Page 35 of Rescued Dreams

The kid just looked confused, but she’d succeeded in ending the conversation.

One of the kids was crying.

Amelia looked around. “Did we all just learn a valuable lesson about not climbing up into the ceiling to get out of tests?”

Several nodded.

“Good.” She headed off down the hall.

Ridge grabbed his clipboard and headed for the principal, trying not to be mad that she’d told the truth. Amelia was stating facts. She dealt with the truth, even if it was painful. He respected that about her. She didn’t beat around the bush or try to manipulate people.

For a while there, with them on different engines, they’d have been allowed to date.

Same with him becoming a lieutenant, making them the same rank.

Now they were back to having a roadblock of procedure between them. And just when he was getting somewhere with her. Working on securing her trust in him.

“Principal Wallace?” He walked over to her. “If you can sign my report, we’ll get out of your hair so you can restore order and get the students back to learning.”

“Thank you.” She scribbled her signature on the bottom of the paper where Ridge had done a write-up of the call. “I hope Ernie is all right.”

“So do I.” Ridge tucked the clipboard under his arm. “Have a good day.”

He followed Della out to the truck, carrying the things they’d brought in. Like Amelia’s axe and jacket. Amelia closed the cabinet on the side of the truck, and when Della tossed over Amelia’s turnout coat, she caught it and put it back on.

“Ready to go?” he asked all of them.

Amelia shot him a polite smile and climbed in. Ridge’s phone rang on the dash, so he climbed up and answered the call from his mom’s number. “Foster.”

He used his last name so she’d know he was at work.

“It ain’t your mom, boy. It’s me.” His stepfather.

“What’s up, Gary? I’m on shift right now, so I might have to hang up in a hurry.”

Della pulled out of the school parking lot.

Ridge tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder and put his seatbelt on, then held the handle at the top of the door.

“Heard you’re hangin’ with that firefighter girl.”

“Excuse me?” Ridge frowned. “What do you mean you ‘heard’?”

Had the twins said something to their mom? It had only been a couple of days since he’d been there for the evening rather than at home. Since then, only Kane and Maria had been over at Amelia’s house, squatting in the mansion to ensure no one else broke in and damaged the place. They had the training and the skills to fight off an attack—more than most people—and they’d call the police the moment anyone showed up so that the criminals could be arrested.

It was a win-win.

So who was talking?

“I’ve got friends in Last Chance still. Word gets around, you know? You were at the old chief’s house. Everyone knows he hid money there, like, in the walls or somethin’. That’s why you were there, right? To find the money. Good for you, getting close to that woman so you can find it.”

What Ridge wanted to say, he couldn’t. With a truck full of female firefighters, one of whom was Amelia herself, it wasn’t like he could point out the parts of what Gary had said that didn’t make sense. “Who told you any of that? Because I’d like a word with them.”

Gary chuckled. “Keep it close to the vest. That’s how you do it. I’m almost proud of you.”

Ridge pressed his lips into a thin line.

“Don’t suppose you’d give your momma a cut of the money when you find it.”