Page 26 of A Gift for her Festive Firefighter

Happy Halloween, again. I’ve got to get some shut-eye. Maybe we’ll talk soon?

I’d like that. Good night, and be safe.

Hey – thanks! I appreciate that more than you know. Firefighters have a quirk; we don’t ever say ‘BYE.’ We’re superstitious.

I get it. It’s hard when you say ‘bye’… and then it is.

Exactly.

So, we’ll talk soon?

You betcha.

Chapter 10

HOLLY

A week later, Holly was starting to wonder if she had said something wrong or why Cade wasn’t pressing harder to get his truck back. It was weirdly silent around town, almost as if people were watching her. Were they wondering about her chatting with Cade at the festival – or had he changed his mind about them talking?

Maybe he was regretting talking to his ‘Creature-Feature,’ she thought, her feelings still a little raw from behind, immediately seen as some freak or reject as a first impression. There was not one girl in the world that would be okay with her crush referring to her a ‘creature’ or ‘monster.’ It immediately brought up slimy pond-monster things that laid eggs or had fangs, complete with moss or algae dangling from the arms.

And don’t forget the grunts and groans, she thought and immediately made a weird noise across between ‘The Ghost’ and ‘Creeper’ from Scooby Doo. It was a high-pitched warbling sound followed by a hoarsely spoken phrase.

“Creatureeee… Feature…” And then Holly warbled again before sighing heavily as her shoulders slumped with rejection as she went back to working on Cade’s truck.

The refurbished radiator had arrived, and she was planning on keeping the other one for an emergency. A good deep cleaning, maybe trying a spot weld or taking it into New Braunfels to see if she could find someone to repair the seam, might save some time if something like this happened again. The odds of her needing a radiator for a 1932 Coupe were slim, but she had paid through the nose for this one – and was passing along the hefty price tag to her handsome client.

Just before she squeezed the trigger on her impact gun, she heard a noise and looked up only to see Cade standing there in his uniform, looking very uncomfortable.

“Cade?” she blurted out, stunned, and dropped the extension bit. “What are you doing here? How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” he answered quietly.

“Do you want to see what came in today?”

“I should probably go…”

Holly jumped to her feet, adjusted her baseball cap that she used to keep some of her hair from getting in her face, and hurried to him, only to falter mid-step with awareness. Cade caught her arm and met her confused gaze, and neither looked away from the other.

“I look a mess…” she whispered.

“You look like you’ve been working hard,” he breathed.

“I have,” she admitted and tried to tug him forward into the shop, only to see him hesitate. “What?”

“Is it safe to walk under the lifts?”

“Oh yeah,” she smiled. “I always do a wiggle test to make sure I’m not top-heavy…” and glanced at him warily as his eyes widened – and dropped to her bosom. “I make sure the car is not top-heavy. Weebly-wobbly. I push on it to make sure it’s not about to go over the edge. I mean, I don’t want it to get let down or…”

“Captain!” someone yelled from the truck. “We gotta call…”

“I’ll be right there,” Cade hollered over his shoulder and looked at her. He nodded erratically and hesitated before holding out the flowers to her. “I’ve gotta go.”

“It’s okay,” she began – and he touched her arm again.

“I want to know what you do, how things are going, but duty calls…”

Holly nodded, unsure what to say. She was floored that he brought her flowers and awkwardly held the potted mums in her hand, making the shiny paper surrounding the plastic container crackle.

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