as you would. Okay?”