First Impressions (Hero Hearts: Firefighter) Read online

  I realized fire drills were important but sometimes they had these too often. People sometimes spent more time trying to figure out if the alarm was the real thing or a fake emergency. Or worse, the alarm got ignored completely when it was assumed it was only a test. I couldn’t remember hearing about a fire drill scheduled for this week, but with the end of the year in sight I had admittedly been skimming a lot of the memos that appeared in my staff mailbox. As the school librarian, I was in a different position from the rest of the staff at the school, and so some of what came into my inbox didn’t really apply to me.

  The students filed out the library door in a single-file line. I followed in the rear. I saw other students and teachers making their way outside to the assembly area, so I directed Andrew at the front of the line to follow them. The standard drill is that we were to walk out on to the field far enough away from the building so it would be safe, then we wait for the all-clear from the principal or vice-principal.

  It was hot outside. Summer started early in Georgia, so this wasn’t a surprise. The sun was blinding and I wished I’d thought to grab my sunglasses. I didn't know how long we’d be out here, but the way the administration was moving around made me nervous. They had walkie-talkies in their hands and they seemed to be moving with a purpose which let me know that this may not be just a drill. Janet Cooper, the vice-principal, walked past us looking worried.

  “Ms. Rowell? When can we go back in?” Andrew looked up at me with a frown. He was sweating and his longish hair was already matted to his forehead.

  “I’m not sure, but it won’t be very long,” I assured him.

  “Ugh, this is boring,” complained Randee. “Can I go talk to Olivia?”

  "Not right now, Randee. Stay with this group, please," I told her, even though I secretly agreed with her. This was indeed boring.

  About ten minutes passed, and I tried keeping my group entertained with a game of I Spy. The look on their faces told me the game wasn’t helping with the boredom. I didn’t have a full class, just a few students from the sixth grade who’d been given permission to work independently in the library. I thought about walking them back to their classroom teachers. I had checked their names off on a list and given it to the vice-principal like I was supposed to, but at least back in their classes they could talk to their friends.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked Sarah Powers, the second-grade teacher whose group was stationed next to mine. “I didn’t know we had a fire drill scheduled for today. They seem to be taking a long time to let us back in. And it’s a little late for a drill, I think.”

  “I heard Janet tell Dave that it’s not a drill,” Sarah whispered back, looking around to be sure none of the students could hear. “I heard someone mention a pulled fire alarm. Did you see anything? I think I heard them say something about the library.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. “The library? No way! I didn’t see a thing. I only had these guys in there at the time,” I gestured to my little group. “I didn’t have a whole class. Nobody went near the fire alarm.”

  “Well, something happened, because look who just pulled up,” said Sarah, pointing past the school to the parking lot.

  A red fire truck with lights flashing had just stopped in front of the building. I noticed there was a Dalmatian in the cab and laughed to myself. Classic firefighter mascot, a cliché, really. What was a dog going to do to help them put out a fire, anyway?

  Without warning, my mind flashed back to the calendar that Annalise had given me over the weekend. I’d shoved it under a pile of mail on my kitchen counter, but I could still remember what he looked like. The smiling eyes. The dog. Of course, all Dalmatians looked the same to me. I watched as several men dressed in their firefighting gear got out. So Sarah was right. It wasn’t a drill. They didn’t seem to be in any real hurry, though, so I comforted myself that it was just a false alarm. I doubted the building was going up in flames any time soon.

  “Is the school going to burn down?” asked Lexi, anxiously grabbing my hand.

  I remembered that I was still in charge of the kids. I turned around and saw that they all looked a bit worried. “It’s okay,” I said. “If there were really a fire, the firefighters would be running inside. It’s probably a false alarm. One time when I was in college, my friend set off the fire alarm because she was making popcorn in the microwave and she burned it. There was so much smoke the alarm went off and the whole dorm had to evacuate. It was late at night, so we were all in our pyjamas too.”

  My story worked, and the kids all laughed and relaxed. I looked back at the fire truck and saw that a few of them had gone into the building, while a couple others stood on the edge of the playing field and talked to Janet Cooper. I tried to get a look at their faces, despite telling myself I was being ridiculous. Of course the random guy from the calendar wasn’t going to show up at my school.

  Janet Cooper turned around, and I thought for a second that I could see a flash of his face, but then she waved her arms and jogged over to the teacher closest to her. She said something I couldn’t quite hear, but the word travelled quickly down the line.

  “All clear!” I heard, and so I reminded my students to stay in line as we followed Sarah Powers and her class back inside.

  As we got closer to the school, I watched the firefighters out of the corner of my eye. They had taken off their helmets, and were high-fiving several of the children who hopped around excitedly as they filed past. It wasn’t every day that something as exciting as a fire truck happened at school, after all. And the kids were excited to see real life heroes in person.

  One of them in particular caught my eye. He grinned patiently as Sarah Powers’ entire class slapped his palm, then kept holding it out as it was our turn to walk past on our way back into the school. There was something about the way his eyes crinkled at the corner that made my stomach flip. Is that him? It is, isn’t it?

  Then I mentally scolded myself. No, don’t be silly! It can’t be him.

  What are the chances that could happen? There were several fire houses all over Pine Ridge. There’s no way he’d end up here and it was absurd for that sort of thought to even enter my mind. But then, I remembered Annalise’s words taunting me. “Never say never,” she had said.

  “No high five for the teacher?” he called out as I walked past trying to avoid his gaze out of sheer denial.

  I stopped. “Pardon?” I blinked, then held out my hand. He slapped it gently and smiled at me. “Thanks,” I said, and immediately kicked myself. How dumb was that! But he just nodded and I had to hurry to keep up with my students.

  Back inside, I sent the students back to their classrooms and sat behind the desk all alone in the big room. There were a few more books that needed to be put away, but I couldn’t concentrate. I turned out the light to make sure none of the students came in. My day needed to be over.

  I was thinking about my very brief and very embarrassing encounter with the fireman. I should have said something more intelligent than thanking him for a high five. I should have said something clever and witty, maybe about a calendar so he would be intrigued by me. I should have tried harder to be memorable. Instead, there was no doubt in my mind he’d already forgotten about me. And why wouldn’t he? I was forgettable, and I’d furthered that state by being the most boring woman on the planet. But in my defense, I had very little experience flirting, and it totally showed.

  There was still about a half an hour until the final bell rang, but I was too keyed up to do much work. Well, any work. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that he was right outside. I knew how dumb I was being. I’d developed a crush on a picture of a firefighter. There. I’d said it. I had a crush on a boy.

  It was like I was back in elementary school myself all over again with a poster of the Backstreet Boys on my wall, coming up with a fantasy that one of them would ask me to the dance. But this was real life, and the guy from the calendar was standing on the playing field outside, se
parated by just a few walls. I was too much of a coward to go back and talk to him. How could I, anyway, after I had been such a dud by thanking him for a high five?

  Just then, I heard a light knock on the door. I looked up, and in the dim light I saw it open. Oh, my soul. It’s him. What am I going to say? How did he find me? Or did he find me? Certainly he was here for some other reason than to see me. That had to be it.

  All these thoughts swirled in my head in a split second at the same time. My brain went to mush. Then he was coming toward me in all his drop dead gorgeous fireman hero glory.

  There was nothing I could do but stand there and watch him move closer. This isn't happening, I thought. There's no way he's actually in my library right now. I tried to stand up from my desk, but my legs suddenly turned to jelly. I prayed he couldn’t see the deer-in-the- headlights look on my face.

  My questions started again. What did he want? Why the library? Then I remembered what Sarah Powers had said while we’d been stationed outside. Maybe someone really had pulled the fire alarm in the library.

  But none of it mattered right now. He was standing right in front of me and I had to pull myself together.

  6

  Blake

  I opened the door that the vice-principal had said led to the library. She’d told me the librarian was there, but it was dark. I flipped the light switch and looked around, scanning the room quickly. Tables, chairs, shelves and racks of books everywhere. It looked just like the libraries I remembered from my school days, at least as I remembered it now that I was here. It took a few seconds to register that there was someone sitting at the librarian’s desk. A vaguely familiar-looking dark haired woman with beautiful eyes sat there, staring at me. She made no move to get up or say anything to me.

  “Excuse me, ma’am,” I said politely. I smiled, trying to put her at ease. She suddenly looked terrified. I guess fire alarms can be pretty scary, especially in a place like a school with all those kids to look out for. “Sorry to bother you. Do you think you could show me where the fire alarm is?”

  She sat there looking at me. I wondered for a second whether or not she’d heard me. I was about to repeat myself when she lifted her hand and pointed to the back of the room. “It’s there. On the back wall.” She spoke so quietly I had to lean forward to hear her.

  “Okay. Thank you.” I smiled as I walked past her. If what the vice-principal had told me was true, then one of the students pulled the fire alarm in here. I made my way to the back wall and could see where the alarm was placed. The handle was ajar which confirmed the story to be true. I dug into my pocket and grabbed my tool to reset the alarm. Once I was finished I put it back in my pocket, turned around and headed back to the counter. The librarian had been sitting there quietly, watching me check things out.

  “I reset the alarm for you. It should be fine now.” The librarian gave a small smile but nothing much more than that. Now I recognized her – she was the teacher who had given me a high five when I was out on the field, greeting all the kids as they went back in to the school. She’d been the only one who had said thank you. I was intrigued. She had still hardly said a word to me, but I had a feeling she was a good person. There was no way I could know something like that and I had no idea why that thought came to mind. The I figured the one thing I could tell for sure is that she was probably just shy. I pulled out my clipboard and a pen. “May I have your name please?”

  “Why?” Her voice was soft, but suspicious, as if she suspected me of doing something other than my job.

  “For my report. I need to have you sign off stating that I came in and checked it.”

  “Oh, okay.” She took the pen I offered and wrote her name on the piece of paper.

  “Rowell, is it?” I asked.

  “Yes, that’s it.”

  “My name’s Blake Patterson.” I extended my hand to shake hers and she reluctantly accepted. “What’s your first name? You only put an S.”

  “Samantha.”

  “Samantha,” I repeated. “I’m Blake Patterson.” Then I felt silly since I’d already given her my name.

  “Most people call me Sammie,” she added.

  “Sammie, then.” I nodded and raised my eyebrows. Her soft smile lit up her face and I felt the awkward tension melt. I wanted to find out who this mysterious woman was who hid out in a school library.

  “So did one of the students pull the alarm?” she asked.

  “It would appear so.” I shrugged. “The alarm back there was pulled. It had to come from in here.”

  “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it.” She wiped a hand down her cheek. “I don’t know how this happened. I was right in the room with them the whole time.”

  I didn’t want her to feel guilty. “It’s not your fault,” I reassured her. “Kids are sneaky. At least all the ones I’ve run across are.” I chuckled, but she didn’t join me. Serious, this one.

  Sammie lowered her hand from her face and looked me in the eyes for the first time. She was very beautiful, although I had a feeling she had no idea. I wondered what made her so shy, what experiences in her life had led her to be so quiet. Was that just her personality? Or was there something more underneath? Normally I wasn’t this introspective unless I was alone. Hmm. What was up with that?

  “I’m so sorry for wasting your time,” she said.

  “It happens. I’m sure I did worse as a kid in my elementary school days,” I replied. “And it’s probably best if I don’t even mention my high school antics.”

  Finally more than a fleeting smile. This one lasted longer than two seconds. “Oh, you’re not from Pine Ridge?” she asked.

  “No, ma’am. I grew up in Texas.” I smiled. “You from here, then?”

  “Yes, I grew up here.” Sammie looked back to the floor. “My mom was born in Texas, though.”

  “Oh really? Whereabouts is she from?”

  “She was from Texas,” she said simply.

  “What part?” I asked patiently. “It’s a big state.”

  “Oh, of course. A small town outside of Dallas.” Sammie still wasn’t looking at me and it seemed like she was uncomfortable again.

  “I grew up near Houston,” I said. I should have been heading back to the truck by now. Roger and John and the other guys would be wondering where I was. I didn’t want to stop talking to her, though. A small lull in the conversation gave me enough time to muster up the courage to ask her a question. “Would you like to grab a bite to eat sometime? Maybe tomorrow night? I’ll be off shift tomorrow.”

  She looked at me like I had lost my mind, and for a second I thought she was right. Had I made a massive mistake? Asking women out on dates was definitely not something we were supposed to do on a call. There was just something about her that made me want to know more about her.

  Then she smiled again and felt really good about seeing what might happen next. “I’d like that.”

  My eyes met hers. “Great. What if I pick you up tomorrow night, then? Say seven?”

  She nodded.

  “Let me give you my number and you can text me your address.”

  Her face started to turn red. “Um, wait. I mean—” she stammered. “I mean, I don’t think so, actually.”

  “Oh.” I was stunned. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, not at all. I just realized it’s probably not such a good idea.” Her smile faded as her cheeks colored even more. I could tell she was embarrassed.

  I nodded my head, although I was disappointed. Maybe she thought it was way too forward of me to ask a question like this while I was on the job. “What about another time?”

  "I'm sorry, I can't." She seemed sure of her decision.

  “All right. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” I felt foolish. Obviously I was the only one interested here and I’d clearly misjudged the situation.

  “It was nice to meet you, though.” Her voice had a disappointing air of finality.

  “Yep. You too,” I said. I
spotted her phone sitting on the desk and I don’t know what came over me, but I couldn’t just walk away. “May I see your phone for a minute?”

  Without waiting for an answer, I picked it up from the desk and programmed my number into her contacts. “Just in case you change your mind.” I set the phone back down on her desk, smiled at her, then turned and walked out of the library. It was all I could do to not turn back and look at her again, but I didn’t.

  She probably wouldn’t call, but I had a feeling there was more to this woman than met the eye. Suddenly I was sad I was probably never going to know what she was all about. But, I would live to fight another day. I squared my shoulders and prepared myself to take some heat from the guys about taking so long to handle a simple thing like resetting an alarm.

  7

  Sammie

  It was a Tuesday evening, but the restaurant was already buzzing with conversation. The place had a sports bar section and the game on the TV hanging above bar was getting a fair amount of attention. Since when did a baseball game get people to cheer when they watched on television? Everybody was having a good time except for me.

  My heart was heavy. I could have kicked myself for turning Blake down, but I’d thought it was the right thing. I’d made a promise to myself that I was going to spend the next few months focusing on myself. Not in a self-absorbed way, but as an effort to improve. To learn more. To become more interesting. It was high time my life became more fulfilling. More than alone time, reading, and work. Of course I spent time with Annalise, but that wasn’t a stretch, really. So, I needed to get out and take charge of making things better for myself.