Lucia relayed the information.
“It won’t be long now,” came the answer.
While they waited, Lucia continued to talk to the children, and as she had predicted, they responded simply to the sound of her voice.
“You’re good with kids. Do you have children? I know you mentioned nieces and nephews,” Rafe asked, wanting to ask her instead if she was married.
“No children,” she said. “Three nieces and two nephews so far, plus some honorary ones. What about you?”
“Never been married,” he said.
“Me neither,” she said.
“So no children,” he continued, as though finding out she was single hadn’t meant anything. She was single.
He looked down at the two children sitting between him and Lucia. Men weren’t supposed to have the ticking biological clock, but he did. He didn’t like the sudden realization that even if he found a woman today that he’d like to marry, he was still several years away from having children.
“You mentioned a sister—”
“With a little girl,” Rafe said. “Yeah. She’ll be two soon. They live in Atlanta.”
“A long way from here.”
“Yeah.” For the ninety-ninth time over the last day, Rafe thought maybe he could talk his sister into moving closer if her marriage ended. If, he reminded himself. Better that things work out in her marriage instead of his selfish wish to have her closer.
“What do you do, Rafael Wright?” Lucia asked with a smile, “when you’re not putting out fires and rescuing small children and damsels in distress?”
“Put out fires,” he said, looking steadily at her and thinking a man could lose himself in her dark eyes. “Don’t rescue many damsels, though.” When she raised an eyebrow in question, he added, “I’m the superintendent for the Sangre de Cristo hotshot crew.”
“You’re a firefighter?”
“Big difference between structure fires and wildfires,” he said.
“But you’re a firefighter?”
He nodded. “I’m also a volunteer for the city wildfire volunteer squad.” In the year he had been here, the volunteers had been called upon only once, since the city had a well-trained wildfire unit. He liked being involved, though, and feeling as though he was part of the community.
“Well, that at least explains why you’re so calm,” she said, glancing toward the smoke clinging to the upper part of the room. “Most civilians would have been climbing the walls by now.”
The radio crackled to life once more. “We’re coming in,” came her partner’s voice at the same moment as the door was pushed open, shoving the wet drape out of the way.
The big firefighter who came through the door had removed his mask. He grinned when his gaze lit on Lucia. “Way to go, partner. Sit in here where you can hug the kiddies while Jackson and I do the hard work. You slacker,” he said without a bit of heat in his voice.
“I love you, too, Donovan,” Lucia said from where she sat on the floor with little Teresa in her lap.
“Everybody in here okay?” asked another firefighter who came through the door.
Rafe stood. “She needs to be checked out,” he said, nodding to Lucia. “The explosion knocked her out.”
“That would be down, not out,” she said tartly. “There’s a big difference.”
Donovan’s attention sharpened and he pinned Lucia with a laser-sharp stare. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you—”
“I’m fine.” As if to prove it, Lucia handed him the little girl, then stood in a fluid movement. “Say hello to Teresa.” Smiling reassuringly at the little girl, she patted Donovan’s turnout coat and said, “Teddy Bear.”
“Teddy Bear?” Teresa repeated.
“That’s right.” Lucia grinned at the big firefighter. “Be nicer to her than you are to your own little girls.”
“Don’t you start,” Donovan said to Lucia before smiling at the child. “Everything is going to be just fine, little one.”
Lucia grinned at Rafe while waving toward the big firefighter. “This lug is Luke Donovan.” She nodded toward the other firefighter. “Gideon Jackson.”
“Rafe,” he said, extending his hand first to Jackson, then to Donovan. “Rafael Wright.”
“Wright. I remember you,” Jackson said. “I was in one of your classes last spring when I was getting recertified to fight wildfires.”
“Nice to meet you again.” Rafe drew Teresa’s brother forward. “This is Ramón. These two have a sister here somewhere and I bet parents looking for them, too. They don’t speak any English.”
“No problem,” Jackson said, offering a hand to the little boy and heading for the door. “We’ll go find them. ¿Cómo se llaman su mamá y su papá?”
Rafe smiled as Ramón told Jackson his father’s name as they went into the hallway.
“Where’s Vance?” a gruff voice demanded from the hallway.
“In there,” came Jackson’s answer through the open door.
The stocky fireman Rafe had seen earlier came into the chapel, an angry scowl on his face. “This is the final straw,” he said, waving toward the blackened hallway. “Do you have any idea how much damage was done out there because you left your post? You’re on notice, Lucia Vance, and when I’m done with you, you’ll be finished as a firefighter.”
THREE
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rafe took a step toward the man. “She didn’t abandon her post.”
“No?” The battalion chief gave Rafe a scathing once-over. “Here’s some advice for you. Keep your nose out of things you don’t know a thing about.” He looked over at Lucia. “Get out there on the mop-up crew. Since you sat out the fire, it’s the least you can do.”
Obeying the order the way Rafe would have expected of his own people, she left without a word while he folded his arms over his chest. The difference was, he was reasonable. Lucia’s chief wasn’t. “That explosion threw her against the wall. She could have died out there if—”
“That would be just like her,” O’Brien said. “Find a pretty boy to tell pretty lies for her.”
Feeling his temper rise, Rafe pointed a finger at the man. “She was nothing but professional, which is more than I can say for you.” He headed for the door, then turned around. “Your name is O’Brien, right?”
The battalion chief nodded. “What’s it to you?”
Rafe shrugged. “Personally, I like to have my facts straight when I file a report.” He gave the other man a smile that was all teeth, adding, “Battalion Chief O’Brien.”
Rafe strode out of the chapel, then came to a dead stop in the hallway. Ceiling tiles were curled and melted, and the Sheetrock was charred. Here and there, the metal framing beneath the Sheetrock was visible, the metal studs twisted into grotesque shapes. Not just surface smoke damage, but real structural damage, Rafe thought. That said a lot about how hot the fire had been and how close it had been to getting out of control. He shuddered as he imagined what might have happened to Lucia if he hadn’t been there to pull her out of harm’s way. That thought brought him back