Page 1 of Sparks Fly

1

HALLIE

“I’m just saying, when you start counting, the math starts to seem a little pathetic. You want to know how many people I’ve pulled from burning buildings?”

Lieutenant Hallie Hunter is trying not to choke on her coffee through barely contained laughter. She leans against the countertop in the break room at Fire Station 3, in the bustling resort city of Mesquite, Nevada. Her colleague and friend, Arthur Byrne, seems to be struggling through a midlife crisis in his career this morning.

“Go on then, Art. How many people have you saved from burning buildings?”

“Twenty-seven. Can you believe that? Thirty-five years at the station and I’m not even averaging one a year. Now ask me how many cats I’ve saved. Go on! Ask me.”

Hallie has to reluctantly put her coffee down; the choking risk is becoming too great.

“How many cats?”

“Ninety-fucking-three. Ninety-three cats, Hallie! Stuck up trees, on roofs, under porches. I’ve been a shining knight in armor to nearly a hundred of the damned furballs. I don’t even like cats!”

Hallie’s grin is starting to make her face hurt as she chuckles again.

“Hey now, I won’t hear any cat slander in my presence, cats are the best. Call me a lesbian cliché, I don’t care.” She holds up both her hands as Art joins her in laughing warmly. “But I see your point, you never picture as a rookie that you’ll spend way more time at the top of a ladder waving cold cuts than parading heroically out of a raging inferno.”

“Exactly! Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad for it now. We’ve both seen enough horror in our years to appreciate the boring call-outs. It just hits me every year when the new recruits are due, they have no idea they’ll be sitting with a coffee in thirty-odd years, counting how many cats owe them one of their nine lives.”

Hallie smirks and nods, picking her coffee back up and silently thanking the stars for the quiet days. Before she can take another sip, Captain Hewitt leans round the doorframe.

“Hunter, my office if you will.” He is strolling off as quickly as he appeared.

Art raises his eyebrows as Hallie wonders what could possibly have warranted the rare invitation. A gurgling sort of apprehension takes up residence in her stomach as she dares to consider that maybe, just maybe, he wants to discuss the promotion she’s been grinding so hard for. This district has never seen a female fire captain. Hell, they’d never seen a female lieutenant before Hallie Hunter. She’d managed to claw her way up the ladder by tooth and nail, the weight of incessant male prejudice threatening to break her ankles the entire time.

Hallie would never tell a soul, but it’s been her birthday wish for more than a decade to make captain by forty. Just a few weeks on from her thirty-ninth birthday, she’s hoping beyond hope that today could be the day. Chugging the last dregs of her lukewarm coffee, she spares Art an affectionate clap on the shoulder on her way out.

“Happy Monday, old man. Now go save a bunny or something.”

Hallie strolls into the captain’s office with an easy smile but it falters slightly when she sees who’s already occupying the second chair in front of the desk.

“Morning, Sir. Barker.” She nods to the captain and then to the only other lieutenant in the station, that excited flutter in her stomach instantly curdling like sour milk. If she’s about to be told Jeff Barker is being promoted above her, despite being five years younger than her and a total dick, Hallie will lose her mind. Give her a few bottles of wine and let her cats try and eat her when she passes out. She’s sure that sounds like more fun that swallowing Barker’s boasting about outranking her.

“Hunter, have a seat. Barker is about to make your day.”

Hallie’s eyebrows disappear into the flaxen curls which always flop onto her forehead when they’re not secured beneath a helmet or a baseball cap. She takes a seat, unsure how to feel as the captain looks at Jeff expectantly.

“Right, yeah, Hallie, I’m sure you’re gonna be pleased about this but try not to throw a party just yet. I’m leaving at the end of the month.”

“I, um, I’m sorry?” She shifts in her seat uncomfortably, unsure if she just walked into a dismissal, completely oblivious. As far as she knew, Jeff hadn’t done anything even remotely worth being fired for—not unless you count being a cocky bastard every day of the week. She glances to the captain, even more confused by the encouraging smile he’s giving her. Surely, he doesn’t expect her to celebrate right in front of Jeff’s face.

“Barker is leaving us for a teaching role at the Academy. So,” he claps his hands together, “I need you to take over Probationary Field Training for the new recruits. We have eight incoming next Monday.”

It takes every ounce of stoic control in Hallie’s body not to leap out of her chair and whoop. Leading PFT is exactly the step up she needs on her mission to make captain. She still shudders at the memory of the wine hangover from the day after Jeff snagged the position three years ago. Pasting on a more calmly grateful expression, she responds.

“Absolutely, Sir. Happy to take on the challenge.” Turning to Jeff—who she suddenly hates much less—she tries to sound innocently curious when she asks, “What’s got you abandoning us for the Academy then, Barker? Desk job doesn’t sound like your style.”

Jeff snorts, probably seeing right through Hallie’s subtle interrogation. They’ve been at each other’s throats for almost ten years. Hallie can’t think of any reason good enough for Jeff to abandon their ruthless race to the top.

“Jenny and I are expecting our first kiddo. She wants me doing something boring and safe, so she doesn’t have to worry about me leaving for a shift I don’t come home from.”

“Oh, well congratulations are in order then.”

This time Jeff’s snort becomes a full-on guffaw, as if Hallie had just stuck on a clown nose and offered him a diaper-shaped balloon.

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