Amie Denman - The Firefighter's Vow

“Do you know why I chose you to help me teach this class?” he asked.

Gavin shrugged, his expression unwavering. “Low seniority?”

“I have plenty of seniority and I’m here,” Tony said.

“But you’re the instructor. I’m the guy who hands out books and sets up obstacle courses and ladders. Not that I mind. Gotta pay my dues.”

Tony blew out a breath and leaned back in his chair.

“Everyone seems like they have a good reason for being here,” Gavin continued. “I missed the first part, but then I was talking with the two brothers and that older guy while we looked over the trucks. They seem like they’ll be good volunteers.”

Tony noticed that Gavin didn’t say anything about Laura, and it occurred to him that perhaps he was the one putting too much thought into her presence, not Gavin. He’d been about to lecture Gavin about singling out any of the class members or being too friendly with them, but he checked his words. Just because he found Laura distracting didn’t mean any of the other men on the department would feel the same way. He needed to keep his awareness of her carefully controlled, just like a small flame he didn’t dare let turn into a wall of fire.

“I wanted to say thank you for helping out,” Tony said. “I think you’re perfect for the job.”

Gavin grinned. “That’s what you’re paying me for. Can I go out and show them around the rest of the station now?”

Tony nodded and noted the time. He’d wait at least ten minutes before he reconvened the class. He sorted through a stack of fire reports he’d printed from the previous week. He liked seeing things on paper, so he usually printed the reports filed by the firefighters and paramedics, searching the text to make certain his men had followed protocol, achieved the fastest response time possible and worked for the best resolution of every emergency. He took a pen and flagged a few things he wanted to ask about, runs that he hadn’t been on. Why had the ambulance spent so much time on scene when called to a home for a seizure patient? What had prompted the officer in charge to call for a medical helicopter on standby when they responded to a kitchen fire at a vacation home on the north side of town?

Tony slept well because he’d grown up with a dad who was a fire chief. When he’d confessed to his father that worrying about the station kept him up at night, his dad sat him down and told him in his blunt way that he’d be no damn good to anyone if he stayed awake all night worrying about what could happen and then was too tired when it did happen.

Not sympathetic, but undeniably true.

Tony finished his notes and left them on his desk so he could focus on the training instead of agonizing over the dangers his new volunteers could face under his command and responsibility.

Gavin had everyone back in the training room and seated when Tony entered. Instead of taking up a position behind the desk, Tony picked a chair at the end of the middle row and sat down with his students.

“I’m glad to see you all came back,” he said. “And I didn’t bore you to tears or scare you away.”

A few of the guys laughed politely, and Laura got up and turned her chair so she could face him. She smiled and waited with her book open in her lap and her pen poised over it. Tony wondered if Laura’s students looked at her with anticipation as if she had the secrets of the universe at her command. That was what her expression seemed to convey.

If Laura believed he knew everything about being a successful firefighter, he couldn’t disappoint her. He owed her and everyone else in the class his very best instruction. It could mean the difference between life and death.

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