1
“You’re taking two months off. That’s not a suggestion, that’s an order, Lieutenant.”
“Two months?” Lucas Russell frowned as he looked up at Chief Simons, checking to see if there was any hint of humor on her face. There was nothing. Everything about her was serious. From the way her mouth was set in a thin line, to her perfectly straight spine as she sat on the chair opposite his. “I don’t need that long.”
Truth was, he didn’t want to take any time off at all. He never did. The White City Fire Department was pretty much his life, and he liked it that way.
Still holding his gaze, Chief Simons leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers in front of her. “When was the last time you took any paid leave?” she asked him.
Lucas paused in an attempt to remember. “I took a week off last year. To visit my sister in New York.”
“I checked your file and that week off was over eighteen months ago. Since then you’ve taken no leave and you’ve not had a single day off due to sickness. No wonder you’re burned out.” She pressed her lips together.
Her reply felt like a slap in the face. Burned out? Is that what she thought? He reached his hand up and ran his palm over his closely cropped black hair, trying to think of an appropriate response.
She must have seen the expression on his face, because her own features softened, along with the tone of her voice. “Lucas,” she began gently, leaning forward across the table, “I know how dedicated you are to this job, and that’s very admirable. You’re the one we can always rely on. The first man I think of when a job needs doing. But you’re no good to me if you’re exhausted. You need a break – a long one – to recharge your batteries. You’ve stored up enough paid leave over the years to cover it.”
Lucas looked around the room. He’d been working out of White City Station for nearly ten years. It was one of the biggest stations in the state – with two trucks and two engines, as well as a paramedic vehicle. It was here that the battalion chief worked, too. As the commander responsible for several stations – and multiple fire companies – Chief Simons was Lucas’ bosses’ boss. She was one of the few female battalion chiefs on the West Coast, and she’d earned every bit of respect the firefighters gave her. She’d worked her way up the ranks, from probationer through to Captain, showing true grit as a Lieutenant in charge of fighting wildfires in Southern California. When the position of Battalion chief was empty, after the previous holder retired, she’d been a popular choice to fill the role.
“I’m not exhausted. I’m fine,” Lucas protested, though his words held little conviction. But the thought of taking enforced leave – of not doing the job he loved – made him feel so uncomfortable he had to shift in his seat.
“You froze, Lieutenant.” Chief Simons’ voice was back to being firm. “That doesn’t seem fine to me. You’ve been through a lot in the past few weeks. You need time to adjust, to grieve, I need you fit and well, and right now you’re not.”
It felt as though all the muscles in his chest were tightening in on him, not letting the air get to his lungs. The thought of taking enforced leave – of sitting in his nondescript apartment in White City – sent a shiver down his spine. He never spent any time there – not waking time, anyway. What was the point when there was so much to do here at the Station, and out at emergency calls?
And yeah, he had frozen up – but anybody would’ve if they’d been through what he had. It didn’t mean anything.
“I’m not going to freeze again,” he told her. “Even the psychologist said that.”
Chief Simons pulled a sheet of paper out from the brown file in front of her. “He also suggested you take some time off, and I agree. This isn’t up for discussion.”
Lucas knew that, or at least his head did. He’d known it from her first words, but it was taking some time for that message to reach his heart. Because if he wasn’t fighting fires, what was he going to do?
“If I take the two months off, will my job still be open when I come back?” he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Of course. I’ve asked Marcus to step up for those two months, but after that the job is yours.” She tipped her head to the side, surveying his response. “I don’t want to lose you, Lieutenant. You’re the best man I’ve got. But unless you take some time to rest, I fear we’ll lose you anyway.” She gave him the smallest of smiles. “The captain tells me you have some cottage in Angel Sands you’ve been meaning to work on for years.”
Lucas swallowed, his mouth dryer than ever. “Yeah, my grandparents’ cottage. My grandma left it to me and my sister when she died a few years ago.” And it had been standing empty ever since.
“Maybe you should go home and work on renovating it.”
Home? It took him a moment to realize she was talking about Angel Sands. The small town where he’d been brought up, the same one where his parents still lived. It was only thirty miles away from the built-up metropolis of White City, but a thousand miles away in outlook. Where White City was go-getting and busy, Angel Sands was laid back and easy. It had been the perfect town to grow up in, but to live in forever?
No way. It didn’t even have a full-time fire department.
“I spoke with Captain Lakin at the fire house there,” Chief Simons said, as though she was reading his mind. “They can always use another volunteer. He said he’d love to have you on board for the next couple of months.”
The two stations couldn’t have been any different. Being so close to the city, and two major highways, the firefighters at White City Station were called out to a lot of serious incidents. Plus there were the wildfires that plagued the forest beyond – the ones that ate up acres of dry grass and trees in minutes.
Whereas the volunteer force at Angel Sands were rarely called out, and when they were, the situation was almost always a minor one. Cats to pull down from trees, small house fires, and the rare occasion when they helped the coastguard due to an incident on the ocean. How did he know? Because he?
?d volunteered there himself when he was at college. It had been one of the reasons he’d applied to join the White City fire department as soon as he’d graduated.
“You want me to volunteer?” Lucas asked, confused. “But I thought you said I needed a break.”
This time Chief Simons’ smile was bigger. “You do. But I know you pretty well, and I know your break will be much easier if it’s structured. I don’t see any problem with you volunteering, and I cleared it with the psych. As I said, Mitch Lakin would love to have you on board.” She raised her eyebrows. “If nothing else, he could use some help with his paperwork.”
Lucas couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Captain Lakin’s aversion to paperwork was legendary. According to rumors, there were reports from the last millennium still piled up in his office waiting to be filed. “It sounds like tougher work than staying here,” he said, humor finally softening his voice.
Chief Simons chuckled. “It probably is. But if anybody can help Mitch, I know you can.” She shrugged. “Anyway, the most important thing is that you switch off from White City. Spend some time with your family, with your friends. Work on your cottage. And when you come back here you’ll be ready to face anything, which is exactly how I need you.”
The Fire Department wasn’t so different to any other public service, be it the military or the police force. It worked because people observed the hierarchy and gave their superiors the respect they deserved, anything else would be anarchy. As the chief had said from the outset, this wasn’t a request, it was an order. Whether Lucas liked it or not, he was going to have to accept it.
2
“I swear this thing hates me. Light, dammit!”
Ember Kennedy looked up from the birthday decorations she’d been fixing on the fence, surprised at her mom’s outburst. In the twenty-eight years Ember had lived on this earth, she couldn’t remember Laura Kennedy ever swearing.
She watched as her mom jabbed at the grill’s ignition switch, her index finger digging in and out as though she was poking somebody in an argument.
Ember laid down her staple gun and walked across the freshly cut grass to where her mom and the grill were engaged in battle. Tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, she took a deep breath.
It was time to tread carefully, she knew a woman on the edge when she saw one. She’d been one, after all.
Still was sometimes.
“You need some help, Mom?” she asked gently.
Her mom’s face was set in a grim expression. “I told your father we needed to buy a new grill.” She shook her head, as if to ward off the tears that seemed to flow whenever she spoke of her late husband. “He refused to get one, that stupid old fool.”
She sniffed the emotion back, and took a deep breath, before jabbing at the small orange switch again. Ember took her hand, carefully folding it in her own. “It’s probably the propane supply. I’ll take a look at the connection.”
Laura huffed, but took a step backward to let Ember kneel down beneath the six-burner grill. Ember tapped the silver cap that connected the gas bottle to the hose, but the join was pretty solid, there was no leak that she could see.