Page 11 of Her Older Fireman

Chapter 6

Gabe

“Gabe? Do you have a second?”

I’m cleaning my gear in the bay when Captain Park pokes his head in and motions toward the back of the firehouse.

“Sure, boss. Give me two minutes to get this put away?” I say as I set my helmet down.

“Make it fast,” he says. I nod and hustle to get everything in place.

He’s perched on the front of his desk when I walk in. A dark-haired woman in a fire department polo shirt and jeans sits in the chair in front of his desk, talking animatedly as she taps some notes out on a tablet. He smiles as I walk in the room.

“Gabe, this is Kari Silver from headquarters. She handles some PR and social media for the department.” He gestures toward me. “Kari, this is Gabriel Anderson.”

Kari turns in her chair and gives me a wide smile. “You’re Gabriel? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise,” I say. “What can I help you with, Captain?”

He reaches behind him and picks up a sheaf of papers. “I don’t want to keep you in suspense. The chief wants to offer you Monty King’s job. If you’re up for it, you’ll start in a couple of weeks.” He hands the papers out to me. “Here’s your formal offer and contract with compensation and benefits.”

I flip through the papers until I find the proposed salary. My eyes widen slightly. It’s way more than I’m making now. Immediately, I think about Maddie and what this means for my future with her. Our future.

“You can take some time to think about it,” the captain says carefully.

“Yes,” I say firmly. “I accept.”

Captain Park sighs with relief. “Oh, thank Christ. I was worried you would take some sweet-talking, and honestly, we didn’t really have another candidate in mind. We all wanted you for the job.”

“So that’s where I come in,” Kari says. “We’re looking to boost the department profile because good PR equals more funding, and more funding means more personnel and better equipment. You’re a young, photogenic new captain with a spotless service record, so you’re exactly what we need.”

“So what does that mean?” I ask. “Shirtless firefighter calendars with puppies?”

She laughs. “Not unless you want to. We were thinking about starting with a press release and some tweets to introduce you to the city and maybe do a couple of meet and greets at your new station so you can get some face time with the people in your new district.”

My new station. My smile slips a little bit as it hits me that I have to leave Ladder 23, where I’ve been busting my ass since I was a rookie. I love this place, and I know I’ll leave a piece of my heart here. But this is the right choice—both for me and for the person who holds a much bigger part of my heart. Maddie.

“It sounds great,” I say. “What do I have to do?”

I wrap up my meeting with Captain Park and Kari and head back to my desk, where I put in a call to Scott Stevens, a realtor I play poker with now and again.

“Something bigger on the east side? Should be doable.” Scott says. “How fast do you want to get your current place on the market?”

“Fast,” I say. “Today. Now. I had it appraised recently for some tax stuff, so I’ll send you all of that. It’s in excellent shape with new HVAC and appliances, and all the floors are hardwood.”

“We can get a sign out on the lawn today just to drum up interest while we get the details hammered out,” he says. “I’ll send my assistant out this afternoon. Send me everything you’ve got and get your mortgage paperwork together. Let’s get you a bigger house.”

A skull-splitting noise fills the room. Time for a call.

“Gotta go, Scott,” I say. “I’ll talk to you later.”

When I pull into my driveway a few hours later, I’m dog-tired. Three calls in the last six hours, including a huge highway pile-up. My truck shudders to a stop and I just sit in the leather seat, almost too exhausted to get out of the car.

But I have big news to share with Maddie, and I don’t want to sit on this any longer than I already have. I climb out of the truck and walk through the grass to her trailer, grinning as I notice the for-sale sign in front of my house. Jodie isn’t home, I notice with a sigh of relief, but Maddie’s little hatchback sits in the driveway.

Music blares inside the house. The Beatles, I realize. My girl has good taste. I raise my hand and knock.

“Hey,” she says as she opens the door, flashing a brilliant smile. She’s wearing those little shorts again, the ones that reveal almost all of her shapely legs. “I was just going to text you.”

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