Page 3 of Embers of Love

“Look at our little hero!”KieraO’Malleyhollered the moment Ember walked through the doors. The redhead woman had the thickest Irish brogue Ember had ever heard, even though she was born and raised in Phoenix Ridge. Keira was a firecracker, always raring to go. One could hardly tell it was the end of her shift, and Ember wasactuallythere to relieve her.

“Don’t start with me, Kiera.”Ember rolled her eyes.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you? Saving lives even on your day off?”her coworker asked, her dimpled cheek glowing with her smile.

“How the hell are you so cheery after spending most of the night on duty?”

“She’s a mutant,”Zara answered for her. Zara had been on the night shift with Kiera, and she lookedcompletely tuckeredout with thick bags hanging under her eyes. At nearly six foot two, she was the tallest firefighter in the department. She was a gentle giant who was prone to teasing Kiera from time to time. Ember suspected she had a crush on Keira but was hesitant to speak up about it for some reason.

“I am not!” Kiera protested in false outrage.

“You are. There’s even been some research on the subject. Redheads are not like normal people,” Zara said earnestly.

While the twoof thembickered back and forth, Ember went into the locker room to change and grab her gear. The morning routine was always the same. Confirm which engine she was assigned to, relieve the person on duty, check all the equipment tomake sureit’sfunctioning correctly, and then wait for a call. Usually, theydidn’thave to wait long. Something was always going on in Phoenix Ridge. Haley and Leilani arrived not long after she left the locker room and helped with the inspection of the equipment and the fire truck.

Haley was the only firefighter at the station younger than Ember’s twenty-eight years, but she was a powerful youngster. Coming from a family of firefighters, Haley knew whatshewanted to be when she was fiveyears old and had spent her whole life training for it. She was close friends with Leilani.

Leilani was laughing happily as Haley asked her about her partner, Adaze, their cats, and their weekend together. Leilani had actually saved Adaze from drowning—that was how they met—and they had been together ever since. They made a cute couple. Ember wondered if she would ever have something like that.She’dbeen in very few relationships inall ofher twenty-eight years of living. Something about forming connections with people always made her shy away.She ran awayquiteoften, so none of her relationshipseverlasted long.

Elle Rodriguez came just in time, completing their four-woman team lead by Captain Hallie Hunter, who Ember had seen arriving earlier. Elle was gruff and not a morning person, but they all knew that and that was fine. Once they finished their checks, they did a session together in the gym and then they showered and headed to the kitchen where Haley put together poached eggs on toast and pancakes for everyone.

The first call out came two hours later.The bells rang out through the station.

“House Fire in the suburbs, down at Yellow Flower Close. Dispatcher says it started from the grill in the backyard and is spread to the house,”Captain Hunter informed everyone. She was in the passenger seat next to Elle, who was behind the wheel. Elle was always the driver when she was on shift.

These types of fires wereridiculously common. People often overestimated their ability to keep fire under control. Accidents did happen, though, so itwasn’talwayssomebody’sfault. That was the thing with fire. It was just naturally dangerous, but peoplecouldn’treally do without it.

It was basics, Ember thought to herself. Keep a bucket of water next to the grill and keep the grill away from obvious hazards like a wooden fence or a dried-out patch of grass.

They sped down through the city, sirens blaring. Everyone was calm and collected.They’dalready done this hundreds of times.Conversation was minimal as everyone got into the right frame of mind. Anything could happen. Each call was different. It was exciting but also incredibly dangerous.

They pulled into the neighborhood, and right away, Ember spotted the location of the fire despite still being a few blocks away. They could see the smoke over the top of all the bungalows tightly packed together. The crowd confirmed they were in therightlocation. Thankfully, everyone heard them coming and cleared a path.

“Shit,” Leilani swore from the back.

“Accurate,”Ember agreed. The fire washuge—much bigger than to be expected from the information they had. The house was most certainly well on fire.

Captain Hunter snapped out instructions and Ember donned her helmet and hopped down the moment the firetruck came to a stop. Everyone knew the drill. They worked together seamlessly to get a hose set up and water going on the fire.

Elle hooked them up to the nearest hydrant.

“Thompson—you are in charge.” Captain Hunter nodded to Ember. Ember was hoping for promotion so was gaining practice leading the team at incidents.

She slipped easily into leadership. She had been learning about fire her whole life and doing the job long enough. You didn’t grow up with the famous Becky Thompson as a mom and not know your shit when it came to fighting fires.

“Is everyone accounted for?!” Ember asked.

It was stillimportantto search the building, but Ember wanted to know whether to prioritize that or put the fire out first. The latter was going to take a bit longer. If there was somebody trapped inside, they were in danger of dying from suffocation or smoke inhalation.

The family looked greatly distressed andlargelyin shock. Disasters could do that to a person. Ember badly wanted to console them, but it was an emergency situation. They needed to act right away and recoup their losses later.Better to save what they have right now.

The father snapped to attention.

“Yes, everybody got ou?—”

“Timmy’s still inside!” one of the children screamed.

“Who’s Timmy?”Ember asked, checking to make sure all of her equipment was strapped correctly.

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