The Firefighter Meets His Match (Red Hot Reunions Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

all emergencies—with efficiency, professionalism, and excellence.
    And in the meantime, he would enjoy his last night off.
    Ten minutes later he was dressed and spinning Maddie under his arm into the current of dancers tracking their way around the floor, while Melody March crooned a love song, never dreaming that, this time tomorrow, half of Main Street—including the boards he was dancing on—would be under five feet of water for the first time in Summerville history.

CHAPTER SIX
    Lucy
    Lucy spotted Brandon the second he walked in the door. He was surrounded by a group of other firemen—who made a significant difference in the testosterone level in the bar when they barreled inside—but even if he hadn’t been, Lucy would have been alerted to his presence immediately.
    Brandon had an aura about him that drew her focus like a magnet.
    She didn’t know how she’d managed to overlook his intense personal energy before, but in the thirty-six hours since he walked out of Icing, Lucy had decided she might be interested in that pizza date, after all.
    Last night, Jamison had invited her over for family dinner at the firehouse, the way he usually did when he was on duty, saying there was no reason for Lucy to eat supper alone in her apartment when they had more than enough food to share. But instead of exchanging jokes with Jamison or chatting Ben up about the last concert he’d attended in Atlanta, Lucy spent most of the meal sneaking glances at Brandon, wondering why she hadn’t noticed how intelligent his eyes were before—or how pretty.
    Truth be told, he was gorgeous all the way around. His shorn blond hair and craggy profile lent him a Nordic Viking vibe that was unlike any guy she’d dated, but undeniably attractive. He was considerate, too, and had welcomed her to dinner last night with a smile and a, “Hi, Lucy, good to see you,” making sure she knew there weren’t any hard feelings over her turning him down.
    And why did you turn him down? It’s not like men are beating down your door.
    Lucy sank lower in the booth, hiding behind her fizzy pink drink. She knew why she’d turned Brandon down. Since Isaiah, she’d turned everyone down.
    Isaiah had been her first love—a poet and an artist and the most sensitive, wonderful, beautiful boy she’d ever met, with chocolaty brown eyes that melted her heart and hugs that made her never want to leave his arms. From the day they met at a summer blues festival freshman year of college, to the day he left a note on her pillow telling her he had to go, they’d been inseparable.
    Until the morning he disappeared.
    He’d found out he had cancer a few weeks before, the same cancer that had killed his father within six months of diagnosis. Isaiah knew first-hand what it was like to watch someone he loved wither and fade and that’s why he’d broken up with Lucy via love letter. He’d written that he wanted her to remember him as he was in life, promised he would always love her, and vanished into the ether.
    Lucy had searched and searched for some sign as to where he’d gone—she was too in love to stand back and let her best friend die alone—but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find a hint of a trail. She asked Grammy Tutu to try her hand at tracking him, but grammy said even psychics couldn’t find someone who genuinely didn’t want to be found.
    Lucy didn’t learn Isaiah had passed until three months after his funeral, when his mother finally got around to writing Lucy an email with directions to the gravesite—and a confession that she’d never thought Pottsville trash like Lucy was good enough for her son to begin with.
    Lucy had gone to visit Isaiah’s grave and cried on the tiny sprigs of grass already pushing up through the dirt, but it was too late for the tears to have any cathartic effect. The boy she’d loved was gone and she’d never even gotten to say goodbye. It had left a hole in her heart, a wound that stayed raw, open,