Page 230 of Her Reluctant Hero
Gabe staggered back as Kim launched herself against him. In reflex, he caught her as she hooked her legs about his waist. Beyond her, Peyton quirked a brow. He scowled in response to her silent question.
“We were so worried!” Kim blubbered against his shoulder. “We shouldn’t have left you!”
“You had to get those kids out of there.” He patted her back awkwardly, before resting his hands on her hips and wondering how to dislodge her. “You did the right thing.”
“We thought we’d left you behind to die. It came up so fast.”
He drew back to look at her. It was tough as hell being a hard-ass with a female hanging on your front. “Did all the kids get back in one piece?”
“Yeah, they were real troopers.”
Finally realizing the brashness of her greeting, Kim climbed down his body, swiping at her face, trying to regain some dignity. Gabe watched her matter-of-fact maneuvering with some amusement.
“I’m, ah, sorry. Got a little excited.” Her face was only a shade lighter than her hair, and she studied the ground.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with more joviality than he might have ordinarily shown, disguising his embarrassment as well as hers. “Just be glad you’ll get the next twenty-four hours off.”
“We should celebrate,” she said, then brightened. “Let’s celebrate! I’ll round up the crew and we’ll go into town for drinks.”
Gabe glanced over her head at Peyton, who stood nearby with uncharacteristic uncertainty in her bearing. “What do you say, Peyton? Sound good to you?”
“Um, sure.” She sounded surprised at being included.
Gabe nodded to Kim. “All right, good. You round everybody up. We’ll get cleaned up some so we don’t scare the locals.” He stepped around Kim toward Peyton. “Let’s see about your shower, huh? Line’s over there.” He gestured to the yellow-shirted arrow pointing at a line of semitrailers. “You get five minutes. I’ll meet you back here.”
*****
Oh God. Oh heaven. Okay, maybe the water was tepid, but it was wet. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back so the soot wouldn’t run into her eyes. Black rivulets ran down her body as she lathered her hair. It had been flat with sweat and positively black when she took off her hard hat. What she wouldn’t give for a razor.
The sad trickle of water was her refuge. She deserved it after the last thirty-six hours.
She had her story, and then some. What she’d experienced, what these men and women were capable of, could keep her in articles for a year.
Or a book. The idea popped into her head and expanded exponentially. A first-hand account of this life-or-death job.
Better, it gave her a reason to stay, to go back to the fire line. She would finally be committed to a job, like the people she wrote about.
After the cave, she’d sworn she was through. But the thrill of facing death and beating it pulsed through her. She loved the uncontrolled feeling of it. No safety nets here. You mess up, you’re toast. Literally. She wanted to experience it again and hoped to discover it had only been a fluke, that she didn’t love danger the way her husband had.
Or was the book idea only a reason to stay close to Gabe Cooper? She wasn’t so shallow, to let interest in a man dictate her actions.
Yes, interest in a man. She admitted it to herself now. Every minute they spent together, he was becoming more and more his own man in her mind, not an article for a story, not a reminder of Dan. Someone with his own strengths and foibles and heartaches.
Someone she couldn’t afford to let any closer. Maybe if she stayed, Jen would put her with another crew. But the thought took some of the shine from her idea.
Gabe had said they were only allowed five minutes in the shower, but surely no one would notice if she took a little longer. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.
A disturbance near the showers caught Gabe’s attention as he made his way back after dodging a horde of reporters who had staked out the mess tent. The usually orderly line of tired filthy firefighters waiting for a shower had shifted into a mob, shouting at one of the semis.
He ambled over, hung back as several of the more irate men banged on the metal wall of the trailer. “What’s going on?”
“Some rookie’s using up all the water.” One of the men scowled, not looking at him.
He scanned the group for a blonde ponytail, already pretty sure who the culprit was. “Anybody try shutting it off?”
“There’s other people showering too.”
He sighed and strode to the front of the crowd to knock on the door.
