Chasing the Fire (Backdraft, Fully Involved, Flashover) (18 page)

“Well, you got it, babe,” Jimmy told her.
“Now scoot.”

Faith left the big rambling Victorian by the
garage door.

Watching her go, Stacey said, “She has
everything and life is still tough.”

“She’ll be fine.”

“I feel bad she doesn’t get out much.”

“That’s what happens when you have a double
set of twins in five years.”

Crossing to the two bed-swings set up in a
corner of the living room, Stacey gazed down at the girls. They’d
entered the world four weeks ago, and were tiny. Their little
fingers curled around the blankets and their faces were scrunched.
“Aren’t they beautiful?”

Jimmy joined her and looked down. “Nah. No
babies are. The other two, now they’re handsome devils.”

As if on cue, the boy twins, Abraham and
David, raced into the room. Freckled over the bridges of their
noses, with Faith’s blond hair and Rick’s dark eyes, their
expressions were mischievous. “Is Mom gone?” Abe asked.

“Yes.” Jimmy slapped them some high fives.
“Wanna go outside and play some ball?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes!”

Turning to her, Jimmy squeezed her arm. “If
they wake up, call me.”

“No fair. Those girls get everybody’s
attention.” This from David, the taller of the two.

“Get used to it, kid. Women rule the
world.”

After the boys headed out to the big
backyard, Stacey watched the babies sleep. Angels, Faith had told
her. As good as the boys were handfuls. They were identical, so
Faith had tied a pink bow around Rachel’s head and a blue one
around Sarah’s. The scent of baby powder surrounded them, making
Stacey nostalgic again.

When neither stirred at the slammed door, she
crossed to the window and stared out at the front yard. The leaves
on the big oak trees had turned colors and the grass had lost its
summer burn and was now richly green from the rain. She loved fall.
So had Jess. They’d married in October, when she was eighteen and
he was twenty-two. He’d been a firefighter for three years by then;
she’d worked at her parents’ bookstore. They thought they had the
world by the tail. Little did they know what would happen to them.
First, her parents died in a boating accident on the lake. Then,
nine years later, Jess had been taken from her by fire. Stacey had
learned quickly that life could be snatched away in a second, so
she’d vowed to make the most of every single minute. And right now,
it meant enjoying these two infants.

Turning away from the view, Stacey took a
seat on the nubby-fabric couch and opened the laptop she’d brought
with her. She called up the plans she and Nick Evans had made two
days ago for the Christmas party. They were meeting again tomorrow
at Parker Erikson’s house on the lake. Parker would supply numbers
on attendance as well as budget information. The creative stuff was
up to them. To her and sexy Nick Evans. They’d planned to show her
what they’d decided last week.

She was still embarrassed by how she’d
reacted when he’d stared at her coffee-soaked blouse. Best not to
think about him. And his blond brows, green eyes and strong
jaw.

On the computer, she called up Google and
typed in
female superheroes
. Everybody knew about the men,
but she wanted equal billing for the gals. The first site had a
list of ten women, with bios. Number ten was Spider-Woman. Who knew
there was a counterpart to the male spider hero? She read how
Jessica, the young daughter of a scientist, was genetically altered
in a lab accident, gaining the characteristics of strength, agility
and the ability to discharge electrical currents. She fought for
truth, honor and justice. Definitely, Spider-Woman. Same for Wonder
Woman, a very well-known hero. Next, she read about Ms. Marvel, the
counterpart of Captain Marvel. After an encounter with aliens, the
woman gained strength, resistance to injury and the ability to
manipulate light. She also worked alongside the X-Men and the
Avengers, heroes all the kids would be familiar with, so she was a
good choice.

Stacey let herself think for a second about
Nick and how his eyes twinkled when he teased, then called up his
email. They’d exchanged a few in September and she had him in her
address book. She typed, “Take a look at these superheroes.” The
link went next. “I choose Wonder Woman, Spider Woman and Ms.
Marvel. What do you think?”

Okay, that was innocuous enough. She hit
send.

Then she clicked into the male heroes, but
before she could peruse them, a chime indicating an incoming email
sounded. From Nick. “I think you’re a female chauvinist. I demand
equal time for us guys. Who would have known you had this side to
you?”

She laughed aloud and wrote back, “I have a
lot of sides to me, Captain.”
Okay, Stacey, flirt
. “Maybe
you’ll get to see them someday.” Geez, was that too forward? She
pressed send, anyway.

A minute later, a response. “I’d like
that.”

She gasped, never expecting the reply. But
wrote back to him, “What about you? How many facets are there to
Captain Evans?”

Response. “Too many to count. Guess you’ll
have to find out, too.”

A wail came from the bassinets. Then another
joined the chorus. “Oh, damn,” Stacey mumbled. “Just when this was
getting good.” She typed, “Gotta go. Am watching Faith’s kids. The
babies woke up.”

Without waiting for an answer, she rushed to
the bassinets. Picking Rachel up, Stacey slid her into the crook of
her arm, then managed to gingerly ease Sarah into the other crook.
She sat in the rocker with one anchored in each arm. And rocked.
They quieted immediately. Yep, they were angels.

Jimmy found her there thirty minutes later
when he came back in to check on them. “Why didn’t you call
me?”

Stacey rolled her eyes. “I didn’t think I
needed to. I got them settled like this and then couldn’t put them
back in the bassinets. My arms are numb.”

He took Rachel and nestled her into his
shoulder. She did the same with Sarah, smiling at the sight Jimmy
made. “Babies look good on you, buddy. You ought to remarry and
have one.”

He gave her a sexy wink. “Interested,
doll?”

Uh-oh, was he flirting with her, too? Jimmy,
who’d been like a brother to Jess. Nah, couldn’t be. They’d
comforted each other for years after Jess’s death. Had been best
pals going to ball games together and eating out. Oh, dear, she
hoped he wasn’t interested in her. She didn’t feel any chemistry
with him at all. She glanced at the computer. Not the kind she’d
felt with Nick Evans, anyway.

oOo

THOUGH HE CHIDED
himself for his
sappy mood, Nick was happy about the meeting at Parker and Cal’s
home on the lake. He’d been out here before for social things, but
appreciated again the stone-and-glassed, three-story building. He
grinned, but not because of the house. He was looking forward to
seeing Stacey Sterling again. Their email exchange had been too
brief. He’d been surprised when she’d flirted with him—or had he
started it?—and despite the caveats he’d put on himself, he’d
wanted the repartee to continue. Babies had a way of derailing
those things. He remembered when Taylor was born and how he and his
wife could barely take care of her. Making a mental note to call
his daughter tonight, he pressed the bell.

Parker drew open the door. He admired her
classic beauty—Cal said she resembled a young Elizabeth Taylor, and
she did. Though it was midday, she wore a tailored suit, pretty
pink blouse, hair tidy in a bun at the back of her head. The
epitome of sophistication. Which he didn’t find appealing these
days.

“Hey, Nick.” She looked behind him. “Oh,
there’s Stacey.”

“Hi, there, everybody.”

Turning he saw, well, pretty much the
opposite of Parker. Stacey wore a blue sweat suit, the jacket
hiding all her assets. On her feet were sneakers. Her hair was tied
up in some kind of ponytail, with tendrils escaping.

“I hope I’m not late.”

“No, right on time,” Parker said. “Shall we
sit?”

Nick followed, with Stacey beside him. Under
her breath, she whispered, “Does she have to be so polished all the
time?”

He noticed a note of something he couldn’t
place in her tone. “Polish isn’t for everybody.” He winked at her.
“You look cute today. Don’t tell me you walked way out here.”

“Nope, I left my car a mile away so I could
get some exercise in.”

Parker led them to a first-floor room that
opened onto the deck. “It’s sunny today, and seventy degrees, so I
thought we’d sit outside.” She nodded to the house. “My nanny’s
with Madison.” Her year-old daughter.

The air was warm, even with a slight breeze
coming off the lake. They sat and Stacey asked about the child.
Nick enjoyed the smell of the water and the whoosh the waves
made.

“Sorry I’m all dressed up. I have politicians
coming for a lunch meeting, which is why I asked you two to drive
out.” She opened her iPad. “So, we have one hundred kids go to the
camp, and I assume most of them will come with their families. At
least that number of community members should show up. And then
there are the fire and police members and their kids. I think we’ll
have quite a crowd all day long. Local businesses have offered to
provide most of the food and decorations. The departments’
Benevolence Funds are donating the money we’ll need to purchase
anything else.”

Stacey smiled. “That’s terrific.”

Parker nodded to the computer which Stacey
had taken out of a backpack. “Do you have preliminary ideas for
activities?”

“Yes.”

She called up the information she must have
typed in after Nick left her last time. When he thought of the
coffee-soaked blouse—and other related things—he shifted in his
seat.

“We’re going with a hero theme,” Stacey told
Parker. “We’re using everyday heroes, like firefighters, police
officers and veterans—who are big heroes, especially after
9/11—intermixed with superheroes, which are always popular. We want
them to see that their fathers and mothers are just as super as
Wonder Woman.”

“Or Batman,” Nick added.

He and Stacey shared a smile.

Parker cocked her head, sending black hair
over her shoulder. “And Christmas comes in how?”

“We’ll make cardboard cutouts of the heroes
and arrange them all around the gym. We can put Santa hats on
them.”

“That would be cute. And we could decorate in
greens and reds. Have a tree. Maybe even elves.”

“I got some rookies I’d love to see assigned
to play elves,” Nick grumbled.

Stacey told Parker of their plans for a
festival-like atmosphere. “I sat down with Faith Ruscio yesterday
and she told me her church had a festival like this, but not in a
while, so we borrowed the idea.”

“What kind of booths?”

Stacey called up a different screen. Her face
was animated, and cheeks tinged with red, making her freckles stand
out. He wondered if this was how she looked when she got excited in
other ways.

“Face painting, darts, ring toss and other
baby games for the little ones. With prizes. Hey, those could be
wrapped as Christmas presents.”

“Great idea,” Nick told her.

“For the older kids we’re planning a
basketball throw, paintball, remote-control cars. We need a few
more activities for them, though.”

Nick nodded enthusiastically. “A lot of the
firefighters are good carpenters. They could help the kids make
Christmas ornaments.”

“All those things will be popular with
teens.” Stacey smiled at Parker. “I’ll run the basketball booth. I
played point guard in high school.”

“Our high-school team won state championship
two years in a row,” Nick asserted.

Parker gave a ladylike snort. “Don’t look at
me. I can manage yoga, but you two jocks will have to plan the
sports activities.” She thought for a minute. “Cal said the Fire
Belles—you know the women in the department who run the blog—want
to help out with food.”

“My group is in charge of food. This is a
Station 7 project. But the Belles can help out.”

“I’m afraid I’m not a very good cook,
either,” Parker said.

Stacey grinned. “No problem. Let’s list how
many superheroes and real heroes we’ll have, then pick what
activity booths go in between the heroes.”

They decided to have six superhero cutouts
and six real-life heroes. Stacey suggested, “How about if we pick
real-life firefighters and cops and veterans made as cutouts?”

“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “Jess should be
one.”

A sharp intake of breath. “How sweet of you
to suggest that.”

Though the expression on her face affected
him, he kept talking. “And we got a veteran firefighter, Beckett
Sloan, who’ll do double duty.”

“Know any cops?” Stacey asked.

Nick smiled fully. “We have to use Meggie.”
At their questioning looks, he added, “Megan Hale. The brains
behind the camp.”

When the doorbell rang a half hour later,
Stacey rose. “I think that’s our cue to leave.”

Gracefully, Parker stood. “Thanks again for
coming out here.”

Together, they walked out and stopped by
Nick’s car. He’d parked a ways down the road because he knew Parker
was having a houseful. Stacey asked, “So, you know Megan Hale
well?”

“Yeah, from when I worked in New York. She
was a cop there.” He wondered why she asked.

“You called her Meggie. Pretty familiar.”

“She and her husband were good to me.”

Stacey nodded. The sun—really hot now at
noon—bounced off the fifty shades of red in her hair. His hand
itched to touch it.

“That’s right, you aren’t a native of Hidden
Cove. Why’d you leave the Big Apple?”

“I wanted someplace small.” Someplace safe.
“And I’d gotten tired of big-city firefighting.”

She nodded. “Well, Captain, you’re a
veritable font of contradictions.”

He ducked his head. “How’d it go, playing
Mary Poppins the day you emailed me about the superheroes?”