Page 32 of Spring Break with a Fire Chief

“Oh? Everything okay?” Candee asks.

Jace and Ryan eye each other while Poppy and Marigold exchange looks. “I had to fill the cream puffs for tomorrow,” Marigold says.

“I helped, nothing two pumps couldn’t fix.”

Ryan begins to choke on the beer he just took a sip from and I stifle a laugh, shaking my head.

A microphone screech echoes through the air as Sarah stands in front of the room. “Hello! Good evening, everyone! I want to welcome you to the annual Spring Break Dance! It’s so good to see new faces and many familiar ones, too! Tonight is all about having a great time and letting loose as well as saying a huge thank you for your support of Love Beach! We raised a lot of money today for the Love Beach Fire Department but I’m not allowed to give out any secrets yet! You’ll all have to show up to tomorrow's final event to get the grand tally and hear about some new changes!” She makes a motion of zipping her lip and locking the key and it makes me chuckle. But Ryan stiffens next to me.

“Why are you so jumpy tonight?” I smooth my hand across his shoulder and squeeze his bicep.

He shakes his head and takes a drink. “I’m fine. Just don’t like surprises much.”

I lean in close and coo in his ear. “What can I do to make it better, Chief Donnelly?”

He traces his bottom lip with his thumb and side eyes me. “We may need to leave early.”

I giggle. “Anything you need.”

Chapter 18

Ryan

I’m uneasy tonight and I’m not sure why except that the last time we were here together was when she told me she was leaving. So maybe I’m having some old memories pop up and interfere in my here and now. But I don’t like that there are talks of changes and she’s still not giving me anything solid.

We made it through the night but I wanted to be anywhere but here. I kept checking my watch and I know she noticed. She asked me a few times if I was alright and I had to lie. I didn’t want to get into it while we were out but I needed to be anywhere but here on center stage with the town.

“Are you ready to go?” I ask as she’s finishing the last bite of her dessert.

She furrows her brows and looks at my full coffee cup and uneaten cake. “You don’t want to finish your meal?”

I shake my head and begin to stand. I give her a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll go pull the car around. You finish it.” I shake hands with Bill and the guys, giving quick hugs to their ladies and head for the valet.

As I hand the kid my ticket, one of the newer nurses from the hospital stands next to me.

“Hi, Chief Donnelly? I’m sorry, you don’t know me, my name is Alexis and I was one of the nurses who worked on Ted when he came in.”

I look at the woman standing next to me. She’s young, probably a new intern. “Thank you for that. I’m glad he had a good team with him.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s doing well. He’ll be back on the rigs soon. A little burn won’t keep him down for long,” I chuckle as my phone goes off. I pull it out and see a text. “Oh, it’s Ted as we speak.” I flip my phone to show her before reading the text. I furrow my brows at what I’m reading.

Ted: Chief. What’s going on?

Me: I’m at the dance. What’s up?

Ted: The hospital updated its website. I thought your girl was staying?

My heart beats rapidly. What is he talking about? I see a screenshot come through a moment later.

Ted: I just saw this on the hospital website.

I tap the picture and scroll in to enlarge it. It’s the front page of the hospital website and the headline reads

‘Big changes are coming to LBH!’

We want to congratulate the following people in their new positions! Sarah Tucker, Head Nurse is excited toannounce that Naomi Cooley is the new Head Nurse Practitioner and Madeline Torre is taking on her new role of Head Travel Nurse.

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