The Firefighter's Woman

Odessa couldn’t take her eyes off him, even when the smoke burned her eyes and dried her throat or when the police were pushing the line of spectators back to a safe distance. She clung to the yellow caution tape like her life depended on it, like she was one of the people who had been stuck in that burning building. She’d been worried about him, but he’d come out safe—pissed off—but safe. Stretching up to her tiptoes and leaning as far forward as she could, she strained to catch the conversation between the object of her desire and his boss.

He tore off the oxygen mask and threw it with vehemence on the truck before peeling out of his gloves and tossing his hat after the mask. “Chief, I don’t know what happened in there. I guess—”

“You’re done, Steven,” the fire chief told him.

“Chief, please.”

The heavyset man with the thick mustache, which Odessa hated because it curled over between his lips, waved his arms with finality. “Don’t, Steven. I said done! Take a break, a vacation. You’re burned out, and I’m not risking any of my guys getting hurt because your head isn’t in the game. You know better than anyone that this is serious business, and when we’re facing the beast, we’ve got to have our shit in order. As of right now, you’re off the clock.”

Odessa’s heart hurt for him. Steven loved being a firefighter. The man was a born hero if ever she’d seen one. He got off on helping people even if no one recognized him for it. She supposed that was what had drawn her to him in the first place, when she was seven and he was nineteen, just training to be a firefighter.

She sighed and looked down at her cell when it rang. Sherise’s name flashed on the screen, her sister. “Hello?”

“Hey, girl,” her sister greeted her. “He okay?”

Odessa glanced back over to Steven. He was just removing his fire retardant uniform and tugging his T-shirt, which he wore under the jacket, up over his head. Odessa caught her bottom lip between her teeth at the sight of his broad chest, tanned from the hot summer sun. His abs were ripped, his biceps cut to perfection. Her mouth watered, and she grew wet with longing to touch him, to be in his arms.

“Yes, he’s fine. But I think he’s in trouble.”

Sherise groaned. “Oh, I knew this was coming. I told that fool to take some time off. He needs it. That bitch he was with walked out less than a month ago after he gave her three years of his life.” Sherise paused, and Odessa picked up the clicking of her keyboard in the background. When it stopped, she spoke again. “I guess we’ll have to have him over for dinner tonight to cheer him up.”

“Yeah.” Odessa was torn. Sure, she wanted to spend more time with Steven, time in which she hoped that he would at last see her as a twenty-three-year-old woman and not the child whose braids he used to tug and who he used to chase and tickle years ago. How she longed for him to desire her like she desired him. The one problem with that was most of the busybodies in their town had always thought Sherise and he would one day hook up since they had been best friends since high school.

So, Odessa did not want him to realize what a good thing he had been overlooking in her sister now that the both of them were single again. Yet, it was a risk she would have to take if she wanted to change her image in his eyes. She sighed. “Okay, you want me to ask him?”

Before her sister could answer, Steven turned and caught sight of her. A reluctant smile spread across his handsome face, and he strolled over. Odessa went still while she watched him walk. Soon he towered over her, seeming to block out the sun with his massive build, dwarfing her five-feet-five height. Steven had once told her he was six-feet-six. That might have been stretching it by a couple inches, but he was up there, she knew.

While he stood over her, he shook his head, which sent droplets of water flying from his sandy-brown hair.

“Jerk,” she grumbled and swatted him, reluctant to let her fingers retract when they touched his heated skin. Thank goodness, he didn’t notice.

“That Sherise?” he asked.

She nodded.

He nipped the phone from her hand and put it to his ear. Irritation rose in Odessa as he turned his back and strolled away while chatting with her sister. He and she were close. They had tons in common, but what did Odessa have? She had a penchant for watching anime online, which Steven had found mind-boggling. At least he didn’t tease her given that she was a student of Westwood College, going after a degree in animation. That gave her an excuse aside from the fact that she was addicted to her shows like some people were to soap operas.

Still, Sherise was better suited to carry on long conversations with Steven. After all, she was a health inspector. Both saved lives in their own way, she supposed.

“Okay, folks. Show’s over,” the chief called out.

The citizens of Forest’s End began to drift away, but Odessa stayed where she was. She coughed a few times and, swallowing, tried to gather enough moisture in her mouth to wet her throat, but it didn’t work.

Steven glanced her way while still talking, and he turned to come back toward her. She swayed a little. He was there in an instant with his arm around her waist and frowning down at her. In a daze, she thought he was about to kiss her.

“Snap out of it, squirt,” he told her. He shoved a bottle of water into her hand. “You’ve been out in this smoke too long. Why did you come? You’ve seen this a million times in the dry seasons.”

She frowned and shook his arm off. “You’re right. Why bother?” She spun on her heel and was about to march off, but he caught her shoulder and turned her back around. Hope rose in her, but he was only holding her phone out to her.

“I’ll be by later for spaghetti. If I’m late, don’t eat all the garlic bread.” He chuckled when she snatched her phone from him. Why the hell couldn’t he see? Or why couldn’t she let it go, find some other man?

Defeated, she headed back to her Jeep.

Steven called out to her. “Did you hear me, Odessa? If you do, I’ll tackle you.”

She grunted as she hopped into her vehicle. “Yeah, I wish.” From the looks of things, he’d never see the light. It was hopeless. She’d need a miracle to become that firefighter’s woman.