The Firefighter to Heal Her Heart. Annie O'Neil
an infectious sense of fun. She hadn’t felt carefree in—well, in a long time, and it was something she missed.
“You know what I mean.” She swatted at the air between them. “It wasn’t like it was a bushfire or a car crash.” She suddenly found herself unable to maintain eye contact. Firemen—especially men who volunteered to go into hazardous situations—were definitely in the no-go zone.
His voice turned serious. “Of course I do—but we take all of our callouts seriously and I, for one, would hate to think anyone would hesitate to call us if we could help.”
She looked up into those amazing blue eyes of his as if to confirm that the words he spoke were genuine.
“Truly,” he reiterated solidly, as though mind reading the few threads of doubt tugging at her conscience.
“Well, I know one little fellow who will be dining off your heroics for weeks.”
Jack leaned back against the cattle crush and nodded appraisingly at her. “So, you think I’m a hero, do you?”
A flush of heat rushed up her throat as he waited for her answer.
“Of course not! I mean, you definitely were to Devlin—”
Jack’s easy laughter stopped her inane flow of apologies.
“Don’t worry, Miss Adler. I’m always out for a free compliment if I can get one.” He tilted his head in her direction, capturing her attention with another one of those winks. Resist, Liesel. Resist.
“There is one way you can repay the Country Fire Service if you feel you owe us one.”
Liesel crooked her chin up at him, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Murray Valley needs more volunteers. Big-time. A nurse would be a great addition to our local crew.”
Liesel felt herself physically recoil from the suggestion.
Not a chance.
She didn’t do hazardous things anymore. Not with a son to look after. Not after the loss she’d suffered.
Jack knew in an instant he’d overstepped the mark. Her gentle, sunny personality vanished the moment he’d made his suggestion. There was definitely something painfully private she was keeping close to her chest. Fair enough. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have his own secrets. Secrets he kept to make his life easier, more honest. Or was that an oxymoron? Keeping secrets to stay honest.
“Liesel! Quit flirting with the handsome fireman,” a female voice called from across the farmyard. “We’ve got to get the kids back to school for pickup!”
Jack and Liesel instantly widened the space between them, staring stricken-faced in the direction of the voice. Liesel looked absolutely mortified and Jack hadn’t felt so caught out since he’d been found snogging the headmaster’s daughter behind the bike shed when he was thirteen. As if by design, he and Liesel simultaneously looked back at each other, saw their mutual expressions of dismay and immediately burst into unrestrained guffaws.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to look so disgusted! I mean, no—not disgusted.” He waved away the choice of words as if the gesture would erase them. “It’s not that you repel me or anything—”
“I think you’d better quit while you’re ahead!” Liesel laughed, wiping away invisible tears from her eyes. She threw a quick glance over her shoulder toward the growing hubbub of children. “I had better go.”
Jack felt a tug of resistance. So soon? “Right. Yeah, of course.” He stepped forward and offered a hand. “Nice doing business with you, Miss Adler.”
What a first-class dill!
Liesel’s green eyes flashed up at him, unsurprisingly bemused. He’d really gone in for the bad conversational hat trick. Nice doing business with you?
She slipped her petite hand into his and offered him a quick shake of thanks. The delicacy of her fingers instantly made him feel protective of her. Not his usual response to a woman. Normally he wanted to protect himself from whatever she might want from him. Time. Commitment. Less time at the fire station. Too much history in that department had made him wary. But this one, Miss Liesel Adler, something about her told him she wanted nothing more than to stand on her two feet.
“See you around.” Liesel threw the words in her wake as she accelerated her brisk walk into a jog to rejoin the group.
Jack watched her retreat round the corner toward the school bus and spoke to the empty barnyard. “I certainly hope so.”
It was all Liesel could do to keep the hot burn of embarrassment from her cheeks as she rejoined the group.
“Got an eye for a man in uniform, have you, you naughty thing?” Cassie Monroe—or Miss Monroe to the students—raised her eyebrows up and gave her lips a tell-me-more twist. Her friend and colleague didn’t do subtle.
“Hardly!” Liesel shot back at her colleague, a bit more spiritedly than she’d intended.
“Did you get his number?” Cassie continued, as if Liesel hadn’t said a thing.
Liesel sent her a meaningful glare. A glare that she hoped said, Stop talking right now!
“You’re going to see him again, right?”
Nope. Guess the glare hadn’t worked.
“I hardly think it’s appropriate—”
“Anything’s appropriate,” Cassie interrupted, “when you’re trying to get back on the horse again.”
“I’m not trying to get on anything—horsey or otherwise.” This conversation was definitely not going in the right direction.
“Liesel.” Cassie fixed her with a loving glare, hands planted on her shoulders. “It’s time to get back out there and you’re the only one who doesn’t know it.”
“Come along, children.” Liesel actively avoided responding. “Let’s start getting on the bus. Everyone sure they haven’t left anything behind? Rickie—have you got your backpack?”
She felt Cassie sidle up beside her and heard a whisper in her ear. “You’re not going to get away with the silent treatment this time, my dear.” She felt her arm receive a good solid pinch. “After school. Playground. I want details about the hot new fireman.”
Rubbing away the sting of Cassie’s pinch, Liesel couldn’t help but grin back at her friend. They had only known each other since the beginning of term, when Liesel had taken up her new contract. Cassie’s thirteen-year-old son appeared at the nurses’ station a bit too frequently—the only plus side being that the two women had become pretty well acquainted. A couple of girlie nights in, a few tips about where to shop, a detailed who’s who at the school and Cassie had already proved to be a great friend.
Liesel hadn’t known a soul out here in wine country and meeting a fellow single mum, even if Cassie’s son was much older than her own, had taken the edge off the anxiety she’d felt at making the decision to move away from her parents’ house in Adelaide.
In reality, there had been no other option. A disastrous fortnight at the city’s biggest A and E department had proved crisis management was no longer her forte. The other staff had known her situation and had hovered over her, making her feel more paranoid and edgy than confident and comfortable. The two-week tenure had culminated in a disastrous incident where she’d completely frozen over a patient with a gory chainsaw injury. Unacceptable. She’d fired herself before the bosses had had a chance to do it for her.
She’d made the move to Engleton and it just had to work. She didn’t have the energy, or the money, for more change. Small-town life and a job she could do without turning into a bundle of nerves were meant to put an end to chaos. To the memories. And maybe, just maybe, one day she and Liam would be more than a family of two.
In