Page 1 of Courageous Yearnings

1

LANCE

“Now, wait just a minute. Why do I have to go first?” Lance blurted out, completely beside himself – especially when he was informed of who the winners were of the charity auction yesterday. Mrs. Kendall and two other women whom he didn’t know or recognize.

And they were taking photos?!

Now, he wasn’t exactly a ‘religious’ man, but the second he found out Mrs. Kendall was one of the winners – Lance hit his knees.

The team was cracking up laughing, but it wasn’t funny. That had been the scariest few moments of his life until he found out Colton was the one that had been ‘purchased’ by the old woman who had the grabbiest hands this side of the Mississippi River.

Lance could call an 800 number to talk dirty to him and come out more innocent than having listened to some of the things that old broad told him one afternoon, right after she’d mistakenly dumped water down the front of his trousers, insisting that he change – in front of her.

Yeah… no.

Hard pass.

When the chief told the team that they were doing the calendars this year for the orphanage, Lance was one of the few who thought it was a brilliant idea. Having grown up in the system, he knew what it was like and how welcomed the money would be. Maybe they could get the children new bicycles or skateboards, or perhaps instruments so they could develop some talents that would keep them out of trouble. He donated his tax refund last year to put in two basketball goals as an ‘Anonymous Benefactor.’ He didn’t want any praise or thanks. It was about paying it forward and giving to the community.

“Someone has to go first, Cortes,” the chief chuckled as the photographer walked up to him, smiling politely.

“Look, we’ll make this quick, and you don’t have to worry about a thing, okay? I just need to get a few shots in, and then most everything else can be done on the backside. I promise I won’t take up your entire day. By the way – I’m Delilah Fuller.”

“Yep,” he muttered grimly. “Nice to meet ya… and thanks. If we can move this along before I get a case of cold feet or something skitters out of those pallets stacked by the dumpster.”

Only to see the chief look down.

“What?!” Lance barked in alarm, jumping backward, and then glared at the chief. “Not funny, sir.”

“Sorry,” Reese grinned. “Just needed to distract you.”

Okay, it was funny… ish.

The big, heroic firefighter was scared of teeny, tiny rodents. So what? They were all having a good time at his expense lately, and if he caught the jerk that put the rubber mouse in his helmet— well, there would be pain inflicted upon someone.

“Well, thanks. It worked,” Lance muttered hotly and glanced over his shoulder again toward the ‘winners’. “Let’s get this started, okay?”

“Miss Monroe?” Delilah called out, waving over a woman.

He nearly groaned aloud. The woman was practically giddy with excitement, and it wasn’t hard to tell. She paid dearly for a photo with a firefighter from the ‘Flirt’s battalion’… and was expecting to be flirted with while the image was captured for all time on a pin-up calendar.

“Blythe,” Reese began smirking toward Lance before shaking the woman’s hand politely. “Thank you again for your generous donation to the orphanage. Sister Mary Hazel wanted to be here today, but she came down with the flu. I mentioned it would probably be safer for the entire town if she got plenty of rest and didn’t get half of the town’s firefighters sick.”

The woman, Blythe Monroe, was beaming and laughed softly at the corny dad joke from the chief and kept sliding a sideways glance toward him, which he was deftly avoiding.

“Cortes?”

“Yep,” he blurted out and extended his hand politely, shaking hers distractedly as he looked anywhere but at her starry gaze. “Miss Monroe, nice to meet you.”

“You as well, Mr. Cortes.”

Did she have to sound so breathless and giddy? He was just a normal guy volunteering for a very normal thing. If she won tickets to Disney World and had to run a two-mile obstacle course to get them, he could understand the breathless excitement, but this?

This was nothing.

“All right,” Delilah chimed in happily with a chipper voice. “Let’s get started, eh? This will look soooo good. I picked the side of this old building because of the brick wall. It’s a perfect backdrop to give me a little space to work some magic when I do the touch-ups.”

“Oh, mercy… thank you! I’m so glad,” Blythe said emphatically, causing him to glance toward the woman, and he did a double-take.

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