Fire Me Up: North Fork Series Page 2

  “When you are dizzy it’s a good idea to sit down.”

  “But my class—”

  “Don’t worry. Holsky has them. He will be passing out the plastic helmets now and lining them up for the firetruck rides.” He nodded toward the open back of the rescue van and guided her there with a hand on the small of her back, his touch making her want to agree to anything he suggested. “Sit over here and take a few breaths. We don’t want you fainting.”

  Or throwing up. That would be even worse than tripping down the stairs. “Okay, maybe it is a good idea.”

  He handed her a bottle of spring water and she took it gratefully, looking down at his hands. No ring. So either he was not married or he was a guy who didn’t like to wear rings.

  “Why did you run away?” he asked.

  “Run away?”

  “That day in Greenport. I wanted to thank you, but by the time I brushed the snow off my clothes you were gone.”

  She met his gaze, his eyes showing a mix of curiosity, flirtation, and admiration. Not something she was used to. Especially from a man who would have most women begging for a mere look from him. “My friend arrived and she was double parked. That’s why I was standing there in the first place. Waiting for her to pick me up.”

  “Lucky me that you chose to wait in that spot.”

  Oh geeze, if he keeps looking at me like that, there’ll be a fire to put out, all right—inside me.

  Marni didn’t know what to say, so she just took a sip of water. Too bad his attentive gaze that sent tingles right through her made it hard to swallow. She choked on it and started coughing.

  He immediately stepped close and patted her back and when she stopped coughing he left his hand there, leaning forward, hovering over her. “You okay now?”

  She nodded, but having him so close robbed her brain of its ability to form any coherent sentences. Instead she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss him. In her head she lectured herself for going in that direction, but try telling that to her body. His quiet sexuality hit her in a way she had never experienced before and woke up her sadly dormant female senses, lighting them on fire. Pun intended.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Marni Ross.”

  His hand came forward. “Harper Sheehan.”

  Oh no. She’d heard about him. And it all made sense now. He was the hotshot fireman who’d moved from New York City to the quiet North Fork where the fire department was all volunteer. He had been a full-time career firefighter, a lieutenant with the FDNY, and now he was tending bar at a seafood place. And the word about town was that this virile hunk was sampling all the single women who swarmed around him, each hoping she would be the one who could tame him.

  Marni sighed. Okay, now she knew he was single, but she was disappointed that this guy who seemed so nice was probably an egotistic asshole. Still, that didn’t stop her body’s reaction to his handshake that sent an electric heat through her.

  She had a mind strong enough to fight it and stayed focused. “Nice to meet you, Harper. I remember now—you wore an FDNY hat when I saw you in Greenport.” She pointed to the North Cove Fire Department logo on his shirt. “You live out here now?”

  “Yep. Been here a little over three months. I own a seafood bar-restaurant in Greenport with my uncle now.”

  “Must be pretty boring compared to working in a big fire department like New York City’s.”

  “Biggest in the country, second in the world behind Tokyo. But it was a change I needed. And the truth is, Marni, when there’s an emergency, with lives at stake, it doesn’t matter how big or small it is. You have to be ready and on game. That’s one reason I’m involved in the training programs now.”

  “At the fire academy, training recruits?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I also teach classes around the Fork that are for the general public.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Is your CPR certification current? When was your last course?”

  “Um…I’m not sure.” She grimaced.

  “Uh-oh. Maybe you better come to my workshop. I include Heimlich and AED and special instruction relating to children.”

  He reached inside his jacket and produced a brochure. He gave Marni a sexy grin as he handed it to her. Was he flirting with her? Or was he merely one of those men who was chronic and didn’t know how to relate to a woman without flirting?

  “I see you have a few at our local firehouse,” Marni said as she scanned the brochure.

  “Got one this Saturday.”

  She looked up. “You have a business in Greenport and you’re here for a program in Peconic Bend and you have a North Cove logo on your shirt.”

  “I live in North Cove, but the smaller departments sometimes share resources, and I try to help out wherever I can. I mean, who could ever say no to Captain Holsky?”

  “So that’s it, huh? I figured you were here so you could talk the teachers into taking your workshops.”

  He laughed and Marni fought against the warm mix of attraction and comfort it brought on.

  Isabel High, another local firefighter, walked up to them. “Hey, Marni, Mr. Holsky is just about finished with your kids. He sent me over to see if you were okay, but I can see you are doing fine.”

  Marni didn’t miss the sarcastic edge in Isabel’s tone as she pointedly glanced at Harper and then back at her.

  Harper must have also seen it because he cut in with, “Don’t look at her. I’m the one who insisted she sit down. Thought she was going to faint.”

  The fact that he would jump in and defend her warmed Marni’s heart. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as what she’d heard.

  Isabel smirked and waved a hand. “Marni is always fainting or throwing up or falling and fracturing something. When we were kids she had to miss most of the class trips because she got car sick on the busses.” She chuckled and looked back at Marni. “How do you handle it now that you’re a teacher?”

  They had gone through school together and Isabel had witnessed all those mortifying years when Marni was the butt of jokes, not just for the times she got sick, but also for her ill-fitting old clothes and the super thick glasses she had worn then, which was one reason she used to trip and fall a lot and did so badly at the games they played outside.

  Marni wanted to give some kind of snarky comeback, but she had never been good at those kinds of things, and she didn’t think Isabel really meant any harm. So she just shrugged and said, “I manage.”

  When she set down her water bottle and stood, Harper reached a hand under her elbow and for a brief moment Marni felt like a swooning damsel of old. But then she saw Isabel’s bug-eyed reaction. “I’m fine now, Harper. Thanks so much for your help.”

  He released his hand but seemed almost reluctant to do it. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part. In any case, Marni’s second-grade class was ready for her return, so she marched in that direction, leaving Isabel standing by Harper. And wondering what kinds of humiliating things Isabel would tell him about her once she was gone.

  But as Marni started off, Harper called out, “I expect to see you in my workshop this Saturday, Ms. Ross.”

  Chapter 3

  When Harper first set eyes on The Blue Albatross Tavern he’d felt an immediate connection. It wasn’t only the smooth rich reddish brown wood making up the floors, walls, bar, and furniture that gave it a certain warmth offering the perfect hearth to any true lover of the sea—in particular those salty dogs who roamed the robust North Atlantic on a cold blustery night. What made it special to Harper was the man who ran the place. Harper’s most trusted confidant and mentor—Phil Sheehan.

  Uncle Phil had been a second father to him after Harper lost his dad when he was fourteen years old. Then, five years ago, Phil retired from the FDNY and moved out to Greenport on the far eastern end of Long Island so he could spend his time doing his two favorite things—cooking and fishing. But after his beloved wife passed away last year, Phil needed a partner to run the restaurant with him
.

  Harper had been wanting to somehow pay back the care and support his uncle had given him for so many years, so when his fiancée had planted the idea of a house and family in his head, Harper jumped in as Phil’s new partner. And once he’d moved out to the North Fork—even though it was without Alexa—he couldn’t help but fall under the spell of the place.

  It also reminded Harper of his last days with his dad, Jack Sheehan. The three “men” in the family—Jack and Phil and Harper—had come out here for a deep sea fishing getaway, leaving his mom and three sisters at home. A week later on, September eleventh, Jack Sheehan died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center along with over three hundred other firefighters.

  “Harper, you gotta try my latest version of beer battered fish,” Uncle Phil said, coming at him with a plate of food.

  “I wanted to get started on the shipment of—”

  “That can wait. Sit down and eat first.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Harper said, sitting at the staff table and digging in.

  Uncle Phil had been captain of Harper’s engine company at the firehouse in New York City. Phil was also one of the firefighters who’d survived 911. It left him with a load of health issues, but he’d told Harper that wasn’t the worst of it, saying that no man should ever have to witness what he’d seen inside the Towers. Harper thought those memories were the main reason Phil had decided to spend his later years in this small village by the sea.

  “How am I supposed to eat this when you are sitting there watching me like a hawk?” Harper said, laughing.

  “I’m waiting to see if you notice it. Can you taste my secret ingredient?”

  “Geez. It’s Julia Childs Sheehan. I don’t know anything about cooking. It tastes great to me.”

  “Hopeless.” Phil flapped a hand at him and leaned back. “You on the bar tonight?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good. It brings the women in.”

  Harper rolled his eyes and said, “That notion is totally nuts. They like to meet their friends here.”

  Phil shook his head. “They come to try and score a date with the hot new guy in town.”

  “I am not the new guy anymore. I have been living here for three months now.”

  “Things move slower out on the Fork. You’re still a novelty. And the fact that you never stick with one woman makes it more of a challenge. Just do me a favor and don’t break too many hearts. That’s bad for business.”

  “Hey, I make it clear to anyone I go out with that I’m only in it for fun,” Harper said.

  Phil’s lips curled into a smirk. “Fun or revenge against Alexa?”

  “Don’t start with that again.”

  “Look, Harper, I was happy when you decided to go ahead with your plans to make a change despite Alexa’s turnaround. Frankly, I never really liked the woman.”

  “Would’ve been nice if you had told me that.” Harper pushed his empty plate aside.

  “Would you have listened? You would have just called me an interfering old crank.”

  “Like you are now.”

  Phil chuckled. “Ya know, when you took out a mortgage on that pretty little house you had picked out for the family you were planning to have even though Alexa dumped you, I figured it was a good sign. That you’d decided you were going to make that dream happen regardless, that you would be looking for the right woman to settle down with out here. But you are doing just the opposite. Acting like some eighteen-year-old on the prowl. I don’t get it.”

  “You don’t have to.” Harper loved his uncle, but he hated these lectures. He stood up and went to the coffee station at the side counter and poured himself a generous mug.

  “Get back here,” Phil said. “I’m not finished. And bring me a coffee. Light with two sugars.”

  “I know how you take your coffee. Think I’m getting senile like you?”

  “My Ginny would say all this flattery isn’t good for me.”

  Harper put a mug of coffee in front of his uncle and took the seat across from him once again. The two men gave each other a silent wistful smile for a moment at the mention of Phil’s late wife, Harper’s aunt and godmother and the sweetest lady that had ever lived.

  Phil sighed and said, “I hate to play the Ginny card on you, but there is something to be said for finding that one special woman you want to share your life with.”

  Harper was not sure how to answer that. He didn’t dare challenge the sacred ground of his uncle’s love for Aunt Ginny. And he wasn’t sure what he believed was possible anymore. So he just shrugged and sipped his coffee and mumbled, “I’m not too good at figuring out women.”

  “Because you don’t even try. You’ve always had women come to you, so you never had to make any proactive effort or figure out what you really wanted. Alexa was a ready-made girlfriend who chased you until you gave in. You put sorry little effort into it. That’s why it was all about her, right down to her pushing you into what she wanted in the end. Although, I’ve got to thank her for that because I was having a hard time handling this place by myself and I’d much rather have a partner who is family.”

  “Yeah, I’m happy about it too. I loved my job, but I needed a new direction in my life.”

  “Then why aren’t you finishing what you started? You’ve got that house, but you are never in it. You are either working here or working at the fire academy or volunteering for every little thing the local first responders need. Or out making it with some girl who isn’t worth your time. That house has become a ghost ship. Or is it a monument to your love for Alexa?”

  “What? No way. Just the opposite. I mean, sure, what she did hurt my ego, but I figured out that I was never actually in love with her. A couple weeks ago it occurred to me that I never think about Alexa at all. So I made myself think about her for a minute and realized that I don’t even miss her.”

  “Which proves my point,” Phil said, taking a sip of coffee and setting down his mug. “You don’t pay any attention to what’s going on in here or in here.” He pointed first to Harper’s head, then to his heart.

  “Oh no. You’re getting into one of those philosophical moods.”

  “Tell me, Harper, have you ever taken one of the women you date back to your house?”

  “No way am I discussing my sex life with you, old goat.”

  “You’re missing the point. I don’t care if you take them to your bedroom or invite them over for pancakes or just sit in the backyard and play poker. Answer my question. Has any lady you have spent time with been to your house?”

  “No.”

  “I rest my case.”

  Harper smirked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you either bought that house to spite Alexa and you can’t stand being there because you’re still in love with her…”

  “I told you I’m over her. What we had wasn’t love.”

  “And I believe that. But didn’t you once tell me the house was one you picked out when you first started looking? That it was one you loved but it got put aside because Alexa hated it?”

  Harper crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you trying to say the fact that Alexa hated that house is the only reason I bought it?”

  “No. I think you bought it because you decided to do what you wanted for yourself instead of worrying about pleasing her. That you intended to go through with your plans in your own way. But that house is not the kind a freewheeling bachelor buys. I think you bought it because you still want to have a wife and kids. The problem is you are too chicken to admit you haven’t got a clue how to find the right woman.”

  Harper sat there dumbfounded. His uncle could often be blunt, but tonight he’d taken it to a new level. Or maybe it hit him harder because it was true. Some part of Harper was holding on, hoping for what his dad and mom had, for what his Uncle Phil and Aunt Ginny had, and keeping that dream in a precious hidden corner that he didn’t want to tarnish with his meaningless escapades.

  Luckily Tabitha, th
e assistant night manager, approached their table. “Wow, look at the serious mugs on you two. I hope it’s not some problem I have to deal with tonight.”

  “Just some family stuff that we’ve resolved,” Harper said quickly.

  Tabitha was reliable and smart, but she had a way of nosing in on personal conversations that made him uncomfortable, and this was one he sure as hell did not want to share with her. “I better make sure the bar is set up.” He stood but turned to his uncle and said, “Thank you, Yoda. Who says wisdom doesn’t come to old geezers like you?”

  Phil threw his head back and laughed.

  Harper walked to the bar, Tabitha sauntering along next to him, a little too close. “Phil is leaving in an hour and Jerrod won’t be in until later,” she said, “so it’s just you and me holding down the fort tonight, pardner. Think you can handle a Friday night bar by yourself?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, I’m always here if you need me.” She gave him a flirtatious smile that Harper pretended not to notice.

  Tabitha was a good-looking woman, divorced but still only twenty-eight. He had no doubt she attracted her share of men and he hoped she’d find a husband soon. Even if Harper were attracted to her—which he was not—he would never date a Blue Albatross employee. Harper had subtly mentioned his personal rule to Tabitha, but apparently he’d been a bit too subtle, because she didn’t take the hint. And it didn’t help that his uncle refused to officially put that kind of anti-fraternizing restriction on his employees, so Harper just had to bob and weave around her.

  Like right now as he ducked away behind the bar and started checking everything, even though he’d already done that when he arrived earlier.

  As the daytime staff left and the night crew took over, the buzz of the dinner crowd filled the space. Tabitha had their waitresses moving like a drill team through the sixteen tables in the dining area, and Harper had his hands full at the bar.

  Aside from learning the back end of the business from his uncle, Harper had spent the first month of his tenure working the bar alongside an ex-fisherman named Jerrod. It didn’t take him long to catch on. As a New York City firefighter, Harper had thrived under pressure. So on a busy night when the crowds swelled around the bar and every stool was taken and waitresses were putting in a laundry list of orders for drinks, he came through like a champ. His uncle also knew Harper had a reputation as a guy who could handle himself when confronted—nothing like having the old bartender-bouncer two-for-one package—although he hoped he’d never have to act on that.