Molly slumped onto the bed in her hotel room and kicked off her silver pumps. She lay back on the pillows and rested her hands on her face. That had been a debacle.

She’d gone out to eat with the mayor, but had spent the entire night mooning over Tim, talking about him until she saw poor Peter’s eyes glaze over. What was wrong with her? It was like she’d never been on a date before. Just because she had no intention of building a relationship with the man didn’t mean she should be so thoughtless as to discuss her ex with him the entire night.

At least the food was good – snow crab legs and salad. But even before their meal arrived, she’d begun telling him all about their failed ruse. She could tell he wasn’t impressed, but strangely couldn’t stop herself from continuing the story. She’d watched herself, as if from a distance, like a train wreck – unable to stop or look away.

She groaned and rubbed her face. Well, it didn’t matter – it wasn’t as though she planned on going out with him again. She just hoped she hadn’t ruined their friendship, even if it was only an annual one.

Her cell phone rang and she answered it without looking at the screen. “Hello?”

“It’s Tim.”

Her eyes flew wide and she sat up on the bed. “Um … Tim. Hi, how are you?”

“I’m doing fine. It’s good to hear your voice.” He sounded funny, distant.

“Sorry I haven’t been around …”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

She scrunched up her face. This was a conversation she hadn’t been looking forward to. “I know. I’m sorry, it was just … a lot to deal with.”

“I know. But I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about it all – about everything that happened. It was a lovely party and I thought it was going to change everything, make our families see they could forgive and move on. I guess I didn’t count on Grandpa saying the things he said. He can be a real old goat sometimes.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, he was something. So was my Granddad.”

“And then everyone got in on it. They were shouting so loud I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but it was easy enough to get the meaning.”

Molly’s heart ached and she lay down again. “Yeah, I know. I just couldn’t take it any longer. We started the whole thing with such good intentions, but we made everything worse.”

She heard him sigh and her throat tightened. She wished he could hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay and her tell him the same right back. But nothing would be okay again, not between the two of them. It was over.

“I’d like to see you. There are a few things to be said and it should be face to face.” His voice was low and soft and it made her insides quiver.

“I’d like that too … but …”

“Are you free now?”

She shook her head, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. It was as much for herself as for anyone – no, not now, ideally not ever. She couldn’t trust herself around him. If he were there with her now, she’d give everything up for him, but it wouldn’t be right. “I’m out of town at the moment. I’m in Greensboro for the Southland Jubilee – I won’t be home until Thursday.”

“So Thursday night, then?”

She paused before answering. It wasn’t a good idea – couldn’t he see that? “I don’t think so, Tim.”

“Why not?”

“If I see you, I’ll forget all the hurt, the suffering, the lies … it wouldn’t be fair to you or our families. It wouldn’t be right for me either. We need to move on, get our lives back on track. I’ve made your family angry at you and both our families hate each other more than ever, and I have to face that and deal with it. If you come over, I know what will happen …”

“I just want to talk.”

“Yes, we’ll talk, then we’ll kiss, then …”

“Is that so bad,” he chuckled.

“No … but it couldn’t work and I’ll only get hurt. So will you and everyone we love.” Her throat constricted and tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. Me too.”

“I want us to be friends. I’m not sure I can …” His voice wavered and he didn’t finish the sentence, but let it hang there between them like a kite.

“Me too,” she whispered, tears winding down her cheeks and wetting the bedspread beneath her head. Friends. It sounded so final. And yet she clung to it, since it was all she had, all she could expect.

“We’ll talk when you get back, then.”

“Yeah, we’ll talk then.” Molly hung up, rolled onto her side and wept. Since the party, she’d kept her emotions balled up inside her and hadn’t cried once. Now it all came pouring out – the grief over the lies she’d told and the pain she’d caused, the heartache over losing Tim and how much she missed him, talking to him and hearing him laugh.

Tim’s eyes flicked open. He was lying in bed at the station. The room was lit by a dull light. Men buzzed quietly around, dressing and tidying their things. There wasn’t much space in the firehouse. Outside the bedroom was the living area, a third of which was a small but functional kitchen with a long dining table. The rest was a large den with a television and pool table. Two men were seated on a sofa, playing a game on the Playstation. One laughed, and the other punched him in the arm in response.

The men all took turns sleeping at night. But even though he’d gotten a few hours, he felt as though he’d just shut his eyes. He rubbed them, yawned and sat up, his thoughts returning to his conversation with Molly the night before. He’d been trying to catch her for three weeks now, and she’d finally taken his call, but things hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped. She didn’t want anything more to do with him. He couldn’t blame her, but it made his heart hurt to think about it.

Callum had paid up – the bet had only required him to be in a relationship for a month or longer, and he’d done that. But the money, now tucked in his wallet, didn’t bring him the satisfaction he’d thought it would. He’d done what Callum was sure he couldn’t do, but he didn’t feel good about it – it was wrong, all wrong. The relationship had been a fake, but his feelings for Molly were real.

And now she was gone.

Just then, the siren blared. He jumped out of bed and dressed quickly as everyone leaped into action. A voice on the radio announced a house fire a short drive from the station. He hurried to Engine One, a pumper truck, even as Tower One, the ladder truck, pulled out of the drive, its lights flashing. He took the driver’s seat and Grant climbed into the passenger side. “Ready?”

Grant quickly nodded and grabbed hold of the handle above the door.

Tim accelerated in reverse, threw the vehicle into first and it shot out the front door of the station and down the short drive. He turned right, then left onto the main road, following the trail forged by the ladder truck ahead of them. Grant turned their lights and sirens on, then leaned back into his seat while Tim got an update from the exchange operator. Neighbors had called the fire in, but no one knew if there were people still inside or not. It hadn’t been burning long, so the operator thought they had a good chance of controlling the blaze.

“Did you have a good couple of days off?” asked Tim.

Grant nodded. “Yep. Went mountain biking up north. It was great.”

“Sounds good. Glad to see you came back in one piece.”

Grant chuckled. “Come on, old man. You can come with us next time – I promise to get you home to bed on time.”

Tim laughed. “Old man, huh? I guess we’ll see about that.”

They pulled up behind the ladder truck and jumped out, leaving the lights flashing. The blaze had engulfed half the house and with the homes next door only a few feet away, Tim knew there was a real danger of the fire spreading. “Let’s go!” he shouted to his team, who were all climbing down from the ladder truck and getting the equipment set to go.

He put on his fire gear with the mask on his helmet up, grabbed a hook and a halligan – a crowbar-like tool for forcible entry – and took a good look at the house. The fire cracked and howled, and the heat scorched his chest. He threw on a fire jacket and strapped an oxygen tank to his back. Around him, firemen were doing the same, everyone focused on the job to be done.

Nearby, neighbors were huddled behind a newly-formed police line. Police cruisers blocked the street, lights flashing, and officers enforced crowd control. Tim ran over to one of the policemen – he always liked to get what information he could before he went in. “Hey, officer, what do we know?”

“The neighbor over there says she ain’t seen anyone come out and she knows for sure there were a couple of kids inside, probably their mom as well.”

Tim nodded in acknowledgement and jogged back to the ladder truck. The team was still putting on their oxygen tanks and masks. “Okay, listen up. We’ve got three probable victims inside, two children. Left side of the truck is the outside team – Vent, Enter, Search! You make sure there’s a floor before you go in – if the floor goes, I want everyone out. Right side of the truck, you’re on hose and lower level. Make sure you get that nozzle up close. Got it?”

There were nods and murmurs of agreement all around. Tim watched the crew break into two groups. “Grant, you’re with me.”

Grant grabbed a ladder, hoisted it over his shoulder and followed Tim toward the building. He braced one end of the ladder on the ground, swung the other end up until it smashed through a window on the second story and tugged it so the hooks were steady on the windowsill, then nodded to Tim. Tim set his hook and halligan over rungs on the ladder and removed his helmet to fit the oxygen mask over his face. One quick look up at the building revealed they were running out of time.

The other team had two hoses pointed at the flames through the first floor windows, dampening the fire’s progress. He smiled grimly – it would buy them more time, but to find three victims in that mess they were going to need all the time they could get.

As he climbed the ladder and smashed the rest of the glass from the window frame with his hook, he couldn’t help thinking of Molly. What was she doing? Was she thinking of him? He hoped she was, but couldn’t be sure – she’d seemed very determined to put their time together behind her.

He tested for floor strength with the hook, then set it on the window, satisfied the floor would hold their weight for now. He waved Grant up and climbed through the window.

Immediately smoke engulfed him – he couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of his face. Halligan in hand, he inched forward, his face to the ground where the smoke wasn’t so thick. He scanned the room, noting a bed on one side and a closet on the other. He crawled toward the bed, crouching as low as he could, then felt the top of it with both hands.

Someone was there – but they weren’t moving! Adrenaline shot through him as he grabbed the body, threw it over his shoulder and returned to the window. He handed it to Grant, who hurried down the ladder with what he could now see was a boy slung over his shoulder.

Not waiting a moment, Tim crouched low again and crawled for the bedroom door. He found it ajar, pushed it further open and put his cheek to the floor to look down the hall. He didn’t see flames, but the entire passage was filled with billowing gray and black smoke. He glanced across the hallway and saw another door, shut. He opened it and peered inside – no flames. He tested the floor with the halligan, then scurried in to find a young girl lying on the bed. She moaned and rolled over, and his heart leaped – she was in better shape than her brother had been.

He threw her carefully over his shoulder and went back to the window where Grant was already waiting. He handed her over, watched Grant descend the ladder, and sighed deeply, drinking in the oxygen. It was possible the other team had already found the mother, but he didn’t see her outside yet. He turned and headed for the hallway, where he crouched yet again to crawl through the thickening smoke.

Making his way down the hall, he pushed open every door he found and searched each room, but there was no sign of the woman. Perhaps she’d been downstairs when the fire broke out. He reached the top of the staircase and peered down it, even as flames licked the banister and reached for the ceiling. The smoke was black, the heat was unbearable and he grunted behind his mask. There were two more rooms on the second story beyond the staircase that he hadn’t searched yet. With a deep breath, he crawled past the staircase.

The floor splintered beneath him and gave way. He jabbed at the wall with the halligan and leaped for the hallway behind him. His feet and legs fell into the hole, and he hung onto the floor boards with one hand, the halligan imbedded in the wall beside him as his feet swung back and forth. He heaved himself up onto the still-sturdy floorboards. When he turned to sit and catch his breath, he watched flames dancing where his legs had been moments earlier.

On his hands and knees, he scurried back down the hall as fast as he could, another crash and the crack of splintering wood behind him spurring him onward. He reached the window and backed out and down the ladder.

“We got all three!” cried Grant, rushing up behind him as he reached the ground.

“Three?” he huffed as he pulled the mask off and gasped for air.

“Yep. The other team found the mom – she was downstairs in the laundry room with the door closed. Apparently they made it just before the room went up.”

Tim nodded and squeezed his eyes shut as he leaned his hands on his knees. They’d done it. He glanced up at the building and saw the fire was almost extinguished, only one section in the center of the house still burning – likely where the staircase was, where he’d been standing when the floor gave way. The fire hadn’t traveled – the rest of the neighborhood was safe.

He wandered to the ladder truck, noting the last ambulance pulling away from the curb behind it, sirens blaring. When he sat on the curb, one of the other men handed him a bottle of water. He gulped half of it down, splashing the rest over his face and neck.

Grant sat beside him. “You did good work, Lieutenant.”

“You too, Grant. Do you think they’ll make it?”

Grant’s face was grim. “Hard to tell. The paramedics didn’t look hopeful, but the girl was conscious when I handed her over.”

“Good.”

Grant stood and walked away, handing out water to other crew members as they finished up. Tim stood and stretched the kinks from his back. It was time for him to round up the team and hand out orders for what to do next. Still, the fright of what might have been lingered in his mind. If he’d been one step farther from the staircase … he shook his head. No point thinking about it– every time he entered a burning building he knew it could be his last.

The satisfaction of knowing he’d done all he could to save the family inside the house was worth it to him. If only he could call Molly and tell her all about it. That’s what ate at him most – he’d never had anyone to confide in about what he endured or achieved on the job. Now all he wanted was for Molly to be that person, the one he shared everything with – the good, the bad, the big and small things of his life. But she didn’t want him, not like that, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Tim sighed and walked over to join the rest of his men.

Molly crossed her legs and lay back against the pillows in her hotel room. The sounds of the festival had died down – all she could hear was the hum of the air conditioner and the noise of the TV set in front of her. She flicked through the channels, but there was little on worth watching. She reached a news program and set down the remote – that was just what she needed, a good dose of local Greensboro news. She loved seeing things from a different perspective when she traveled.

“A fire in Fulton County today and a home destroyed …” began the news reader, her face grim. “But good news came when local firemen rescued all three family members who were inside the house at the time of the blaze. Officials say they were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in serious condition. Sources at the hospital confirm they are being treated for smoke inhalation …”

Molly gasped as images of firefighters flashed across the screen. Tim! He ran across a road, a water bottle in one hand, a long metal tool in the other. He’d been there and in the thick of it from the look of him – his face was outlined in soot, his yellow fire suit was blackened and he looked exhausted. He sat on the curb and stared into the distance. Her heart ached to talk to him, to hold him.

The anchor continued. “Locals from the neighborhood praise the heroic efforts of the firefighters who they say braved a raging inferno, risking their own lives, to save the woman and her two children from the burning house.”

Molly stared at the ceiling, her heart pounding. What if something had happened to him? What if he hadn’t made it out? She’d never given much thought to how dangerous his work could be. He saved lives on a daily basis, risking his own neck to do it. She swallowed hard – he was a better man than she’d given him credit for. All this time, the only thing he’d done was try to make her happy and bring their families together – even when it cost him his own peace of mind.

She sighed and rolled onto her side, her mind whirling. She’d made the wrong choice again.

Tim sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air, sweat streamed down his face and soaking the sheets. Black and gray smoke swirled inside his mind, and he squeezed his eyes shut, then blinked them open again to dispel it.

After his breathing calmed, he padded to the kitchen, poured himself a glass of milk and sat at the kitchen table to drink it. He rubbed his eyes and stared at his phone, still sitting there from earlier. He’d forgotten to turn it off.

He swiped the screen and saw missed calls from Callum, Stuart and Dad. Nothing from Molly. His heart sank. It didn’t matter what he did or how he looked at it, he missed her. They’d spent so much time together over the past several weeks with their ridiculous fake relationship, he’d grown accustomed to having her around.

He sighed and took another swig of milk. She wouldn’t be back in Atlanta for another day and half, but he wanted to see her now. And he had the next forty-eight hours off from work. Maybe he should drive out to Greensboro to see her. Would she welcome him? He frowned – maybe, maybe not. But he knew he had to try. He’d never rest until he’d done everything he could to give them another chance.

The sun rose behind the house, sheathing the spiky treetops in golden light. Tim rinsed his glass and loaded it into the dishwasher with a new resolve. He knew now what he wanted and how he might go about getting it. He wanted Molly in his life. In fact, he couldn’t imagine a life without her – going back to the way things were before they met felt drab and grey. He wanted the color she brought to his days. And he was going to Greensboro to tell her that.