Page 14 of Rescued Dreams

“I know that, Amelia. But this is a legality issue. The department can’t have a lieutenant with no official paperwork leading a team.”

“So you’re giving my truck to Ridge? Is that it?”

“Until you can either produce the paperwork or requalify as a lieutenant, you have to step down.”

“Am I being suspended?” She nearly choked on the word.

“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary, and we can keep all of this in-house. Just until we get things straight.”

Which would be never, considering her paperwork probably hadn’t ever been created. And if it had, then her ex had destroyed it. Andthatmeant she was going to have to retake the test.

This was humiliating.

“Go get squared away for shift. I’ll tell the crew at our briefing to keep this to themselves.” He paused for a second. “This isn’t the end of the world, Amelia.”

“Right. Of course not. Thanks, Chief.” She headed for the door.

Thankfully he didn’t order her to stick around. He let her go so she could grab the couple of things she kept in the truck lieutenant’s office and take her backpack to the women’s bunk room. She sat on the edge of the bed and sent a text to Meg.

The reply she got said,

Meg

Not getting fired is a good thing, right?

Amelia wasn’t too sure she could agree with that just yet. But at least he hadn’t taken away the one thing she had. The thing that defined her.

Della and Zoe came in, Zoe in the lead. Mid-sentence, she cut off whatever she was saying and stopped in the doorway. “Uh…Lieutenant?”

They passed her, going to their bunks. The four beds in here were plenty for the two of them and Kianna, the EMT. Now they’d have Amelia in here cramping their style.

She bit her lip. “We’re switching things around for a few shifts.” Or who knew how long. “The chief will explain at the briefing.”

Ten minutes later, she took her usual spot at the end of the middle row of tables and chairs. The chief stood over at the whiteboard. Ridge sat by Bryce on the far side. Izan took a seat by Eddie. Zack closed his book and put it on the tabletop. Della and Zoe came in with coffee, and Trace and Kianna—their EMTs—stood at the back.

Her head swam through his whole introduction. Right up until he said, “For the foreseeable future, Ridge Foster will be the lieutenant on Truck 14. Zoe Lewis, you’re on rescue squad.”

Everyone looked at each other, and for a second, no one was looking at Amelia.

This is a disaster.She wasn’t unaccustomed to being the center of attention for bad reasons, but it hadn’t happened since she’d moved back to town.

She needed to email the testing center and find out when she could be requalified.

Hopefully as soon as possible, or she’d be giving up her role to Ridge of all people. Sure, he’d be nice about it. But it was still humiliating.

Chairs scraped across the floor, and she realized they’d been dismissed. Amelia tuned out the loud chatter and ignored the questions tossed her direction as she went to the kitchen. They all came in after her.

She should have gone to the bunk room.

“Coffee done yet?” Eddie strode past her.

Zack got pasta and jars of spaghetti sauce out of the cupboards. Ridge went to the coffeepot and grabbed half a dozen mugs out of the cupboard above it. He reached over to his right and flipped on the electric kettle. “Coffee, everyone?”

He moved one mug over to the kettle, dug in the little box, and put a teabag in the mug.

A peace treaty.

He knew how she felt—or he thought he did. And he knew she didn’t want to talk about it, but she would want a strong cup of tea. She hadn’t drunk coffee since…