Page 32 of Fire and Icing (The Firemen of Waterford TN #1)

Dustin

I don’t have ducks in a row.

I have goats. And they are everywhere.

~ Unknown

“So, how was the week off?” Patrick asks.

We’re all kicking back in the recliners in the lounge. Patrick’s got his nose in a book. Greyson’s on his laptop. Cody and I are scrolling our phones.

“It wasn’t exactly a week off,” I remind him. “We were competing for a prize. The pressure was intense.”

“What a way to start off your relationship with a woman,” Greyson says. “Is she still speaking to you after spending a full week away?”

“Yes, she’s speaking to me. Of course she is.”

“I’ve never seen a relationship go from zero to sixty as fast as yours,” Cody says.

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“She had a chip on her shoulder. Now you two are living together and you just spent a week on vacation together.”

He starts cracking up and the other guys join him.

“Not living together,” I mutter. “She’s two stories above me.”

“You can say that again,” Cody teases.

“Ha. Ha,” I deadpan.

“Seriously, though,” Patrick says. “How are things with her now?”

“Good. We’re good.”

I have the strongest urge to tell him everything—how we’ve been faking, but I’m not faking anything with her anymore. But I can’t tell him. Emberleigh and I agreed we’d keep our faking secret, so I have to keep everything to myself at the station for a while longer.

I don’t even know what Emberleigh wants—she’s made it clear she’s not open to dating. But that kiss, the way she’s been confiding in me, the way she laughs with me … She even dozed off curled up against me, like she trusted me to be her safe place … All of it feels far more real than a charade.

We finish cleaning the truck and the engine and doing equipment checks. We get a call for a rescue mid-afternoon.

“Goat stuck on a trampoline,” Captain calls out into the bay with a straight face.

“Did he just say …?” I ask.

“Goat on a trampoline? Yeah,” Greyson says.

The four of us grab our gear and take our seats in the truck. We drive to the outskirts of town, down some country roads and arrive at the property.

The owner meets us on the driveway. “Jenny’s up on the trampoline! I can’t get her to come down.”

“We’ll get her,” Cody tells the woman. “Stay back in case Jenny decides she’s not happy with our attempts to rescue her.”

The woman nods, hands Cody a treat of some sort, and steps back toward the porch.

We round the corner, and sure enough, there’s a goat on the trampoline. Every time she takes a step, the surface sinks or springs unexpectedly. She freezes, but then jerks around as if someone pushed her. Then she baaaaas a fully offended noise that must be goat for, “EXCUSE me?!”

I approach the trampoline carefully. The goat eyes me suspiciously.

I stare at her.

She stares back.

Then she takes another step. Her hoof slides a little. She tries to stabilize herself by stiffening her legs. When that doesn’t work, she starts to move backward in a goat-style moonwalk.

I start humming Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. The goat freezes.

Cody laughs under his breath. “Whoa. Jenny. Easy.”

“I don’t even know how this happened,” the woman says, wringing her hands in the doorway. “I turned my back for one second and when I looked out the window, there she was. Just bouncing.”

Jenny gives me a half-hearted bleat, then shifts her hooves in that twitchy, suspicious way that tells me she’s thinking about going full feral.

I key my lapel mic. “Engine one on scene. Confirmed: one goat, trampoline. Elevated position. No injuries yet.”

Cody snorts behind me. “You really have a way with the women, Rookie.”

“I’m a safe place,” I say quietly. Then I look at the goat. “I’m safe, Jenny.”

“He’s even got his Cheetos boxers on for you, Jenny,” Cody says in a soothing voice.

“Cheetos inspire confidence in the females,” I joke.

Jenny starts pacing, ears flicking, tail twitching. She’s in full drama-queen mode, and I know better than to make the first move.

“Alright, sweet girl,” I say gently, “let’s not make this weird.”

Jenny makes it weird.

She leaps away from me. The trampoline dips when she lands, catapulting her into the air with a massive bounce. Her hooves splay in the air and she lets out this other-worldly scream that sounds like a toddler and a kazoo had a baby. She lands, eyeing me as if I caused all that.

I take a step closer.

Jenny freezes. Glares at me, then at Cody, who’s blocking the other hole in the net. Then Jenny pees on the mesh surface beneath her.

“Nice,” I say. “Super helpful. Not exactly first date behavior, Jenny.”

Cody coughs back a laugh. “Do I need to tell Emberleigh she’s got competition?”

“No one competes with Emberleigh,” I say with far too much sincerity in my voice.

I look Jenny dead in the eyes. “Come on, pretty girl, let’s get you down off this thing.”

Cody extends a gloved hand with the treat in his palm. “Come to me, Jenny. I’m far cuter than that guy. Besides, he’s taken.”

Am I, though? I can only hope so.

Jenny takes a careful step toward Cody while I hoist myself up onto the trampoline and slowly maneuver behind her.

I’m a big guy. The springy surface dips with every step I take.

Jenny’s so fixated on the treat, she doesn’t seem to notice me, so I ambush her from behind, grabbing her and lifting her into my arms in one swift move.

For a fleeting moment, I think I’ve done my job. Jenny and I are in sync.

Or she’s in shock, because the moment passes and she starts bucking and kicking in my arms.

“First it’s the baker, now he’s manhandling the livestock,” Greyson says, rounding the corner of the house.

Jenny’s flailing, screaming like a banshee, and wiggling like a child avoiding her bath. I’m trying to pin her to my torso, but the trampoline is bouncing wildly with every erratic move she makes. Cody’s no help. He’s laughing so hard, he’s doubled over.

Jenny makes one swift move, arching her back and extending her legs.

I wobble. She leaps. I go down like a tree, sending her skyward with my impact.

She lands and starts sprinting around the perimeter of the trampoline, bouncing left and right as she goes, and yelling like something out of a horror film. She sounds human, and angry.

Greyson enters the trampoline through Cody’s side.

He catches hold of one of Jenny’s horns when she attempts to dart past him.

He places an arm around her chest and holds her next to himself without lifting her.

Then he carefully guides her to the edge of the trampoline where Cody’s standing.

Cody reaches up, and in one movement grabs Jenny and quickly sets her close enough to the ground that she lands on her feet when she bolts away.

She starts springing around the yard, bleating and baaing in a celebration mixed with some frantic snorting.

I lay back on the trampoline, staring at the sky.

Greyson leans over me. “Goat bruises?”

“Only to my ego,” I admit.

He offers me a hand. “Those are the worst. You want to update dispatch or should I?”

“I’ve got it.”

I click my mic again. “Dispatch, goat has been successfully extracted from trampoline. No injuries. Crew returning to station. Rookie humiliated, but otherwise ready for service.”

As the truck rolls away from the property, my mind should be replaying Jenny’s trampoline theatrics. But it’s not. I’m thinking about Emberleigh. Always her.

That afternoon, the camera crew from the baking contest comes to the station to interview me and film me on the job. When they leave, the guys double down with their mocking and jokes. I missed this. I haven’t been here all that long, but I already feel a part of this crew.

I looked for jobs in Tennessee because Nashville is the home of country music.

Did I think I’d shoot my shot at some point?

Maybe. Emberleigh even said I should—not in so many words, but she implied it.

Now I’m finally getting to a point where the guys are including me more as a peer at the station.

And to make things even more complicated, my feelings for Emberleigh grow stronger all the time.

I always thought I’d have one dream and pursue it to the exclusion of anything else in life. Instead, it feels as though every one of the paths I’d want to pursue going forward conflicts with the others.

The rest of the day is dull compared to goat wrestling and an interview for a television show. After dinner, I pull out the spare guitar I keep at the station and sit out back, composing a song. Writing music when my head is swimming with thoughts always soothes me.

I’m thinking about asking Emberleigh out. I strum a tune and sing whatever words come to mind. I’m a guy who fell for a woman who’s possibly not interested and definitely guarded. What should I do?

The words flow, expressing every balled-up thought and emotion.

“You’re sunlight through a screen door,

Barefoot dancing on the kitchen floor,

Laughin’ like I’m the reason for your smile.

Hopin’ you'll let me stay awhile.

’Cause I’m just a wishful dreamer,

Truck cab two-seat believer.

And you’re everything I can see for miles and miles.”

I strum a few chords and then I keep singing.

“Red hair blowing with the window down

Driving dirt roads on the outskirts of town

Not a care in the world, feet up on the dash,

I’m wonderin’ how to make this last.

Stealin’ glances I hope you won’t see,

All the men in the world, how would you pick me?

A million maybes, but one thing’s true ? —

You’re the one I wanna come home to.”

My eyes are shut, and I’m pouring it all into this song, every hope, every fear, every possibility. I keep strumming, humming the chorus under my breath. If Emberleigh ever gives me a sign—even the smallest one—I’ll share my heart with her, and I won’t hold back.

“ What if you just laugh and say you’re not my girl?

I’m a line in the dirt and you’re the whole wide world.

I’d kick myself forever if I let this feeling go ? —

Heart in hand, hopin’ you don’t say no.

Yeah, I’m …”

Someone clears their throat and my eyes pop open. It’s Cody, leaning against the wall, watching me intently.

“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“It’s okay. I’m just playing around.”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“I compose music when my head’s too full.”

“I get that. I take my horse out for a good long ride. Does the same thing, I’d imagine. You’re not bad.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s the song about?” he asks, taking a seat in the chair across from me.

“It’s about Emberleigh. I’m … Well …” I hesitate. Once I say this, I can’t take it back. But I need someone to know. I trust Cody. And I need to bounce my mixed-up thoughts off a trusted friend. If it’s going to be anyone, it’s going to be him or my brother, Stevens.

“Can I tell you something?” I ask, throwing caution to the wind.

“Sure.”

“But you can’t tell anyone else.”

“Okay.”

“Emberleigh and I aren’t dating.”

“Man, that went fast.”

“No. I mean we never were dating. She needed someone for her contest, so I volunteered as tribute.”

“Tribute? Like an act?”

“Yeah. The contest required her to have a partner who couldn’t bake. I can’t. So I offered to be her partner so she could enter. She needs to win.”

“Ahhh. Man. That’s crazy. You had me fooled.” Cody squints slightly, then he says, “But you like her.”

I nod. “Yeah. I do. She’s amazing.”

“She is. I’ve known her my whole life. She’s got a heart of gold.”

“I don’t think she sees me as anything more than a friend. Well, maybe she does. It doesn’t matter because she has no intention of dating anyone.”

“Yeah. She’s got her reasons for that. She’s been let down before by someone who should have done better. Ever since that, she hasn’t let anyone get too close—not any men, anyway.” Cody’s quiet for a beat and then he says, “Give her time.”

“I’ve got time.”

Everything in me screams to go tell Emberleigh how I feel about her. But I know Cody’s right. She’s got walls up for her own reasons. I need to give her time. When she’s ready, I’ll be here waiting.