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“I take it, we aren’t happy about him ring shopping?” I ask.
Sara-Beth composes herself and smiles. “It’s not that. I just didn’t realize he was contemplating proposing, is all.”
Erin grunts. “I’m surprised he didn’t do it a long time ago.”
“Susanna? Is that the girl who pitched a fit at your engagement party?” I ask Ansley.
She nods. “They have a volatile relationship. It’s been that way for years. Garrett keeps hoping every time she takes off, it will be the last time, but Corbin keeps letting her come back home.”
“Every time? So, it’s a regular occurrence?” I ask.
“About once a month—every time she gets a wild hair and wants to run off and party for a few days,” Jena answers.
“Now, girls, we aren’t here to gossip,” Sara-Beth chides.
“We aren’t?” Erin asks.
Sara-Beth cuts her eyes to her. “No. We’re here to talk about these two and their relationships, not Corbin and Susanna.”
“Actually, I think we’re done. That’s Graham’s truck,” Taeli says as she stands.
Leona looks down at her wrist. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it’s so late.”
“Come on, Momma. We’ll take you home,” Taeli offers.
“Maxi, do you think you can drop me, Jena, and Erin back at the office on your way home? If not, I’ll call Hilton to come fetch us,” Sara-Beth asks.
“Sure. What about you, Ansley?” I inquire.
“My apartment is just a couple of blocks away. I walked.”
My internal voice wants to panic at the thought of a woman walking home alone in the dark. It’s not something I’d have ever let happen in the city.
“I have to keep reminding myself that you people walk around town like it isn’t a big, scary world,” I muse.
Erin shrugs. “It’s okay. You’ll get used to it.”
I don’t think I ever will.
Corbin
“Rise and shine, gentlemen!” I turn the lights on and off, rousing the guys at the firehouse from their slumber.
“It’s too early,” Jay grumbles as he rolls to his side.
“It’s almost two in the afternoon. Come on, princess. You’ve had enough beauty sleep,” I say as I tug the pillow from underneath his head.
Nick, Chris, and Mike are already on their feet and making their bunks.
These guys make up my squad crew, a firefighter team that is called in during emergencies and accidents as well as fires. While we are out training, I rely on my truck crew to hold down the fort.
As chief of Valley Fire and Rescue, it is my job to keep these guys in tip-top shape. Their physical strength and endurance have to be on point to be able to fight wildfires, so I require at least an hour of training for every twenty-four-hour shift.
Training consists of mapped runs to improve cardio, weight training at the firehouse to maintain strength to carry equipment, timed drills from sleep to hoses, and climbs of local terrain.
Jay sits up and frowns at me. “Can’t we count the late-night call to the lake to rescue the abandoned swimmer as PT?”
Some teenagers were out partying on the sandbar last night and rode off in their boat without their buddy, who had passed out on the shore. When he woke up alone and scared around two in the morning, he called emergency services for help, and the squad rescued him.
