“You’ll help him, right?” They all stopped just behind Logan, and Jane stared up at the engine. She still hadn’t faced Chris. “Hold onto him and make sure he doesn’t fall?”
“Absolutely. I’ll take good care of him, ma’am.”
She breathed a heavy sigh and tilted her head slightly toward him, as if careful to keep her hair over the side of her face. “Please, call me Jane.”
He wondered why she wouldn’t look at him full on. Her slim fingers ran over her hair again and again, smoothing it over her left cheek before she finally turned to him.
And then he saw them, the faint edges of scars along the side of her face. Her hair hid most of it, but not all. Burn scars from the accident. Sympathy filled him and he wondered how badly she’d been burned, how much she’d been scarred.
“Well, Jane, I think I need to go check on your son before he climbs onto the engine all by himself.”
She smiled, though her eyes went a little wide. “He has no fear.”
“I was the same way when I was a kid.” He noticed her lips, the lush mouth coated in the faintest sheen of lip gloss.
Yeah, he needed to stop checking her out like that. This would go nowhere and he was wasting his time. She was a widow with kids—definitely not his type. And when was the last time he’d gone out with a woman anyway? Work kept him too busy to pursue a relationship. The summer had flown by with the extra-busy fire season they’d just experienced, and he hadn’t made much time for socializing. He’d been too damn tired. Plus, he hadn’t met anyone who’d piqued his interest.
Chris headed toward the engine, issuing a gentle warning to Logan to wait for him. Pushing his errant thoughts away, he grabbed hold of the little boy around his waist, opened the door, and hauled him up into the cab of the truck. Logan squealed in excitement, his eyes going wide at the sight of all the buttons and knobs, and his head darted this way and that, drinking it in.
It reminded Chris of his own memory of first climbing into a fire engine. His father had been a firefighter, too, so Chris had been around fire stations and engines much of his early childhood. Once his parents had divorced, well, he’d rarely seen his father much.
> But the excitement of a fire engine, of firefighting had never died. All these years later and he still felt that buzz when he first went out on a call. The thrill of the unknown, the adrenaline rush when headed toward battle with an out-of-control wildfire, never faded.
“Can I drive it?” Logan asked, and Chris laughed.
“I’m afraid you’re a bit too young for that, but you can play with the steering wheel.” Chris lifted Logan’s little hands and put them on either side of the wide wheel.
Logan immediately started turning it, making the classic car sounds all young boys knew just how to do. Jane and her two girls approached the side of the truck, the three females staring up at them in curiosity, and Chris flicked his head in invitation.
“Want to join us?”
Jane shook her head slowly, but a flash of interest showed in Lexi’s eyes. He concentrated on that. “How about you, Lexi? Wanna check it out?”
She shuffled her feet, hugging her mother’s leg for the briefest moment before she released it. “This is just boy stuff.”
“Not at all.” Chris shook his head. “There are plenty of women firefighters who work here.”
“Where are they?” Lexi glanced around the garage.
“Well, one of them is off today and the others only work during the summer, when we’re extra busy.”
“Oh.” Lexi paused, her gaze wandering the length of the engine and back. “Isn’t it hard to drive this thing?”
“Not so hard once you learn how.”
“Did you have to go to school?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.” He extended his left hand down toward Lexi, his right arm firmly clasped around Logan’s middle. “Come on, join us.”
She looked at her mother, who gave a gentle nod of approval, and then she grabbed hold of Chris’s hand. He hauled her up with ease, tugging her onto his lap as he shifted Logan onto his right thigh. She was a tiny thing, delicate in his arms in comparison to her sturdy younger brother. Pretty like her mother, with the same dark hair and deep green eyes. She clutched at his arm with cool fingers and he adjusted her in his lap. “What do you think?”
“It’s big. And tall.” She glanced out the windshield. “I feel like I can see everything.”
“Yeah, it is pretty high off the ground.” He released his hold on Logan, who scampered across the bench seat to peer out the window of the passenger side. Jane followed him, walking around the front of the engine to stand on the right side of the cab, where she waved up at Logan, who pounded on the closed window in greeting.
“It’s kind of scary up here,” Lexi admitted in a small whisper.
Chris wasn’t used to kids—he was an only child—so he didn’t know how to offer her comfort. “You’re actually very safe in this engine,” he tried. “It’s built solid, and it’s much bigger than most vehicles out on the road.”