The Firefighter's Christmas Reunion

Isaac knelt down to speak to the boy and Hannah strained to hear his reply. “I’ll tell you what. If you get the recipe for me, next time we have a pancake breakfast, we’ll make them your way. I had some like that once when I lived in Morocco and I bet everyone in town will love ’em.”

Something tugged low in Hannah’s belly. Isaac hadn’t said that he’d make Sammy his own batch, which would only have made her son feel more different and out of place. Instead, he’d had the perfect response, offering to bring a piece of Sammy’s old life to share with everyone in his new life.

It was too bad Isaac Jones never kept his word.

Chapter Two

The strident bell pierced Hannah’s eardrums and she frantically looked around the classroom for her son, who’d been helping her staple the words Happy Halloween to the bulletin board that had belonged to Mrs. Fernandez before the teacher had gone on maternity leave. Sammy dropped the stapler and had his hands covering his own ears. His pupils were wide but, thankfully, not filled with terror.

“It’s just the fire alarm,” she told him, using her calmest teacher voice. “Come on. I’ll show you where we line up.”

She reached for his hand and, though his expression was filled with a mix of curiosity and tension, he immediately latched onto Hannah and followed her out to the nearly empty hallway lined with student artwork from earlier this year. His head pivoted in every possible direction and he asked, “Where is the fire?”

“There probably isn’t a fire, sweetie. Otherwise, we’d smell the smoke. My bet is they’re just testing the alarm to make sure it works.” A few other teachers—who, like her, must’ve come in on a Sunday to catch up on lesson plans and grading—trickled out of various rooms and toward the front door. Some of the tension left Sammy’s fingers as he saw that nobody else was concerned about the constant peal of the bell. Hannah raised her voice to be heard over it, as well as the siren on the fire engine pulling into the drop-off lane. “At the beginning of the school year, the teachers show all the kids what we do during a fire drill. But since we’re both coming in a little late this semester, we’ll get to figure it out together.”

It might’ve sounded like a grand adventure, except Hannah was pretty sure she hadn’t yet explained about fire drills to Sammy. Actually, there was a lot she hadn’t explained to the boy, but she hadn’t wanted to overwhelm him with information. There’d been classrooms at the children’s home where he’d lived and he was excited about attending school. Although he had an accent from growing up in the Western region of Ghana, the orphanage had been founded by British missionaries. There wouldn’t be much of a language barrier, just a cultural one. Besides, he was a smart child. Not everything was new and different, so there was no need to be patronizing. Her plan was to stick close to him and try to explain things as he experienced them for the first time.

Hannah basked in the sheer awe on her son’s face as she realized that this was the first time Sammy had seen an American fire engine up close. But that shared excitement gave way to an unexpected wobble in Hannah’s stomach.

Speaking of firsts, she’d also never before witnessed the sight of Isaac Jones in turnout gear. Well, at least, in the yellow pants and red suspenders. It was still unseasonably warm and neither he nor the other three people exiting the huge red truck wore their jackets.

Whoa. It was bad enough that he’d broken his vow to never visit Sugar Falls again, but since when did the city allow tourists to ride around in the fire engine? Not that he was a typical tourist.

Still. Isaac had been a summer kid, like her, and since it was now closing in on November, it should be well past time for him to be going back to...where? Where did he live now?

Mrs. Dunn, the school nurse, bustled past a stunned Hannah and greeted the firefighters. “Sorry you guys had to come out again, Chief. I thought the alarm company had fixed everything yesterday.”

Who was she calling chief? Certainly not Isaac. Grabbing onto the metal handrail on the stairs in front of the school, Hannah racked her brain for the slightest scrap of recollection about their brief, and extremely awkward, conversation yesterday morning in the Grange Hall kitchen. Last night, she’d gone over every word, facial expression and movement he’d made that day. Had she missed something?

The blue T-shirt he was wearing was very similar to the one he’d had on at the pancake breakfast. The one she’d assumed he’d gotten from his uncle who led the volunteer crew. Although, this time, Hannah’s eyes zeroed in on the words Chief Jones stenciled in white letters over one of his well-formed pectoral muscles.

Oh. No.

Isaac paused only for a second when his gaze landed on her. If Hannah hadn’t already been gawking at him, she would’ve missed it. But he was quick to recover and turned all of his attention toward Nurse Dunn. “You might want to call them out again. In the meantime, have everyone stay here while we go make sure the building is clear.”

Hannah’s palms were cool and clammy, which must’ve made it easy for Sammy’s fingers to slip out of her hand. Before she could pry her stunned mouth open and stop him, he was bounding down the stairs and sprinting toward Isaac.

She should’ve expected it. Her son loved big trucks and he loved running every time he got the chance. But she was still in a state of shock.

“Can I come with you?” Sammy asked, further surprising Hannah. Her son normally didn’t warm up to people very quickly and he was always way too shy to ask for what he wanted.

Isaac smiled at the boy and bent down. “Not right this second, big guy. But as soon as we make sure that there isn’t a fire inside, I can let you climb up into the engine and pull the switch for the siren.” The man’s hazel gaze flickered over Hannah and he amended, “If you’re still here when we come out.”

She sucked air through her clenched teeth. What was that supposed to mean? Did Isaac think she was just going to run off at the mere sight of him? If so, he had another thought coming. She marched down the steps and recaptured Sammy’s hand, forcing a tense smile at her son, but refusing to make eye contact with Isaac. “We can wait.”

The truth was, she couldn’t leave, even if she wanted to. Her purse and car keys were still inside her classroom. Two teachers she’d known from her previous years at the elementary school were huddled with the nurse on the front sidewalk. However, their whispering stopped when Hannah looked their way. Not that she could blame them for their curiosity at seeing one of their recently returned coworkers suddenly confronted with the reappearance of an old flame. But it still made Hannah’s nerves twist.

She let out a sigh when Sammy tugged on her hand, pulling her closer to check out the fire engine. While she definitely did not share her son’s enthusiasm for the monstrous vehicle that had brought her ex-boyfriend literally screeching back into her life, at least Hannah now had an excuse to avoid any conversations where she might be asked about why her skin had gone as red as the truck the second Isaac appeared.

Unfortunately, her relief was short-lived because the incessantly loud ringing came to a sudden halt. In fact, in the echo of the fire alarm’s silence, she could hear her pulse picking up tempo. That meant Isaac was coming back this way and now it was Hannah’s internal alarm bells going off.

“All clear,” one of the other firefighters—the driver—announced and Hannah was surprised to see that Nurse Dunn and the other two teachers had already left. Hannah’s car was the only one remaining in the lot and she again silently cursed herself for not bringing her purse and keys with her. The female firefighter came out next and Hannah found herself hoping that one of them could quickly show Sammy the fire engine so they could sneak back to her classroom before Isaac arrived.

But there was no such luck. Isaac, looking way more confident and smug than he had a right to, came loping down the steps. He passed a clipboard to the fourth firefighter and said, “Write up the report, Rook. I have a junior officer here who needs to learn how to drive the engine.”

Isaac gave Sammy a high five and then the boy sprinted after him toward the driver’s side of the big red truck.

“No problem, Chief,” the baby-faced young man said before smiling at Hannah. She looked at his nametag. Clausson. He didn’t look familiar to her. In fact, she realized as she scanned the other firefighters’ faces, she didn’t know any of them.

“Apparently, the volunteer fire department is finally recruiting people under the age of fifty-five.” Hannah’s forced chuckle sounded more like a nervous giggle and the younger man lifted one dark eyebrow at her.

“Don’t worry. Jonesy and Scooter and the rest of the elders are still around picking up volunteer shifts. But now that the city also has a paid department, our full-time crews are a bit...oh, shall we say...less seasoned.” Clausson gave her a wink, but her heart was already rioting inside her chest, so it didn’t have the flirtatious effect he might’ve intended.

“You mean you’re not a volunteer?” she asked, though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

“None of us are today, miss.”

So if Isaac wasn’t a volunteer, this wasn’t just some short-term gig for him. Which meant that he wasn’t here temporarily. Hannah forced herself to breathe deeply. She was seriously going to throttle her older brothers for not warning her.

Young Clausson leaned closer and lowered his voice. “If you want to come by the brand-new station, I can arrange to give you, uh...a private tour.”

“Hey, Rook.” The female firefighter walked between them and tapped on Clausson’s clipboard. “If the chief catches you putting the moves on his ex-girlfriend instead of writing that report, you’re going to be on laundry detail indefinitely.”

Clausson’s whiskerless cheeks turned a shade of pink as he muttered a four-letter word and scrambled away so quickly that Hannah choked on the sudden cloud of overpowering cologne left in his wake.

Well, she was either choking on the scent, or on the female firefighter’s unexpected statement. Hannah looked down at the woman’s nametag—Rodriguez—then cleared her throat. “I’m not really Isaac’s ex-girlfriend, you know.”

“Sorry about that.” Rodriguez transferred her helmet from one arm to the other and gave a sheepish grimace before extending her hand. “I’m Olivia. I’ve only lived here for eighteen months and I’m still learning how to navigate small-town gossip.”

“Hannah Gregson.” She swallowed, returning the handshake. “There’s...uh...gossip? I mean, obviously there’s gossip, but I just hadn’t expected it already.”

She was dying to ask what people were saying, but she closed her eyes and gave a brief shake of her head. Nope. Hannah didn’t care back then what people thought and she certainly didn’t care now.

“The talk is why I assumed something was going on between you two,” Olivia explained and Hannah’s fingers curled into her hipbones as she twisted the fabric inside her jeans’ pockets.

“I guess, technically, we’re exes, but it was more of a summer fling when we were in high school.” She attempted a casual shrug but her shoulders were too stiff to properly execute it. “Maybe two summer flings. But it wasn’t like we had an ongoing official status or anything since it was strictly only a part-time, seasonal kinda relationship. Really, things didn’t get all that hot and heavy until after graduation...oh, my gosh, I need to stop talking.”

Hannah pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to see Rodriguez’s response to her long-winded ramblings. “Anyway, it was all so long ago, I hardly ever think about it anymore.” She gave the woman a tense smile. “I should go check on my son.”

Her legs were trembling with a combination of embarrassment and annoyance as she walked toward the cab of the fire engine. Embarrassment that she’d just spilled her guts to a complete stranger who also happened to work for Isaac. And annoyance because Hannah hadn’t been better prepared to deal with suddenly having the man back in her life.

Watching the fire chief put his helmet on Sammy’s head as her son held on to the huge steering wheel, pretending to drive the truck, she felt a wave of tenderness battle against the rest of her raging emotions. Unfortunately, her irritation won out and she her rib cage expanded with each frustrated breath.

Hannah had never expected that the arrogant, rich teenager she’d once known would leave his perfectly mapped-out life on the East Coast and return to Sugar Falls, let alone move here permanently.

And who in the world had thought it would be a good idea to put someone like him in charge of the fire department, responsible for saving innocent people?

Indifference would have been Isaac’s first choice of reactions to seeing the woman who’d once held his teenage heart in her hands. Annoyance, or even anger, would also have been an expected response to seeing Hannah again, though, most of the aching bitterness he’d held on to throughout college had dissipated. Instead, Isaac found himself filled with a weird sort of curiosity about her and hadn’t stopped thinking about her since she’d showed up yesterday. And the last thing he wanted was for someone—especially her—to mistake that curiosity for renewed interest. He’d had ten years to grow wiser and thicken his skin. There was no way he’d fall under her spell a second time.

He looked over Sammy’s head at the woman standing on the opposite side of the cab of the fire engine, her lips twisted into a tight line while she eyeballed the two of them. Really, it wasn’t as if he was going toss her son into a raging inferno the second she took her eyes off him. Would it hurt Hannah to take a step back and maybe not frown quite so much?

Her blond hair was twisted into another messy bun secured to the top of her head with two pencils, and Isaac had to admit that her face was still as striking as ever, with strong, high cheekbones and aqua blue eyes that never used to be so guarded. So wary. Scanning past her faded flannel work shirt and down the length of her, he noticed that her legs were still long and lean, but her hips were just a little fuller. Everything about her was the same, except more. More mature, more compelling, more...arousing.

“Can I turn on the siren?” Sammy’s voice was soft and tentative, as though he was afraid to ask for what he wanted. Despite his reserved manner, amazement glowed out of the boy’s eyes and Isaac knew the kid was a goner. Just like Isaac had been the first time he’d visited his Uncle Jonesy and toured the old volunteer station.

Isaac stayed with his uncle the summer after his parents’ divorce and then returned every June through August after that. One would think that he and Hannah would’ve bonded over their status as “summer kids,” but she was more of a social activist than a socializer. It wasn’t until after they were sixteen that Little Miss Do-Gooder had come out of her shell and spoken more than a sentence to him at an impromptu car wash fund-raiser she’d organized to raise money for a local animal shelter.

It was also the first time that he’d ever seen her in a bathing suit and he would never forget the way she’d—

“Sammy, we should probably let the firefighters get back to work,” Hannah called through the open passenger door, interrupting Isaac’s steamy memory.

“Okay.” Her son’s shoulders slumped, but he didn’t let go of the steering wheel.

“Wait,” she said quickly. “Would you guys mind if I took a picture of him sitting there with the helmet on and everything?”

Isaac was used to kids and their fascination with fire engines and uniforms, so it was a pretty standard request from a doting parent. He attempted a casual shrug before replying, “No problem.”

She patted down her denim-clad hips before a blush stole up her cheeks. “I left my phone in the classroom.”

A flurry of emotions crossed Hannah’s face and Isaac could tell she was wrestling with whether to leave her precious son unattended with him or to forego the picture altogether. While Isaac hadn’t exactly been proud of the way he’d handled their breakup all those years ago, Hannah surely had to know that he wasn’t a complete monster. Even if he’d still been holding on to a ten-year-old grudge, which he clearly wasn’t, Isaac would never involve an innocent child in a petty dispute. Anyone who knew him would know that.

However, Hannah obviously hadn’t really known him back then and she certainly didn’t know him now. Otherwise, she wouldn’t always be expecting the worst from him. She wouldn’t have been so quick to move on after that night...

Taking pity on the kid, Isaac reached into his pocket and pulled out his own smartphone. He tapped on the camera icon before passing it through the cab of the truck. “Here, you can use mine.”

As her pupils darted down to the electronic device and back up to him, the changing expression on her face suggested she was struggling to make a decision. Isaac couldn’t help himself from adding, “Unless you have a better offer.”

Narrowing her eyes, she reached out so quickly, her fingers brushed across the back of his hand. Although the brief contact was only the result of him purposely goading her, it was the second time in the past forty-eight hours that the slightest touch from Hannah had sent his pulse skyrocketing.

But her words quickly brought him back down to earth. “As I recall, you were never hurting for any offers yourself.”

Isaac’s brow twisted in confusion. What in the hell was that supposed to mean? And was it his imagination, or did the phone tremble slightly as she held it up to frame the image?

Hannah moved the phone forward and backward, then immediately lowered the screen, revealing her sucked-in cheeks. Isaac flashed back to a memory of her doing the same thing whenever she’d been embarrassed. But the sweet memory was soon replaced with a less pleasant sensation when she finally said, “Would you mind backing up?”

He looked at the steel step he was standing on outside the driver’s side door. If he backed up any more, he’d be on the asphalt. His gaze returned to her and she gave him a tense nod, encouraging him to step down. “If you didn’t want me in the picture, you could’ve just said so.”

“I thought I did,” she mumbled, then she jerked her head toward Sammy with a pointed look that could only indicate that she was hoping to avoid any type of unpleasantness in front of her son.

She’d never been very good at confrontation, at least, not where Isaac had been concerned. And apparently she hadn’t gotten much better. Not that he’d come here looking for a fight; however, there was only so much professional courtesy he could extend. Community outreach was part of his job, rehashing the past was not. Keeping his mouth firmly shut, he jumped down off the rig and tried to pretend that he didn’t notice Hannah’s obvious change in tone when she sweetly told her son to count to three and say cheese.

Chapter Three

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that he was back in town,” Hannah said to her brother Luke as soon as Sammy ran out the back door to play with his older cousins.

“Who is he?” Carmen, her soon-to-be sister-in-law, asked as she set out a salad bowl full of mixed berries.

“Don’t ask,” her brother whispered to his fiancée.

“Isaac Jones!” Hannah might as well have shouted, her voice echoed so loudly inside the old Victorian home Luke’s family had just moved into. He turned to the pizza boxes she’d set on the counter, but not before she caught his eye roll.

“You mean the fire chief?” Carmen asked, then gave Luke a reprimanding look and closed the cardboard lid on his hand. “You get the boys washed up. I’ll set the table.”

“What table?” Luke asked, looking out of the kitchen and into the empty dining room. “Hannah kept everything when she moved back into our cabin.”

“First of all, you got Nana’s Oldsmobile and I got all of her outdated furniture, which I lovingly and painfully refurbished before I went to Ghana,” Hannah said slowly, as though she was explaining fairness to a first grader—for the eight hundredth time. “Secondly, it’s the Gregson family cabin, and I lived there first.”

“Ignore your brother.” Carmen gave a dismissive wave. “He’s wanted to live in town since he moved to Sugar Falls full time and when you got back, he finally had an excuse to buy this old fixer-upper. Anyway, do you and Chief Jones have history or something?”

“History? Ha!” Luke said around a mouthful of pepperoni he’d sneaked off one of the pizzas. “You guys were barely outta high school. Shouldn’t you be over that by now?”

Carmen’s eyes lit up. She was a cop, and Hannah had a feeling that she was dying to investigate something other than who was at fault for the latest fender bender in the Duncan’s Market parking lot.

“Of course I’m over him,” Hannah argued. Her head pounded and her arms ached from cutting out all of those pumpkin shapes from cardstock before stapling them to her new bulletin board. The first day back at school was always chaotic, but since she was coming into the classroom halfway through the semester, this year was already proving to be an uphill battle in concentration. She tried to remind herself that she’d been lucky to get this last-minute teaching assignment when she’d rushed home unexpectedly to be closer to her mom. Rubbing her temples, she added, “It’s just that it would’ve been nice to be forewarned that I’d have to see him on a regular basis. I didn’t even know that Sugar Falls had a real fire department now.”

Luke gestured at his wife’s blue uniform with a greasy thumb. “As soon as the residents of Sugar Falls voted to form their own police force, everyone knew that a fire station was going to be next. They’re even housed in the same building. On two separate sides, obviously.”

Hannah sighed. Before she’d left for Ghana, she’d attended every school board and city council meeting there was. She should’ve expected as much and normally would be the first to endorse the improvement of their town. But did they have to hire Isaac Jones?

“What are his qualifications, anyway?” she muttered to herself, but Carmen’s raised brow indicated she’d heard. “I mean, besides volunteering with his uncle and racing around town as if he had a siren permanently attached to anything he drove. Including that jet boat he used to drive way too fast on Rush Lake, showing off for all those girls from Sugar Falls High.”

“I remember that boat! That’s the one his dad bought him for his sixteenth birthday.” Luke smiled, then caught his bride-to-be’s eye and quickly cleared his throat. “I mean, I remember that it went fast. I don’t exactly recall the part about the girls...”

Carmen laughed at Luke’s flustered explanation. “Perhaps I should put on my bikini and grab a wakeboard to help jog your memory.”

Luke pulled his fiancée toward him and whispered something in her ear, causing her to squeal with laughter.

Hannah rolled her eyes at the smitten couple. “I lived in this town for five years after college and didn’t have so much as a blind date. I’m barely out of the country and you and Drew and every other single person in Sugar Falls are getting married off.”

“Technically,” Luke said, tapping his bare ring finger. “I’m still waiting for Carmen to make an honest man out of me.”

“Good luck with that,” Hannah said with a snort. Then she added, “How’re the wedding plans going?”

“Moving the date up to Thanksgiving week was a little tricky. We had to switch venues, make it more of a destination wedding so that Carmen’s family wouldn’t have so far to travel. But the sooner we have it, the easier it will be for Mom to...you know.”

The immediate silence grounded Hannah and reminded her that she had bigger issues to address in her life than the reappearance of Isaac Jones. Nobody had really brought up their mother’s recent diagnosis, as though to mention the cancer would cause it to spread more quickly.