Page 5 of Rescued Faith

His mother wanted him to date a “good Christian girl.” But Sarai had been about as interesting as oatmeal. Plain oatmeal.No brown sugar and cream. No cinnamon or apple. No taste whatsoever.

The whole date had been a flop. She’d declined dessert and asked for him to take her home as soon as the server brought the check.

Dating used to be fun. Easy. Dance a little, drink a little, show a girl a good time. But since coming to faith almost a year ago, Bryce didn’t know how to navigate that world anymore. And all the old haunts felt weirdly empty. Wasn’t this faith thing supposed to make things easier? Clearer?

He was supposed to be a new man.

If so, Sarai was obviouslynotimpressed with the new Bryce Crawford.

Not that he could blame her. The old Bryce had been so much more interesting. And that’s who people expected. So, guess he should just focus on the job once more and forget about his social life for the time being.

Bryce checked his thermal imaging camera.

“The TIC working?” Zack Stephens asked. Ridge parked the truck among the other rescue vehicles in the warehouse district.

“Yup. Let’s go.” They hopped out of the truck.

“So you’re really not gonna tell us about the date?” Eddie Rice asked as he shouldered his air tank. The chaos of multiple sirens, crews running around trucks and setting up hoses, and bystanders gawking surrounded them.

“Dude, have I ever gone into detail about my dates?”

“I just wanna learn from a master. How do you do it?” Rice asked.

Zack chuckled as he jammed his hands into his gloves. “You’re on a roll now. Third date this week. I thought you were losing your game for a while there. What was it, nine months without a date?”

“That was, like, a year ago. And it was just a little dry spell.” Back when he’d hoped he could find Penny Mitchell after she’d left town without a word. But she’d cut him out of her life. Eventually he’d gotten the hint and had to move on. And what these guys didn’t need to know was that most of those “dates” were Bryce sitting with his dad watching his favorite fishing show, playing chess, or taking him to the men’s discipleship group at his church.

He’d tried telling the guys the truth the first time. Of course, they hadn’t believed him. It’d become a joke around the firehouse. “Playing chess” was now code for “hot date.” After that he hadn’t even attempted to explain. He’d let the guys draw their own conclusions.

But no other woman had gotten to him like Penny had. He kept trying. He must’ve been desperate to think it would be sweet, straightlaced Sarai that would get him out of this funk. Her idea of a good time was knitting and watching British period dramas.

Everyone was settling down though. His brother Logan seemed to have found his purpose fighting fires out in Montana. His mother was a steady rock for his father. Now his sister Andi was married to Jude, and here he was. Alone.

At least he had his team.

The guys approached the warehouse engulfed in flames. Truck 14 was already busy hooking hoses up. Bryce checked in with the other lieutenant, Amelia Patterson.

“What’s the call?” Bryce asked her, talking loudly over the noise of the trucks and sirens.

“Truck 14 has water on. Need you and your guys to clear the building. The main entrance is too hot. Looks like two side entrances you can use.”

“You got it.” Bryce jogged over to Rice, Ridge, and Stephens. “We’re up. We need to find access and clear the building fromthe inside. Stephens and Rice go around the other way. Ridge, you’re with me. We’ll take this alley.”

Flames shot out the transom windows above their heads.

“The front of the building is too hot. Let’s go around the side.” Using the TIC, Bryce checked for hotspots from the outside. “The south wall is our best access point.”

Bryce led Ridge to the side door and shoved his irons, fork side first, into the seam. “Hit!”

Ridge hit the pike end with his ax. The door swung open. Smoke poured out, blocking visibility, but with the imaging screen, they stayed low and navigated through the big open area. Most of the heat and damage seemed to be in the front of the building.

“I thought this place was abandoned.” Ridge spoke through the microphone in his helmet.

“Like Bryce’s love life.” Zack busted up laughing from somewhere on the other side of the building.

Bryce ignored it. He and Ridge stepped around a pile of pallets right inside the doorway and entered the main part of the warehouse. “We can’t assume anything. Let’s clear it out quickly. It’s chili night and I’m hungry.”

Through the smoke, tall metal shelves, some full of boxes, towered over them, creating aisles. They cleared each one, then met up with Rice and Stephens in the middle of the warehouse. Flames from the front moved closer toward them.

---