First Class Rescue (First Class Novels)
Read First Class Rescue (First Class Novels) Online
Authors: AJ Harmon
First eBook Edition,
July 2013
Copyright 2013 by
ABCs Legacy, LLC
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without
written permission from the author.
Tired of the same old routine day after day? Escape with a
‘First Class’ novel tonight. Romance is alive and well in ‘First Class Rescue’
as Tim and Beth discover passion and love.
(For mature audiences only – Adult content)
Tim, the youngest Lathem brother, works hard and plays
harder. A member of New York City’s bravest, a fire fighter, he puts his life
on the line every time he battles a raging fire. But when it comes to women and
romance, he’s not willing to risk anything. Women are there for his amusement
and nothing more, and being a gorgeous, sexy Lathem brother, allows him to do
as he pleases. Women throw themselves at him all night long.
Beth Collins has made New York City her home after
relocating from England. She’s created a quiet life for herself and her
faithful four-legged companion, Cleo. When Tim rescues Cleo from her building
that’s on fire, her gratitude turns into something more. Sparks instantly fly
between them and the feelings they have for each other are real and deep,
scaring them both.
Beth’s family does not approve of Tim…he doesn’t measure up
to their rigid standards as husband material, so Beth is torn between following
her heart and respecting the wishes of her parents. Tim is a playboy and loves
his lifestyle. He’s not sure he’s ready to settle down. Will he give it all up
for her? Can love truly conquer all?
First Class Rescue is the seventh book in the contemporary
romance ‘First Class’ series.
More Top Rated Romance Novels by novelist AJ Harmon:
First Class to New York (Book 1) Meet Matt and Janie…the
book that started it all.
First Class to Portland (Book 2)
First Class Justice (Book 3)
First Class Voyage (Book 4)
First Class Hero (Book 5)
First Class Menu (Book 6)
First Class Stamp (Book 8) Coming in Fall 2013
First Class Farewell (Book 9) Coming in Winter 2013
What readers are saying about the ‘First Class’ novels:
“I think the First Class Novels would make fantastic films.”
Victoria, Facebook Fan Page
“A series worth reading over and over again...” Kerry,
Amazon
“I love FIRST CLASS SERIES!” Margaret, Amazon
“A.J.'s stories just keep getting richer and richer.” Deb,
Amazon
“…go download the whole series, because they're all great!”
Cindy, Amazon
“First class all the way… This series is one of the best
I've read.” I love books, Amazon
“I have loved every book in this series. It is so great to
read about a 30-40 something women who is dealing with so many real issues but
finds her fairy tale.” Ashley, Amazon
I have a deep respect for the men and women who serve as
fire fighters. Whether in the middle of a massive city like New York, or
fighting forest fires in the National Park system, they risk their lives to
save yours and mine.
When I began writing this book, I realized how little I knew
about the profession. I would like to thank Captain Coleman of MCFRD for
spending hours with me sharing a typical day in his life and allowing me to ask
all kinds of questions, from how 9/11 affected him, to ‘what did you have for
lunch’ and everything in between. I gained a profound reverence for him and all
who join him in serving in the profession, but pray I never have need of them.
Contents
Chapter:
By ten o’clock, two-thirds of the students at St. Luke’s had
been picked up by their parents and taken to the safety of their homes. The
other third had been safely escorted to the cafeteria by the nuns and Father
Todd was leading everyone in prayer. The windows were closed and the curtains
drawn. The televisions and radios were off. Internet use was being avoided. They
had no idea how that single day would change all of their lives. A few of those
children with never see at least one of their parents again.
Tim Lathem had been picked up by his father, Peter, and
driven to the safety of their family home just a few blocks away. Tim and Paul
were the youngest of the Lathem sons, both boys still teenagers. Maureen, the
boys’ mother, was doing everything to keep them away from the television. She
didn’t want them seeing the horrific tragedy unfolding before their eyes, but
she couldn’t let them out of the house either. They could hear the sirens and
see the smoke billowing over Manhattan. The smell was overwhelming.
That dreadful day had influenced Maureen’s sons
tremendously. While the older Lathem sons had already settled into careers in
the private sector, Tim and Paul would go on to choose a path considerably more
selfless…and riskier.
Paul entered the ROTC program at Columbia University and
then became a Navy Seal. Tim, however, stayed much closer to home. After four
years of college at NYU, he began the long process of entering the brotherhood
of the New York City Firefighters. Maureen had not been thrilled with either of
her sons’ choice of profession, but there was nothing she could do to dissuade
Tim. He was determined.
He lived at home for the first six months after joining
Ladder 5. It was more of a convenience than a necessity. His mother did all his
laundry and cooked all his meals. That left Tim to concentrate on the training
and probationary period of his new job. But after one particularly difficult
shift, Tim arrived home with his arm bandaged and that unnerved his mother,
more so than usual. After repeatedly asking him what had happened, and Tim
remaining silent, she finally demanded the information from him. He’d gone into
a burning building to rescue a family trapped on an upper floor. A wooden beam had
collapsed on his way out. The burn was minor, but Maureen didn’t care.
“This job is going to kill you,” she’d wailed.
His reply had been simple. “I’m going to die anyway…at some
point. Why not die helping someone? At least my life will mean something.”
He moved out a month later.
Irony,
he thought as he surveyed the scene in front
of him.
As a New York City firefighter, Tim Lathem had seen a lot in
his five years on the job. Yet some things still surprised him, well, shocked
him actually. Like today.
“I don’t even remember it happening,” the woman was wailing
as she was being cuffed by the police and taken out of the apartment. She
continued to howl and scream as they dragged her down the hall.
“A waste,” Mick shook his head. Tim’s Captain stepped aside
as the paramedics lifted the dead body onto the gurney. “And over a stupid
phone bill!”
“Poetic if you ask me,” Jeff, his good friend and fellow
firefighter, smirked.
The two women had fought about the charges on the monthly phone
bill and then one of them ended up dead, lying on the kitchen floor with the
phone cord wrapped tightly around her neck.
Tim shook his head. “Just sad,” he said and left. He was no
longer needed.
That was one of the things he disliked about being a
firefighter. He saw senseless deaths far too often. But he’d learned to,
somehow, put those images aside and focus on the good that he and his coworkers
did, day after day after day, and that was what got him through runs like this.
It was a total waste; a stupid crime that had killed one person and would leave
the other in prison for a very long time. The next call-out would move all this
from the forefront of his mind, and he would hopefully be able to make a
positive difference in someone else’s life. After all, that’s why he became a
firefighter.
As the truck backed slowly into the red brick firehouse, Tim
removed his gloves and put them on the top shelf of his locker. His helmet and
coat were hung on their hooks. He placed his boots on the ground directly in
front of his locker. He slid the red suspenders from his shoulders, and his
response pants slid down his legs. He stepped out of them and stood them over
his boots, ready to step into them the moment the alarm sounded for their next
call.
Upstairs in the kitchen, Tim pulled a bottle of water from
the fridge and sat in the plush recliner. Pulling his cell phone from his
pocket, he checked his messages. There was a text message from his nephew
Tyler. They were still on for playing some ball this weekend. There was a
voicemail from his landlord calling to say they would be replacing the toilet
tomorrow. Not a day too soon! It had been leaking for over a week now. And there
was a message from his mom reminding him about family dinner on Sunday. They
had gathered for dinner every Sunday of his entire life. For thirty-one years
Tim had been expected to be at his parent’s home after Mass to eat with the
family. The only exception was if he was working or out of town, and every
Sunday his mother called and reminded him. As if he could forget…even if he
wanted to his mother would never let him!
He only worked three days a week, three fourteen hour shifts,
and this was his last for the week. He had four days off to relax and play. He
decided he would probably sleep for two of them as it had been a long couple of
shifts. The calls had been back to back. He loved his job, but the few days off
would do him good.
*****
Tyler Anderson, Tim’s nephew, was anxious to play some
basketball at the MEL Holdings gym. Tyler worked for his stepfather, Matt
Lathem, and enjoyed the perks of the company, a state of the art gym and access
to a basketball court whenever he wanted to play were just some of those perks.
Matt believed that offering all of his employees unlimited access to a gym made
for healthier employees, and a byproduct of that was more productive employees.
Tyler made use of the court as often as he could squeeze it into his busy
schedule.
When his mother had married into the Lathem family, Tyler,
and his twin brother Adam, gained not only a stepfather, but six uncles, all of
whom had joined him on the court regularly. However, as they had one by one become
ensnared in the wily webs of love, their attendance had been sporadic. But not
Tim. He and Tyler tried to play at least once a week if their schedules allowed
it.
The two men not only shared the same family, they also shared
the same philosophy of life. They loved their jobs and they both worked very
hard. Each of them, for different reasons, had something to prove. Nobody could
ever say that they hadn’t deserved any promotion they’d received; Tyler because
he was the son of the wealthy CEO, and Tim because he had achieved the rank of
Lieutenant so quickly. They’d both worked their asses off, but when they left
work for the day, they
left
it all behind them and then played as hard
as they worked.
After two hours of dribbling, blocking, shooting,
rebounding, and running hard, Tim and Tyler showered and hit the streets of New
York to enjoy the beautiful women.
Tim was a Lathem. He was tall dark and extremely handsome…
and he was a firefighter. Women threw themselves at him anyway, but once they
discovered he was one of New York’s “bravest”, he could have his pick, and
usually did. The two men sat at the bar of a fine establishment on East Sixth
Street and downed their drinks while women offered themselves up on a platter.
After about an hour of browsing the offerings, they each picked the lucky lady
they would go home with and said their goodbyes.
Playing hard was fun, but someone had to do it.
Tim and his date exited the taxi and headed for the elevator
of her building.
Lacey? Lisa? Liza?
He couldn’t remember her name, but
it didn’t matter…they wouldn’t be doing any talking.
As the doors to the elevator closed, she grabbed him and
began sucking on his neck, giving him great pleasure. He grabbed her ass and
jerked her hips to his and he rubbed his hardened arousal over her mound. She
pulled back and kissed him, forcing her tongue into his mouth and tasting the
alcohol still on his lips.
As the elevator opened she grabbed his hand and led him down
the hall to her apartment. Closing the door behind them, she hastily removed
her clothes, cotton dropping from her body, leaving a trail down the hall to
the bedroom.
No. They wouldn’t be doing any talking.
*****
“The problem with your current lifestyle,” Matt whispered to
his baby brother as he slid into the church pew next to him, “Is that you show
up to church wearing yesterday’s clothes and smelling like alcohol and sex.”
“I showered!” Tim scowled. “And look who’s talking?”
Matt shot a quick glance at his wife on the other side of
him to make sure she hadn’t heard any of their conversation. Fortunately, she
was trying to keep their one year old son occupied and silent. He spoke
quietly.
“I left that long in the past and this is an inappropriate
place to have this discussion. We can finish at mom and dads.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Tim hissed.
Matt shook his head, knowing exactly what his brother was
doing. He’d done it himself…for years. But then he’d found the love of his life
in Janie and hadn’t looked back. In fact, he disliked the man he was before
Janie had taught him what life was really all about. He reached for her hand
and she turned and smiled that smile that set his heart beating a little
faster. They’d been married for five years now. They’d just celebrated their
anniversary, and if he could impart just a little bit of what he now knew to
Tim, it might just help him not make the same mistakes. After all, isn’t that
what big brothers are for?
But Tim wasn’t interested. “I’m young,” he’d told Matt. “Let
me live a little.” As Matt sat back at the dining room table, his entire family
gathered around him, he knew that he wouldn’t have listened to an old guy
either when he was Tim’s age. After all, a man in his early thirties is
invincible and knows everything.
And then there was the fact that Tim was the baby of the
family. Their mother had coddled him, he could do no wrong in her eyes, until
he moved out and then she worried about him because of his chosen line of work.
Matt reconciled that Tim was just going to have to figure it out for himself. Hopefully
it wouldn’t take as long as it took him.
*****
Tim enjoyed being single. He enjoyed his lifestyle. He
wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship. It would be years before he
would consider settling down. Oh sure, he wanted a wife and a couple of
kids…one day... but why give up what he had now? He was happy.
Sunday evening he met up with Jeff and a couple of the other
single guys from the firehouse. They were going to watch some football at one
of the local bars. Good football, some beer and a burger was a great way to
spend the night, and if a lady happened to be dessert, then that was all the
better.
Jeff Alder and Tim had been assigned to Ladder 5 at the same
time. They both loved the job and were good at it. However, Tim had more
ambition than Jeff, and coming from his family of overachievers that wasn’t
really any surprise. He had made Lieutenant within five years and would work
hard to make Captain by the time he was forty. His eventual goal was to become
Division Chief, but that was many years down the road. In order to continue up
the ladder, he’d have to transfer to another firehouse, but right now he had to
concentrate on being the best Lieutenant he could be.
The men sat at the bar watching the Bills play the Ravens.
The entire crowd erupted when the Bills scored a touchdown, and by the time the
first half was over several of the patrons were seriously intoxicated, and Jeff
was well on his way. Tim told the bartender that he and Jeff were done and
ordered a couple of coffees. The game was well in hand; the Bills would
literally have to stop playing in order to lose, so Tim led Jeff to a booth and
they both drank their coffee and snacked on a plate of chili fries.
At a table a few feet away sat a group of four women, two of
them dressed in Bills jerseys, enjoying the game on the big screen television
hanging on the wall. There were several empty glasses on the table in front of
them, and they were cheering loudly and having fun. Tim watched the woman
closest to him. She was dressed in skin-tight jeans and a button-up shirt that
was clinging to her curves, with several of the buttons undone exposing a large
amount of cleavage. She had long blonde hair and she wore knee-high black boots
that just looked sexy.
Their eyes locked and the hint of a smile twitched on his
lips. She responded immediately by walking over to his table and sliding into
the booth next to him.
“Hey,” she purred. “I’m Trish.” She stroked his thigh.
She’ll do nicely
, he grinned as he got an up-close
look at her well-endowed rack in front of him. “Tim,” he replied. “You wanna
get out of here?”
“Hell yeah,” she smiled. “My place? It’s just a couple of
blocks.”
“Works for me.” Tim crawled out of the booth behind her and
Trish went and whispered to her friends as he informed his buddies, still at
the bar, he was leaving and to escort Jeff home when the game was over. They
patted him on the back and congratulated him on his “
date”
.
“You always get the hottest ones,” one of them whined.
“That’s ‘cuz he’s the hottest one of us,” was his friends’
reply.
“You think he’s hot?”
“No, but all the women do.”
Tim chuckled and said goodbye, meeting up with Trish at the
door. “Ready?” he asked.
“Yep,” she openly ogled him as they walked out into the
darkness. “Let’s go.”
They walked around the corner and down three blocks to
Trish’s apartment. They chatted about what they both did for a living -- she
was a photographer for a fashion magazine, and how much they loved the Buffalo
Bills. By the time they reached her apartment door they were done with the
small talk, and once inside, their mouths were too busy doing other things
anyway.
*****
The firehouse held Ladder 5, Engine 24 and Battalion 2 to
serve their area of Greenwich Village. The communal areas (the kitchen, dining
room and large family room), the offices and the sleeping quarters were on the
upper floor.
Tim had recently been promoted to Lieutenant, so he now had
a desk in a shared office with the three others. He didn’t like the paperwork
side of his job…he liked the action part; helping people, putting out fires,
making a difference in his community. That’s why he’d moved to the West
Village. He wanted to
be
a part of the community that he served.
The sounding alarm snapped him out of the daze he was in as
he tried to focus on an equipment maintenance chart on the computer screen in
front of him. In under a minute, he was in full response gear and climbing onto
the truck. Within four minutes they were pulling up in front of an apartment
building to respond to a fire.
As members of his team ran into the building and started up
the three flights of stairs, Tim watched and waited for orders. Within seconds,
he was informed over the radio that it was just a small grease fire and was put
out with an extinguisher. The adrenaline pumping through his veins eased, and
he sat down on the runners on the side of the truck.
Out of nowhere, a dog appeared to the right of him. Tim
pulled off his gloves and whistled to the German Shepherd and it responded by
walking slowly toward him. He held out his hand as the dog cautiously sniffed
him and then Tim carefully lifted his hand to pet it between the ears.
“Good girl,” he cooed in a soothing voice. The dog responded
by pushing into his hand and tilting her head to the side.
“You like that?” he grinned and then used both hands to
scratch her behind the ears.
Tim loved dogs. After years of pleading and begging, when he
was nine years old his parents had given him a dog from the humane society. Tim
had been asking for a Doberman, but Maureen had said that she would never
purchase a dog from a puppy mill and that if he wanted a dog, there were plenty
looking for good homes. His father, Peter, had taken him to the shelter on a
Saturday morning and after walking the rows of kennels, his eyes met with those
of a long-haired black mutt. The technician had said they thought he was about four
years old and a shepherd mix, but after spending five minutes together, he didn’t
care what kind of breed he was and named him Sam. They were friends for life.