Seduced in September (Spring River Valley Book 9) (7 page)

* * * *

“The rig is fully stocked. We’re ready for anything,” Quinn announced as he lowered himself into a chair in the firehouse kitchen.

Gary Sands sat opposite him, watching the latest weather update and making notes for an emergency bulletin. “I’ve got the flood routes planned out, and I want everyone to avoid the south side approach to the hospital. Those roads are going to flood first if we get all the rain they’re predicting.”

“Got it.” Quinn filed that piece of advice away. He’d lived in town long enough to know what roads to avoid in heavy rains, but he wasn’t about to play the know-it-all card in front of his commander.

Gary finished making notes and glanced at him across the small table. “No heroics out there. You know all the protocols
, and I expect you to follow them. No storm chasing.”

Quinn held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’ve been good. Not even a paper cut in months. I won’t do anything dangerous. I promise.”

Gary leaned back in his chair, stretching his back which creaked audibly. “I know you’ve been on your best behavior, Preston. And I appreciate that. That’s why I shortened your probation. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t offer a gentle reminder. I know you thrive on these kinds of nights and I know you’ll do anything to help someone. I just want you to follow the rules, even if when it’s hard to do.”

Quinn nodded. He respected that Gary had given him a chance
, and he understood that his behavior in the past might have been a bit reckless. Looking back, he realized a lot of his ‘accidental’ injuries probably could have been prevented with a few more minutes of forethought before rushing into a situation, though the last injury—the concussion and broken wrist he’d sustained at a house fire while helping out in a neighboring town—really hadn’t been the result of his own mistake. He’d given up arguing that fact with Gary and had long since decided to let the sore subject drop. This job was the most important thing to him, and he didn’t want to screw it up, especially since, at the moment, nothing was going right in any other aspect of his life.

He hadn’t heard from Lily since the phone call after their disastrous non-date. He’d hated standing her up
, and he knew she understood he had no choice, but that didn’t stop it from stinging that she’d been reluctant to reschedule.

“Look, Cap, I’m one hundred percent committed to doing this right. You don’t have to worry about me out there.”

Gary smiled indulgently. “Sure, I do. That’s my job. Your job is to make my job unnecessary.” He rose, gathering his paperwork. “I’m going to go post this for the TV announcement. Where’s your partner?”

“He’s on his way.”

“Dropping off his girlfriend again?”

Quinn nodded.

“That’s what you need, Preston. Someone waiting at home for you. It keeps you grounded.”

“Yeah. I bet you’re right.”

“You’ll find the right girl if you get your head out of your ass.” Gary’s good natured jibe was delivered in a fatherly tone, and Quinn took it for what it was, but that didn’t stop him from thinking about Lily again.

“
I think I found her,” he said quietly as Gary left the room.
And I may have already lost her.

“Mother Nature’s a bitch today,” Quinn said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.

Tanner, intent on maneuvering their rig through sheets of driving rain, only grunted a response. Fierce wind rocked the ambulance from side to side and sent a constant flow of debris across the windshield. The hardworking wipers scraped loose papers and litter and ever larger sticks and twigs out of their path, but it was only a matter of time before the big branches, loosened by a late summer drought, would start to come down and add to the already treacherous driving conditions. The vehicle’s headlights illuminated only a few feet of road ahead which had been left in the dark at only seven p.m. Wednesday evening when a power failure had blacked out the northern end of town.

While he fully understood the danger these early autumn nor’easters posed to the community, Quinn couldn’t help but feel energized by the challenges they created. At the moment, there was nowhere he’d rather be than out in the middle of the chaos, but he knew his partner wasn’t as enthusiastic about the dangers of going on a rescue call with half the streetlights and traffic lights in town non-functional. Even though the Spring River Valley Police Department had issued a warning for all drivers to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary, the town’s first responders still had to worry that someone would ignore the warning and try to go to the store, or just take a drive to do some storm chasing. They had to be extra vigilant on their way to the small, neatly kept home on Boylan Street where their dispatcher had reported an elderly woman had fallen down the stairs in the dark.

“There it is, number 115.” Quinn gestured to the dark blue Cape Cod, and Tanner eased the rig to the curb. Fortunately there were no large trees near the house, but as they exited the vehicle and gathered their gear, Quinn kept his eye on the neighboring yards. Intermittent flashes of lightning illuminated the roiling sky, making it clear just how deeply the tallest birches and pines in the area were bending in the onslaught. He pulled the collar of his jacket up around his face to protect himself from the cold needles of rain and ducked after Tanner who was already making his way up the narrow walkway to the front door.

Before Tanner reached the door, it opened. A slim figure appeared and helped illuminate the walk with a heavy flashlight. “I’m sorry to do this to you guys,” the woman said, yelling over the howling wind. “When the lights went out, my aunt was just coming down the stairs, and she tripped. I’m afraid she might have broken her hip.”

“Lily?” Tanner said pausing at the door just long enough to shake off a little of the rain. Quinn lifted his head, squinting against the relentless shower. It couldn’t be.

“Yes…oh my God, Tanner? I didn’t…ah, of course you guys would be on duty tonight.”

* * * *

Stunned by the utter depth of her bad luck, Lily could only nod mutely as Tanner and Quinn sidled past her into Aunt Maddie’s living room. In the small room, lit only by the beam of her flashlight and the glow of a couple of battery-operated candles, the two men, decked out in their insulating rain gear, seemed larger than life.

Tanner wore that same knowing smirk he’d worn yesterday when he’d run into her at the hospital, but Quinn just stared, as dumbfounded, she supposed, as she was.

She broke eye contact and hurried to the stairs. Aunt Maddie lay where she’d fallen almost forty-five minutes earlier, her head propped up on pillows from the couch, a blanket covering her to prevent shock and help insulate her from the chill since the temperature had dropped so quickly during the storm.

“I’m so sorry to make you gentlemen come out on a night like this,” Aunt Maddie said as Tanner approached and knelt down beside her.

“Can you tell us what happened?” he asked.

“It’s quite embarrassing. I just got back from visiting my daughter in Chicago. I beat the storm to the airport, so I thought I was pretty lucky. I had gone upstairs to finish unpacking. I was coming back down when the lights went out. Ricki was under my feet—”

“Ricki?”

“The dog,” both Lily and Quinn responded simultaneously.

Tanner looked over his shoulder at them. “Did you two rehearse that? Where’s the dog now?”

“He’s in the bathroom,” Lily said. “If I let him out, he’d lick you to death. She tried to get up right after she fell. That’s when she realized she may have broken something.”

“It didn’t hurt at first. I just had the wind knocked out of me, but as soon as I tried to move, well…I’m afraid my hip is broken.” Aunt Maddie’s voice shook a little with that admission. Spry and energetic for her age, she had never been the type to sit idle. A serious injury would curb all of the activities that kept her mind and her spirit so vital.

“I didn’t try to move her after that,” Lily said. “I just brought the blankets and pillows to make her more comfortable, and then I convinced her to let me call 911.”

“I didn’t want to trouble anyone.”

Quinn stepped forward now with his own flashlight and carefully positioned it so the upward facing beam illuminated the corner of the staircase. “It’s no trouble for us, Mrs. M. We’re glad we can help. Now, my partner here is going to check you out, and then we’re going to bring a flat board in here so we can move you without causing you too much pain.”

“Quinn? Is that you?” Aunt Maddie shifted uncomfortably as if trying to get a better look at the man beneath the rain-soaked neon orange jacket.

Lily eyed him suspiciously. Even in the diffuse beam from the flashlight, he seemed to be blushing.

“Yes, Mrs. M, it’s me.”

“Oh, I knew I recognized that voice. Oh, Lily, dear, this is the young man I was telling you about.”

Lily stifled a moan. Back in April Aunt Maddie had bid on a bachelor at the Women’s Auxiliary Club charity auction. Lily had no idea it was Quinn. If she had…well….

Tanner eyed them both again, and Quinn gave him what appeared to be a warning look. Lily would have shriveled up and died at that moment had her aunt not been in pain. “Can I do anything to help you?” she said, careful to keep her gaze fixed on Tanner.

“You can get anything together that she’ll need with her at the hospital, insurance card, eyeglasses…and if she takes any medications if you could grab the bottles or make a list for us.”

“I’ll take care of it. Aunt Maddie, I’ll be right back. Where are your pills?”

“In the cabinet above the kitchen sink, dear.”

“I’ll be right back.” Grateful for an excuse to get away from Quinn, Lily scrambled down the hall to the kitchen. Ricki let out a curious, high-pitched woof followed by a low growl as she passed the bathroom, but she ignored him. He’d have to stay put until the excitement died down or he’d pee all over everything.

She heard the front door open and close and assumed Quinn had gone back outside to get the flat board they needed to carry Aunt Maddie to the ambulance. What a horrible night for this to have happened, not just because of the storm, but because Tanner and Quinn were on duty. There was no way to avoid him, and what made it worse was he knew Aunt Maddie. Her cheeks burned at the thought that she’d slept with a man who had gone on a date with her seventy-year-old aunt. Of course their charity dinner had been purely platonic, but still, if she had thought for a moment she could somehow live down the shame of Quinn forgetting her name, this compounded the indignity a hundred-fold. She’d had to have her summer fling; she’d had to ignore her own carefully constructed rules just once because she owed it to herself to live a little, and now she’d spend the rest of her life trying to live down that one reckless night.

“It may take us a little longer to get to the hospital,” Quinn told Mrs. Moriarty as he finished securing the stretcher in the back of the rig. “Dispatch says they’ve closed parts of Lakeside Drive because of flooding.”

Pale from discomfort and shivering a bit from the chilly trip from her front door to the back of the ambulance, his patient managed a wan smile and a weak thumbs-up. He had to give the lady credit. Despite what appeared to be a hip fracture, she’d managed to remain alert and in good spirits while he and Tanner maneuvered her onto the flat board and the stretcher that would keep her mostly immobile for what would probably be a tedious ride to the hospital.

“Tell Lily—”

Quinn held up a hand. “I’m going to get her. She can come with us. I’ll be right back. You just relax, and we’ll be on our way in a few minutes.” With a signal to Tanner who sat up front listening to a radio report about road closings, Quinn hopped back out of the rig and met Lily in the driveway. With her face partially hidden by the damp hood of a voluminous windbreaker, she bore no outward resemblance to the sultry seductress from the other night. Nevertheless his already hammering pulse quickened when he looked at her.

Rather than yell over the relentless wind, he put a hand on her arm to get her attention. “We’re ready to go.”

“All right. I’ll meet you at the hospital,” she said guardedly, not meeting his gaze. He told himself it was probably because the driving rain made it hard to focus on anything for too long.

He shook his head. “You can’t drive in this. There’s a travel advisory. You can ride in the back with me and your aunt.”

“Are you sure?”

“No other choice. If you need a ride home later…I’ll drive you.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “We’re not going to mention anything about the other night to my aunt.”

He nodded. Not that he’d planned on blabbing. “But we can talk about it later, can’t we?”

Finally she met his gaze. Something warm settled in the pit of his stomach. Even with damp hair plastered to her face and the wind whipping her hooded jacket around like a tent, she was stunning. Every moment they’d spent in his bed was etched in his memory
, and now it seemed so ridiculous that he hadn’t been able to remember her name.