Page 65 of The Firefighter's Fate

“You are one crazy woman, Ember.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Keep focused ahead. Don’t look at her. Don’t reveal what you’re really thinking. Don’t reveal how your body is reacting to her.

I pull up outside the motel, and I realize I don’t really want to say bye to her just yet.

I could talk to her all night – it is simply that easy between us.

But Ember gives me a wink and jumps out of my pickup truck before I do something reckless, such as asking her to stay with me for the night, gripping the two massive plush dolls in her arms as she takes her leave.

Before she’s gone, she pokes her head through the window and looks at me with sparkles in her eyes.

“That was a really nice day,” she says to me in all seriousness.

She really enjoyed it.

Does she enjoy being with me? As much as I enjoy being with her?

“It was,” I reply.

“I’d like to talk to you again,” she says. “For the article. I feel like we have unfinished business.”

I nod.

Jesus. I’m like a nervous schoolboy.

“Yeah, I’ll like that too,” I reply.

“Really?”

“Yeah. For the article.”

Yeah, totally for the article...

“Let’s arrange something, okay?” Ember asks me.

And I nod.

Then I drive away before I do anything else totally reckless.

32

EMBER

“Thank you, Amanda,” I say to the manager of The Oak as she hands me my coffee.

I’ve come to know Amanda well, seeing as I keep coming into this coffee shop every damn day to pick up croissants and coffees in order to bribe the members of Crystal River’s fire brigade.

“What work do you do, Ember?” she asks me, nodding curiously at the laptop precariously held in my spare hand. “I don’t think I’ve asked you yet.”

“I’m a journalist.”

Amanda’s eyes light up.

“A journalist? What are you doing in Crystal River? Surely there’s nothing newsworthy of anything around here, except for the small town gossip?”

“I’m writing about Connor Penmayne,” I reply.

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