Marta Perry - Hero in Her Heart

The few minutes it took to settle themselves at a small table in the empty lounge let her organize her thoughts. She wrapped her fingers around the cup Brendan handed her and tried to look at him without thinking of him as a minister.

It was easier than she’d have expected, probably because he didn’t look like any minister she’d ever met, not that she’d met that many. Brother Joshua had been enough for a lifetime.

“What can I tell you about Gabe?” Brendan pushed back the lock of dark hair that tumbled toward the rims of his glasses.

She reconsidered her view of him. With his serious, studious expression and his glasses, he looked more like a young professor than either a firefighter or a minister.

“I’m trying to find the best way to work with Gabe,” she said carefully. She had to keep in mind that this was Gabe’s cousin. “So far I’m finding that he’s—”

She stopped. Too attractive for his own good? Too appealing to be alone with? She didn’t want to go there.

“In complete denial,” Brendan said.

She gave him a look of surprised gratitude. “Yes, he is. I thought I was the only one who saw that.”

Brendan frowned down at the dark coffee in his cup. “Siobhan does, I think, but probably no one else in the family. As for the chief—well, I know he has a desk job lined up for Gabe, in the event he can’t go back on active duty.”

She turned that over in her mind, wondering. “Do you think Gabe would accept that?”

“Not for a minute.”

This time his answer didn’t surprise her.

“He’s certainly determined to get back to work. So much so that I’m afraid it’s influencing his attitude toward working with me.”

Brendan grinned. “You mean he’s so bullheaded that he can’t see anything but his own objective.”

“Something like that.”

“You have to understand.” He leaned across the table toward her, eyes intent. “Gabe’s a warrior. Always has been. An old-fashioned knight in shining armor rushing to rescue the helpless. That’s what being a firefighter means to him.”

The image warmed her. “You care a lot about him.”

“Like a brother. All Flanagans have fire fighting in the blood, but Gabe most of all.” His brows drew together. “The thing is, if Gabe can’t be a firefighter—” He stopped and shook his head, his eyes dark and serious. “If Gabe can’t be a firefighter, I don’t think he’ll know who he is.”

Brendan’s words were still ringing in Nolie’s ears as she set up an obstacle course on the lawn behind the house later in the afternoon. That conversation had gone a lot better than she’d expected, on several counts.

She’d gotten over her instinctive need to escape from him. She hadn’t even winced when he’d taken her hand and told her he’d be praying for her.

And he’d given her a glimmer of an idea. His description of Gabe as a knight rescuing the helpless had clicked into place. Of course that’s what he was—a modern-day knight. She just had to find a way of working his need to help and rescue into his training.

She tested the white picket gate she’d set up, making sure it was stable. Max nosed against it, as if remembering his lessons, then trotted off to join Lady in investigating an interesting smell under the willow tree. A bee buzzed lazily past her toward the old-fashioned lilac bush next to the back porch, and the lilac’s aroma perfumed the air.

A perfect spring day—meant for lazing in a hammock, not indulging in a case of the nerves over what she had to do. She heard one car pull into the lane, and then another, and took a deep, settling breath.

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