Tall, Strong & Cool Under Fire

“Good, I will remain here, in case she returns home on her own. You know how CeCe is,” Cecilia said, smiling.

Lisa blew out a breath, telling herself she was just overreacting. CeCe knew better than to go far.

Then where was she? she demanded silently.

Nodding at her mother’s words, Lisa began to walk to the house on the left, the last one on the corner of the development. A car passed by on its way out, its windshield catching the sun and instantly flashing it all around like a sunburst intent on illuminating the immediate surrounding area.

The glare hurt her eyes. Shading them with her hand, Lisa squinted.

And that was when she saw it.

The fire station across the street on the corner. She’d only paid marginal attention to it when she’d driven past it before, taking notice of it the way she had the library and the high school beyond, as part of the scenery, nothing more.

Now it registered with glaring lights. A fire station.

It wasn’t as if it was immediately accessible. Between the house and the fire station was a wide street with three lanes of traffic going in either direction and a small island in between for pedestrians who weren’t quick enough to take advantage of the traffic signal.

CeCe loved fire trucks.

Oh, please, let her be there.

Her heart in her throat, not waiting to tell her mother her hunch, Lisa paused only to glance at the flow of immediate oncoming traffic and to take in the traffic light that was, for at least this moment, green. Taking advantage of it, Lisa sprinted across the street like the high school track and field team member she’d once been.

She made it across the entire street, eschewing the island, before the yellow light had a chance to slip into red.

He didn’t know exactly what made him turn just then. Maybe he’d been half waiting for the approach of a frantic parent, maybe it was nothing more than chance that had made him look through the window facing the street just then. Whatever the reason, he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and then found himself mesmerized as he watched the woman sprint from one corner to the next.

The woman moved like a gazelle.

She moved, he realized, the way the wind would, if it had taken on the form of a young, shapely woman with hair the color of sunshine just after sunrise. Dressed in white, cuffed shorts that brushed against her upper thighs as she moved and in what could only be termed as a skimpy red tank top that clung to the swell of her breasts with each breath she took, she was definitely a sight to behold. He was surprised that some of the other firefighters on duty weren’t hanging out of the upper story window, cheering her on.

Bryce sobered as she made it to the opposite corner. This had to be CeCe’s mother. The concerned look was a dead giveaway.

“Honey,” he said to the little girl who was holding his hand as if they were old friends, “I think I just spotted your mommy.”

CeCe pressed her lips together in deep concentration, as if she was trying to remember something or reconcile a new fact with the ever-growing data base that was expanding in her mind. “Mommy doesn’t like spots on her. She’s very clean.”

He bit back a laugh. “Right now, I’d say she was very angry.” He drew CeCe over to the doorway just as the woman ran up the walk.

“Excuse me,” Lisa called out the instant she saw Bryce’s movement, “have you seen a little girl go—CeCe!”

CeCe looked mystified by both Bryce’s observation and by the strange look on her mother’s face. She thought she saw tears shining in her mother’s eyes. Tears made her feel sad.

Mommy didn’t cry very often, but when she did, CeCe always felt that there should be something she could do to make her mother feel happy again.

CeCe put on her brightest smile. Mommy always said she liked seeing her smile. “Hi, Mommy. Are you okay?”

“I am now.”

There had been very few times in Lisa’s life when she had felt like laughing and crying at the same time. This was one of them. Fears she had refused to allow loose were now throbbing in her head like so many explosive puffs of steam expanding within a pressure cooker.

Completely ignoring the man with her daughter, Lisa dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around CeCe. Pulling her close to her, Lisa hugged her daughter while fighting a losing battle with her overwrought emotions. It took everything she had not to burst into tears and sob her relief.

Only after she had assured herself that her daughter was real, safe and unharmed did Lisa lean back and, still holding on to her, look at the small face. “Oh God, CeCe, how could you do this to me? How could you run off like that?”

The answer seemed perfectly logical to the four-year-old. “He has a fire truck. A real one.” She pointed to the vehicle in question behind her.

But Lisa wasn’t looking at the fire truck.

She had suddenly become aware of the fact that she was on her knees in front of a very tall, very blond man wearing a navy blue fireman’s uniform. Moreover, she was kneeling before a man who was looking at her as if he’d just come off an enforced seven-week fast and she was a piece of fried chicken prepared just the way he always liked it.

Chapter Two

“Look, Mommy, it’s just like the fire truck you had in your store.” A hint of an impatient pout graced CeCe’s small mouth when her mother didn’t look at the object of her affections.

Lisa lowered her eyes to her daughter’s face, trying to ignore the fact that she felt as if she were being slowly appraised and measured by the man standing behind CeCe. Instead she focused on the reason her heart had all but stopped beating earlier. Things could have turned out a great deal worse and she knew it. In light of that, being surveyed by a good-looking man didn’t seem like such a terrible price to pay in exchange for finding CeCe safe and sound.

Holding her by both small shoulders, Lisa looked at the little girl who had been the joy of her life even before she’d been born. From the moment she’d learned that she was pregnant, Lisa had crafted her life carefully around the promise of a child and the kind of life that would follow once the child was born. She couldn’t afford to remain unfocused any longer. Children needed things.

Most of all, they needed mothers who were there for them, to hold them and love them the way hers had. It gave Lisa a purpose to her life she was grateful for and that she had never lost sight of.

Even if she had lost sight of CeCe for the last ten minutes.

Hiding her relief, Lisa attempted to look stern. She didn’t want this happening ever again.

“Now listen to me, young lady. I don’t care if you saw an entire fleet of fire trucks, or if there was a great big yellow dragon sitting in its place,” she said, referring to CeCe’s favorite cartoon program, “you know better than to run off without telling either G-mama or me where you were going. And you know something else, too, don’t you?” Deliberately narrowing her eyes, she pinned the little girl with a look.

CeCe sighed, squirming uncomfortably before she nodded her head. As her mother began reciting the one rule she was strict about enforcing, CeCe joined in, parroting words that had been drummed into her head ever since she had been able to string two words together.

“Don’t ever talk to strangers.”

Then, sucking in air as if she intended to launch into a rebuttal that left no room for her mother to voice her opinion, CeCe grabbed the firefighter’s hand and pulled him forward as she protested with feeling.

“But he’s not a stranger, Mommy. I know his name. It’s Bryce Walker and he’s my new best friend. And he’s a firefighter, Mommy. That’s like a policeman, right, except nobody shoots at him. You said if I was ever lost, to only talk to a policeman or a police lady. Remember? Well, I couldn’t find a policeman, but I found him.”

Lisa closed her eyes. There was no arguing with CeCe once she got started. She took after her grandmother that way—except worse. Lisa learned by experience to wait until the torrent of words subsided.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw her daughter’s new best friend looking at her. She supposed he did deserve an apology.

Rising Lisa brushed her hands against her shorts, a tingle of nerves unaccountably zigzagging through her. She wasn’t accustomed to thinking of herself as anything except CeCe’s mother. The firefighter wasn’t looking at her as if he thought of her as anyone’s mother.

Lisa cleared her throat, nodding toward CeCe. “I’m sorry if she was any trouble.”

She looked flustered, Bryce thought. He liked the slight tinge of pink that came into her cheeks. Looking down at his talkative new friend who had an iron grip on his hand, he grinned.

“CeCe? No, she wasn’t any trouble at all. I was just about to give your daughter a tour of the fire station.” His grin extended to include CeCe’s mother as well. “I’m sure the tour group could be expanded by one if you’re interested.”

“Thank you, but no.” Lisa saw CeCe’s face fall. Though she was completely right in turning down the invitation for more than one reason, Lisa still felt guilty. She always did whenever she denied CeCe anything. Wanting to give her daughter the world, the guilt that accompanied any refusal was something she continually had to wrestle with.