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  The Fireman’s Perfect Match

  Patty H Scott

  ©Copyright July, 2020

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please refer them to PattyHScott.com or Amazon.com to get their own copy.

  No portion of this book may be copied without express permission from Patty H. Scott unless for the use of reviews of the book.

  The events and people in this book, aside from the ones to whom I dedicate this book, are purely fictional, and any resemblance to actual people is purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For Jon – I’m thankful for our love: forged by fire.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One – Caleb

  Chapter Two – Mindy

  Chapter Three – Caleb

  Chapter Four – Mindy

  Chapter Five – Caleb

  Chapter Six – Mindy

  Chapter Seven – Caleb

  Chapter Eight – Mindy

  Chapter Nine – Caleb

  Chapter Ten – Caleb

  Chapter Eleven – Mindy

  Chapter Twelve – Caleb

  Chapter Thirteen – Mindy

  Chapter Fourteen – Caleb

  Chapter Fifteen – Mindy

  Chapter Sixteen – Mindy

  Chapter Seventeen – Caleb

  Chapter Eighteen – Mindy

  Chapter Nineteen – Caleb

  Chapter Twenty – Mindy

  Chapter Twenty-one – Caleb

  Chapter Twenty-two – Mindy

  Chapter Twenty-three – Caleb

  Chapter Twenty-four – Mindy

  Epilogue

  Bonus Chapter from Romancing the Rancher

  Author Note – To You

  Contacting Patty Scott

  All the Thanks

  chapter one

  Caleb

  AS I STAND AT THE END of the aisle, my eyes lock onto hers. Mindy Morse. I’ve loved her since seventh grade. Well, love might be relative at that age. I’ll give you that. All I know is that since then, like a low-burning ember, Mindy has burned in my heart. She’s faithful, constant, and the sweetest thing this side of the Rockies.

  Now she’s walking towards me and my breath catches at the sight of her. It does something to me to see the woman I’ve secretly held a flame for all these years walking straight towards me looking as she does. It makes me want this to be for us—to have a wedding someday so I can be the one she approaches and spends forever loving.

  Her eyes lock on mine too. There’s that brightness in her gaze, innocent and good all the way through. Mindy is stunning, and she doesn’t even know it. She’s got a heart like Mom had—giving of herself from sunrise til sunset and never feeling drained from doing it. I don’t deserve a woman like Mindy, but the way she’s looking at me right now makes me want to be the man that would be worthy of her.

  She finishes walking up the aisle and stands next to Patrice, the maid of honor. She gives me a little grin. I feel my cheeks ache from the smile I give her in return. I need to take Jack’s advice and get off the dime, overcome my fear, and let Mindy know how I feel—how I’ve felt as long as I can remember.

  Jack is getting married today. I honestly never knew if he would actually settle down. It’s not like he has wild oats to sow. No, I’m the wild child in the family. You could set a clock by my brother. He’s that predictable. He just kept himself so shut in and on task I didn’t think he’d make time to find his lifetime love. But Kat, she opened him up and drew out all this new boldness and even contentment I’ve never seen him experience. They were meant for each other.

  As Kat walks down the aisle, I watch her, but I have to turn to look at Jack. I can barely see his face, but I feel the love radiating off him. It’s contagious—their love. I’m so proud to be his brother today. Kat looks amazing. She’s wearing a flowing white dress with beads along the edges, and the way she looks at my brother, it settles something in me. Mom and Dad had a good marriage. We were blessed that way—or spoiled. It was so good I almost feel like nothing could live up to it. But when I see Kat and Jack together, I feel like maybe it’s possible for me too.

  The pastor says some things about love and commitment. Jack and Katrina say their vows, and then Jack holds Katrina and kisses her, and he gives her a solid dip. The people here all go wild for it and start hooting. I’m telling you—he wouldn’t have done that before Kat. The right woman can make a man brave enough to be more than he had been before he met her.

  I step out behind Jack and Kat as they run down the aisle toward the inn. People are throwing birdseed and the music is playing. I take Patrice’s arm and give Mindy a wink as I walk forward with Patrice toward the grass lawn on the other side of the property. Brett comes behind me with Mindy on his arm. I should have thought this out and told my brother to ask Brett to be the best man so I could have walked with Mindy. No matter, we’ve still got the reception.

  Wedding photos didn’t take too long. Now we’re all sitting at tables around the back lawn with the lights strung overhead. The whole scene makes the inn look like we’re somewhere other than Bozeman Montana—except the mountains are always a reminder in the distance.

  Brett cracks me up. He’s Jack’s best friend from when Jack lived in LA for a few years. I guess he has a girl he’s serious about dating there, but not serious enough to bring as a date to an out-of-town wedding. Instead he’s spending his time cutting it up at the table with the rest of the wedding party.

  He looks over at me and says, “So, it looks like Jack solved all his bachelor problems in one move.”

  I ask, “How’s that?”

  “You know, the way we men run out of things. Women never run out of things. Like they have more lotions than the aisle at Target. Whereas men, we get in the shower, look around. Oh. Dude. I’m out of soap! Well, what now? We might consider running through the house naked and dripping to get the dish soap at that point. But instead we just turn the water up in hopes that makes up for it. Am I right?”

  Brett looks around to emphasize his point.

  Then he says, “After today, Jack will never run out of soap again.”

  I laugh. Being a firefighter does have its advantages. For one thing, we don’t run out of soap. I look over at Patrice. She seems to be just about putting up with Brett—barely.

  Mindy is too far away from me right now if you ask me. Who thinks up these seating arrangements? My brother is the one always telling me I need to get over it and tell Mindy how I feel. Now he placed four people between us. She’s laughing with Kat about something. I could watch her laugh for the rest of the night and be the happiest man on earth.

  It’s time for me to give my toast. I can be a bit energetic and sometimes make things light when everyone else is serious, but right now, I’m feeling this. I stand up and take the mic. I’m not kidding you when I say tears come to my eyes and I have to clear my throat as I look at my brother, Kat sits close to him, her arms comfortably folded and draped across the back of his shoulder.

  “Hey, everyone! Thanks for being here to celebrate this amazing day with my brother and his beautiful bride. Congratulations, Kat and Jack!” Everyone claps and cheers. I watch Jack turn and kiss Kat on the cheek.

  “This day is so special. I love you both.” I have to move the mic and clear my throat again as I think how much I wish our parents were here to see Jack happy like this. They would have loved Kat too. I get a grip enough to keep talking.

  “Jack, I honestly never knew if you were going to settle down. I mean, you hold your cards c
lose, and you had your eye on the prize since we were kids. I also thought you might stay single because you hated dating so much.” At this people laugh even though I’m being dead serious.

  “But, Kat, you came into his life and I’ve never seen him light up with passion like he did for you. You inspire my careful brother to take risks, and at the same time, you’ve filled in something I don’t even think he knew was missing. I love you, Kat. You are the sister I never had. Most of all, I love you two together. Here’s to many years of love between you, and lots of kids to call me uncle!” People laugh at that one too—I wanted that reaction. Kat might have blushed.

  I hand the mic to Patrice and walk over to give Jack a hug. Then I take the chair where Patrice was sitting. That’s the one right next to Mindy. We’re going to eat and then dance. I have to go back to the fire station day after tomorrow. I want to spend time with Mindy. She looks a little surprised when I take the seat next to her.

  I lean over, letting my mouth get close to Mindy’s ear, and I whisper, “I wanted to tell you how lovely you look tonight.”

  She gets that bashful expression and her cheeks flush, then she quietly says, “Thank you. You look nice too.”

  She gives that schoolteacher glance she’s perfected as if to tell me to hush since Patrice is speaking. I sit back in my chair and watch Mindy out of the side of my eye while I only partly hear the things the maid of honor is saying in her toast.

  Maybe it’s because I live with guys in a firehouse most of my days but being around Mindy awakens something in me. I’m feeling ready to say things to her I haven’t ever said. We’ve been friends all these years. Either some other guy beat me to asking her to a dance, or I had football practice while she had track. Our timing was always off.

  Plus, Mindy is like a winter morning in Montana when you wake up before everyone else and look out and the snow has fallen perfectly across the fields and the pines. It’s like you don’t want to even step out into it because you know you’ll be bound to mess it up. I don’t want to mess Mindy up with all that is Caleb Anders. She’s everything right and good in the world. I’m a hot mess.

  But tonight, we’re here, and I’m remembering what it was like to see her eyes connect with mine as she made her way up that runner towards the arch during the ceremony. I’m going to ask her to dance and then I’m going to hope for even more boldness from there.

  The caterers come around bringing plates of filet mignon with this little tied-up bundle of green beans perched on the side and a salad on a different plate. When Patrice came back to the table before they served us, she looked at her place, saw me in it, and gave me a knowing look. I like that girl. She loves Kat well and she could read into why I stole her chair.

  I ask Mindy, “So, how’s it going at the school with your students this year?”

  Mindy is quiet, but she’s not shy. Get her talking about something she loves, and she lights up a room with her excitement. I’m so glad she found her calling.

  She says, “I have the sweetest group of kids this year. Of course, as the time gets nearer for school to let out, they get a bit rambunctious, but it’s still such a joy to be teaching them. Some of them will be in the summer camp where I volunteer this summer too. It will be nice not to have to let them all go at once. Summer camp is a fun way to get to know them on a whole other level.”

  The servers clear our plates, and this would normally be the time for a bouquet and garter toss. Not for Kat. She always despised those rituals at other weddings, so she wrote them out of hers. Jack and Kat step up to cut the cake and feed one another the first bites.

  I turn to Mindy and say, “I’ve got mad respect for Jack’s restraint. He didn’t smear any cake on Kat’s face.”

  He just put a dot on her nose and then kissed it off.

  It’s funny how watching my brother love his wife—his wife, now that takes me a minute to digest—makes me proud and deeply happy.

  Mindy looks back at me.

  “Are you planning on smearing cake on your wife’s face when you get married?”

  When she asks about my wife, all I can picture is her face and me smearing a big chunk of icing across it while she’s dressed in a gorgeous white dress the day she declares she’s all mine. I swallow at the thought,

  “I imagine I will. Unless she’s dead set against it. I don’t want to start my marriage making my wife mad at me, you know?”

  I wink at her and she giggles. If only she knew. Our cake is served, and the music starts up.

  The first dance is Jack and Kat, but then we are all going out as the wedding party. I’m supposed to dance with Patrice while Brett dances with Mindy. The best man and maid of honor pair up—it’s how it’s done. I go along with it for the first half of the song, but I’m watching Brett hold my girl and I feel the urge to deck him. I know he’s not doing anything wrong. I just don’t want her arms holding any man or any guy’s arms around her waist.

  They are talking and Mindy giggles, and that’s when I ask Patrice, “Do you mind if I cut in on Brett?”

  “Be my guest, Caleb.”

  Told you. She’s a good woman.

  I walk over to Brett and give him the shoulder tap. That’s right, bro, I’m tapping you out. He chuckles and hands Mindy over to me. She looks a little confused but smiles and gives me her arms.

  Our mood shifts as I lean down and say, “I couldn’t wait til the next song. I just had to dance with you.”

  She giggles and leans in closer to me while we finish this song and the next. For the rest of the night we dance every slow song together. When the fast songs come on, we dance in groups with Jack and Kat, or Brett and Jason, Patrice and Shannon. I dance the funky chicken polka like nobody’s business and Mindy laughs til she’s gasping. You know I’ve got moves like Jagger.

  The DJ must know it’s my night—even though it’s Kat and Jack’s. They’ll have many nights ahead. I’m not sure what the future holds for me and Mindy. I want to make this count. He puts on a slow song to close out the end of the night. I pull Mindy in. She loops her hands up around my neck and rests her head on my chest. I don’t know what she’s thinking. She might just look at me like I’m the same geeky kid she’s known since kindergarten. But she might feel more. God, I hope she does.

  After the dance ends, we all grab sparklers and line up on the path heading out to the parking lot from the lawn. I stand next to Mindy and we raise ours high in the air while Jack and Kat run under the twinkling arc of lights. I want what he’s found. But I don’t want it with just anyone. I want it with Mindy Morse.

  I walk Mindy to her car. She looks up at me.

  “I had fun tonight. Wasn’t the wedding just beautiful?”

  And all I can think is how beautiful she is right then. I take a deep breath. This is my moment. I want to kiss her—the desire I have to kiss her dredges up years of longing I’ve had for this woman. But I don’t. Something holds me back.

  Instead, I say, “Hey, I don’t head back to the station until day after tomorrow. You want to catch lunch or something before I leave?”

  She says, “Yes. I’d like that very much. Why don’t you text me in the morning?”

  Then she gets in her car and I shut the door behind her. As she drives away, I find myself repeating to no one but the open parking lot: “She’d like it very much. Very much, dude. You heard her. Very much. Not a little. That would be much.”

  Yep. Lunch with Mindy. And she’d like it very much. Which might just mean she likes me very much. I’m a happy man.

  chapter two

  Mindy

  I UNLOCK THE DOOR TO my house and set my keys on the kitchen counter. What a night! Weddings are so romantic, and the inn did such a good job making everything look dreamy and perfect for Jack and Kat.

  I honestly feel like I’m walking on clouds right now after Caleb said good night to me. Really, the whole reception he was full of surprises. He can be such a flirt, but this seemed like more. Maybe I’m just being wishful.
When he leaned over and whispered in my ear, I literally felt chills rise all across my skin. That man!

  As I ease out of my bridesmaid dress, I think of Caleb dancing the chicken polka. No one makes me laugh like Caleb. I’ve missed seeing him regularly. I know tonight was Kat and Jack’s night, but Caleb made me feel like for him it was all about me.

  He embarrassed me when he cut in on Brett like that. We were supposed to wait for the first song to end. Caleb never was one to concern himself with what’s expected. He said he couldn’t wait. That’s Caleb. He’s always talked big and made grand gestures.

  It’s why girls were crazy for him in high school. He’ll say he was a geeky teen, but he was nothing like that. He played football, had friends in every social group, and way more than one girl wrote their first name and Anders all over her notebook while she dreamed of being his. I know I wrote Mindy Anders on my notebook—only I had the sense to do it at home—on the inside cover—not where everyone in the school could see.

  Tonight, I was his. I could be reading too much into it, but he did ask me to lunch tomorrow, so I am going to go to sleep allowing myself to imagine Caleb only had eyes for me.

  SUNDAY MORNINGS ARE my favorite. I wake to birdsong and light coming in the east window. I brew a cup of tea and head out to my porch in my pajamas to read my devotional. This house is such a gift. I have always felt safe in Bozeman. Our crime rate is pretty low, but still, being a single woman, I’d rather live somewhere near people I know. It makes me comfortable knowing the Morgans are in the front house across the big stretch of yard.

  My little porch looks out toward their back deck, but there’s plenty of privacy and space between the two homes, and my house is angled so I’m not straight in their view. The first thing that drew me to this house was the porch. I do love a porch. Something about having a place to sit and let your thoughts wander or to welcome a friend suits me.