Page 62 of His Reward
“Is this Boston Fielding?” the deep, alpha voice on the other end of the line asked.
“It is,” I said.
The voice lightened a bit as the alpha said, “Mr. Fielding, it’s Mayor Vincent.”
My heart leapt up to my throat, then plummeted to my gut. “Mayor Vincent,” I said, glancing to Lucien and the others at the side of the ice as they looked on. “Um, hello.”
Mayor Vincent laughed. “Sorry to surprise you out of the blue like this, but I heard about your Fire and Ice ball last week.”
I swallowed the knot of excitement that wanted to form in my throat. “Did you?”
“I have reports from several friends who attended that it was a smashing success and a lot of fun.”
I pushed my initial shock aside and stood straighter, even though the mayor couldn’t see me. “We had a great time,” I said. “Bringing the firefighting world and the figure skating world together was a massive success. Not to mention the fact that we raised several thousand dollars for Engine Fifty-Five.”
“That’s what I hear,” the mayor went on, sounding pleased. “I admire your initiative and ingenuity in raising money to meet the funding shortfalls caused by cuts to the city budget. Our firefighters are some of the city’s most important assets, and after hearing about your efforts, I’ve asked my budget office to do a complete review of allocations for Barrington’s fire departments.”
“That’s…that’s great, sir,” I said, glancing at Lucien with a smile. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”
“There is one thing,” Mayor Vincent said.
“Name it,” I replied.
“This Fire and Ice concept,” he went on. “It’s brilliant. I understand it came about because you’re dating Lucien Monteverdi?”
“We’re engaged, sir,” I said.
“Wonderful! Congratulations,” the mayor paused slightly, then said, “Not to stick my foot in or take advantage of your connection or anything, but I wanted to get your opinion on extending the partnership you created for your Fire and Ice ball to create a campaign to bring awareness of fire safety to the public, in Barrington and beyond.”
“Really?” I asked, glancing at Lucien and the others again. “What sort of campaign?”
“Commercials, short videos, and maybe another Fire and Ice ball or event like that to bring in more donors,” Mayor Vincent said. “If you ask me, it’s the perfect match of high-profile celebrities and important firefighting work.”
“It is a perfect match,” I agreed, grinning at Lucien. “But I’ll have to ask Lucien about it before I say yes to anything.”
“Of course, of course,” Mayor Vincent said. “I just wanted to float the idea to you. And to let you know that I’ll make certain your engine and all the others in Barrington get the funding they need going forward.”
“Thank you, sir.”
We exchanged a few more pleasantries before Mayor Vincent ended the call so we could all go back to work.
“What was that all about?” Lucien asked once I lowered my phone and stared at him with excited amazement.
“Mayor Vincent wants to extend the idea of the skating world and the firefighting world working together in the future,” I said, not wanting to explain too much and ruin what was supposed to be Lucien’s moment. “And he’s come up with the funding for both Engine Fifty-Five and the rest of Barrington’s fire department.”
“That’s fantastic,” Lucien said, beaming. “It feels like our fun idea has actually done a lot of good in the world.”
“It has,” I said. I shook my head and held up a hand to him. “But we’ll deal with that another day. This is your moment. You looked so beautiful out there.”
Lucien blushed, and I could feel his excitement through our bond. “It feels so good to be back on the ice again. I don’t know if you’ll ever get me off now.”
I nearly snorted at his unintentional double entendre. “Oh, I’m sure I will,” I said, winking.
Etienne shook his head. “Enough of that. You’ve got a lot of work to do to get back into form,” he told Lucien in a coach voice. “I want to see you skate a few rounds, and then we’ll work on edges.”
I moved to sit on one of the benches by the side of the rink and watched Lucien as he tackled his first training session of this new phase of his life. He was so brave and incredibly powerful to throw himself into something that a lot of people thought he’d never do again. I could tell he had a long way to go, and I wondered if part of his caution as he attempted a few jumps was because he didn’t want to risk falling and hurting the baby, but for a first time back, he did amazingly well.
As he worked, I made a few calls, setting things up for a little surprise I had planned for the two of us. By the time Lucien’s training session was over, everything was ready.
