Four Flames for Angela

“Helping is part of the job. We love children and Todd is a very special young man. I hope we can see more of both of you in the future.” Rock traced one finger down her cheek and turned to walk down the steps. River smiled and touched her shoulder before following him. Hunter gave her a loose hug and jumped down the stairs. Sawyer grasped her hand and held it a second before giving it a firm shake and went to join the others.

“Make sure you lock the door behind us,” Rock turned and called before climbing up in the truck.

Angie locked the door and watched the truck as it drove away. What a day. She should have never let Todd go alone with the puppies. Trouble always found him. Why should this time be any different? Hopefully, it was something he would be able to grow out of, soon.

She let her focus drift to the

four men as she went about her nightly chores, tidying the house and getting ready to put Todd and both puppies in the bath. They were all so tall and attractive. She couldn’t stop thinking about them.

She went about her nightly routine and got Todd in bed then went to bed herself. She grabbed a book to read and soon found herself dreaming of the four men that had been in her house earlier that evening.

Chapter Two

The next day Angela was trying to fix the railing on the porch while Todd played with the puppies when a large SUV stopped in front of the house. Angela watched as the four men from last night got out. Two of them walked over to where Todd was playing, and the other two came toward the porch where Angela was still wrestling with the railing.

“Hi,” Rock or maybe River called. There were differences between the two men, but they needed to be closer for Angela to tell which one was which.

“Hi,” she answered back. “Whatcha all doing?”

“We’re off duty today and thought we’d come by and see how you and Todd were doing,” River said, walking up the stairs. He took the hammer from her hands. “Here, let me see what I can do with that.”

“Thanks, the wood is rotten here. I think I need to make a trip to the hardware store and replace it. I was hoping I could fix it, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Angela answered in frustration.

She’d known buying an older house meant lots of work and repairs. She just hadn’t been ready for everything to need fixing at the same time. The small amount of money she’d gotten from her paternal grandmother was dwindling faster than she’d expected it to. If this kept up she’d have to find a job instead of trying to pursue her dream of writing. The few writing jobs she’d been able to find writing filler pieces for magazines and online newspapers weren’t going to be enough, and the agent she’d hired hadn’t been able to find a home for the first book she’d written yet.

“You’re right. This needs to be replaced. The best thing to do would be to replace the entire railing.” River walked around the porch looking at the railing and the boards of the floor of the porch and the steps.

“I was afraid of that. I’m trying to do as much of the work as I can by myself. I didn’t realize the amount of work an old house like this would be. The neighborhood is good and Todd loves his school, but with all the repairs, I might have been better off looking for something a little newer.” Angela turned to pick up a glass of lemonade she had sitting on a small table.

“Old houses like this have a lot of character, but they can be a bitch to take care of. Especially if they haven’t been kept up over the years.” Hunter, who had followed River up on the porch, jumped down and started looking at the stairs. “These are cement and look in pretty good shape. You shouldn’t have to worry about them for a while. Your biggest problem out here is going to be the wood. While River is right it’s all going to have to be replaced, you might be able to save some money by using recycled wood or even plastic. I work with a distributor who wholesales material you might be able to use. I should be able to get a huge discount if you’re interested in doing the entire thing at one time.”

“Oh yes! If I can replace the rail all at once, that would save me money later on.” Finally some good news. Depending on the cost of what Hunter was able to get her, she might be able to replace the entire porch. Now to figure out how she and Todd could do that.

“I’d be glad to talk to Alvin for you. He often has extra material that he orders for jobs and can’t use, so he sells it for a discount. And we could help you so you could get it all done in one day and won’t have to hire someone.” Hunter looked at River who was nodding.

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Angela started saying before River interrupted.

“You didn’t ask. We offered. I’m sure you and Todd could get it done, but if we helped it wouldn’t take long at all. We’d enjoy helping and it would let us spend more time with you and Todd.” River stepped up beside her and ran the knuckles of one hand down her cheek. “We all want to get to know both of you better,” he said, his voice low and sexy.

Angela felt a little shiver dance over her skin, and she had to stop herself from leaning into his touch. She didn’t know these men and needed to be careful who she trusted. She’d found out early in life people weren’t always what they appeared to be.

“How’s the inside of the house? Is it the same?” Hunter asked. They had only seen the front room of the home last night, and he wondered if any part of the house had been updated.

“The kitchen has been updated in the last twenty years, so it’s not bad. The main bath is fairly new, but the bathroom in the master needs work. I really should have done more research before I bought this house. Come on in, I’ll show you some of the rooms.” Angela turned to check on Todd and saw that Rock and Sawyer were playing with him and the puppies. He was good.

She opened the door and went in the house, the two men following her. They went to the kitchen first. Hunter opened the cabinet and looked under the sink. “These pipes look fairly new. If they updated here, they probably did the rest of the house. If all the old pipe has been replaced, you’re one step ahead of the game. That would have been very expensive to do.”

“I bet if they went to the expense of updating the plumbing, they did the electric, too. This might have been a better bargain than I originally thought. You got pretty lucky here,” River said, looking at the breaker box in the kitchen. “This is up to code. Very lucky.”

That made Angela feel good. When she had found all the problems with the porch, she had started wondering what else was wrong with the house. Finding out that the electrical and plumbing were up to date was a huge relief off her mind. She turned and threw her arms around River. “Thank you. That’s great news!”

She needed to be careful. “How do you guys know all this? I mean you’re firefighters, but I didn’t realize that you would know about electrical and plumbing.”

“We see a lot of houses on the job, older and newer. And we all worked as apprentices for our dad and uncles when we were growing up and still help out when needed. Dad has several brothers. One uncle is an electrician, and we all took turns helping him. One is a plumber, one built houses. We all helped and learned.”

River pulled her in close for a hug and held her just a minute, Angela wanted more but knew that it was too soon for her to have the feelings she did for all of these men.

After a minute Angela stepped away and turned toward the door. “I should go check on Todd and the puppies. That boy can disappear faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”