Page 29 of Once Upon a Summer Night

“No IT group, or no network?”

“Yes?” he answered.

Lord, it was worse than she thought. Good thing she loved a challenge. And this office had all the makings of that.

“Maybe you could just show me how to log into his machine and whatever other tasks you were working on in his absence?”

“That, I can do.” Chase made his way to her father’s chair, then paused, his cheeks pinkening. “Look, Hannah, about the other day—”

She held a hand up. “Hey, you said it was an accident, and that’s good enough for me. Cool?”

The tension eased from his shoulders. “Cool.”

She offered him a fist bump to prove all was well. “Good. Now hand me the keys to this small town’s kingdom, so I can get to work. Oh, and Chase?”

He looked up from the password he was scribbling down. “Yeah?”

“Try not to accidentally kiss me again while I’m here. We don’t need that getting back to my father.”

His eyes narrowed as his neck turned that lovely shade of red once more. At her grin, he just shook his head and went back to writing. So long as they could tease one another, all would be right with the world.

*

Chase watched Hannahleave at lunchtime, fully expecting to get razzed by the guys the minute she left. Why wouldn’t they, when it looked like the chief and his higher-ups felt he couldn’t run the station on his own? And despite knowing the real reason Stephen Brooks had sent her here, Chase wouldn’t tell the others. It would deteriorate their respect for Hannah before she’d even had a chance to earn it, and possibly for the chief.

Thankfully, he didn’t get instantly bombarded with questions or even teased about his new office partner. Though, that might have been because he’d stayed hidden in the office all afternoon, fuming. Not at her, but the others responsible for her new assignment.

All the chief had to do was give him a simple heads-up—would that have been so much to ask?

And why the hell does it still smell like lilacs in here?

Two low-priority afternoon call-outs got him some fresh air and a little distance from the mess at the station. As his anger waned, he reminded himself that all of this was temporary and that it would hopefully help Hannah keep Noah. That was far more important in the grand scheme of things than his ego.

“I still can’t believe they sent the chief’s daughter to fill in for him,” Dylan Campbell admitted after dinner that night. He and Chase were on cleanup duty while Joey Martinez and Cody Mitchell digested in the common room.

Me either.“Yeah. Pretty wild, huh?”

Dylan was the only fireman on Chase’s current rotation who’d been working here when Hannah skipped town. He and Chase hadn’t hung around much back then, and she’d never been a topic of conversation before. So, it surprised him when Dylan added quietly, “You gonna be okay with that?”

“Sure,” Chase answered as he handed him a freshly washed plate. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Dylan shrugged as he towel-dried the dishware. “I just remember how you two were always kinda connected at the hip back in the day. Didn’t know if it’d be awkward. You know, her coming back after being away so long.”

“Nah. I mean, it’s going to take some adjustment for sure. But I never faulted her for leaving.”I just wished she’d hurry up and come back home.

“Is it gonna be weird, though, working together?” Dylan asked.

“Why would it be?” Cody asked, bringing an empty glass into the kitchen.

Chase gave Dylan a warning glance. The last thing he needed was the whole house thinking he and Hannah were an item, especially when it wasn’t true.

“Hannah and I went to school together,” he told Cody. “We used to hang out a lot. Heck, as a kid I was at Brooks Farm more than my own home.”

“Why’s that?”

Chase’s gaze shifted to the murky dishwater before him, unwanted memories creeping back to the surface. This much, he could tell them.

“The chief found me hiding in their hunting cabin when I was nine, after my stepmom used me as a punching bag halfway through her nightly bottle of Jack. He took me up to the farmhouse, got me cleaned up, then sat me down with the first warm meal I’d had in weeks. Told me I was welcome there anytime, and if that woman ever lifted a hand to me again to tell him and he’d take care of it. Needless to say, Brooks Farm became my favorite hiding place. I spent a lot of time there going forward.”

---