Page 10 of Five Alarm Love
She rubbed her aching chest.
After dropping her cold coffee off at a trash can behind the rod and reel counter, she strolled back to the deli, hands in her pockets, trying to act casual.The guys were debating defensive line statistics.
Both men paused.
“You okay?”Tuli asked.“You look like you saw a ghost.”
Mav studied her until sweat prickled her chest.
She rolled her hands into fists inside of her pockets until they shook.No way would she break in front of them.Not here.Not now.Not ever.
“Just fine.”She steadied her shaky voice.“Mav, I think we need to go get that patient from the hospital for the discharge transport home.”
Tuli’s mouth dropped half open, and he took a breath.
Please don’t say a word.
Mav paused for another two seconds, frowned, then nodded too enthusiastically.“Sure, Lou.We’ll go do that run.”
Tuli stammered, “L-let me know if—”
“If what?”Lou snapped.
Both guys’ eyebrows shot up.
There was nothing he could do.Nothing anyone could do.No future.She needed to reconcile herself to that fact.
Lou helped finish the conversation.“Have a good day.”She turned on her heel and headed toward the rig, Mav trailing behind her.
Chapter Four
Fall in YukonValley had been drier than normal, and Tuli had been using The Real Alaska page to promote fire safety awareness.
Thick, sharp smoke from the far end of town scented the air.The fire’s glow was visible against the early evening sky this first Saturday of September.Tuli shook his head.Public service announcements only went so far when burn piles and teenagers were involved.Dispatch called it in as a structure fire, possibly started by high schoolers.Great.
Tuli catalogued protocols and mourned the fact that he couldn’t livestream this moment as he ran into the station to gear up.Video from a true callout to a fire emergency would get millions of views and reinforce his message about fire safety.
Maybe he could do a clip afterward in his turnout gear.Viewers liked to see first responders dressed for action.He could frame the shot with smoke behind him.Tuli was still considering camera angles when he got out of his truck.
Only one other vehicle was parked outside the station.Damn it.A small fire department in rural Alaska meant that most firefighters worked other jobs.Heck, even as the fire chief, he even worked part-time at Three Bears.A small crew and infrequent callouts meant that people had to drop everything to help when they could.Labor Day weekend also meant vacations for many people in town, including several members of his already-sparse team.
He would have to make do with whatever help was available.
Tuli raced into the station and opened the locker, struggling to balance as he donned his turnout gear.Foot placement took extra concentration for that stupid right leg, but he’d damn well make it work.How could a leg be both numb and painful?He dropped a fist on his quad, as if willing it to work.
“Ready to go, Chief?”the new hire, Hunter Wright, piped up as he buckled his hat over his dark hair.All swagger and a cleft chin, that guy.Lou’s first cousin on her dad’s side, Hunter had leveraged his connections to get hired on at the fire department.Tuli mentally grimaced.On the one hand, Tuli needed the help, and it was his job as fire chief to train the guy.
On the other hand… Geez.
Hunter was only a year younger than Tuli, but his fitness and confidence made Tuli look like a scrawny, stammering nerd.And that was saying something, because Tuli was a specimen.A hundred thousand followers weren’t wrong.
He glanced over at Hunter.Did the noob actually flex, or was it Tuli’s imagination?
Or something else?Hunter was strong as an ox and had two perfectly functional legs.#Jealous.Which might be the real issue.
He managed to keep from glaring.Barely.Hunter’s buddy-buddy attitude played well with bystanders, swooning ladies, and groups of fawning preschoolers, but right beneath that Hey-bro demeanor was an undercurrent of razor-sharp competitiveness.
Heck, this guy had been Ryan West’s wingman for years.Ryan and Lou had been dating until last fall.Then suddenly, they weren’t dating.Ryan had a big mouth when it came to Lou, and there were a couple times Tuli had considered filling that mouth with some knuckles.Good riddance.
