The Firefighter Meets His Match (Red Hot Reunions Book 4) (8 page)

He believed her, even before he saw Jake’s haunted face, or learned that Faith had been missing for close to two hours.

CHAPTER TEN

Naomi

Long before she and Jake said their “I do’s,” Naomi Whitehouse knew being the wife of a small town fire chief wasn’t going to be easy. Not only did Jake regularly work seventy-two hour shifts, he went in to check on things at the station on his days off, answered email from the city council at home, and worked with the fire marshal to make sure the volunteer departments in the surrounding rural areas had the proper training.

He was devoted to his job, but he was no less devoted to their marriage or their daughter. Jake was a man who took all of his responsibilities seriously and would rather drop in the harness than let anyone down.

But even big, strong men with the will power of a war commander and the determination of a salmon swimming upstream needed a break now and then. She didn’t need a crystal ball to know Jake probably hadn’t slept for at least twenty-four hours, maybe more. Now, with Faith missing, the chances that Naomi’s husband would take time out for a nap were slim to none.

By five o’clock Sunday night, Naomi knew someone had to take the boss to task, and there was only one woman for the job. She asked Greta, Noelle’s nanny, to stay overnight, packed a bag of “soothe the husband” supplies, and hustled out to her car, spirits lifting as she realized the downpour had finally become a drizzle.

Hopefully the break in the rain would make the search for Faith easier.

Please, God, let them find her soon,
she prayed, the same prayer she’d been silently chanting since she’d learned her brother’s fiancée was missing. Faith was already a part of their family. Losing her would be like losing a sister, and poor Mick…

Naomi shook off the thought. Mick wasn’t going to lose Faith. One of the search parties would find her, and in the meantime Naomi was going to make sure Jake was rested and prepared to keep making good decisions.

The rain might finally be blowing over, but the floodwater would continue to cause problems for days. Jake would need to be ready to handle his responsibilities, which required sleep and a break from the constant stress, no matter how brief.

When she walked into the station ten minutes later to find her husband hunched behind his desk, phone trapped between his ear and shoulder while he typed with one hand and flipped through a folder with the other, she knew she’d come just in time. The skin beneath Jake’s hazel eyes was bruised with exhaustion, and he had stubble that would do a lumberjack proud covering his chin and cheeks—even the skin covering his face seemed to be hanging a little looser.

He smiled when he saw her, but a grin couldn’t hide the fact that he looked like hell.

For a moment Naomi was filled with anger that no one else had thought to tell the chief to hit his bunk for a nap, but then she caught Jamison’s eyes across the room. He cast Jake a pointed look before lifting his arms and shaking his head, indicating he couldn’t do a thing with his older brother in his current state.

Naomi nodded, her jaw firming up as she crossed the room to Jake and reached down to close the file folder on top of his hand.

He scowled, but withdrew his hand, using it to hold his phone to his ear. “Okay, Nash. Naomi’s here. I’ll call you back if we hear anything.” Jake nodded, sighing at something the chief of police said. “I know. Thanks, we appreciate it.”

He ended the call and stood, running a hand down his face that did nothing to banish the exhaustion from his expression. “What’s up, babe? Is Noelle okay? Did you—”

“Noelle is great. Greta’s going to stay with her until I get back to the house,” Naomi said, hooking her arm through Jake’s and leading him toward the hall. “You, however, are not great. You need to get some rest.”

Jake balked, stopping in his tracks. “I can’t, Naomi. Faith is still missing. I’ve got four search teams calling in every ten minutes, and I can’t—”

“I can handle the calls for an hour,” Jamison said, appearing beside them, obviously sensing Naomi needed backup. “Go get some sleep. If you don’t, you’re decision-making will be impaired and you won’t be any good to anyone.”

Jake shook his head. “My decision-making is already impaired. I just sent a psychic with no search and rescue training out in a boat with Brandon and Neil.”

Naomi frowned as she glanced between Jamison and Jake. “A psychic?”

“Lucy’s a psychic,” Jamison said, with a lot less skepticism than Naomi would have expected. “I wasn’t sure what to think at first, either,” he continued, clearly reading the surprise on her face. “But I called the detective she used to work with in Atlanta. He said she’s the real deal; helped them solve a shitload of cold cases and found dozens of missing persons.”

Naomi blinked, processing the information before she nodded. “Okay, well…I had no idea Lucy used to work for the police, but that doesn’t sound like a bad decision.” Naomi placed a hand on Jake’s back, rubbing the place between his shoulders that usually helped him to relax. “I mean, if she checked out with a detective, that’s great. Maybe she can help find Faith.”

“She can’t hurt,” Jamison said, the tension in his voice making it clear how worried he was. But then, Faith was more than a co-worker to him and Jake; she was like their younger sister, a girl they’d grown up with at the station. “At this point, I’m up for trying anything.”

“Obviously I am too,” Jake said. “But I can’t send a woman I’ve never worked with out in a boat and go take a nap. I need to be by the phone in case Brandon or Neil call in with a problem.”

“If there’s a problem, Jamison can handle it,” Naomi said, holding up her hand to silence Jake before he could speak. “That’s it. No arguing. Come to the bunks with me, and let me tuck you in. Right now.”

Jake met her eyes, holding her gaze for a long moment before he sighed and nodded. “All right. But I only need thirty minutes.”

“Take an hour,” Jamison said. “I’ll wake you sooner if we get any news.”

“Thirty minutes,” Jake said, proving he was the most stubborn person in the world. “And I’ll want a full report of what I missed when I wake up.”

Naomi resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she hooked her arm through his and walked him out of the large, open office space and down the hall to the bunkroom. Inside, the room smelled lightly of feet, detergent, man, and bleach cleaner, but Jake’s bunk at the far right of the room was cozy enough and Naomi knew he could fall asleep anywhere. It was one of his super powers. Naomi needed high thread count sheets, lavender spray, and a white noise machine to get to sleep and still had trouble, but Jake—give him a lumpy chair or a wall to lean against and he was good to go.

Still, she had brought a few things she hoped might help make his nap more refreshing. She set her bag down on the tile beside the bed and started pulling out her emergency supplies.

“What’s all that?” Jake asked as he stripped his Summerville Fire tee shirt off and hung it over the end of the bed, revealing his thickly muscled chest.

Even now, seven months after seeing Jake semi-clothed for the first time in years, the sight of him still made Naomi’s insides flutter. He was a beautiful man, inside and out, and she was determined to take excellent care of him, even when she had to fight his own stubborn nature to do it.

“This is passion flower tea with honey,” Naomi said, uncapping her thermos and pouring Jake a steaming cup. “It’s going to help you relax and get to sleep.”

Jake sat on the edge of the bunk, accepting the thermos cap with a mildly amused expression. “You know I don’t need any help with that, babe.”

“I know,” she said, “but you’ve been under an abnormal amount of stress. So drink the tea. You’ll like it, I promise.”

Jake took a cautious sip, nodding as he swallowed. “That is nice.”

“This is going to be even nicer.” Naomi uncapped her lavender oil and held it out for Jake to stiff. “When you’re done with your tea, I’m going to give you a back massage and then I’ve got a beanbag neck warmer to heat up in the microwave. We’ll slip it around your shoulders before your drift off and you’ll wake up without any stress knots.”

“You’re good to me.” Jake glanced up at her, his half smile fading. “But it doesn’t feel right to have you making a fuss over me while Faith’s still out there.”

Naomi sat down beside him on the mattress. “I understand, but making a martyr of yourself isn’t going to help find her. Let me take care of you, and you’ll wake up in a better place to deal with the search for Faith and everything else.”

He took another sip of his tea before saying in soft voice, “I don’t want to lose someone I love so much. Not again.” He turned, staring into her eyes with a look so raw it broke her heart.

This was the Jake he only showed to her, the vulnerable, naked Jake who could admit he wasn’t always the toughest man in the world, and who needed her strength every bit as much as she needed his.

“It’s going to be okay.” She cupped his face in her hands, looking deep into his troubled eyes. “We will get through this as a family. All of us—Jamison and Maddie and Mick and you and me. We’ve got each other and everyone out in that room on our side, and all of them are praying for Faith.”

Jake nodded, but the wrinkle between his eyes stayed firmly in place.

“And Lucy may be a little odd, but she’s a sweet, smart girl and a complete professional,” Naomi pressed on. “I know helping run a bakery and looking for missing people are vastly different things, but I’m guessing Lucy is the kind who brings excellence to everything she does. I think you made a good call, and I’ve got a feeling we’re going to hear good news soon.”

Jake sighed. “I hope so.”

“Come on,” Naomi said, taking the empty thermos lid from his hands. “Strip and get into bed. Let’s get this nap started.”

One side of Jake’s mouth lifted as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a tight hug. “I love you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’ll never have to find out,” Naomi said, kissing his scruffy cheek before wrapping her arms around his chest and squeezing tight.

Minutes later she had Jake tucked in and was rubbing his bare shoulders, her hands sliding smoothly across his warm flesh, sending the soothing smell of lavender floating through the room. In typical Jake style, he was asleep in two minutes flat, but Naomi continued to knead the knots from muscles, hoping her touch would give him comfort, even in sleep.

After she’d coaxed some of the stress from his back, Naomi covered Jake with his blanket, set his alarm for forty-five minutes—deciding to split the difference between what Jake wanted and what Jamison had suggested—and tiptoed toward the door to heat up the beanbag neck warmer in the microwave, snapping off the light as she went.

She paused in the doorway, glancing back at the still, sleeping form of the man she loved, grateful that she could be there for him. Against all odds, she and Jake had found their way back to each other, and made a beautiful life and a beautiful family together, with their precious baby girl and another little boy on the way. They’d be adopting their son in the fall, as soon as the birth mother delivered, and had already started work on his nursery.

A day ago, the future had been nothing but bright, but Naomi had faith the sun would shine again. And she had faith in Faith to do whatever it took to stay safe until she was found.

Still, Naomi took a moment, standing in the semi-darkness with the smell of lavender in the air and Jake’s measured breathing drifting to her ears to close her eyes and send out another prayer. If she’d learned one thing this past year, it was that there were two things you could never have too much of—love and people praying for you.

She knew the prayers and love of her family and friends had lifted her out of the darkness after the loss of her first daughter, Grace. Now, she hoped her love and prayer could help do the same for Faith.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lucy

Lucy twined her fingers tightly through Brandon’s and scooted closer to him on the center boat seat, keeping her eyes trained on the bank, doing her best not to show how scared she was. The floodwater in the subdivision they’d left behind twenty minutes ago had been moving swiftly, but it was sluggish compared to the river’s rushing current.

There was nothing little about the Little Fork today. It was big and wide and overflowing its banks, barreling to the south with a fury that had Neil clenching his jaw as he steered their motorboat around one dangerous curve after another. One wrong move—a bad read on the current, or a failure to steer clear of the debris clogging parts of the river—was all it would take to send all three of them tumbling overboard.

They were wearing life vests, but that didn’t mean they were safe. The last time there had been a flood this bad fifteen people had died. One of them had been a rescue worker wearing a life vest, with extensive training on how to stay alive in emergency situations.

Lucy had no training. She knew CPR and was in reasonably good shape, but she wasn’t the strongest swimmer. If she went overboard, she’d be at the mercy of the river until it decided to spit her up on a bank somewhere.

But even scarier than the chance of being tossed from the boat was the possibility that she’d been wrong.

When she had urged Neil to veer left—guiding the boat through a treacherous stand of trees before they left the floodplain and entered the river proper—she’d been sure it was the right move. She would have sworn she could sense Faith to the south, much farther than the other search and rescue boats had ventured, but not so far their team wouldn’t be able to reach her before nightfall.