Page 24 of Single Mom for the Firemen

She rushes back to the house, and she leaves the door open for me so when I arrive I can head straight in. On the other side of the door, I find her chewing her fingernails, staring down at the open oven.

“I don’t know what it is, but the gas won’t start,” she tells me, shaking her head. Callie is sitting at the kitchen table, and I give her a smile and a wave. She returns it, like we’re old friends.

“Let me take a look,” I tell her, getting down on my knees and pulling open the small compartment that keeps all the functional parts of the stove seperate from the rest of it. “It could just be that your gas nozzle has come loose, and we need to readjust.”

I set to work, looking through the various tubes and wires until I find something that looks off. I nod, grabbing my phone and flicking on the light so I can confirm what I think is going on here.

“Yeah, here’s the issue,” I tell her, tapping at the spot that’s screwed-up. “It’s the gas pipe. I’ll reconnect it now, but you should get someone who really knows what they’re doing in here soon enough.”

“You seem like you know what you’re doing,” she remarks as she watches me get to work. “You done this before?”

“Comes with the fire safety training,” I tell her, squinting into the stove. “You have to know how to stop the things before they start too.”

“You have to do courses for that kind of thing?” She sounds surprised.

I glance up at her. “Yeah, sure,” I reply.

“Even if you’re volunteering?”

I laugh softly. “Especially if you’re volunteering. They can’t have just anyone running around the woods with access to this kind of equipment.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” she muses. “I never really thought about it before. Just thought that as long as you were doing something nice, nobody would look closely at how qualified you were to actuallydothe thing, you know?”

I chuckle again as I pin together the two loose ends of the pipe. I use some industrial sealant to keep it in place, and then nod for her to try the stove again.

“Give it a go. Should work fine.”

She does as she’s told, and claps her hands together.

“Oh, thank God,” she sighs. “I don’t know how I would have found us anything to eat. I guess I’d have to start scavenging for berries or something…”

“I’m sure Mason could tell you something about that,” I reply. “He knows all about that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, we were talking a little when he came over yesterday,” she remarks casually, and I cock an eyebrow.

“He came around?”

“Oh, yeah, for the interview,” she replies, totally innocent. “Did he not saying anything to you about it?”

I smirk slightly, and shake my head. “Can’t say he did.”

“Oh, I guess he—he didn’t want to influence the two of you into doing interviews with me too,” she offers. She knows it’s not exactly a good reason, but at least she doesn’t try to convince me. Mason, coming around here too? After she told us that she’s writing a story on us, like we’re some kind of freaks in a zoo? I’m surprised he even considered it.

“Yeah, I can’t say that I expected him to come here and spill his guts.”

My voice comes out a little more defensive than I intend it to. I know I have no business acting this way, but there’s a part of me that’s jealous. They’ve had all this time alone with her, and Ihaven’t. What have they been telling her? What have they been saying? Have they told her why we do this? Showed her our weak spot like that…?

“He didn’t exactly spill his guts,” she replies with a slight smile. “He was a lot more careful than that…”

Behind her, Callie gets to her feet and heads for the door, wandering out onto the porch.

“Lunch will be ready in about an hour,” Vanessa calls after her, and I lean up against the counter. It’s not like I can’t see what my brothers find so appealing about her. No, it’s not that part I have trouble with. It’s the part where it’s just the two of us right now, and if I’m jealous, it’s because I want something to do with her too.

“So, yeah, nothing to worry about with Mason,” she continues as she turns back to me. “Though I’m happy to fill in any gaps that he might have left in his story if you want to give me something to work with…”

“You really don’t switch it off, do you?” I shoot back, but I’m only playing. I shrug. “Maybe we could talk a bit about fire safety. Make sure nobody’s setting the forest on fire with pies.”

“Hey, you’re never going to let that go, are you?” she protests. “It was one time. And look, I got you to help me when I knew there was something I needed to see to…”

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