Page 54 of Fighting Fire

“You helped me put up my wallpaper.”

“The trick is not to look down.”

“I can’t believe you never told me this.” She felt a large dose of guilt, thinking about what she was keeping from him.

“A guy has to have some secrets.”

“I guess he does.”

His eyes shifted to the folder in her hands. “What’s that?”

“So, I guess we’ll have to move your mattress to the floor,” she teased.

“Why?” he asked.

She smiled, shoving the folder with the photos deeper into her bag.

“I wouldn’t want you to be up too high to make love to me.”

He smiled wickedly. “I said the trick was not to look down. I think I can handle it.”

He grabbed her around the waist and dragged her into his room.

Afterward, Lana wandered back out to the kitchen to make a pot of tea. She picked up the paper and scanned the headlines. A story snagged her attention. Condo developer William Morrison had purchased the properties where the second and third fires had occurred.

* * *

Later that day she made the rounds and asked at each of the fire stations around the area of each arson, but no one knew the mysterious firefighter in the photo.

When she pulled up to her house, she saw that Sean was sitting on her porch, rocking in one of her chairs.

She approached, her heart in her throat at how good he looked.

“Hey.”

He smiled and stood, meeting her at the stairs. He gave her a kiss. “I’ve been thinking and it’s finally time that I overcome this fear of heights.”

“Oh, you have. How?”

“Go climbing.”

“Where?”

“I’ll show you.”

* * *

Sean parked his car on an overlook jutting from the San Francisco hills, adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge. He left a sleeping Lana in his car to get an unobstructed view of the bridge.

The same old apprehension he’d always felt gnawed at him as they’d traversed the 480 miles to San Francisco. It was time for him to face this fear and overcome it. A fear that had grown out of a need to prove himself. Maybe that was why he was always doing everything his family wanted. Live up to his parents’ expectations that he was a good man and a contributing citizen. He was sure now that was why he became a firefighter. To make his parents proud of him, but now he wanted to be proud of himself.

In Lana’s arms, he’d discovered that the only expectations he had to live up to were his own.

“So this is why you refused to tell me where we were going and I had to pack a bag. The Golden Gate Bridge?” Lana said in a sleepy voice as she came up behind him.

“Lots of firefighters climb it,” Sean replied, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.

“I know, but are you sure of your reasons for climbing it?” Lana challenged.