Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 (18 page)

Coin’s voice was rough. “Why?”

“Because not one of them was you.”

“Darlin’.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He laughed, a rusty noise, and no sound had ever made Lexie’s heart more glad. “I’m not. I’d take a couple more bullets just to hear you say you love me again.”
She lowered her mouth to his ear and whispered it to him. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Then she moved her lips to his, and before she kissed him, she said it again, in a different way, in a way she knew he’d understand.

“Always.”

EPILOGUE

“You have to see this.”

Lexie groaned and buried her face in her pillow. “S’early. Too early.”

“No, you have to get up.”

She rolled to her side and looked at Coin through tangled eyelashes. “You keep me up all night and this is what I get?” She twisted to look at the clock on the bedside table. “At five forty-five in the freaking morning?”

“Just get up.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“I think you gave it your best shot last night, darlin’. I’m proving pretty hardy, I think.”

“Hardy as a weed. As Bermuda grass,” she grumbled, but she took the hand he offered as he led her out of the bedroom and onto the deck.

Outside, scarlet warred with crimson as the sunrise split the sky right down to the bright blue water. Huge clouds loomed, banked with blue darkness, the red dawn spilling gloriously behind them. A storm was on the way to the island and far out on the purple horizon, Lexie could see a water spout dance.

Lexie clutched the bamboo railing. “It looks like …”

“Like the whole sky is on fire.” Coin grinned and turned his face to the dawn.

“Let’s move here,” said Lexie, staring at how the palms bowed and swayed in the tropical wind that was still warm even though it was getting stronger. The air smelled of plumeria and salt.

“I don’t have the equipment to fight this kind of fire. I don’t think anyone would hire me.”

Lexie nodded in agreement. “You don’t have the training, I guess.”

“No training to fight sky fire, no.” Coin wrapped his arm around Lexie’s waist and pulled her against him. “I have other skills.”

“That you do. Like having girls pay your way to Bora Bora.”

“Only one direction,” he protested. “And I’m paying our way back. And anyway, with what we’re going to save by living together—”

Lexie cut him off with her laugh. “I’m teasing you, my love. Hey, what time is it at home?”

“Almost nine a.m.”

“Let’s call Serena.”

Coin smiled and pressed a kiss against her forehead, warming her even more than the rising sun did. “Okay. Why?”

“Because that looks like a big storm coming.”

“You worried about the lines going down? I think it’s all satellite now, but okay …”

“No, big guy. I need you to check off your only to-do, because I have big storm plans for that hotel bed.”

“I see,” said Coin. “And you call your mom. Just to check her off the list.”

Lexie nodded. “She’s been so much better ever since I told her to back off.”

Coin said, “I think it’s me. She adore me, what can I say? What about supplies? Do we have enough to ride out a typhoon? A firefighter’s always prepared.”

“Let’s see,” Lexie said, and Coin pulled her against him, hard, showing her exactly how prepared he was. “Candles. Plenty of those in the cabana. All that wine we bought last night. Pineapple, and mango, lots. Extra bubble bath. I think we’re good to go.”

“You still sleepy?” Coin nipped her bottom lip then soothed the bite with a kiss.

She kissed him back, and after a long moment, she said, “No. But I want to go back to bed.”

“Darlin’.”

It was all Lexie needed to hear.

She glanced at the fire in the sky behind him as they went back inside.

Always.

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. . . or keep reading for an excerpt of
Fire at Dusk
…

When Lila Ashe isn’t working at the firehouse, she’s writing the hot firefighters she knows so well. She's lived in the big city long enough to know she craves the stars at night, and living on the rugged northern coast of California is just right. Fans of Kristan Higgins, Bella Andre, and Barbara Freethy will settle right into California’s Darling Bay and Florida’s Cupid Island. Lila is happily married and addicted to all things romantic, including surprise getaways to San Francisco for clam chowder or overnight trips to Napa for wine, but she's also found that being romantic at home can be even more exciting. 

DID YOU ENJOY
FIRE AT DAWN
?

Enjoy the rest of The Firefighters of Darling Bay series:

Fire at Twilight

Everyday Hero: The Volunteers – A Darling Bay Short Story

Fire at Dusk

And check out Cupid Island, where romance is tropical and sweet:

Kitty’s Song: A Cupid Island Novella

Excerpt of
Fire at Dusk
follows….

EXCERPT OF FIRE AT DUSK

CHAPTER ONE

THE MAN CAME at her fast from the side, out of the shadows. His fist swung toward her jaw but Samantha ducked and caught the blow on her forearm. “No!” she yelled. “Stop!”

The man wheeled, coming back at her again. He roared, driving his fists against her shoulders, slamming her back into the brick wall, knocking the wind out of her.

Samantha took almost a full second to think, to dig inside herself for what she needed. The man was taller, broader, and outweighed her by sixty pounds. He had her pinned against the wall, and she could move nothing but her right leg.

That would be enough.

She kicked her foot left, driving her heel into her assailant’s shin. His response was muffled but clearly displeased.

“No!” she managed to shout again. “No!” Her foot connected again, this time higher. She might have hit his kneecap.

One last time she yelled “Stop! Someone call 911!” The man pulled back his head, as if her voice had hurt his ears. Samantha used the moment to shove her shoulder forward, freeing her right arm from his grip. Without a pause, she raised her fist and pummeled his ear, or where his ear would have been. She propped her foot against the wall and used it to push off from. The man lurched backward, struggling to keep his grip on her upper arms.

With a jerk of her neck, Samantha head-butted him, earning a muffled, “
Ooof
.”

Both her hands finally free, Samantha flew into motion. She jabbed, punched, kicked and clawed. She was a piston, each pump a blow. She didn’t stop until the man was on the ground, curled onto his side, his arms protecting his head.

She’d done it. She’d won. Samantha's heart beat heavy and fast in her ears. No matter how many times it happened, she was always frightened. That was the point. Fighting past the fear. She turned to face the group behind her.

“This is when you run. Don’t waste your breath calling for help at this point—right now you’re using all your energy to put as much space between you and him. Get to a well-lit space or behind a locked door. Find a phone. Find a safe group of people and ask them to call 911. I call it
Down and Out.
He goes down, you get out.”

A light laugh rippled around the room, but mostly Samantha heard rapid breathing as women took in quick sips of air. The first scene was always the second-worst part of the class. The worst part, of course, was the first fight each woman took part in.

The
best
part was the first scene each woman won, but they were still quite a way from learning how to do that.

“I know. This is intense. Take a deep breath.”

The participants, to a woman, looked as if they might fall right over, especially Linda McCracken, a woman who had been considering taking the class ever since her husband died a few months before, and was observing today. She’d looked nervous just walking in the door, but now she had a sheen of perspiration at her hairline and her hands were clenched at her sides.

Samantha said, “I mean
all
of you. Each one of you. You, too, Linda. Breathe. Right now. In…” A collective inhaled breath was followed by the out-breath. “Good.”

Their eyes were all on Jim Hinds. Of course. Samantha had just beaten the tar out of him and he was still lying on the ground behind her.

“Jim’s an old hand at this,” she reassured them. “And he’s trained for years to take this kind of beating. I’ve only been punching him for two months, but he worked down the coast for one of my trainers for a long time. He can take a lickin’, for sure. Come on, Jim, stand up and strip out of the suit. Let them see who I was actually protecting myself from.”

It was always a nice moment when Jim Hinds took off the padded gear and the women saw that the terrifying assailant, the stuff of nightmares, was actually the well-built librarian without his glasses on.

“Come on, Jim.” Samantha turned. He was still lying exactly where he’d fallen. “Show them what you look like under all that padding.”

But in the big white suit, Jim remained still.

There was another collected gasp. Linda McCracken started to weep.

“Jim?” Samantha leaned over him. “You all right, buddy?”

A strange wheeze was the only answer she got. Samantha dropped to her knees and pulled off Jim's helmet as gently as she could. His skin was pale and sweaty. His eyes met hers and telegraphed what he needed.

Samantha said clearly to Martina Miller, standing in the front row, “Use the pay phone by the front door. Call 911.”

Martina’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“This isn’t part of the training. 911.
Now
.”

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