Page 4 of Single Mom for the Firemen

“I will,” she mumbles back, though I’m not entirely sure she’s taken in what I’m saying. Either way, I head through to the bathroom and start to run myself a bath. The room fills with steam as I root through the cupboards to find something decadent to put in it. I eventually settle on this bath oil that probably costs more per gallon than a good bottle of wine, and drip a few deliciously scented drops into the water before I strip down and slip beneath the surface.

Oh God, that’s good.I make a mental note to convince my landlord to install a tub in my apartment as soon as I get back, though I know there’s no way in hell she’ll actually consider it. But the warmth of the water lapping around my aching muscles is everything I need right now, and all at once, the thought of staying here for a whole summer doesn’t seem so bad.

I’m so relaxed that my eyes drift shut, and I grab a small flannel from the side of the sink and tuck it behind my neck. I’m not going to fall asleep or anything, I’m just going to close my eyes and get a little rest. And pray that oven is actually on, because if not, that pie is going to be all kinds of soggy by the time I get it out of the…

And that’s the last thing I remember before I drift off.

When I come to, I jerk upright out of the water, splashing the near-cold droplets all over the tiled floor around me. My eyeswide, I try to work out what has yanked me so suddenly from my slumber—and then it hits me. The smell of smoke. Fuck!

I spring out of the bath and grab a towel. The nearest one is tiny, barely big enough to wrap around my body. Lara’s so much smaller than me, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s not accommodating for my curvier body, but still…

But there’s more than just the smoke. No, there’s something else too—a sound. An alarm. A fire alarm, it must be. Shit! So much for flying under the radar. I probably have half the emergency services in the area rushing out to check on me right now.

And there’s more—someone at the door. Banging? Where’s that coming from? Have the firefighters already arrived? It seems kind of quick for them to have made it all the way out here, but maybe…

Maybe I don’t have time to sit around pondering how exactly this has happened or why it’s gone down like this. I need to get the door, and make sure that I don’t burn this damn cabin down on the first day I’m here. Tightening the towel around myself as best I can, I hurry for the door and pray to God that I don’t have to explain myself before I can get dressed…

I have no idea who’s waiting for me on the other side of that door. But I am damn near certain they don’t want to see me fresh out of the bath, still slippery with oil, while the cabin catches fire behind me.

And if they do…well, maybe the people out here are even crazier than I could have imagined.

2

JAKE

My head snapsup as soon as I hear the alarm blaring from the workroom next door. My jaw tenses.Fuck, already?

I spring to my feet, abandoning the coffee on the counter and heading across the room to check where the call has come from. At this time of year, we don’t usually see too much in the way of outbreaks—a few dumbass kids starting bonfires to celebrate the end of the school year, maybe, but that’s about as far as it goes.

And that’s what I’m expecting to see when I throw open the door to our operations room and lay eyes on the interactive map that takes up most of the wall opposite. We have alarms scattered through the forest, as well as connections to the residences around here—though most of them go uninhabited throughout the year. When the rich kids come out to party, they tend to cause some trouble for my brothers and me.

The light that’s flashing, though, is just a few inches away from our place on the map—that can’t be right.I would have noticed if someone had been stalking around, causing trouble and getting into something at this time of day…

I make my way toward the map, where the red light is flashing and the alarm blaring angrily, and slap the button to turn it off as I take a closer look. No, this isn’t one of our forest alarms—this is one of the residential properties. The one just over from us.

And it’s showing up as a risk right now.

I barely have a chance to take it in before Killian and Mason spill through the door behind me—Killian still damp from the shower, and Mason sweaty from the strength workout he was doing before they were interrupted.

“What the fuck is going on?” Killian demands, pushing a hand through his silver-streaked hair as he glares at me—as though this is my fault.

“House over from us,” I bark back. “Someone set off the signal. Could be a false alarm, but we need to get down there and check. Now.”

“The house closest to us?” Mason replies, screwing up his nose in confusion. “Nobody lives there, do they?”

“Not most of the year,” I concede. “But that doesn’t mean it’s empty. Someone could have broken in. Come on—get your shit together and let’s go.”

They nod. They know that, at a time like this, when it’s been weeks since we’ve last seen rain, a fire can spread fast—and that’s what we’re here to prevent. Grabbing our retardant jackets from where they hang on the walls, we pull them on and take off into the forest, toward the sound of the alarm.

I can hear it cutting through the still air, the birds around us singing furiously as though protesting the sudden explosion of noise. Sure enough, it’s coming from that damn house. I can’tremember ever seeing anyone living there, but whoever has turned up, they clearly don’t know what they fuck they’re doing.

“There’s a car outside,” Mason calls to me as he vaults the fence around the property. “Someone must have moved in…”

“And there’s smoke in the kitchen,” Killian points out. “Come on. Now!”

We bolt for the door, and I start banging my fists against it as Killian moves to the kitchen to see if he can get in through the window. The smell of smoke is acrid in the air, and I can hear movement inside.

“There are people in there!” I yell to Mason and Killian. “We have to?—”

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