To Protect & Serve (6 page)

“That’s what all that weight training in the academy was for. Didn’t you read the manual?”

Dustin laughed. “Well, thanks for that. So, to what do I owe the honor of this call?”

“I just figured you’d like to know I’m not going to be homeless.”

“Oh, well, that’s nice. How do you figure?”

“I went and talked to Hayes this morning over at Bagby.” He wasn’t a dramatic person, but the pause certainly had the right effect. “I got it.”

“All right! Cool! Congratulations.” Dustin’s voice faded. “He got the job.”

And Jeff heard Eve’s voice, “Awesome!”

“Eve says, ‘Congrats.’”

“Tell her thanks,” Jeff said, and his smile shone inside and out. “You start next Monday, right?”

“Yep. We’ve got a week to find my razor. You?”

“Thursday. I’m going in tomorrow though to get my gear. That kind of thing.”

“Fabulous.” Dustin said something to Eve who said something back. “Hey, Eve wants to know if you’ve gone over to Travis yet.”

Jeff shifted on the sofa, which was suddenly uncomfortable. “No, I’ve been working on making sure I can keep eating.”

“Okay, I understand that, but don’t keep finding excuses or you might just miss your chance.”

I already did
. “Yeah, maybe I’ll go tomorrow.”

“Terrific. Oh, and tell me how it goes. We want to know.”

“Will do.”

The next afternoon after his short appearance at the fire station, Jeff found himself turning right on Travis and staring up at the shiny glass building towering above him. The GTO slowed as it rolled closer to the building, and he wondered if she was in fact in that building at this very moment. He thought about turning into the parking garage just to see if the little white Cavalier might be there, but that was crazy.

Even driving by was crazy. A girl like her, she probably had a million guys after her, and every one of them had more money and more class than he would ever have. Trying not to dwell on that any longer than it took to get him to drive by the garage entrance, he shifted into a higher gear and drove on past. No, Lisa wasn’t in his league, and he certainly wasn’t in hers. Better to leave it be than risk having to hear that face-to-face. At least this way he had the dreams and the memories. Yes, it was better this way.

“Okay, guys, this is the deal,” Lisa said as she sat at the head of the conference desk with her rag tag team Tuesday at four. “We’re going in a different direction with this Youth thing, and Cordell wants something solid by Monday. So while I’m working on that, Kurt I need the new concept sheets for the Zebra Carpet campaign on my desk by Thursday, and I want more than just a few sketches too. I need radio scripts and billboard ideas, and I need the latest ad figures for Chronicle space.”

“Got it,” Kurt said, and he wrote that down. Lisa wanted to ask if he really did, but there was no time.

“Joel, I need an ad-by-ad breakdown of everything we’ve done so far on Kamden, and we need to start month-by-month tracking on Kamden sales
, too. I don’t want last week to happen again. Okay? I want to see those as soon as you round them all up. I also need six or seven more usable concepts for that one on my desk by Monday morning.

“Sherie, I need you to pull up the lists the schools gave us, write the counselors a preliminary letter asking about the viability of a leadership conference for the other 98 percent.”

“The other 98 percent?” Sherie asked, stopping the notation.

“Yep, all those future leaders who don’t even know they’re leaders yet.” Lisa’s thought train stopped. “Hey, I kind of like that.” She jotted it on her notebook. “I want to see the letter before you send it.” Her gaze traveled over her crew. “That’s it. But I want to be kept apprised of all of this stuff even though I’m not going to be putting in too much face time around here for a week or so. I’m going to be too busy scaring up willing or non-willing souls for this speaking list. Questions?”

None were forthcoming.

“Great. Then let’s hit it.” They all started to move. “Oh, Sherie, did you get that thing set up with Hayes?”

“Five Thursday,” Sherie confirmed.

“Fantastic.”

It was like the first day of the rest of Jeff’s life, and he felt it. He took one look at himself in the black, HFD T-shirt and smiled. It felt good. He grabbed his keys and his jacket and left the apartment. As he drove through the early morning light down the streets of the city he loved, his mind drifted back through all the turns that had led him to this moment.

A few he smiled at, more than one made his heart pang, but each formed a small brushstroke in the picture he now saw before him. At the station he parked and walked to the door as the phrase,
this is it
tracked through his mind, and with that he pushed in.

“Yeah, well, you already owe me your wife and kids so what’s the point of even making that bet?” the Hispanic guy said as he and the other guy worked pulling down a long
, grimy cotton hose next to the truck.

“My wife and kids?” The other guy carefully fed the hose off the top. “Just tell me when you’re coming to get them, and I’ll be sure to have their stuff packed and on the front porch waiting for you.”

“You would…” At that moment the door that hadn’t fully closed behind Jeff slammed, and both gazes snapped to him. “Hey, it’s the new guy.”

His friend straightened and extended a hand. “Welcome. Hunter Witkowski.”

“Jeff Taylor.” Jeff extended his own hand and a smile.

The Hispanic man jumped off the bumper and over the hose, wiped his hand, and extended it. “Dante Ramirez.”

“Nice to meet you, Dante,” Jeff said with a nod. Not really knowing what to do next, Jeff looked back to the station behind.

“Come on,” Dante said. “I’ll show you around.”

“These are the ones for the billboard,” Kurt said as if he might be shot at any moment for saying the wrong thing. “And here’s the newest price scale for the Chronicle.”

The more she looked, the more Lisa’s head hurt. “Wait. On this billboard, what are you trying to get across anyway? I mean, this is confusing me, and I’m just sitting here.”

“Well, the whole ‘We’ve got every kind of carpet you’ve ever even thought about putting down’ angle just came to me.”

“Just came to you. Like that?” Lisa looked up, feeling defeat right behind her. “At 70 miles an hour, do you know how many words people can read?”

Kurt shifted in the chair. “No.”

“I’ll give you a hint.” She looked down and quickly counted the words. “It’s less than 13 plus all this address and the phone number and the website information. You can’t put all of this on there. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Well, I just thought they needed contact information…”

“No, this is information overload.” She pushed the board back to him. “Tighten it up. I don’t want more than ten words, and address or whatever is part of that—period.”

“Ten? But…”

She cut him off by looking at her watch. “I don’t have time to hold your hand right now. I’ve got a meeting.” Even as she talked, she stood and straightened her navy suit jacket. “I want the new one on my desk before you leave tonight.” Fixing the knot of her hair, she stood in front of the tiny mirror off to the side of her desk before she ran a finger across the edge of her deep red lipstick.

“But this one took me…”

On her heel she turned. “By the time you leave.” With that she grabbed her black leather notepad, her purse, and her keys and left Kurt still standing in her office. Quickly she strode past Sherie’s desk. “I’ll be back.”

“Good luck,” Sherie called after her, and Lisa threw a hand in the air in answer.

Once in the car she checked her watch again, fluffed the bangs on her upsweep and twisted the starter. She needed this one. This one was her ace, around Hayes she was sure she could build the rest of the program.

The first two tasks were learning people’s names and getting acquainted with the equipment. This truck was far and away better than the model they had trained on, and Jeff was relieved to note that although he was new, the others had all been together for awhile. At least it wouldn’t be a spin the dial to see who shows up kind of program.

Already he felt right at home. Dante and Hunter kept him entertained with their non-stop Abbot and Costello routine, and the best part was that to participate, he really didn’t have to say so much as a single word. They were in the middle of refilling air tanks, listening to Dante explain why Levi’s come in so many different styles when Jeff saw the flash of the window of the front door swing across the wall behind him.

At first when he looked over to the threshold, he thought it was just his brain creating some kind of mirage in the sunshine. Then the fact that clearly this was all a dream he was having flashed across his consciousness, but not one rational thought was able to erase his heart magnetizing his gaze to that door. To her. The dark hair upswept, the curve of her suit at the slim waist, the heels. It was, and yet it couldn’t be. In shock, he ducked behind the truck, busying himself with the first tank that attached itself to his hand.

“Hmm, excuse me,” she said, and there wasn’t a part of him that still believed he was wrong about who was standing in that doorway.

“Hi,” Dante said smoothly as Jeff cowered behind the truck imagining the scene because he couldn’t see it. “Something we could help you with?”

“I’m looking for Captain Hayes,” she said, and the lilt of her voice tap-danced across Jeff’s heart.
He closed his eyes feeling every wisp of it.

“Oh, he’s up in his office. Come on, I’ll show you,” Dante said.

Jeff heard the pings of her heels as she climbed the meshed-wire metal stairs across the station from where he stood. Lisa. It was Lisa. She was here. Why was she here? And what on earth should he do next? Dustin would know what to do, but Dustin wasn’t here.
Thank goodness
. Jeff peeked out from behind the truck to see the polished navy weave of her skirt back high above him on the landing.

Lest she turn around and see him, he ducked back and flattened himself against the
back of the truck. Options rushed over options—all of them viable had he been anybody else. Maybe he could just conveniently be hanging around when she came back down, but how long would she be up there? And what did she want with Hayes? Advertising didn’t exactly lend itself to visiting fire stations on a regular basis.

“Hey, Jeff,” Hunter said from the top of the truck, “want to help me with this?”

“Oh, sure.” Jeff reached for the rung and pulled himself up just as she disappeared into the office. Yes, he could just conveniently be hanging around. That would work, but then what?

He didn’t miss the looks back up to the door that Dante made as he returned down the steps and strode to the truck. Two vaults and he joined them up top.

“Now there’s a set of chrome I wouldn’t mind shining,” Dante said, fanning himself as if the fire station had itself just been set ablaze.

“Nice hooks and ladders,” Hunter agreed, and the outsides of Jeff’s ears went hot.

He crossed his arms. “What did you need?”

“Oh, here.” Hunter bent to pick up a piece of supply hose. “Help me with this.”

It was nice to have something to do, something to make them stop talking, and something so his heart wouldn’t actually pound right out of his chest. As they worked, his own gaze continually traveled up those steps. They were right of course, she was gorgeous, but his memory and his heart said she was far, far more than that.

“Right now I’m putting together a proposal to get the schools interested,” Lisa said when Captain Hayes looked at her as if he might throw her out before she got him talked into anything. “We’ve done the traditional businesses talk to the top kids for hundreds of years, we just wanted to try something new with this thing.”

“I thought you were in advertising.” The scowl on the Captain’s face deepened the wrinkles lining his face.

“I am, but my uncle works for Mr. Cordell, and well…
he thought it would be good advertising for their firm, except their corporate agency thought it was just too far out of what they wanted to do, so my uncle suggested me, and here I am.”

“And here you are.” Hayes crossed his arms. “And you want me to come and speak at this little gathering of yours?”

“Well, yes—unless you want to send someone in your place. Like I said earlier, nothing is really set yet. We’re just putting out feelers to see what’s possible on this thing.”

“I don’t know. I don’t exactly make a habit of booking speaking engagements.”

Lisa’s heart fell with her face. Her ace was slipping away.

“However…” Hayes pulled one of his drawers open and slipped a small card out of it. “Here’s the number for Vincent Fletcher with the downtown PD. You give him a call. If you can talk Fletch into this thing, I’ll consider it.”

“Oh, thank you, Sir.” She took the card, wondering when she had become so attached to the inner workings of the city of Houston. “I’ll give him a call this afternoon.”

Hayes smiled with a secret behind his gray eyes, and Lisa’s gaze caught on it. Something in his eyes said he’d just won clemency. Before he told her outright that he would jump from the Transco Tower before he’d get up in front of a group of high schoolers, she stood and offered her hand. “Thanks so much for your time.”

“Let me know what Fletch says,” Hayes said with that smile she didn’t like very much.

“I’ll let you know.”

In the deepest part of his gut, Jeff heard the click of the upstairs door. He had been listening for nothing else during the past half hour. The waiting was enough to make his nerves fray. The instant he heard it, however, his gaze snapped to the figure in navy as it turned and quietly closed the door a story above. Panic gripped him in a tight fist and swung him off the top of the truck and down to the concrete below where his legs barely caught his weight.

“She’s back,” he heard Dante whisper from above, and instantly Jeff grabbed an air tank and put it into the truck. The heels clicked down the stairs, pinging across his heart like a hammer on spikes. Concrete. She was down, and his breathing stopped.

“Get what you were after?” Dante asked, and all of Jeff’s motions stopped.

“Yeah, I did. Thanks,” she said, and in his mind he saw the smile that had spent the last five days floating through his dreams.

“See you later?” Dante called.

“Yeah.” The door clicked open. “Later.” And the door closed along with Jeff’s eyes. Ugh. If only he had an ounce of courage, he would run after her. Then again if he had any courage at all, he would’ve long ago had her number.

“Taylor,” Hunter called from the top, and when Jeff looked up, all he saw was a roll of hose dropping on him fast. “Catch.”

She’s gone
. Get back to work
, his brain screamed as he fought not to fall over the folds of hose.
She’s gone.
The only problem was that his heart was screaming the same thing.

Truth be told Lisa had never been all that attached to fire stations or police departments. No, for way the most part, she had tried to avoid them at all costs; however, as she walked away, she couldn’t help but wonder if Jeff had gotten that position he had applied for. A small smile traced across even the doom surrounding her mission. She hoped he had. That soft spot in her heart filled her throat. Jeff somebody in a city of three million. It was a given that she would never see him again, and for all the logic of her head saying that was a good thing, she knew in some deep part of her that his name would trace across the expanse of her heart every time she was lucky enough to pass a fire station.

Long before his car actually got to it, Jeff noticed the Zebra sign as he inched his way up Eastex freeway the next morning after work. He smiled at how intricately she had worked the stripes. It was a work of art—even if it wasn’t hanging in some stuffy museum. Absently his hand shifted gears down, wondering where she was at this moment. At work? Going home? Somewhere on this very highway?

Wherever she was, he knew she would have his heart with her forever.

It was a full 48 hours before Lisa slowed down enough to think about him again. The preceding hours had been a mish-mash of wedding gowns, campaign concepts, and toasts. They were all intertwined so that her brain was having a hard time sorting them all out. However, as she stood at the top step of the church, watching her sister look so in love, her heart drifted back to the sight of his strong arms and those beautiful pools of blue.

In a way she was glad she hadn’t pursued anything. He was probably better as a dream anyway. That way he hadn’t done anything horrible to ruin her perfect picture of him. Who cared that she had no real chance with him? She didn’t anyway. Love in the real world was too messy. There were too many things that could get in the way—like what he was really like and what she was really like.

Knowing that, though, made the dream that much better. She would take the dream of him over the reality of all the guys she had ever actually known in a heartbeat. That understanding only solidified when Luke, Cory’s best bud in the whole world, the classy guy her sister’s new husband had picked for a best man, chose the moment she had potatoes and brown gravy two inches from her mouth to slide his hand under the table and onto her knee.