Fire at Dawn: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 2 by Lila Ashe Read Free Book Online

service for medical care. People called 911 for things like migraines and turned ankles because they didn’t really know what else to do. And over the same few decades, buildings had become safer. Every new house and business in Darling Bay had to have sprinklers installed. Its attic might burn, but the house itself would be saved. True, they did have their fair share of older buildings with poor wiring, and there would always be the idiots who used cheap extension cords, but nowadays the fire service was primarily a medical organization. More than eighty percent of their calls were medicals now, and the older firefighters who hated that fact were reaching retirement age. The new, young guys, the eager-beaver twenty-one-year olds, were coming in with their paramedic licenses in hand, knowing how to start IV lines better and faster than the guys who had thirty years on the line.
    Medicals were what Coin loved, the face to face, the way he could make people’s days better. No one called the fire department because they were having a good time. Everyone needed help at some point. Most people—and this still surprised him—apologized for calling, for interrupting the firefighters’ routine. “I’m so sorry you had to come out. You have better things to do.” They didn’t realize that this was what they did. What they’d signed up for.
    “It’s no problem, ma’am.” He gave a small nod of his head to the patient’s wife. For a quick second he felt like doffing his invisible cap at her, and then realized it must be because of her British accent.
    Back in the engine, Tox said, “Pizza? I don’t want to eat Luke’s chicken. Did you see how much red pepper he put on that?”
    Coin took the right turn instead of the left that would bring them down to the wharf and Junior’s Pizzeria. “I gotta get back to the station.”
    “Why?” Hank asked from the back. As usual, his headset crackled. He was the most junior so he had to use the worst headset in the rig.
    “I got a couple of things to do.” Coin had to figure out what had been wrong with Lexie when he left. Had he screwed something up? She was the one who wanted him to go online, right? This whole dating thing had been all her idea, after all. Had he insulted one of her friends or something?
    When it came to Lexie, he didn’t want to screw up one single thing. She was too … something. Coin didn’t want to name what it was. Come to think of it, he couldn’t.
    Tox sighed heavily into the mike. “You have to get back to dispatch.”
    Coin hit the brakes at the light too hard.
    Tox said, “Geez, man, chill. What’s wrong with you? What was Lexie saying to you back there?”
    “Why?” Coin watched the light carefully, as if it might turn a new color any minute. Purple. Pink.
    “You usually come out of dispatch with a smile. And now Lexie is all stink-pants on the radio.”
    As if from a mile away Lexie could hear them, her voice came over the radio. “Engine One, status check?” It was her annoyed voice. She didn’t use it often, and because of that, the guys took it seriously.
    “Did you hit the available button?” Coin pointed at the computer on the dash.
    Tox said, “Crap.”
    Hank’s voice crackled over the headset, “Ever since you and Grace got together, dude. You’re off your game.”
    Tox twisted in his seat. “You want to say that to my face?”
    Coin knew Tox was all bluster. And Hank was right. Ever since Tox fell for Grace, he’d been softened. A couple of his rough edges had been smoothed off. Coin approved. “You gonna answer dispatch or not?”
    Tox clicked the radio button. “Engine One clear.” He released the button and spoke into his rig headset, so only Coin and Hank could hear him. “She knows that. She can see where we are on the computer. What I don’t get is when dispatch asks us stupid questions that they already know the answer to, like they’re trying to trip us up. Especially Lexie. She’s not usually a witch